Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 554: Featuring Erik Johnson & Nic Dowd

Summary

Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 554: Featuring Erik Johnson & Nic Dowd

Hosts: Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette (Biz Nasty), Mike Grinnelli
Guest: Eric Johnson (Former NHL Defenseman, Stanley Cup Champion)

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Introduction to Episode 554

In this special episode of Spittin’ Chiclets, the hosts—Ryan Whitney, Biz Nasty, and Mike Grinnelli—kick off by celebrating their partnership with sponsor Pink Whitney, emphasizing its role throughout the NHL playoffs. They set the stage for a thrilling discussion filled with their characteristic humor and in-depth analysis.

Notable Quote:

• Ryan Whitney [01:28]: "Playoffs are right around the corner... we're drinking Pink Whitney."

Golf Talk and the Augusta Masters

The conversation swiftly transitions to the Augusta Masters, where one of the hosts, Yance, shares his first-hand experience attending the prestigious golf tournament. The hosts delve into the immaculate condition of the course, the absence of wildlife like squirrels, and the high level of organization comparable to Disney's meticulousness.

Notable Quotes:

• Paul Vincent [08:53]: "They must have put like Colombian white cocaine in those bunkers because, how does sand get that white?"
• Ryan Whitney [09:09]: "But just the most beautiful place I think I've ever been to, probably will ever go to."

College Hockey Highlights

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to college hockey, focusing on Western Michigan’s unexpected triumph in the national championship. The hosts analyze standout performances, particularly highlighting Isaac Howard, who won the Hobie Baker Award. They discuss his decision to return to Michigan State instead of joining the NHL immediately, emphasizing his resilience and commitment to overcoming personal challenges.

Notable Quotes:

• Ryan Whitney [12:34]: "He’s done something amazing to himself and it’s great to see him on the road to recovery."
• Paul Vincent [32:37]: "He’s a really great guy and still some young players on the team that could make big impacts."

NHL Playoff Wild Card Race Analysis

The hosts provide an extensive breakdown of the Wild Card race, highlighting key teams like the Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues, and Calgary Flames. They discuss current standings, player performances, and potential game-changers, such as injuries and returns from the bench. The dynamic interplay between teams vying for playoff spots keeps the discussion lively and anticipatory.

Notable Quotes:

• Paul Vincent [43:15]: "I think Minnesota and St. Louis are going to hold serve. It would just be devastating to see St. Louis go on a 13-game winning streak."
• Ryan Whitney [43:19]: "Zoom into the Wild card race... it’s getting really exciting."

Interview with Eric Johnson

A highlight of the episode is the interview with Eric Johnson, a Stanley Cup champion recently traded back to the Colorado Avalanche. Johnson shares insights into his journey, his role in the Avalanche, and his personal interests, including horse ownership. He reflects on his time with Laval and expresses gratitude towards the Avalanche organization for their support and respect.

Notable Quotes:

• Eric Johnson [72:10]: "I wanted to see this thing through and do it for our team and our fan base."
• Eric Johnson [140:09]: "We started Dallas Crowd, which is our foundation partnered with Monumental. We support families with autistic children to enjoy games together."

Community Engagement and Philanthropy

Eric Johnson elaborates on his foundation, Dallas Crowd, which focuses on supporting families with autistic children. He details how the foundation sponsors families to attend games, providing sensory kits to accommodate their needs. This initiative underscores the team’s commitment to inclusivity and community support.

Notable Quotes:

• Eric Johnson [140:20]: "We sponsor them financially, take care of the tickets, do a meet and greet after the game."
• Eric Johnson [140:37]: "It's been incredibly rewarding to see these kids and families enjoy the game together."

Locker Room Antics and Team Culture

The hosts and Eric Johnson share amusing anecdotes about team dynamics, including playful pranks and unique rituals in the locker room. These stories highlight the camaraderie and light-hearted environment that contribute to team morale and performance.

Notable Quotes:

• Biz Nasty [147:23]: "Our team, including myself, have a lot of fun with handshake rituals and team pranks."
• Paul Vincent [158:37]: "He’s a savior on the ice, but you're dealing with fun in the locker room."

Playoff Predictions and Series Breakdowns

As the playoffs approach, the hosts and their guest engage in spirited debates over potential series outcomes. They analyze matchups, player form, and strategic strengths, offering their predictions on various NHL playoff series. Topics include discussions on the Capitals vs. Kings, Rangers’ struggles, and the potential impact of key players like Connor McMichael and Demidov.

Notable Quotes:

• Ryan Whitney [166:04]: "I think our team, we got Leon and Connor... Steve Pitch right into the Chicago series, let's see if I have that right."
• Paul Vincent [177:54]: "It's a complete vibe killer compared to the last couple of years we've seen them."

Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

The episode wraps up with the hosts expressing excitement for the upcoming playoffs, reflecting on the unpredictability of hockey, and praising the resilience and skill of players like Demidov and McMichael. They also hint at upcoming shows and continuous coverage of playoff series, ensuring listeners stay engaged with the latest developments.

Notable Quotes:

• Biz Nasty [147:23]: "We’re ready to go. We got action out west and out east."
• Ryan Whitney [176:55]: "We are now into the playoffs. We're ready to go. We got game notes coming."

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Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 554 delivers a comprehensive and engaging blend of hockey analysis, personal stories, and lively banter. With insightful discussions on college and professional hockey, an inspiring interview with Eric Johnson, and enthusiastic playoff predictions, this episode stands out as a must-listen for hockey fans eager to dive deep into the sport's latest narratives.

Transcript

[Whitney]

Hey, Spit and Chiclets listeners. You can find every episode on Apple.

[Biz Nasty]

Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime.

[Whitney]

Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

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[Ryan Whitney]

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

[Whitney]

Our white whale, Sidney Crosby. Shave his head. Shave his head.

[Paul Vincent]

Shave his head.

[Whitney]

Ryan Whitney.

[Paul Vincent]

Paul Vincent. Ra.

[Mike Grinelli]

Mike Grinelli.

[Whitney]

Spittin Chickfila. What is. Folks, welcome to a very special episode, episode 554 of the Spitting Chicklets podcast presented to you by Pink Whitney. Playoffs are right around playoff. Pink Whitney. We're drinking it. We're watching it during the playoff games. First round, second round, all the way to the finals and then to the 4th of July. We're drinking Pink Whitney. That's why this podcast is here. We have to shout them out and show to all of you loyal drinkers and who. People who haven't tried it, give it a shot. Pink Whitney. That's why we're here. One of the most incredible sporting events of my life, gentlemen, and it's great.

[Paul Vincent]

Rory was drinking it.

[Whitney]

I was wondering the night Rory had. I couldn't even imagine it. We'll get into it. Biz. He was biz. You're in Atlanta. You're now game mode. This is, this is game on for you. Playoff hockey.

[Ryan Whitney]

That's how you know. That's how you know the mustache is back.

[Paul Vincent]

The muzzy's back. Well, we have one more broadcast on Wednesday and who knows, maybe the, the playoff bracket and, and, and the matchups won't even be set by then because this wild card race has been fucking nuts. It's still going on, but Saturday is playoff opener and we'll be hitting the ground running. I Can't wait. And then for us at tnt, we get a three day break. So Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, it's on espn. And then that's where the real chaos begins for us. I think we have like, we have days where there's like three, four games staggered. Like it'll be full, full on, double chugging Red Bulls. And we are very, very excited. But before we get to hockey, our main man Yance was at Augusta. I'm not the Augusta guy, okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, you're.

[Whitney]

I almost think you dislike Augusta in a way. I feel like you're switching.

[Paul Vincent]

After watching this past weekend, I'm back on the Augusta train. I will say the course looked in immaculate shape. I've never seen so white first year.

[Whitney]

This pointer share it look good.

[Paul Vincent]

Hey, at this point, still haven't seen a fucking squirrel though. At this point, if I did get asked to play there, I would consider going. I would consider putting my pride aside and going to Augusta and chopping up that course. People were saying if you're like, if you're a regular golfer and around like a 10 handicap that you wouldn't be able to break a hundred. Yeah, right. I'd.

[Whitney]

I don't know if you could break 200 from their TE's and on like Sunday pins. I don't know, you might not be sniffing.

[Ryan Whitney]

No chance.

[Paul Vincent]

I.

[Whitney]

That's a big number. But the putting, the water. Yeah. I think you're 185 over, under and I'm taking the over.

[Paul Vincent]

Come on. I could break. I bet you I could shoot better at Augusta than I did at Wisparok. I could, I could break 120.

[Whitney]

So JJ, JJ Watt played it today and I believe he shot a 101, but they played the members tees, so I think it's, I'm gonna guess, I don't know, 800 yards, if not a thousand yards shorter and, and he was pleased with his score. But for you playing the back tees. Yeah. You're over 200.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay.

[Whitney]

Right around your playing weight.

[Paul Vincent]

If I did play there though, with you wit, I would give you the Rory McElroy treatment and not speak to you though, which was one of the things that came out after this crazy day of golf. Now I'm not really that tuned into golf and like the last like three, four years, I don't think I've paid much attention to the Masters. But after taking a peek at the leaderboard, I'm not the golf guy. I think I knew 95% of the names, so I felt like every big golfer in the world was in the hunt. After a few days and even maybe after Saturday, the leaderboard, it was just like big name after big name. And of course, Rory McElroy, who's trying to complete. The sixth player to try to complete the. The. The four majors, the gl. The grandson, the lead going into Sunday. So I'll hand it over to you and Yans. Yans, you were there, what, Thursday?

[Whitney]

Hold on, let me. Before Yance goes.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay.

[Whitney]

There are people who sometimes don't like golf. Fast forward 15 minutes right now, 10 to 15 minutes. If you don't want the golf talk, but no, if you do, I ain't got no respect for you, because I think that was the greatest sporting event, one of them we've ever witnessed. But, Yance, take it away first because it was your first experience being there early in the week where you was blown away by the. The undulation and the size of the. The. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Paul Vincent]

What the. Does undulation mean?

[Whitney]

Up and down? Don't worry about it. You'll know when you play. You can caddy someday there.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. And first off, as. As a honorary going to Augusta guy, now that you're on the bandwagon biz, we don't want you. We don't want you there.

[Merles]

Yeah, you're.

[Biz Nasty]

You can.

[Ryan Whitney]

You can.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, they wouldn't let me take my phone in, so them I ain't going.

[Ryan Whitney]

And I saw a squirrel, and I went to go take a picture of it. Loved it.

[Paul Vincent]

You saw one?

[Ryan Whitney]

No. No, I didn't.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

But, yeah, no, it was because when we talked on Monday, I hadn't gone over to the course yet. Actually, that day got rained out. We were gonna go over and walk around a little bit, first off, shout out to my buddy Frank Marzano. Just absolute. The absolute plug there. Like, had everything dialed up, had the plane, the houses, the chefs at the house, the passes to everything. The. Wow. There. There was this place that we went to. It was called Map and Flags. Maybe the coolest spot ever to. You know, it's just outside the gate, so you can go in and out and go in there, grab food. There's food everywhere. You don't have to pay for anything. There's. There's no lines to go buy stuff in the concessions.

[Whitney]

It like you have your own concession.

[Ryan Whitney]

Own concession. Known swag shop. It was unbelievable.

[Paul Vincent]

Is it partly owned by Augusta?

[Ryan Whitney]

It's owned by Augusta. So I asked the guy, you know, one of. One of the guys working recognized me from the show was like. I was like, what? I was like, what is this place? You know, the other 349 days of the year? He said absolutely nothing. He's like, they don't rent out the equipment, they don't rent out the space for weddings. They do absolutely nothing with it. It's open for seven days a week and it's the most beautiful place.

[Paul Vincent]

You mean seven days everywhere?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, seven days a year. Sorry. Most beautiful place, like, just looks like an awesome clubhouse. Hang TVs everywhere. You can't even wear a hat inside that place. It's so August. It was great. But it was honestly with like, I was thinking about it like, you know, us three, we're very, very lucky to been places that we've been. We've been to, you know, Super Bowls, a lot of beautiful places. You go into these amazing golf courses that we're so lucky to play in at and when you walk onto that property, it is the most beautiful, just like eye opening experience of your life.

[Paul Vincent]

They brainwashed them.

[Ryan Whitney]

Some of it might have to do where you, where you're not on your phone at all. You're kind of just taking everything in. There's, you know, you walk, you walk in, you know, where all the patrons have to walk and you know, there's got to be a million people walking every day. The, the grass isn't even brown from people walking under. I don't know how they keep their grass green. Spray paint. Yeah. The concessions being paint rollers.

[Paul Vincent]

The minute you guys, every guy that's. They must have put like Colombian white cocaine in those bunkers because, like, how does sand get that white? That doesn't even.

[Whitney]

Ryder said, he goes, how is the sand? How is the sand so white, dad? So that's a great question. I don't think I'm going to go with your answer about the cocaine, the cocaine from Colombia. But I agree, I agree. Once he said it, I'm like, this doesn't make sense. Even on, on tv, same thing. White.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

But just the most beautiful place I think I've ever been to, probably will ever go to. Everybody there is so nice and everyone's just in a good mood out there watching golf and you know, you're just walking around following these guys. My shin still hurt from how much undulation there was in the course. Like on tv, you don't, you don't notice it as much as you know when you're there, but just, you can't find a piece of grass out of place. There's nothing like there's whole, there's whole roads underneath that you don't see that. So you never see a truck in there that has like the, the TV trucks or the cables. It's like Disney where everything goes underneath. You don't see a single, you know.

[Paul Vincent]

Is that where the Oompa Loompas hide out all the people?

[Whitney]

Actually, I can imagine hearing like a big truck backing up like beep beep, beep on the t at like 10 at Augusta, you don't see anything not happening.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, I mean, just amazing.

[Paul Vincent]

What would you say that the, the ratio was given it was a golf tournament, like guys to girls?

[Ryan Whitney]

I'd say 87, 13.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay, great, man. Interesting.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, not, not a lot. Not a lot of you probably wouldn't like it, you know, because of the guy to girl ratio. And if there are girls there, it's probably guys with their wives or, you know, girlfriend or whatever. But I mean, you're not there for that. It's just, you're strictly there to just watch other people play golf, which sounds crazy to do. We, we were lucky enough we got to play Sage Valley wit, which was 15 minutes down the road. Maybe the nicest course I've ever played. Just beautiful. Same type thing, hilly, amazing.

[Whitney]

You know, you had a hall of fame trip. This is.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, it was unbelievable. That was. Could not ask for a better trip. Yeah, it was true. Truly amazing. Met some amazing, amazing guys, big dogs all over the world that, you know, you get to learn from these guys. You know, one guy's a selling air power planes, you know, other guy, it's just he brought in his world of people and, you know, I was very fortunate to be a part of it and couldn't thank him enough for it.

[Paul Vincent]

That's awesome.

[Whitney]

The tournament ended up being, I think the craziest masters that I can remember. Obviously there's recency bias, but the Sunday was out of control. And going into it biz, you mentioned all the leaders, all the people on the leaderboard, stars. And Rory's leading and can this guy do it? He blew it in 2011 there. Four shot lead going to the back nine. And then he doubles the first hole like I now did you guys watch the whole round?

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, yeah.

[Whitney]

Okay.

[Paul Vincent]

I was trying to do the TNT broadcast, but I, I couldn't barely. I could barely pay attention. Like you want to talk about undulation. His scorecard had a lot of undulation, ups and downs. And I. That was a full fledged roller coaster ride.

[Whitney]

That route that he had, roller coaster of emotions. He blew it three times, basically. I mean, he blew it on one and then he. He got it back, and then 13, like, he hits these shots. He's 220 yards. He'll hit a seven iron a mile in the air and landed it, like, barely rolls out impossible shots that, like, five people in the world can. Can hit. And then on 13, he's got the big lead. It's. It's a legit, like, biz. You could make the shot like, it's a 85 yard with five miles of green left, water, right. Just don't miss it. Right. And he drops it in the drink. I was like, oh, my God. And then I started thinking I. I'd never want to see, like, he. He. You know, choked at the US Open, if you want to say choked. He. He. He's had all these misses and close calls, and he never gets it done. And now it's become the storyline. I was like, oh, my God. I was, like, sick to my stomach. This guy's gonna. He's gonna do this again. And then he bogeys the next hole, and I'm. I'm like, this is. I actually was nauseous. I was like, I don't want to see this happen to this guy. And then he makes this insane shot, like, to hit that shot on 15 and have it land like that. And. And he had already done it on Friday as well, where he's hitting these majestic long irons, and then no one else can hold the green. He's hitting it to eight feet. Whatever. He birdies it, gets it back. All he has to do. He's got to get to 18, make a par, and he hits the perfect drive. And you're like, this guy did it. Hits it in the bunker, another shot, base. I mean, this is 125 yards, like, the easiest for him. This is getting out of bed, brushing your teeth for people who brush their teeth, and then actually just going on with your day, no issues. And. And the easiest shots in the world, he can't do it. And then he misses this putt. Once again, I'm nauseous.

[Paul Vincent]

So you just mentioned the US Open. That's where he also missed a very easy makeable putt. Like, okay, two of them. Oh, and. And. And. And on 18, like, he didn't even lip it out. He just missed the hole.

[Whitney]

Completely. Hit the hole.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. Not even. Yeah.

[Whitney]

And. And for him, like, he's at least.

[Ryan Whitney]

Got to hit the hole a little bit. Right?

[Whitney]

Did you think he was going to make or miss that? Because in my mind, you did. I was like, I think he might miss this.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, Oh, I thought the one that he missed, I thought for sure he was making. I was going to shut the TV off one, but.

[Paul Vincent]

But when I saw him walk off the green and the way that he handled himself, knowing that he was going into a playoff against Rose, when he, when he leaned over and he kissed his daughter, I sent the tweet out. I go, he's going to win this. I just felt like it gave him perspective and he just, it brought him back to the moment he walked off. And the thing that sucks too, right, is by the time he walks off there to the time you're teeing off again is what, 40 minutes?

[Whitney]

It felt, I. It felt. I think it's. It was probably around 15ish. It felt long, though, like he was. And I think he was waiting for Rose on the tee.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, he was, but.

[Whitney]

But I. By. By the, the end, he then hits that shot. And what is caddy said to him going off 18 was incredible. I thought he. He said, listen, if you told us Monday we were going to a playoff for this thing, we would have taken it every single time. And that's pretty sick for a caddy who, who's been chirped because all these, you know, golf media fans are. It's his best friend that they grew up golfing together, I think. I'm sure the guy was a sick golfer himself, but it's not like a professional caddy. Right. People would always say, like, he has his friend on the bag. Well, he came. He came in pretty clutch there to like, really calm him down. I agree with us seeing his daughter.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, they were like, you're. You're saying, like golf media was basically trying to talk him off. His caddy kind of like Tiger had the guy with the mustache for a while, and then he ended up moving on past him. You're saying that people were trying to pressure him into changing and he stuck by his guy. I. I heard something that he met him on a. On a putting green when he was seven years old, right at their club.

[Ryan Whitney]

Just.

[Whitney]

Just like, I think that then they then played golf together. They're. I saw a video of that was on Twitter today. Rory was playing in a pro golf tournament. He turned 16 two weeks prior, and this kid was on the bag. It was the first, like, I think he played in the Irish Open as. So. So that kind of gets to my point of why this was just so incredible to watch and, like, emotional for so many different people. All these different reasons that this guy was this prodigy. And like, everything came so easy to him and he had it, he had everything but the Masters. He had four majors and he's at the top of the world. And then 10 years go by. And in the 10 years, not only did you probably plan on winning like four or five more of them, you, you didn't just not win. You were like blowing it when you had the chance. Like, you'd gotten, you'd never, he probably never had much adversity growing up. And then now it's like, it's not just two, three years, it's got to 10 years. And then the one he needs for the Grand Slam, he's just come so close to blowing it. Or he has boner on 18, but he goes and hits that shot. And I've, I couldn't, I don't think I could think of a more someone with more relief than when he, like, it was true relief. He, he like in his emotions, walking the. It was sick how cbs, I think it was six straight minutes, barely a word said by Jim Nance and the camera just following him. And I, it looked like he was having like a breakdown in a good way. Just like I can't believe this happened. It finally happened. Like the weight of the world off his shoulders. I was so happy for him and I've kind of flip flopped on him a little bit. But in the end, when it came down to him having a chance, I couldn't help but really root for him.

[Ryan Whitney]

I think someone said it on TV yesterday that like, he's been, he's been over in the US for so long. Like us has kind of adopted him as a, as our own and biz. Like we were sitting at lunch a couple weeks ago and you know, he's one of the best golfer, if not the best golfer in the world. He comes up to our table, a bunch of nobodies and oh yeah, introduces himself, says hello, talks to us for 10 minutes. Like the guy that doesn't need to do that. So I think he's a very easy guy to root for. I, I, as much as I, you know, I'm fine with those guys going to live and making their money. What him playing on the PGA Tour, what that's meant to him and you know, the pride that he has for it, like we do with the NHL. It's like when someone has that much pride in their, their sport and what they do and how they want to, you know, you always hear it in the NHL, leave the jersey in a better spot. Like he's doing that for his own, the golf league. And he's not part of a team. He's an individual, but just the guy that's so easy to root for. Who maybe had one of the biggest glow ups of all time too. Like some of his pictures back in the day, he was not looking that handsome. And now like, he's, he's getting better and better.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, he's exfoliating.

[Ryan Whitney]

How about Hubble wit going on pmt saying, you know, if you. I have a feeling it's going to come down to the 18th hole. He's going to have a five foot putt and might go to overtime. And it happened.

[Paul Vincent]

Wow. What are you called that?

[Whitney]

Well, no, I. By calling it, I'm just basically saying, like, what would be the craziest moment possible? That's why the tournament, the Sunday, the amount of swings. Biz, you said the roller coaster. And this guy, Justin rose, he's like 44 years old. Nails. He made 10 birdies on Sunday's round.

[Ryan Whitney]

Like one on 18 to force it, right?

[Whitney]

Yeah, 18 to force it. And then very classy, like at the end. I also thought it was cool that Shane Lowry, who's from Ireland and Rory's good buddy, he was in the hunt. And then Saturday afternoon, I think people are asking him, like, you think Rory can get it done tomorrow? And he's like, enough questions about Rory. I'm trying to win the tournament too. And I get it. Like, and then after Rory really kind of broke down when he saw him and they gave it, they gave this hug. You're just like, this guy just finally got it done. Like to see somebody's dreams come true after the grind, like, the resiliency he showed, it was incredible. And then Lowry was saying to reporters after, this is all he cared about. This is all he talked about. This is all he thought about. And then you get to just witness it all. It was, it was incredible drama. I couldn't, I couldn't. That tournament was, I think, that tournament and then Tiger winning. I can't really get mad that there's been some duds in there with finishes that weren't right down to the wire, because that one just made up for.

[Paul Vincent]

However many years you're talking about 2019, when nobody thought Tiger was going to ever win another major and he won it. Yeah, yeah, that, that was a very special moment. And I would put that this up there exactly with that. Like, it was like, I'm not a big golf fan, but that was one of the best sporting events I've ever like, watched all day and paid attention to. And I Agree. I couldn't be happier for the guy. And. And like, just to put yourself in the history book. So was I right? He becomes the sixth guy to win the. All of them. The four. All four majors. Right.

[Whitney]

First European. First European to do it.

[Paul Vincent]

To think that the only one. He'll go down as the best European golfer of all time. The only guy to has. No one has ever won them all four in the same year. But Tiger has held all four trophies in consecutive order. Is that true? Didn't Tiger have.

[Whitney]

I think he got three. And then he got the Masters for his Grand Slam too.

[Paul Vincent]

Wow, that is fucking nuts. To own all four trophies at the same time. Like, be the guy. That's fucking crazy. But a great day for sports. And I don't really have much else on the golf front, but like I said, Augusta back in my good graces.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, we don't want you. We don't want you.

[Whitney]

What do you mean you don't.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh. Oh, you're part of the cult now, cuz you went. So you have a say. Oh, yeah. What did you have to do? You have to give up your firstborn for that?

[Ryan Whitney]

I'm. Yeah, all of them.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh.

[Whitney]

You talk scenery. You love scenery. And, and. And all these landscapes. Like, you would go there and you'd be singing its praises. Not you'd actually be the annoying guy. Like, look at that hill on seven. Look at that. You'd end up loving it more than any of us. So it wasn't. It wasn't all good news watching Rory win for myself because Saturday night in a heartbreaking game, Boston University lost in the national title game versus Western Michigan. Shout out Western Michigan. First national title. I think they showed the other national titles the school had had. It was like 1956, 1957, cross country. So they had a big talk about.

[Ryan Whitney]

A glow they wanted that year.

[Whitney]

Yeah, they got it done that year. Maybe 66, 67. That's what it was.

[Ryan Whitney]

I remember that.

[Whitney]

You Fast forward to 2023.

[Paul Vincent]

I ran cross country in high school or no, grade school. End of grade school. Excuse me.

[Whitney]

Really? Was that all based on, like, trying to get in shape for hockey?

[Paul Vincent]

I just like to run. I was a good runner. I still am a good runner, even though I don't do it a crazy amount. Like I can just pick up and. I mean, remember last summer when I was sending you guys, like my times, and I'd go like 9k, like. Like just hopping right back into it. So I don't think we need to get in the cross country Talk. We might, like, lose all of our fans, but congrats to Western Michigan. And we actually are going to bring on Merles.

[Whitney]

Yep.

[Paul Vincent]

Because he was there with the game notes. Ellie was there. What's up, Murr?

[Mike Grinelli]

Nothing. I can't thank you guys enough. About two weeks ago, you guys just lay into the game notes, guys, that we know nothing about college hockey. And since then, last week's episode, we get head coach of Western Michigan, Pat Fishweiler on. And then this week, we get the Hobie Baker winner on as well. So thank you for blowing us up. We're the hottest thing in college hockey right now, but just an incredible, Credible Weekend in St. Louis.

[Paul Vincent]

You sound like you had an incredible weekend.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I think you guys, for Merle.

[Mike Grinelli]

You guys know how the meet and greets go. You're there for an hour and a half. You're talking over everybody. There's a couple guys with too much pink. Whitney. And then what really got us, we sat basically in a fan section, like, student section of Western Michigan, the Broncos. And it was the Lawson Lunatics, they call themselves. And it was just going nuts. Sorry, Whit, but we're celebrating six goals. Yelling, screaming high five. And so, yeah, the voice is gone. And I spent the whole day on the airplanes today getting. Getting the family back here to Albany, New York.

[Whitney]

That's a grind of a flight home. Two flights with the kids. But sick, sick kids.

[Mike Grinelli]

We're all sick. I'm rubbing noses the whole time, just giving out snacks. It's just. It's a grind.

[Whitney]

So whoever was sitting next to you guys, they're screwed. People are gonna. They're gonna blame allergies, but it's like, no, we were next to the Murlies, actually, on the flight home, But Western Michigan seemed like the. The. The dominant team. Right. I think BU had a great beginning of the third period. They had a bunch of chances. Goalie stood on his head. But they were the deserving champs this year. And I didn't know if. If you had known much about them going into the season. I didn't at all. And then you see what they're doing. So kind of explain their run and how good they were throughout the tourney.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, I didn't think anything of them going into the season, but as. As this season got. Kept going on, they just kept winning, and they were scoring tons of goals. I want to say they were the third highest scoring team or second highest scoring team in the nation. And they just. I just kept waiting for them to fall out of my top 10. I'm waiting for them to lose, but they just kept winning, knocking everybody down. And then as I got into learning about this coach, you just hear them, he's an alumni, he's just a leader of men. And I really felt confident with them going in into the Frozen four. But the first game Thursday night, I don't know if you guys are watching old Denver, that Denver act again. They were getting dominated.

[Whitney]

37 shots, right?

[Mike Grinelli]

7 shots or something. But that kid Matt Davis, he was doing it again. And next thing you know, it's two, two. We're like, holy shit, they're going to do it again. They're going to steal this whole tournament again. But luckily Western Michigan got that game done. And then bu, I, I thought was in control the whole time against Penn State and. But that set up the, the finals. But to go back to Thursday, the crowd was light. There wasn't a lot of people there. There was, there was a lot of empty seats. The first game going to double overtime made it really long, a late night. So kids got to go home. And so we were really kind of scared about a championship game. But Western Michigan, it was six hours away in Kalamazoo. And like you were saying, they've never won anything. So the alumni from all over the world drove down, flew down to get there and they, they, it was their home game for them. It was incredible. They were all at the fan fest before. You know, we go to those fan fest and you shoot the pucks and you do a face painting and the bands were there. The only people we saw for BU was your pep band. There was very few BU fans. It was just all Broncos.

[Whitney]

I feel St. Louis, an NHL town. They love the blues, the Cardinals. I don't know about that spot. For a frozen four, maybe. I think it's probably, you know, helping out a city that started really producing some good players, youth hockey wise and the junior blues. But for, yeah, BU alumni, I heard it wasn't great. And then when I saw that it was driving distance, I. The crowd looked like it was 90% Western Michigan.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, it was great. They had, they had their pep band, they had cheerleaders. You're walking through the concourse, everybody was Broncos. I ran into a kid, Matt Adessa. His dad was actually the RBI coach when they wanted here in 85 and he comes running Merles and I haven't seen this guy. I played Junior B. Remember the Boston Junior Bulldogs. That was. His dad ran that team. And I went to one game with them. He was my roommate. So we caught up I completely forgot he went to Western Michigan. But really, really cool. Thank God it was them in the finals because otherwise it would have been brutal there in St. Louis. Like there would have been nobody at that final.

[Keith]

I think one thing they were missing was the casual hockey fan. Like so many of these trips, and we learned it a few years ago when we started going was there's guys trips. There's so many guys that go on these guys trips. It's one time a year all the boys from college get to get back together again. And St. Louis just isn't that type of city. It's not the easiest city to get to. It's not a destination city. Especially when you have Vegas next year. You had Tampa two years ago. You have Minnesota college hockey city, Boston College hockey city. So I think. Wait, you said it perfectly. St. Louis is a St. Louis Blue City. They're an NHL city. Their fans don't know about college hockey.

[Merles]

They're not.

[Keith]

Their casual fans don't follow college hockey. So I think that was the difficult part.

[Paul Vincent]

What happens? Do they just does a city or a bid for it? Like how does it end up there?

[Keith]

Well, I believe the St. Louis Blues, like VP went to UVM and he bid on it is what I was told.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, it was the weirdest thing that Vermont was the host school. Somehow in St. Louis their logo was everywhere around the, around the complex and everything. It was crazy. But I mean the rest of St. Louis was awesome. We went to a barbecue spot. It was probably the best food I've ever had in my life. We were down around in. They call it, what do they call Ballpark Village around near the baseball stadium, there's all these little restaurants and you know, they're kind of like the Cubs where they have some restaurants with seats in them to watch into the baseball game. So it's, it's a fun vibe for sports to get to get down there. And then some great restaurants, some great places like this one, I think. Yan, you were talking about this spot.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, what's it called again?

[Mike Grinelli]

Obi Clarks.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, they brought the cup there when they wanted. That's a pretty famous local joint. Who did Western Michigan have? Cause like, like Z Bouillon was with the, the Denver team. You guys had Iserman on BU who's probably going to make the next step at some point. I think his draft year, what was.

[Whitney]

Last year, and Hudson did.

[Paul Vincent]

Did Western Michigan have any studs who could maybe end up reaching to the NHL or no?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. So I'll give you a little nugget you guys won't believe this. They had zero players getting nil money on. So not a single guy's getting money. They all want to be there, just play there.

[Whitney]

They're going to be getting a change, right?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, it's. He did say that they're actually getting a new rank. They're clearing four city blocks to build this thing. This is going to have a game rank. I think practice.

[Keith]

$350 million they're spending. It's insane. He said they're saying yes to everything. They aren't being told no.

[Mike Grinelli]

Okay, but one of their players is. Their captain was Tim Washy. Is that how you say G. Washy? He just signed with Anaheim and he'll be more, I think of probably like a third line player, maybe get called up to the top six, but just like a grinder leader. And I feel like a lot of their players are like that. Their goalie was. Is a star, young kid. And the bump. What's the bump kid?

[Biz Nasty]

Alex.

[Keith]

Bump, baby.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

So he, he's a star too. But for, for the most case, it's just a well coached, well oiled machine like we see every year. Middle of the 8, like middle of the group in the HG. They weren't super old, but they're, they're clearly not young like bu.

[Paul Vincent]

Is that why all their fans had signs that said no lines, only bumps?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay, that's cool. That's cool. I like that. I'm on the West Michigan train.

[Whitney]

That was on espn.

[Paul Vincent]

I think so.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, we posted.

[Paul Vincent]

I don't think the people operating the camera knew what they were referring to. They just thought they were giving their goalie a little tire pump. How was Bouilliam like? Was he buzzing out there?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, he played. What was it, 30, 38 minutes? 38 minutes or something in, in the one game. Just ridiculous. It was 65% of the game. I think they said it would be in a regular 60 minute game, but he was flying around. He looked like he always does. He's good. But they, they just played horrible. The whole team played horrible.

[Merles]

They.

[Mike Grinelli]

They got complete diamond. They had seven breakaways. It was, I don't know, two to one or two nothing. They had seven breakaways in a row and Davis stopped them all to keep a minute.

[Whitney]

Seven.

[Mike Grinelli]

Seven. Three of them were on the. When they were on the power play. Oh my God. He was incredible. He was. He's sick. He's.

[Keith]

I thought a pretty interesting stat too was first we got to shout out Owen Michaels. He was the Frozen Four MVP. But when you go back and look at Frozen Four MVPs, I believe only one in the past 10 years has been drafted. Which kind of just goes to our overall point about college hockey. How the teams that win every year are the older, heavier junior senior teams, not the teams that are loaded with first round picks. It's the same thing every year.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, yeah, they're 27, 28 years old. They have families. They got to feed their families.

[Whitney]

They have 401ks. They're like dad strength. But I don't. They weren't that old.

[Keith]

I mean 21.3 was the average age.

[Paul Vincent]

So will the Hudson on BU make the next step or does he? Is he going back to college?

[Mike Grinelli]

The one brother just signed with Edmonton, the forward and then this, the small little D, he's Washington's property. I haven't heard if he's what he's doing yet.

[Keith]

I've been told he's going back to BU next year. And Whit, BU sounds like they are going to be a wagon next season with all the transfers they got coming in.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, they might have a higher salary cap than the Bruins next year.

[Whitney]

Oh, buddy, you, you should.

[Paul Vincent]

Bruins got $26 million.

[Ryan Whitney]

They might beat the Bruins.

[Whitney]

The Bruins got their own issues. The Bruins, yeah, the Grinelli's boys are in one. I, I think that BU's like just Pando set up this amazing culture there. Guys want to play for him and it's incredible to see what they've done. And yeah, Western Michigan, I thought they were going to tie it up. I really did. They got Eisenman, got a one timer. That kid just scores basically every game. And goalie made an incredible save. But it did suck that it started that late. I was kind of, I was kind of. I mean granted that it went to double ot. I got to watch all the BU game because we were in the mini golf competition. But I couldn't believe it was going to start that late like Eastern Standard Time. Merles, my question, Isaac Howard. You got him on game notes. He then wins the Hobie Baker and he confirms to you guys that he's not leaving and that there was basically an issue. They weren't seeing eye to eye his representation in Tampa.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, Tampa's got a hundred K left in salary to spend next year so they're jammed up against the cap. That's not saying they can't get something done at the draft or you know, move somebody off the book. So they can eventually sign this guy though, right?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, the Iceman. You remember him, the draft we were at, he wore a white suit. And then with his follow up question, he's, he's like, yeah, I'm the hottest guy in the, in the draft or something like that.

[Paul Vincent]

And like, no lies detected.

[Mike Grinelli]

He's like, I probably shouldn't have said that. So he, he is pretty humble kid. He was, he didn't seem cocky like that in our interview at all. And he just said he's like, Tampa and I, like, we didn't see eye to eye. There was a couple issues. We have a great place to develop. You guys saw it in the Chiclet U, the Michigan State. It's, it's an NHL facility. So he's not like taking a step back. He's. He's going somewhere to develop, get bigger, get stronger. Their goal is coming back. They made some transfers, so they're going to be looking at a national championship again. And, and if he can't get anything done with Tampa, he becomes a free agent on, I think August 1st. Right.

[Paul Vincent]

I could take a page out of Leonard's book and go back and dominate again.

[Keith]

I think one thing too, from that interview right before we started it, the Detroit, I think it was the Detroit Free Press released an article about Isaac Howard's heart. And then he has a heart condition that no one really knew about that it was discover at the combine a few years ago. So when we asked Ike about it, he said that is a big reason he's going back to Michigan State because they found it at the scouting combine. He went to Duluth, they basically told him it was okay. And then when he went to Michigan State, they basically like, you're not okay. Like you need to have a surgery right now where they took out veins like from his, from his leg and like put them into his heart. And yeah, he said going back to Michigan State, a big part of that is because of the doctors and how the doctors have been treating him with his heart, which is super interesting that he disclosed that information to us.

[Paul Vincent]

So rather than just like, because, because as of right now, it seems like Tampa was saying, yeah, we're going to sign you, but like every prospect you're going to go down and earn your spot in the roster. We can't guarantee you that you're going to get NHL games and get called up right away. Where, listen, like, you see the situation with Cutter, Go Che and all these other guys where the NHL has gotten so young and there's probably 10 teams in the league that would be starving to have this kid on their roster next Year. So the leverage kind of to him if he goes back to school at the end of next year, would he be like redraft eligible? Would, would his like window be done or would he still be the rights of Tampa Bay at the end of next season?

[Biz Nasty]

August.

[Keith]

It's in August he'll be able to sign a free agent. So he wouldn't be able to play in the playoffs next season. So he wouldn't really be able to see the NHL for two years now.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay.

[Keith]

But another big part of it too.

[Whitney]

Biz is why couldn't he play in the playoffs next season?

[Keith]

Because it's, it's you. He can't sign till August unless his rights are traded beforehand.

[Paul Vincent]

He could play unless they're traded this year at the draft to another team and then in that case, at that, at that point they could then sign him and then who knows, maybe he ends up in the NHL next year.

[Keith]

Well, yeah, almost like a similar situation to Adam Fox where Adam Fox was like, I'm not signing with you, so either trade me now and get something for me or I'm leaving. You know what I mean?

[Paul Vincent]

Right. He did that with who, Calgary or Carolina?

[Biz Nasty]

Right.

[Keith]

It was Carolina.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay. All right.

[Keith]

And then another interesting thing with Isaac Howard too is Will Morelock. Will Morelock was head of strength and conditioning at the US national program. When Nightingale, the coach went to Michigan State, he brought Morelock with him. So when Isaac Howard transferred, he said, I feel the best place for me to develop and get better is with Will Moylock at the national program. So it's the strength and conditioning and in Nightingale as well.

[Paul Vincent]

And I would probably argue that like the top programs in college are way better to develop than in the American Hockey League. Eating soggy subs like playing 72 games. Yeah, but maybe it's, it's a, it's a grind, dude. It's a grind.

[Whitney]

Yeah, but also ready for pro hockey. I mean, I, I think it's an argument either way. Like you're playing more games, you're kind of learning what it's like to play in pro and go through that grind. You have to do it at some point. So you're developing, I think still. But yeah, you're talking strength in the gym, right?

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, strength in the gym. And also like the American Hockey League has gotten so young now too, man. Like the, like it's, it's not what it once was. Like, there's no more Elaine Nazardine, 32 year old defenseman. Like you're like, oh, this guy's like my dad, like, it's more of like, oh, you're 28, 29, oh, you're a wily veteran. Meanwhile, the guy's just growing pubes for the first time. So it's kind of like you get just as many older players in college now, for fuck's sake. So I don't know, I, I went to that Ontario reign. Well, the Manchester Monarchs, 10 year anniversary. Like when you go watch college hockey and the ahl, it's not that much of separation in my opinion. Yeah, there's a few guys, but the good players are getting called up if they're young enough anyway. So I don't know. That's just kind of my opinion on that. Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

And he was a huge surprise. Basically all weekend while we were there, everybody's telling us, Leonard's gonna win it, Leonard's gonna win it. Even as we're interviewing him, I kind of didn't even talk too much about Hobie because, like, he's not winning this thing. And I ran into Boochie afterwards. He's the one that read, read the thing and he was just as shocked. He, he couldn't figure out why his name was on there. Like, like, where, where's the other names? Like, what is going on here? It was, it was shocking to all of college hockey that, that he took it ahead of Leonard. And there was some tinfoil hack guys like you, Biz, that were saying part of it was because Howard, they, they, he, he announced he was coming back, maybe got some late votes because they like the guy returning and they can, they can use him again in college hockey as a, as a Hobie guy.

[Paul Vincent]

Wow. So, so, I mean, for what do you guys think? You're the college hockey experts. Do you think Leonard got screwed?

[Mike Grinelli]

I think so. I, I, I, I, he, he was the best player, the most talked about player. The only thing with the Hobie, there is some stuff that sometimes it's off ice if you do some charity work or different things like that. So I didn't dig into it too much like that, but I was just too busy picking the national championship winner for everybody Biz, you know, just giving out a lot.

[Whitney]

He didn't pick BU once and then he does and they lose. So. Oh, I mean, that's pretty easy to explain right there. And I knew it. I saw when he was going to root for him. I, we don't want you, I told you, jumped right off, right after B.C. for two years and then all of a sudden he's rooting for BU overall, a Very, a very successful college hockey season though. Another year of growth. Another year of a first time winner. Bucha Cross tweeted. It's his, it was his 12th frozen four and I believe six of them are first time winners in school history. So that's nice. I mean that's parody and I mean what are we at right now? 68 teams? G, do you know?

[Mike Grinelli]

I think 64 or something.

[Keith]

Yeah, I saw 64 as well. Well and one more thing. Great for college hockey. The rumor boys are hearing. Gavin McKenna to Michigan. The rumor boys are here.

[Paul Vincent]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Whitney]

Did you see that?

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah.

[Merles]

That was insane.

[Paul Vincent]

That goal was scored.

[Whitney]

That was still confused by it.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, that was like two fouls. That was, that was hot sauce from the mix. And one mixtape tour.

[Keith]

Like he canceled next year.

[Whitney]

It's, it's too easy for him. Gee, I completely agree with you. I, I, I, that kid, I think it would be nuts. He's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a joke for him. Every game he, I, he gets five points every game there.

[Paul Vincent]

And that's a prime example of why they needed to open it up where you can go play junior develop at the ages of did he, was he a double underager? Was he playing at 50 this year?

[Whitney]

He's a double underager. I think.

[Paul Vincent]

What?

[Whitney]

No, last year he was. Sorry.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Holy shit. I was gonna say if he's fucking pulling off those moves as a double underager, check his birth certificate. Oh yeah, he got posterized, but okay, well good for him. And that pretty much wraps up the college hockey. And we're 40 minutes in. Boys. It's time to get to the big boys.

[Whitney]

Yep, a lot of discussion non NHL, which is kind of crazy considering we're there. It's just about go time. But all these things happen so we had to address them. But we got a wild card race all of a sudden. I, I believe close maybe three weeks ago. I was like, oh, it sucks. We already know the eight teams.

[Ryan Whitney]

Well, Gary's like this.

[Whitney]

The Columbus Blue Jackets didn't hear no bell. Right. The Blues, all of a sudden they were in. They lose like four in a row. What's happening there? The Wild get Capri soft back. They get Eric's neck back. They both have 14 goals combined against the Sharks in that game that they won 7 6. And now you're sitting there and Calgary, they didn't hear no bell. Dustin Wolf. So the scenario biz, I'm going to throw it to you, but basically the scenario is on tonight. As you're listening Tuesday, Utah. I mean St. Louis has to win against Utah and Minnie has to beat Anaheim. It'll be Zev Bouyam's first game for the Wild too. Pretty exciting that he's getting in the lineup. If they don't get the win, one of them, Calgary could keep this thing ripping. Where do you think, what do you think's gonna happen? Biz and, and how excited are you to see at least the last couple games matter?

[Paul Vincent]

I think that Minnesota and St. Louis are going to hold serve. I mean it would just be devastating to see St. Louis go on a 13 game winning streak or I believe it was 12 franchise record. They lost the 13th and then. And then fumble it down the stretch. If I had to say no offense to Minnesota Wild fans, I think I'd rather see St. Louis make it than Minnesota. If one of them drops out. Now, now they have been boring to watch. But you get Ericsson Ek back and Caprisov. That also kind of changes things too because Caprisov's worth the price of admission. So if they both hold serve, great. Want to see what Minnesota can do. Don't necessarily trust them in that first round series but it would be cool to see Calgary sneak in. Dustin Wolf obviously back in the the Calder conversation. Still think it's Lane Hudson's trophy but that would mean six of seven Canadian teams make the playoffs. The only team who would not make it would be Vancouver now. Now that's saying if Montreal holds serve because there is a snowballs chance and hell chance that Columbus ends up sneaking in if Montreal doesn't secure a point tonight. And they're. That's their easiest game, right? Who are they playing?

[Whitney]

They're playing Chicago and here's the thing.

[Paul Vincent]

But if they don't, they got to play Carolina, right?

[Whitney]

Yes. And do you remember two years ago remember Pittsburgh was in because they had Chicago at home. You guys remember that game? Oh yes. Hey, Pittsburgh just got to beat Chicago at home while they're in and then the Islanders snuck in. So Chicago. I tweeted out that tonight is probably not that far off from USA Canada atmosphere in the Bell Center. They're looking to get in the playoffs and it's Demidov's first game. The news came that he's in. He's coming. Merles as the Russia guy. Like is it. Are we hearing. Is everything correct in that the expectations are Kucherov Kaprisov like he broke all.

[Mike Grinelli]

Their records at at that age. The under what is he considered a U20 player in the K gel. He broke all their scoring records. And some people will come to you right away and be like, well they're playing a few extra games now. He did it in the same number of games as, as those guys did it. Incredible. You know we remember we were in Montreal, they were already had him on the banners for the season ticket sales. They did. You see him enter the airport in Toronto. All the people are outside this guy. The next coming of for, for Montreal Canadian fans and everything else. The highlights. I, I'll catch a SCA game every now and again and every time he's out there he's, he's a difference maker at that age. You know the league, it's not an easy league. So yeah, I, I expect him to be exactly like Caprioff.

[Paul Vincent]

Is it fair to say like he looks so silky and smooth when he's skating out there. Is, is Kovalev a good comparison? Just because like I just feel like the way that, the way that he moves looks like that video we saw that kid in college where like the head wasn't moving and it almost looked like it was AI generated where it's just like well how come is like the middle of his body and his head aren't moving when he's moving his arms around and he's doing those things all around his body. He looked like McKenna on, on acid out there. Like that's where this kid is at. So we're kind of getting this Russian invasion right before playoffs. I mean we, we've been talking about oldie the whole season with the goal chase but now this guy's coming over. Nikishan, he's coming over. He got clearance too. So the expectations boys, like I don't know if they're unrealistic, but they're super high in Montreal for this kid coming in. So we, we are going to try to break down that series even though it's not 100% locked in. If things do change, we'll come back Friday because we're doing two a week now folks and we'll do it if Columbus ends up somehow sneaking in.

[Whitney]

Yeah, we're going to, we're going to address and, and re kind of look at the series if Columbus ends up getting in. I think Montreal gets it done tonight. I mean as you're listening, you'll know if I'm correct or not. Might have just mushed them, but I think they get it done. It'd be a hell of a story to see them in Columbus. I also respect the Hell, out of the season that they're having. They. They were done. And then they went on to win four in a row to get back in the mix, I think four in a row. So we'll get to the previews. We will repreview whoever's watching playing if Columbus pulls off the upset and the miracle. But we're going to start and Merles is involved in this with the Edmonton Oilers and the LA Kings. Round four. We don't know exactly quite yet who has home ice. It looks like the Kings will be able to secure that. They play this.

[Paul Vincent]

That's trouble for you, Witty. That's the best home record in the league right now.

[Whitney]

The. The Oilers right now, I mean, it's. They're kind of in shambles. I mean, unless they're just completely resting guys and it's all precautionary. They're sending out lists every day of who's in, who's out, who's probable for Game one. But we got crushing news, and that is Matthias Ekholm is out at minimum for the first round. I saw a report that it said for the rest of the year and then I don't think that's been solidified as. As necessarily truth. But no matter what first round, you don't have them. I know everyone who maybe doesn't watch Edmonton saw him in the finals last year, but for people who see Oilers games, this guy is their number one horse. He is a beast. He's better offensively than people think. Plays first pair, shuts guys down like, I don't know.

[Paul Vincent]

Realistically, it'd be like Vegas losing petrol. That's where he's at.

[Whitney]

And I'm not Petro overall is a little better, but that's a perfect analogy to the team. That's what he is.

[Paul Vincent]

G sent this over to the group text today. Let's go top to bottom here at home. Won't play in the first round. No exact timeline. Wallman, the guy they traded for at the deadline to help out in the back end, he's day to day. Expect him to play game one. Well, we'll see. Hyman McDavid. They're not playing tonight, which is Monday, right now, playing it extremely safely. Dryle, questionable for Wednesday. Definitely expected Game one. Trent Frederick not playing. So lot of question marks in that lineup. And even if most of them do end up, the fact that they haven't been getting reps together, leading in the way that LA has, does that not scare both of you? Including you, Merls, who've been calling this LA Team Fraud all season long. Like would you not look like the biggest clown in the world calling them Frank Frauds and then knocking off a cup favorite round one like come on here.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. Well, that goes back. I did it beginning of the year when they were winning all the time and I watched a couple road games. I'm like, they are not a good hockey club. And then just knowing how the playoffs work, it's Edmonton or Vegas they have to beat. So I felt pretty confident they won't be either one of those teams until I see this Edmonton injury list. So it is not gone as planned. Yes, Vegas is the best team as planned. I assumed Edmonton would have the home ice, would have all their bodies. I, I do not feel good. Missing Echolm. He's nasty to play against. He clears out the front and dry saddle not being in probably the best condition. And McDavid, although McDavid was flying around the other night. He looked in top.

[Whitney]

No, he's. He's fine. He's fine. He's been lighting up.

[Mike Grinelli]

I would have been fine with those two guys like missing the time and jumping in, but without Ekholm and now some of these other guys. I did, I did see Evander Kane's gonn. No whip.

[Whitney]

Evander Kane. They really haven't said they're. They're kind of probable. And I saw one reporter say he looks completely normal out there. And all of a sudden, dude, that's a, that's a game changer. Just physicality after the whistle. What sucks is guys like Frederick, they've. Frederick got hurt six seconds into the game. He came back. It's like that's just brutal luck. DRL came back, he got hurt. Ekolm came back left right away. So they've tried to give it a go. Which makes me think, you know, that Ekholm's probably in one if he came back and it was gone that quick. Same with Frederick. You know those, those ankles, dude. I mean you're talking to Mr. Mr. Weak Ankle. I'm the weakest ankle. I'm an 85 year old ankle. And so I know like when you come back and you just keep tweaking it and tweaking it. Having said all that, I'm still pretty confident. I think the more I think about it. Dude, we have Leon and Conor. Sorry, man. Like there is no. You got.

[Paul Vincent]

Who you guys?

[Whitney]

Fiala's great. What.

[Paul Vincent]

Who are you guys going to start in that?

[Whitney]

We're going to start Stuart Skinner. Let us look finals last year, game seven.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh yeah.

[Whitney]

And. And he's been awesome this year. Kemper has been awesome. Biz.

[Paul Vincent]

Kemper's been fucking incredible, bro. I just said be a top three Vesna candidate.

[Whitney]

I just said awesome.

[Ryan Whitney]

Let the man speak, Biz. We'll get. We'll get to the Kings.

[Whitney]

We'll get to the Kings. And then the Kings have talent. 60 point, 70 point. Guys, buddy, you don't have 97 and 29. And when you get some power plays and you get those guys going and we win a game on the road, boom, we have home ice and we control our destiny. And it's four years in a row. Am I as nervous as I've been? No doubt. But I thought about it more. I thought about it more. I'm like, they're not losing to the Kings.

[Paul Vincent]

All right?

[Whitney]

And no.

[Mike Grinelli]

Who knows? More than all of us all the time. Are those guys out in the desert right now? DraftKings sportsbook Edmonton Oilers -135 to win the series. LA Kings -115.

[Whitney]

So last year I think they were 250, though, so big difference.

[Paul Vincent]

I just. I liked. I like the. The well balanced lineup. Like, if there was any question of scoring goals, like, early in the year. Yeah. Quentin Byfield, off to a slow start. He's been great in the second half. Moore's been a little bit better offensively in the second half. They get Kuzmenko over where. I thought that was almost like a. Like a prayer shot. Well, it's fucking worked. I think he's got near 20 points as he come over at the deadline. So all of a sudden they have this well balanced lineup. And I think that Deneau will produce a little bit more offensively than he has in the regular season. Only eight goals this year. I know. I see you laughing. Witty.

[Whitney]

I'm not worried. Him shutting guys down is. I don't. Even if it was offense, it's a disaster. I'm already worried about him. He's so good defensively.

[Paul Vincent]

He's a wet blanket, and he could shut down one of those top guys that you have.

[Whitney]

I see. That's where I think you're a little crazy. I'm crazy. You don't shut those two down. You don't biz. You've seen it.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, if there's. If there's one guy that I would trust to do it, it's the wet blanket Donov. Because we had. We had. Hey, we had McKinnon on before, and we asked him, we say, who's one of the more underrated players you've played against? In the league. And he mentioned him and how good he is defensively and his reads. Haven't even mentioned Adrian Kempe, 40 goal guy. The guy's a machine. He's a speedster. So as far as the speed, they got it. Okay. And going back to that Darcy Kemper, we're talking about one of the best goalies in the league this year. Nobody's even talking about him. He's like two goals against per game with a.921 save percentage. Unbelievable. The back end. I didn't, I saw Doughty didn't play. I don't know if that's a rest thing or a precaution thing last game. But if they don't have him, obviously level for concern, but I'm pretty sure he'll be right back in the lineup. So as far as you guys without Echo, I like the back end of the LA Kings a little bit better. Gavrikov, that guy fucking close. Plays down the neutral zone better than anyone in the league or just as good as anyone in the league. I, I honestly think that the LA Kings are going to upset this. Edmonton four years in a row, boys.

[Whitney]

You'll hit it at one point, boys.

[Paul Vincent]

This is a way different situation as far as injuries, depleted lineup. We're talking about an older, smaller, slower team. Jeff Skinner, no playoff experience. Does that scare you at all?

[Whitney]

No, because he's actually heated up and like turned it on in the last. Since mid March. He's kind of flying and scoring and so is Arvidson and Perry. Shout out Corey Perry.

[Paul Vincent]

18 fucking goals, dude.

[Whitney]

He's. He's 40 years old. He's never missing a pregame skate. Stoff tweeted out that they, they had like a 9am skate for an afternoon game. I think he was the only guy on the ice. The worm. The guy's obsessed with hockey. He's still scoring. He fights like more than anyone else on the Oilers. I'm like the worm. Corey Perry is going to play until you drag his body off the ice. And, and I think that he's a playoff type guy. I Biz. I get what you're saying, Keith. You haven't, you haven't said anything, but I know you're now a Kings guy. You send us over a picture in, in an ice cube Kings jacket.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, since, since going out to that LA strong game with the, you know, support the fires out there. Just the way that they took care of us and Biz's minor league team that won the Calder Trophy 55 years ago. It's yeah, it's, it's amazing the organization they got running there. But I was talking to Jared Stoll today and just the, the team that they have right now, it reminds me of the Kings when they went on their runs winning two Cups. They, they don't have the hundred point guys. They have, you know, Kempe with 68 points, but they are smothering defensively. They're big. They, they wear teams down and they do it collectively as a group. They're not, you know, they're not just one guy out there like, like Edmonton is, unfortunately. But, you know, they had the two best players in the league, so they can do that. But I just like the way that they are playing right now going into playoffs. The whole year that they've had winning at home, having the best record at home. It's. It's a team I wouldn't want to play if I was a fan of like you guys. With Edmonton, it's just. There's a lot of uncertainty up, up, up north and it doesn't look good. But it also could be, you know, the Connor McDavid, where the Michael Jordan in him comes out, where he's like, you know what? And that's when, that's when I took that personal. And he goes on an absolute heater. So he obviously scares me. Leon has been Leon all year. But I think, like you said Biz, I think Kempe can handle the speed as much as, you know, no one can handle McDavid speed. I think Kempe can handle that speed. Shutting him down or shutting him down in air quotes, keeping him limited to as little as you can. And then, and then you got to know who can, you know, he can handle dry settle with how smart he is. He's a smart player. Good stick and you got big, solid D on the back end and in the goaltending. Every year, the best team with the best goalie win, wins the, wins the trophy. And they don't have to be the best goalie all year, they just have to be the best in the playoffs. You've seen it, you know, with Boboski and Vegas. Who was it? Thompson. Like Thompson wasn't the best goalie in the league, but he was unreal in those playoff runs. So it's. Or was it Hill? Hill, yeah, Hill. Sorry, that's.

[Whitney]

That's what the LA Kings are right there. They're just like, they're just thinking that they're gonna run over the Oilers. They're not even thinking right.

[Paul Vincent]

We didn't even mention Anze Kopitar. Like they have two of the best shutdown centers, no doubt two way centers in the, in the league here year. Let's show a little respect. And how about the year Kevin Fiala's had as well? Come on. I mentioned guys.

[Whitney]

I mentioned him. They got guys. They got guys don't have the big guys. And those guys, no one does. Serious Now, Keith, Colorado does prediction because I already know it's Kings. What game?

[Ryan Whitney]

I think it goes seven.

[Whitney]

Okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

Gotta go seven. And hopefully it's a home game for la.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, it will be.

[Whitney]

It looks that way. Biz.

[Paul Vincent]

I got Kings and seven boys.

[Mike Grinelli]

Mercury Oilers and six.

[Whitney]

Oilers and six as well. Because I actually don't want this going seven because what you mentioned, they're going to wear the shit out of the Oilers. They are going to be physical, they're going to be all over them. Warren Fogel coming back, he had a great year for la. That's another guy.

[Paul Vincent]

Like I think he might have led their team in five on five goals or second.

[Whitney]

Yeah, I think a couple weeks ago you mentioned that stat. So the longer it goes, the worse for Edmonton. So I'm with Murr. Edmonton in six. Kind of wish that they were playing someone else just for excitement as a. As a fan. But I looked and if it was 1 through 8, 2 verse 7 and that way I think they'd be getting Dallas. I'd rather LA personally. So we're moving on. We're moving on.

[Paul Vincent]

You. You'd rather. You'd rather Dallas right now?

[Whitney]

No, I'd rather la. I'd rather.

[Paul Vincent]

You'd rather LA with. With no haskin in for Dallas. Brian Boucher mentioned on the broadcast. Dallas is struggling a little bit right now.

[Whitney]

They've been struggling bad.

[Paul Vincent]

They've been outshot the last 13 games in a row. That's a dude that's not good.

[Whitney]

End of March or it might not have been end of March, middle of March. DeBoer was saying after a game they won, like, yeah, it's concerning how we're playing right now. And that was like a month ago or even maybe a little bit more. Five weeks. The no Heskin and thing for me. So they're gonna play. They're gonna play Colorado. Crazy that one of these teams is going home. We got Eric Johnson on today's show, so we sat down with him. Awesome talk. We're going to throw it to him after this great dude. He's back in Colorado. He's confident. All the changes they made. But it's the no Heskinen thing for Me. If Heskinen's here, I'm. I'm. No. No matter what, this thing's going seven, I think, and it's a straight coin flip, I think. Since he came into the league, the stars have played 82 playoff games. He's played in every one, averaging 27 minutes a game. And he's gone. I mean, against Colorado and this offense. How do you. How do you replace that? I don't know. Biz. Do you think? Call. I.

[Paul Vincent]

You don't. It's like Colorado losing McCarr. You just don't. Right.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

You can't.

[Paul Vincent]

As good as Harley's been, as. As deep as they are. Like, if you look at Dallas right now, the first two lines, unreal. Robertson, he came in the season, he had foot surgery, didn't look like himself. He was very open about the fact that the Four nations thing was wearing on him. Well, now that that's in the rearview mirror, he looks a lot more like himself. Rupe Hints, he fucking flies. We know what we're getting from Rupert Hints, and he's got great chemistry going with Rotten and. Okay, you look at that second line. Yeah. They lost second. Probably one of the best offensive, if not the best offensive second lines in the entire year. Didn't matter. They went out and made that early move for Grandlin. He fit in perfectly on that line with Duchenne and Marchesau. Or not Marches. So Jesus Marchman, who's got the. Who's got the fishbowl on right now? So as good as those top two lines are, they're looking themselves in the mirror across the way in Colorado, where they're just as lethal offensively. And then that's, to me, where Wyatt Johnson's been playing. Third line, center. That is depth. I feel like Coyle can neutralize that. That's a perfect role for Coil, and that's probably why they went out and got him, knowing that if they're facing Dallas, well, they're deep up the middle. Well, now so are we. So I just. I think up front, it's a dead even heat. They're both going to produce their offense. They're both going to be buzzing the Haskin in. That's why Kale McCarr is on a different planet. And with him and Taves playing basically half the game, that's going to be the world of difference. The only way that Dallas wins this series is if Ottinger plays lights out. And I think there are question marks surrounding Ottinger. I think that in the past couple years, like early on, he's been solid, but when push came to shove, he just wasn't the guy to get it done. Hey, with goaltending, the experience comes into play and I think that he's gotten that experience. So if he can outplay Blackwood across the way, that to me gives them an opportunity to win the series. But as it sits right now with no Haskin in, I got Colorado in six games. Boys. I just think there's no way like we're talking about a one man breakout. Not necessarily a guy who will light the world on fire offensively. He's, he's, he's not the, the, the, the hundred point guy that Cale McCarr is. Why do you laugh when I say that?

[Ryan Whitney]

No, he just putting on his Avalanche hat.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, he's putting on his ABS hat. But just talking about a guy who can shut down guys. He could play that 27 to 30 minutes every night. One man breakout. It's just going to be a world of difference without him. And I don't think the Dallas Stars have a chicken dick's chance of winning that series unless he's involved in it. Who's taking it? Who's taking the reins here now?

[Mike Grinelli]

I'm, I'm the AVS guy. I got the hat on, I got the 29 jersey, but I am on the 29.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh gee.

[Mike Grinelli]

I mean these guys got the, they got the grocery list of injuries like you do too with up in Edmonton. I think I saw four or five of them. Got to go watch Landiscog's game. Cause they didn't go on the California road trip. You read the names right here. Ross, Colton, upper body. Druin, lower body. Lekin and lower body. Lindgren, upper body. McKinnon just says injury. Then they rested McCarr and Daves. But then there's Manson upper body. Nichin, lower body. Those are some heavy names. Some big hitters.

[Paul Vincent]

They're playing the Panthers like that's a.

[Mike Grinelli]

Lot of good players if, if they are banged up or if it was just all kind of fake injuries to, to get out of that game. But I like the avalanche. You got McCar playing 30 minutes a night. They got, they got two great goaltenders. We've seen that a lot recently in the playoffs where the goalies are getting flipped back and forth. You need a couple options they have that. They both played well.

[Ryan Whitney]

So that doesn't scare you? The two goaltender tandem scares me a little.

[Mike Grinelli]

It used to until it started working these last few years. But Bobrovsky didn't start the One playoffs and now he's in there. Vegas, I think Vegas. That year he jumped around. Aiden Hill didn't play every game, right?

[Whitney]

Yeah. But they end up going with one. One guy has to end up taking.

[Ryan Whitney]

Steal it.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, I like that. I agree with you.

[Whitney]

Like you're not, you're not in the conference finals or the cup finals, going back and forth every game. I don't think we'll ever see that.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, it's just if you do need to switch, sign up. Like didn't Edmonton do it last year?

[Whitney]

Well, yeah, yeah. Picard won a must win game against Vancouver.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

So you have that flexibility as a coach that you can maybe if they switch things up, you throw them in there anyway. Avalanche in six, same thing. I need them to win it at home. I can't have them going on the road for game seven.

[Whitney]

I got the ABs in seven. Kind of everything you said, biz the coil move. I completely agree with your take there because I think we've said it many times. If he's your third line center, you're. You got a cup contender the ball behold leak line. Right. And when he's like third line, he's playing 18 minutes, maybe 17 minutes, he's pking, it's like, wow, we trust that third line when they're out there. And McKinnon, sickle mode, he's the same thing as, as with the Oilers in my discussion about la because yeah, I love Robert. I mean Rontanen and Robertson and Wyatt Johnson some great depth. They're not McKinnon. They don't have. They don't have a guy that level. And they don't even have a Makar either. So it's basically the dominant players. No Heskinen, Ottinger has to stand on his head. I know I'm repeating all you guys. I got. I got Colorado in seven. I still think it's deep series.

[Paul Vincent]

Jamie. Ben's gonna have School jam and Ben, if, if they have. He's gonna have to do something real stupid and create some intimidation in that. In that lineup for me.

[Ryan Whitney]

I'm. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna flip the script here. I'm taking Dallas. I think, I think them getting outshot these last 13 games is going to prepare Ottinger to be the guy. And like you said Biz, it has to. Has to come to a point. As for a goalie where, you know, he. It's past where, oh yeah, he's a young guy. He's still figuring out the league. He's in that, in that sweet spot of his career where it's, it's now and you know, he's been talked about, he's on the four nations teams, he's going to be on the Olympic team. He's talked about as, you know, one of the elite goalies in the league. And I, I think it's his time to steal a series and why not do it the first series against, you know, one of the hottest teams in the league and you know, staring down the barrel of two of the best players to ever play the game. So I think for the Dallas Stars, same same way I think LA can kind of bully some teams with Marchman and Jamie, Ben, I think they can wear a team down too. I, I don't think, I don't think Nate and Makar really get affected too much by that. So I might be contradicting myself a little bit. But you know, the rest of that team, I think that, I think that those guys can wear some teams down. You know, we talked to, you know, Duchenne's earlier in the year. He's another guy. He's starving. It's his. He's playing against, he's playing against his old team, a team that drafted him and gave up on him. He, you know, he's going to be fired up. So. And same same too. We, we talked to Jim Neal and you know, since that interview, I've been all in on this guy. Just such a gentleman of the game. Loved his story and everything. So I'm going Dallas in seven, I think. I think this is Ottinger's series to, you know, kind of show who he is and, and why he's the guy that everyone says he is.

[Whitney]

I mean, let's never forget pour one out for Jim Nil being next to Bonnie blue on the YouTube thumbnail for about 10 minutes all time, an all time moment. 10 minutes all time moment in the show's history right there. So I guess, I guess that kind of leads us into what you just mentioned. Yan or. Sorry, Murray. Go ahead, buddy.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, I'll just wrap up the DraftKings has it as a complete coin toss minus 110 for either side. So they don't know who's going to win either.

[Paul Vincent]

Wow.

[Mike Grinelli]

But I do have a real good report for you guys. Nichushkin has been put into the Denver Boza for the entire seven game series.

[Paul Vincent]

So how about when we talked about.

[Ryan Whitney]

It, did you see the. All those guys got who didn't play against Anaheim the other day, like they're Naming off all the guys. Didn't travel. Didn't travel. And then they were like, Nichkin travel with the team, but he's not playing. They got him in the holster, just not letting him any freedom.

[Whitney]

In other news involving a Russian. And this is just a quick hitter. Ivan Demidov has his first NHL point, an assist. Okay, it is 7:19 Eastern. Before we throw to EJ, did the game start? Eric Johnson, we have to bring up Landiscog. Came back. Yeah, came back. What an amazing experience. It looked like the arena was just buzzing. You mentioned all the teammates that were there. Makar, McKinnon, Ross, Colton. I don't remember the others, but when he got off the ice from his first shift, the crowd went nuts. It was so cool to see. Then he gets a goal. I couldn't believe he played back to back. But he gets a goal. I believe an assist as well the next night. So just incredible resilience. We talked about the Rory resilience. This guy is no different. Three years since he played hockey at any level. And it was amazing to see. So we talked to Eric Johnson about that. I think it's time we throw it over to him right now. EJ guys, after the long grind of the regular season, 82 games. It's finally time to start the playoff. Beard in business Case the playoff mustache. The quest to hoist the Stanley cup is heating up. And the action is even hotter at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NHL. The postseason for the fastest game on ice is here. If this is your first time experience in betting on playoff hockey, strap in for an epic playoff run. If you're new to the game, wait until you see the action. The overtime, the hit. It's super easy to get started at DraftKingsportsbook. Try betting on something simple, like picking a team to win a series or a game. Go to the app, select your team and place your first bet. It's that easy. And if you're new to DraftKings, listen up. New customers bet five bucks to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now and use Code Chiclets. That's Code Chiclets for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets. When you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours.

[Paul Vincent]

Gambling problem.

[Mike Grinelli]

Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York. Call 877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny467-369 in Connecticut.

[Biz Nasty]

Help is available for problem gambling.

[Merles]

Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play.

[Whitney]

Responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino.

[Merles]

And resort in Kansas 21 and over. Agent eligibility varies by jurisdiction.

[Paul Vincent]

Void in Ontario, new customers only.

[Merles]

Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance.

[Paul Vincent]

For additional terms, gaming resources, see DKNG.

[Merles]

Co Audio.

[Whitney]

We are now pleased to be joined by a multi time guest, a Stanley cup champion and one of eight Americans to ever go first overall in the NHL draft. We got Eric Johnson. What's going on, buddy?

[Merles]

Hey, guys, I'm good. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Hope you're well and looking forward to talking with you guys.

[Whitney]

Yeah, it's great to catch up with you. It's been kind of a crazy year. Awesome news for yourself getting traded back to Colorado. But I think we got to start with, with Landiscog, especially considering you have a horse named after him. How crazy was it? How pumped for him were you to see him back on the ice? I know some of the guys made it, but he must just be so fired up and I imagine your team is just so excited for him.

[Merles]

Yeah, no doubt. I mean, it's well documented as, as you both know. You know, the, the amount of adversity he's gone through with this. I think he, you know, he didn't have to do this for, for anybody. He didn't owe anyone anything. He, he could have, you know, sailed off into the sunset after he won the cup and wiped his hands and, and got on with his life and collected his money. But he wanted to see this thing through and do it for our team and our fan base and everyone involved. So I'm super proud of him. And you know, with what he did the last two nights in Loveland on his conditioning stint, I'm. I'm just proud of him because I know he put a ton of his own money, his time, resources, sacrificed a bunch of time away from his family, his teammates, traveled all around the world to really get this thing right. So he deserves everything he's gotten so far and it's great to see him on the road to recovery and I think he should be joining us in the playoffs, which is just huge for us. Any capacity he can join us is going to be huge.

[Paul Vincent]

So you're big into the horses, so why'd you. You just like decided to name one of your horses after Landy?

[Merles]

Yeah, I mean, you know, I had a biz nasty who wasn't very good, unfortunately. Come on.

[Paul Vincent]

Actually, did he was he.

[Merles]

Landiscog was pretty Good. And yeah, he's a good looking horse just like his namesake and thought I'd roll with it and thankfully he turned out all right. But yeah, no, it's, it's all in good fun and nice to get the pucks and ponies together a little bit.

[Paul Vincent]

Could you describe business horse qualities? Like, like, tell me.

[Whitney]

Like, you wouldn't stay away from their female horses.

[Merles]

Exactly. So, yeah, he had no, no testicles left. Ready? We had to chop those off, unfortunately. I don't know if you can throw that in the podcast, but.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, we could throw it all.

[Merles]

We'll save, we'll save the details for a different day.

[Paul Vincent]

What's it been like having the, like the camera crews around? Like, have they been all around quite a bit given like Landy's journey, like, and like, I would imagine maybe McKinnon's not the, like doesn't want that many cameras around all the time. So has there been a little bit of like, awkwardness and tension in that regard?

[Merles]

Yeah, I mean, you know, I was just poking fun out of ment other night with you, but it hasn't really been that bad at all. I think he is a guy that's kind of been, you know, following around and going to the rink and just kind of his day to day, whether that was rehabbing or traveling or doctor's appointments or whatever, it really hasn't been bad. I think it's a cool thing. He really emphasized the human element of it all, which I think is cool. And you don't see guys kind of let the outside world into your personal life like that. He got super, super vulnerable, obviously. And I think it's cool because a lot of the fans, they just see, you know, the athlete and I think they saw a lot of behind the scenes with Gabe. The emotions, you know, the setbacks and the highs and the lows that you often get with an athlete that you don't see as an outside fan but you can probably relate to with things that happen in your own life. So I think that was really cool, Gabe, to do that and just show the human side of it. And it's, it's, it's great for the game. I think it provides exposure that you might not see otherwise and great for him for kind of putting himself out there and, and doing that. So the cameras have been fine. It hasn't really been much at all. I think, you know, we just like to poke fun at him because they've been around here and there. But it's, it's great for him. It's it's. We're super excited. And you know, he played two games and got, got out of them both scot free and looks like we're gonna have him around for game one.

[Paul Vincent]

That, that after the game. Where did you see the, the video of him addressing the team after he got the mvp? Like, he's so good at speaking and so articulate and the fact that, I mean it is a second language. But just for, like you said, for him to open up and probably put a lot into perspective even for other athletes that have maybe been through stuff to maybe now they kind of got that second win where they're like, I want to try to overcome it and make a comeback. So it's just been an awesome story to transition out of that. I was going to ask you, like, you, you left the team a few years ago after you guys won it. Has there been any like more crazy progression to McKinnon's like routine and stuff? Because like you're pretty close to them and you can ball bust them. Like when you got back to the team this year, you were like, holy fuck, this has evolved into something like, like even crazier.

[Merles]

No, I think, you know, you guys know what he's like, intense and you know he'll, he'll bite your head off if he, if he sees the opportunity and thinks you deserve it and. But I just think he does everything with good intentions to help the team up a level or help the team win. I don't, I honestly think when he has his moments, he just sees red and he doesn't see anything else and he almost says something and he forgets it and it's nothing personal, it's just in, in, you know, the best interest of what he thinks is going to be best for the team. So honestly, what I've kind of found over the years and as I've left and came back, he kind of dictates what he needs from an all. From his own personal schedule. Like if the team's skating and has a practice, it doesn't necessarily mean Nate is going to skate too. I think he, he has that trust from Jared and, and the staff that if he doesn't want to skate for three days, he's not going to skate. If he wants to skate, he's going to skate. So he, he kind of has, you know, that, that ability to dictate what he thinks is going to be best for himself for getting himself ready to play. So it's cool because I think you see it in other sports a lot more Maybe NBA or NFL, where guys kind of have their physios, their therapist, their chef, and they kind of dictate some of their own schedules. So Nate's kind of done that and evolved over the years where, you know, just because the team is, you know, going through organized practice doesn't mean that that's going to be what Nate has to do. I mean, he's still going to practice with us, and he's a part of the team and he's, you know, our. Our leader and. But he's just. He's. He's evolved or he has that trust where he's gonna kind of call his shots and do what he thinks is best for him to be at his best. So I have a ton of respect for him.

[Ryan Whitney]

He.

[Merles]

He just wants to win, and then that's. That's where he comes from, where that.

[Paul Vincent]

Wasn'T the case when you were there, when you guys won it. Like, like, obviously things have changed where that wasn't the case before. And had you kind of seen that anywhere else throughout your journey in the NHL where somebody had that type of control? And I mean, this. I mean, he's one of the best, if not the best player in the world right now. Like, I get why he gets that, but had you seen it anywhere?

[Merles]

I haven't. I think the biggest thing I notice is every year he's trying to find an edge where he can evolve and get better. So one year he got a chef, one year he had his own physio. You know, one year he's not morning skating as much. He's in the pool. He's, you know, he just. Every year he just kind of is finding something that's going to make him better. And every year he's gotten better that I've played with him. And, you know, it's. It's just a testament to what he does because, you know, you see guys that you think work hard, and then you see Nate, and it's just opens your eyes and.

[Whitney]

And.

[Merles]

And re. Makes you realize that, okay, if he's going to do this, you know, why can't I do a B and C? So just, you know, he's eight years younger than me, but I've learned a lot from him. He's helped my career, and I look up to him, even though he's much younger than me and just done a lot for my career. So, you know, whatever. Whatever he says, guys are definitely watching and maybe trying to implement themselves.

[Ryan Whitney]

Ej, I got one. Obviously, as a D man, you know, like the Three of us on this pod and Biz wants a D man, but.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Gotta ask you about Kel Makar, like, for yourself. You came in first overall. Pick a guy that's lived up to everything. You've had an amazing career, but have you ever seen, you know, not only just a player, but a defenseman like McCarr, like, what he can do night in, night out, and just like he changes the game every time he's on the ice. And I, as a defenseman, I think it's just so, so cool to see.

[Merles]

Yeah, it's unbelievable. I mean, you guys. You guys know how good he is and see him play all the time, but. But just being able to see him in practice and how he approaches each and every day. I mean, you would talk to him and just think he's, you know, Joe from science class. He's just like this, you know, unassuming, like, kind of dorky, but like the, the guy you'd want your sister to marry type guy. You know what I mean? Like, he just. There's no, There's a quiet confidence about him, but he just. He's got that just ice in his veins and he. Nothing phases him. He's so even keel. And he's really taken that next step as a leader too, where, you know, he's not afraid to say something or bark at somebody. So I think what just sets him apart is his physical talent and abilities are. Are outweighed by how tough he is mentally, I think. I don't think people see that, obviously, but he, you know, he's just. He's just one of those guys where just a salt of the earth human being, great family, great mom and dad, RA Just a super kid that was raised just unbelievably and just a guy that, you know, I'm proud to call a friend and a guy that I want and just blessed to watch every day. And you. You see the on ice gifts, but just a special guy off the ice. And I think he's still going to get better and better. He scored 30 this year, sat out the last couple games. Could have maybe hit 100 points, who knows? But just nice to have Kale. And he has a one, two punch, you know, as Ford and a D. So it's. It's special to come to rink with those guys.

[Whitney]

I think he, he. There's a realistic chance he ends up getting 41 year, which is just wild to think about. Even 30 as a defenseman, it's crazy. But going back to you and coming back to Colorado you were very thankful to Danny Brier and Keith Jones when the move was made. So were they kind of in touch with you? Was. Was it something you had to say in, you know, being the guy that's accomplished as much as you have in the NHL where a younger guy, he's just dealt there. There isn't much discussion prior. But how did it go down for you when you were sent back to. To Colorado?

[Merles]

Yeah, what? I think I was super grateful because they gave me the opportunity to extend my career. I mean, I don't know. I wasn't talking to other teams. I was just focused on returning in Philly free agency last year.

[Biz Nasty]

And.

[Merles]

And, you know, they said, you're probably not going to play a lot. I said, that's fine. They said they wanted to develop their younger players. They wanted me to be involved in that process. I said, sure, no problem. And a lot of people were asking me, aren't you pissed you're not playing? And my response was, I'm honestly happy I'm able to be in the NHL still and provide some value. So I didn't look at it as a negative. I just saw it as a positive. They wanted me around to help. And when I played, I played, and when I didn't, I was just the best teammate I could be. I was so good in the room. That's where they left me all season. Think, but.

[Whitney]

Come down for intermissions. In your suit, though.

[Merles]

Buds literally told me to stay home. But no, he.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, at least he didn't try to fight him.

[Merles]

Yeah, exactly. But no, like, they just treated me with so much respect, and I loved living in Philly, and you played there. I'm sure. You know, all the guys had great things to say about you, and I had. I had a ton of fun there. I mean, I woke up every day and loved my role. And as the trade deadline started approaching, Danny came to me and just asked me about it, and I said, honestly, if I can go to Colorado, I want to go there. I'm happy to stay in Philly. And as the deadline approached, I knew there was some talk with Colorado, but they needed some. They needed Philly to retain some money, but Philly had all their three retention slots filled, so they couldn't retain any money. And so Danny said the morning of the deadline, it's probably not going to work unless Colorado moves out some salary. And when they traded Middlestead for Coil, I was sitting at home, you know, on the couch, and I. I pulled up whatever Puckpedia and plugged in both their salaries. And I was like, holy. You know, coil makes 500,000 less than, than Middlestad. This might open up some money for it to work. And a minute later Danny called me and said, hey, you know, I don't want to do this, but I'm going to do this for you. And I have a deal in place to send you back to Colorado about 20 minutes before the deadline. And you're just, just cool because spending 13 years of my career there, won a cup and definitely emotional but grateful to them because they, they were so respectful of how they treated me all year. And just a first class group of people. Jonesy, Danny, Dan Hilfordy, the president there and just a great place to live. I loved it. Great group of guys and really grateful for what they did to me to get me back to Colorado.

[Paul Vincent]

You should gift Jonesy the, the businessy horse as a thank you.

[Ryan Whitney]

Ej, you mentioned, you know, just accepting the role of kind of helping out the young guys and, and being there for them, you know, kind of with you being on the back nine of your career, like, is that something maybe you would want to get into when you're, when you're done, finished playing and, and this beautiful career of yours?

[Merles]

Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure. I mean, maybe I, I kind of try and not look too far ahead. I mean there's things that, you know, it's natural to think down the road, what are you going to do when you're done. But right now I'm just having fun staying in the moment and body feels good. And if I can keep playing, try and play as long as I can, wherever I can. I'm having a ton of fun coming to the rink every day. And maybe down the road I think if, you know, management or TV or something, I don't even know, could be.

[Paul Vincent]

A capologist with the way that you were plugging in those sounds, right?

[Whitney]

Him doing the of those two deals. I would have paid to seen that carry the one.

[Merles]

Oh, I can't go there online was just like this. I was, is this going to work? But I don't know. We'll see. Just enjoying the time right now, playing with the ABs and we'll see, we'll see what happens down the road.

[Paul Vincent]

I was going to hop into like the playoff picture here with the way that things are set up. Unfortunately, all as good as your team is. You guys are probably going to draw or I think as of right now, you drew Dallas. Right. So that's a two juggernauts going at it. How do you feel about this team now compared to the one where you guys won a Stanley Cup? And how do you feel at the fact that you got to play against Ratnen and how crazy that situation is?

[Merles]

Yeah, I mean, it's tough biz. It's. It's going to be tough for Miko. I mean, I, I remember coming back to Colorado last year, my first game, you know, playing in the Eastern Conference and coming back for only one game and it was tough. So I couldn't imagine just the playoff series and the emotions he's going to go through. It'll be, you know, obviously tough for us to be hard on them and everything, but you got to do what you got to do to win and we want to win and, you know, you might as well beat one of the best, hopefully we can in the first round to get to where we want to go. You're going to have to play good teams no matter what. So it's a tough draw, but I feel like everyone kind of has a tough draw on these playoffs. There's no easy matchups. Even these wild card teams in the west, whether it's Calgary, Mini or St. Louis, going to be a tough matchup for, for one of those teams, Winnipeg or Vegas. So, yeah, I think we have great, great depth down the middle. I love what we did with our center ice position. Have great depth on the wings and you know, you play Makar and taves 25, 26 a night and you know, hopefully we can fill in with some minutes underneath and two goalies that can play when needed. So I love it. I mean, it reminds me a lot of 22 and now you just need some luck and things to go your way and then you never know what can happen.

[Whitney]

It is really all about the luck. And a guy that also came over right before you got there is Martin Neches. And I guess you'd been in the west, you probably hadn't played against him that often. But have, have you seen some things you didn't really know about him since you came back over, like the speed burst he ends up hitting and his success with McKinnon and I don't think it's surprising to people, but you now seeing it up close, must be like, wow, he's better than I thought.

[Merles]

Yeah, I knew, I knew a little bit how good he was being in the east for a little bit. I mean, he was, he was a terror on Carolina. I mean, his edges are really good. He's quick, he gets to those pockets really, really fast. And when he winds it up in the neutral zone. He comes with a lot of speed and he. He's shifty. And I think the. The next evolution for him will be taking that next step to. To being that good in the playoffs. And from what I've seen so far, he's going to take that step and just a fun player to play with. A good righty can really slot him anywhere around the lineup. And you could play him with Nate, you could play him with Brock, you could play him with Charlie Coyle. So we just have a lot of options, and I think that's key, especially with, you know, you're inevitable going to have some injuries. So I really love what I've seen. And he's. He's a great guy, fun to hang out with, keeps it loose and. And I think that's important to have those guys. You can't just be robots and serious all. All season and all playoff series. So I think he brings that element too. And just a great player is a great move for us. Save some cap space. Jack Drury is a great piece too. And. And to get Marty with that, it was, I think, a good piece of work. By. By.

[Paul Vincent]

Chris, can I ask you a random question? G just texted me and reminded us you kept saying at the Olympics when it was in Vancouver that Wit was wearing a thong. And there was this, like, rumor that got started. How did. Like, what was the joke?

[Whitney]

It wasn't a rumor. I don't think it was just him and Kane.

[Ryan Whitney]

He was wearing one, but I wasn't.

[Whitney]

Wearing one this time. I swear to God. I'd retired that the year before in Pittsburgh.

[Merles]

Where were we with.

[Whitney]

I remember dinner.

[Merles]

We're just. We're in Vancouver at some bar, and Kaner and I were like, let's. Let's around with Wit. And we got on one of our phones and. And I don't know if it was probably my idea. It wasn't Caners and Whit, are you wearing a thong? And we just see you across the room, like, look at your phone. And you're like, who the is texting me this? Like. And you're like, why have a thong? You're like checking your backside. Just. Your face was like, you're a little banged up, right? And me and Kane are just howling in the other side of the room looking at you, checking your phone like, am I wearing a thong?

[Whitney]

You know you're a pigeon when you're the seventh defenseman. You just get just chirped by kids like 10 years younger than you.

[Biz Nasty]

You.

[Merles]

We loved you, me and Kenner had fun with you. It was a. It was a good time. That still eats me up that, that silver glow, doesn't it?

[Ryan Whitney]

You should name a horse Witty T bar.

[Whitney]

Yeah, the thing goes on to just run through the Kentucky Derby and then I have to like talk about when I used to wear a thong. It's just a disaster for me.

[Paul Vincent]

It's a guy horse. Suck another horse's horns.

[Merles]

Like there was camera phones then. Like, imagine being out like that, you know, 15 years later at the Olympics. Like we would have been.

[Paul Vincent]

We would have been.

[Whitney]

We wouldn't have been out.

[Merles]

Yeah, I see you.

[Whitney]

You got a sick basement set up Olympic jerseys and the, the cup painting. But did you never sell your place?

[Merles]

No, I kept it. Yeah, I kept it nice. Always went back in the off season the last 10 years and thankfully when I got traded, I just moved home and packed up my little rental house and in Jersey next to the practice rink for the Flyers and yeah, it was great. Just, you know, this is home for me now when I retire and I.

[Whitney]

Was gonna ask you that, that's where.

[Paul Vincent]

Natushkin's gonna be sleeping during the playoffs. That's the boza. He must be a beauty.

[Merles]

All good. Bell's in a good spot, so.

[Whitney]

This is such a prick.

[Paul Vincent]

What do you mean? I love that guy, man. He's a playoff horse. Power, power play specialist, like so good net front. Like, like what's he like as a guy? Like is he just like. Does he speak fluent English or is he still like too hardcore Russian?

[Whitney]

And is he. Is he bigger than you? Like you're enormous. Is he taller and heavier?

[Merles]

Yeah, and he's. He's absolutely jacked. He's a specimen and he doesn't say much, but it was pretty funny when I got traded back. I got added to the group chat and all of a sudden I get this text and. And it's a. Some weird ass picture of me from val. He goes, this psycho is back in like broken English text. I'm like, val, what the hell, man? Throwing me strays like that right when I got back. But he's just a hard working guy. Went through some tough times that are well documented. Got some help and is in a really good place now. I'm happy for him. He spent a lot of time on himself and worked out. He's in a really good situation now, I think and you know, just a beast for us. We wouldn't have won the cup without him in 22. So to have him, you know, at the height of his powers Right now, I think is huge for us.

[Whitney]

So Cogliano is now kind of a front office guy. Andrew Cogl, one of the best storytellers, best people I've ever met. You won a cup with him. Everyone was so happy for him that had that. That knows cogs. Have you had any discussion with him? Like, it's obviously a little different. You're still buddies, but the relationship is somewhat different when they're in the front office. So what's it like now with serious cogs?

[Merles]

Well, yeah, as you know, he's always serious. He had some crazy superstitions as a player. Probably still does as in the management role, but just a great guy, really sees the game well, well spoken. I think, you know, for us he was a great leader when he played and I he's still around quite a bit. So he's got a great relationship with a lot of us, you know, got to know a lot of the new guys and just has a really good mind for the game. I think he has a great feel and a great pulse on the team. So huge asset to have around and he was a great pickup for us at the deadline when we won and just one of those guys that you need to win and you know, you don't appreciate him as much until he's on your team. So great to have him around and, you know, I think he'll have a long management career for sure.

[Paul Vincent]

Is Bednar still as chill as now as he was the first time you were there? I feel like he must like rip the bong or something. He's like, the way he talks in his presser. I'm like, holy shit. This guy's like the. The chillest, calmest guy on the planet.

[Merles]

Yeah. Biz, he's another guy where when I left you realize how good of a coach he is. And just the even keel easygoingness that he brings every day is really great stability for our team. And like torts I love towards you, but a little different. Right. So bedsy. I think he just really gets how our team operates. He knows how to handle Nate. He knows how to handle all these superstar players and that's not an easy thing to do. It might look easy, you just throw these guys over the boards. But you know, Nate has an intense personality and he'll challenge your coach a lot and he does that and I just love beds attitude and I think he's an underrated coach. I don't think he gets enough recognition around the league for how, for how good he is. And you know, he's he's put this team eight years in a row in the playoffs since we finished last in. In 2017. So he just has provided so much stability and, and, and different ways to look at the game. And when I was gone the last year and a half, I just, I really love playing for torts. And, you know, I thought he really made me a better player. But you really realize what a dynamic thinker beds he is and how he really approaches the game for our team and. And breaks it down. And I really appreciated him when I was gone because I saw what a great coach he was, and I think he's just ahead of the times for how he sees the game and how he presents it and breaks it down to our team and just made me a better player and made this organization a better team.

[Paul Vincent]

Wow, you're buzzing right now, ej. You definitely deserve a job.

[Whitney]

Kind of a media guy now, ej. Yeah, that's what I'm seeing.

[Merles]

I know, I know.

[Whitney]

I need some new teeth once those jibs go in. What was one. What was like the one restaurant like. I guess people in Denver would appreciate it that you could not wait to get back to. Or your number one spot when you're going out there to dinner.

[Merles]

If you're going downtown, I would say a 5 steakhouse is really, really good. Garden Grace is really good. If you're in Cherry Creek, I would try Hillstone. It's like a chain.

[Paul Vincent]

Houston's.

[Merles]

Yeah. Business incident. Right? That chain, right?

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah.

[Merles]

Yeah.

[Paul Vincent]

Houston's is like the mothership and that's like the little sister. This little sister shop. Yep.

[Merles]

Quality Italian. If you want to grab a cocktail, go to Forget Me Not. There's just a bunch of great spots. As you guys know, Denver's a city that's taken off, I think the last 10, 15 years. And yeah, I just, I love living there. It's great people, great weather, great, great food scene. You know, you go to Red Rocks for a show, go to Coors Field for a baseball game. Just. Just a ton to do and yeah, just a bunch of great spots in Cherry Creek and downtown. Yeah, I love living there.

[Paul Vincent]

I've heard so many good things about the Red Rocks. I've seen some cool videos of, like, when it's snowing and. And bands are performing. What shows have you seen there? And yes, was it you who brought it up last week and we're asking about it, so.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, when you were FaceTime in that girl.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, okay. Well, we don't need to go into that one. The, like, how far Is it from downtown and how often are you going there and which shows have you seen?

[Merles]

Probably like one show a summer, I would say. I saw Steve Miller band there a few years ago. That was awesome. My, my friend Dustin lynch is playing there on Wednesday actually. Country, country guy. He's awesome. You know, Kygo's been there a bunch of different guys. I think I saw Wiz Khalifa. There's saw a bunch a bunch of different shows. It's, it's, it's a great spot and probably 30 minutes from downtown. Just a beautiful venue. If you ever get the chance, I mean in the morning you can go do yoga class there on the rocks. You can run the stairs. There's just a ton of different from your dog. It's an awesome spot. You know, you're 30 minutes from the mountains foothills so it's yeah, just one of those destination spots in Denver that, you know, you don't realize how great it is until you're not there and you go back and you're just like, you know, blessed to, to be in such a great city with, you know, such a great team.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, we know you got a heart out. Did you have any more witty. We wanted to keep you too long. This has been awesome and we usually do playoff predictions. Do you want to make a prediction?

[Merles]

Yeah, I'll say, I'll say Ottawa surprises some teams. I, I, I like Ottawa.

[Paul Vincent]

Shut the up.

[Whitney]

Oh, I love that.

[Paul Vincent]

Suck a bit up BJ Surprise. Crusty ass horses off my yes.

[Whitney]

Yeah, you know it biz you scared?

[Paul Vincent]

What do you mean?

[Whitney]

It's ej. We do have one more because I got to get the last question in. Presented by Roback. Use code [e-mail] for 20 deal off your first purchase. Very generous. 20 through the end of the week. That's C-I C L E T S on R H O-B A C-K.com 20 off all hoodies, joggers and more with Chiclets. You are a former University of Minnesota Golden Gopher and as an American kid came up through the ndtp. I'm wondering what do you think of now like CHL players can come to college. Have you thought about it all? We've chatted about it a lot on this show where I kind of flip flop my stance where I don't like it now for American kids. But I know if you chatted with any of the guys or had an opinion on it.

[Merles]

So CHL can go to college. Can vice versa too or no.

[Whitney]

Well yeah, you can go to the CHL whenever you want as long as you're under 20 or 20, whatever. But now you could play for the London Knights for two years and then go to Minnesota.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, they considered it pro before because in the CHL you're compensated, which was kind of a dumb rule to begin with, but now they've opened up the floodgates where like you could start playing in the CHL at in some cases 15 if you're a double underage or 16 for most underagers. But I would say 16 to 17 is the average age where great development league to go before you end up going off to college where I don't really understood why they were blocking it before but, but this has obviously opened up a whole new, a whole new conversation for development, at least for, for me.

[Merles]

I think it's a no brainer. I never liked the fact that you couldn't go back. And I also, I mean I'm sure you guys agree the whole red shirt thing was ridiculous. You transfer and you have to sit out a year. You miss a full year development. I thought it was fucking stupid. I just think it, how, how can it not better the game? I think, you know, you're going to get guys that maybe weren't getting an opportunity somewhere to get a more opportunity somewhere else. I think it just makes so much sense for the player. Obviously it provides some kind of shitty logistics for teams and, and leagues and all that, but I think for the player it's, it's an absolute no brainer. I mean if you're stuck playing not at all somewhere else and you're going to, you know, transfer to the CHL and go play or vice versa, it's an absolute no brainer for the player. So I think it's great and you know, I wish it was, it was, you know, that way when I was around 20 years ago. So I think it's good and I don't see anything bad from it. And it's, it's only going to help players develop. And I get negative side too. Maybe some guys are going to pull shoot on places too early, but I think guys deserve the opportunity and if they think they're not getting to somewhere, they should be able to get it somewhere else.

[Paul Vincent]

My last one quickly though. Whit is somebody who bought land in Jackson, Wyoming and might have eventually you want to get into the horse game. How do you buy your horses? Like are you paying for like the male to nut in a girl or are you buying them when they're already born?

[Merles]

There's a couple different ways you can.

[Paul Vincent]

Why are you looking at me like that with Portnoy just paid to get that.

[Whitney]

I think it was just more the way you.

[Merles]

The way you said it.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. What do you mean, a girl?

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, it's a quick, quick two pumps and boom.

[Merles]

Yeah, I think there's, there's different ways, right? You can buy ready made 2 year old ready to go race it. You can buy a mare that's pregnant, you can have the full raise it, sell it at auction. So. So there's a couple different avenues. The owning the mares are a little bit better. There's a better tax code for that because it's a depreciating asset. So, you know, sometimes if you have a big capital gains in another event, you can buy a mare and write it off as a depreciating asset. So sometimes people do that. Or you can just buy the racehorses and hardly ever make any money and have some fun at the track. But there's a couple different ways to go about it. You got to really have a passion for it. It's kind of like a golf club. You know, you're not going to join a golf club if you're ever going to golf and go eat there. It's kind of the same as a horse. You're never going to, you know, on a horse unless you want to go watch it race and enjoy kind of everything that comes with it. So it's fun. If you guys ever get a chance to go to the Derby or the Preakness, let me know. I can, I can try and set you up. But it's definitely worth doing and a fun bucket list type event to go check out.

[Paul Vincent]

You said mare. Is that, does that mean the nut? Like did you buy the nut?

[Merles]

The mare would be a pregnant female horse biz.

[Whitney]

Yes.

[Merles]

Yeah.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay.

[Whitney]

Full.

[Merles]

And then you can breed it to another.

[Paul Vincent]

That's you. But. But you pulled a trigger on it, paying for it. Post nut like you didn't buy it. Pre nut.

[Merles]

You got it.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay, good to know. Thank you very much.

[Ryan Whitney]

E.J.

[Biz Nasty]

E.J.

[Ryan Whitney]

Is going to be the next Eddie O. That's who. That's what you're gonna do. You're gonna do commentator. You do the horses. Go to the derby with a sharp suit on. Can't wait to see it.

[Whitney]

Hey, Derby's under a month Derby. So you gotta pick. Or is it too early in the horse racing world?

[Merles]

Oh, no, no, it's not too early. Journalism will be the favorite. It I think coming from the west coast and Then I think Sandman will be another one.

[Whitney]

Bugsy Malone.

[Paul Vincent]

Is he blowing dust?

[Merles]

I would go. I would go Journalism. But you won't get a great price. But that would be my pick. Yep.

[Whitney]

All right. Cisco. The Thong Song. Great seeing you. 19 years ago. Drafted, still going. It's awesome, man. Very happy for you. And good luck in the postseason.

[Merles]

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

[Paul Vincent]

I'll see you at the derby down the road, buddy.

[Merles]

Sounds good, guys. Thank you.

[Whitney]

Thank you so much to Eric Johnson. What a career he's had, Biz. Your horse must have just been such a grinder. Just trying to control the who gets the hay in the locker room.

[Paul Vincent]

They won't even let him out of the gate when he was racing.

[Ryan Whitney]

He's doing the DJing for all the other horses.

[Whitney]

He's selling them his hay at a discount.

[Ryan Whitney]

Promo code.

[Whitney]

BIZ.

[Paul Vincent]

20 out of the back of his 150F150 with towing capabilities. The trailer. Yeah.

[Whitney]

All right. First time in NHL history or I guess since the Penguins came into the league that the Bruins, Rangers and Penguins are not in the playoffs. Very tough situation for the US Market. TV wise on who missed the playoffs in the East. It's literally the biggest market in the country. So that's kind of a bummer. But I think we're. We're. We're looking at what could be the biggest drumming in the first round with Carolina in New Jersey. This is my opinion, because it's New Jersey. I know some of you people may flip the fuck out right now, but we're bringing them on the deranged devil fan himself.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, no. Roll the disclaimer, please.

[Whitney]

Warning. The following statements are about to be made by a deranged Devils fan. The views expressed are his and his only.

[Merles]

Take everything you hear with a grain.

[Whitney]

Of salt because remember, he is a deranged Devils fan.

[Pasha Ashkey]

What's up, fellas?

[Paul Vincent]

I think with the Jack Hughes injury, you have came back down to earth a little bit. Unless you've been drinking some form of Kool Aid and been looking under a hood, that is a different hood than what we're seeing. What are you making of this series, Pasha Ashkey, before we get into the.

[Pasha Ashkey]

Series biz, I just want to give you a little props. I thought your breakdown on Cotter's hit last night was bang on. He did get suspended two games, but I thought you did a really good.

[Paul Vincent]

Job of breaking that down, considering you brought that up. I think it's crazy that he got two games for that and that I forget. The guy's Name who punched Forbert face trend got nothing. He broke Forbert's orbital bone and gets nothing. Where Cotter was clearly looking at the puck the entire time and had no time to move once. Peleck ended up following through on that.

[Whitney]

That.

[Paul Vincent]

That is a. That is a crazy swing as far as suspension, non suspension and what is deemed dirty and not.

[Whitney]

Yeah, like one was. One was blatantly on purpose and one was a complete accident, I thought.

[Paul Vincent]

And also people are saying, oh, he came up with the chicken wing after. No, they showed the other angle and his elbow was completely tucked when he made contact. So.

[Pasha Ashkey]

Yeah, I agree.

[Paul Vincent]

Ridiculous in my opinion. But thank you for bringing that up. Posh Eski, you are not that delusional.

[Pasha Ashkey]

But yeah, I mean, going back to the series, listen, I think that the Devils are obviously in one without Jack. I think even with Jack in the lineup, this wasn't the year to win it. So now obviously I feel even stronger without him.

[Paul Vincent]

The.

[Pasha Ashkey]

The team is there. They have the basis to be a wagon, but there's still a couple pieces away in order to. To be, you know, to win the cup. So I think, you know, this series is going to come down to goal today. I think if the Devils have any chance of making it a series, I think that Markstrom's gonna have to steal a couple games. I don't love Carolina's goaltending. It's been the same story every year. Like Freddie Anderson, solid Koch Cobb's not bad, but just they don't have like a game changer, a net. Now in terms of injuries, I think Svetikov's hurt. I don't know how serious that is, but obviously that would help tilt things a little bit more in the Devil's favor if he's out because he's a hell of a player. The special team is interesting. The Devils have the fourth best power play in the league, but the Canes have the number one PK in the league. And then the Devils have. I think it's the third best power play in the league. So, you know, I think that's going to be an interesting dynamic. I kind of think the power. The special teams will kind of be a wash just based on how good Carolina's PK is. So I think it's going to come down in five on five where the Devils have bad for you. That's bad for you. The Devils have really been struggling to generate 5 on 5 since Jack went down. The good news is, is Hamilton will be ready for game one. Keith said. So that's huge just in terms of providing offense, you know, driving play five on five. It's interesting. Since Jack and Dougie went down, the Devil's power play has actually improved. Luke Hughes has done an amazing job running the, you know, QB ing that and then Timo Meyer has just been ripping shots on that, on that flank. So if you can bring Dougie back and put him on the second power play unit and you get both units clicking, I think the Devils can, you know, scrape out a win or two. But listen, hard fought series, I think low scoring series. I want the Devils to win. I'm going to be there, I'm going to be supporting them. But I'm not that delusional. I have the Canes winning in six like I said I just, I think the Devils even with Jack, you know, have some work to do and then without him it's just too tall of a task.

[Paul Vincent]

I think if there's one team who should adapt the flipping the goalies game in and game out is the Carolina Hurricanes. I think they should go to both goalies. Anderson hasn't played back to back games in a long time. That was what Boucher was mentioning. I think Peter Kachekov has, has earned the starting role. I just think if there's one team who's had goaltending issues the past couple of years like, like last year, I think if they get those big saves from Anderson they could have actually beat New York. But this is a team that I think is going to drum them. I think the only way that New Jersey has a chicken dicks chance is if they, if they expose them off the rush. New Jersey is a very good rush team. I believe they're ninth in, in like how they generate off the rush and they're getting Dougie Hamilton back. So, so Carolina very aggressive on their forecheck. They pinch a lot, right. And they're usually very successful at it because they're all on the same page and they're coming as, as one and very concise. If they could somehow chip puck and get good wall work and activate the Lou Q's, the Dougie Hamiltons and all of a sudden start exposing Carolina on their aggressiveness. I think that that could become a big key component to this series. But ultimately you look at their back end, how good they are defensively, how much they're going to outshoot New Jersey. I don't know if from New Jersey's back end and how good they are defensively, if they can handle all that volume. That's my biggest concern for The New Jersey Devils. If there's somehow all of a sudden a great box out team where they're letting Markstrom see everything and especially with all the point shots that are coming through, they gotta be boxing out. I don't know. I don't watch the New Jersey Devils enough to know if they're going to be able to do that. Especially with no Seigenthaler back there and with how weak Nemet has looked. He hasn't looked that good this year.

[Merles]

Like he won't be playing.

[Pasha Ashkey]

He won't be playing.

[Paul Vincent]

He's not going to be in the lineup.

[Pasha Ashkey]

I think. Yeah. With Hamilton back, Nemes won't be playing.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, he's okay.

[Pasha Ashkey]

He's just a whole different conversation. He's has had a rough year. But like you said, I think the Devils giving up chances has not been the Devil's problem. Like they're one of the better teams in the league in terms of not giving up high toage or chances. I think Duman's done a really nice job and kind of filling Seigenthaler's shoes. Not quite to the level that Sigenthal was at, but he's, he's done a solid job and sort of just steadying the ship. So I'm not worried about them giving up tons of chances. They've been good at that. I just, I don't see where the offense is going to come from, especially with the bottom six being the way that it is. Like I think if they, if they're gonna have a chance of winning a couple games, they're gonna have to get bottom six contributions which as you guys know, in my opinion that's kind of what wins you series. I'm a believer in like your top guys kind of cancel out and you need the big goals from your bottom six. The good news is Hala has been, has been kind of heating up lately. They need guys like him to chip in. Cody Glass has looked great, but you know, a lot of things have to go right for this team to, to make it a series. So I hope I'm wrong. I'll be there with Frank the Tank cheering on the team. But you know, I'm, I'm trying to be realistic about this one.

[Whitney]

That's what's hard is when you, you go into the playoffs and you kind of know deep down you can't win the cup. It's, it's, it's like this weird feeling right, like you just as a fan, it's, it's kind of like, oh my God, would I Rather a high draft pick, but that's when you, you think of how fun the games will be. I feel like this is one of those game ones in Carolina where, I mean, the shots could be 25 to 3 after the first period and then, and then we'll see how Markstrom plays. I mean, it's, it's going to be goaltending. Carolina, they just keep coming at you, coming at you, and then now they got a Russian coming in. Biz mentioned him. Nikisha. Apparently he's going to play in one of the final two games. He's like 6, 3, 2, 15 Hammers guys, has a great shot. Like all of a sudden he's right in the lineup. Another great defenseman they already have. Slavin Chatfield's kind of a beast. We saw what he did and we were talking about that. But he's great defensively. They are just a much deeper team. It is weird. I was reading Orlov. He had like 24 points in the first 50ish games and has like two goals and no assists in the last 20. So you kind of need remember how good he was for Boston when they traded for him. I mean, granted, they lost in the first round of Florida, but kind of need him to get going, but that would be more for the second round. I got, I got washed. I mean, excuse me. I got Carolina in five.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I got, I got Carolina in five. I think, Pasha, what you said, first intelligent thing I've heard you say is, you know, this isn't their year. They, I think Fitzy has put them in a really good spot to, you know, be in the future. They, they keep getting better and better every year that he's been there. But, you know, it's just one of those series. You got to look in the mirror and realize you're outmatched and probably going to get outperformed. And I got, I got Carolina in five.

[Paul Vincent]

Boys, I'm a little distracted here. We were talking about Nikishan and his debut. I don't think he's going to top Demidov, who's got a goal and the greatest rookie lap ever taken with the whole Bell center pack and everybody on their feet. So the Russian invasion has hit for sure. So this is just complete madness as far as that series is concerned. I agree with you guys. I actually have Carolina going to the Eastern Conference finals. I think they're, they're set to prove a lot of people wrong. You saw Jarvis going after PK jokingly the other day with PK saying that they're the 8th best team in the Eastern Conference that I would imagine. He said that because he has ties to New Jersey and they paid him quite a few millions at some point. So I think this thing's over in five and they're going to get some nice rest. But I'll stick with my sentiments. I think I would really, really like the flip flopping of the goalies for Carolina. I would really like to see that.

[Mike Grinelli]

I'm going to give Carolina in six games they've been limping into the to the finish line here. They're not looking as good as they have. I feel like Markstrom can outplay their goalies for at least two of the games. And to go with this Nikisha and I guess I was right on this Demidoff talk. But the same thing was this Nikisha and he's awesome. I think he's, I think he's even 64 with like he's a monster. He looks huge out there. Just like you floating around offensive head up, passing, scoring. He hits cap captain of the team like leadership quality. So that he's the whole package. And adding him to that roster, just mind blowing. So. So I will give your devils two games though. Carolina 6.

[Pasha Ashkey]

And keeping with the Russian invasion talk, the Devil's top prospect actually is a KHL player on SKA are sending Gritsuk and there was all this talk of them trying to get him over. I think they ultimately decided to keep him for his one year to be next year. But I mean they could have used a guy like him, sort of like a high flying offensive sniper. So that'll be another guy to look out for next year. Gritsuk as a, you know, as this Russian wave continues and, and, and then.

[Whitney]

You don't waste a year of his deal on a year that you're not going to do anything anyways. Hopefully he's back and ripping it up next year. You bring him over then and it's similar to what Montreal is doing. But I don't think it's going to be this level unless I'm totally not familiar with what's his name.

[Pasha Ashkey]

Gritschuk or Senny? Gritsuk. Yeah. I mean I don't.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Pasha Ashkey]

I don't think he's quite supposed to be what Demidov is, but I think he's gonna fill that top six sniper role to play with. Used type then.

[Whitney]

All right. So I think now, now there's a lot of hockey left but I'm a lot more comfortable with them up to nothing that we can do. The Washington Montreal Preview this is nuts because I haven't seen the highlight of his goal yet, but Demidov's assist is gross. He takes it between his legs getting into the zone. Then he creates space and does just a ridiculous shoulder head fake on, I think Connor Murphy on the Blackhawks and then a sick dish in the slot for his first assist. I haven't seen the goal. What an exciting time. Montreal had no chance to get in the playoffs this year. I unless send me somebody's preseason predictions anywhere that had them getting in. Nobody considered them as a legit playoff team. Did Angles have him getting in prior to the season?

[Paul Vincent]

I think he had him getting in, but he's also paid by them fair.

[Whitney]

He's like, I always pick you guys. But now it looks like they they're going to shock the world and they're going against Washington, a team who I feel like I'm on the Merle's LA train with Washington and Capitals fans have been giving it to me and I get it. I deserve it. I don't know why I don't think of them as a true cup contender. I think there's a chance Montreal shocks them. Maybe that's just imagining back in time when Halak beat the President's Trophy winning. I think it was 2010ish. But what a season for both these teams. No one expected it either, either. Out of either one of them you got this incredible goal. Chase Ovi got his 896 the other night as well. He keeps going. But Washington guys, they are not playing well and you want to talk about Dallas, it's double the length that Washington hasn't played well. They've given up, I think three or more goals in 11 straight games. So the defense and what you need to have going on before the playoffs has kind of disappeared. Understandably. The OV goal Chase took took a life of its own and the celebrating and just the excitement around that. But there has to be a moment of like, all right, back to what made us so good all season. I think it's going to be a great series. I think that Montreal advantage in their home ice atmosphere creates at least one win in the in the Games 3 and 4 for Montreal. If they can steal one on the road Games, Games 1 or 2, we got a series. I can't wait for this one. Biz, what are your thoughts? I kind of talked too long there.

[Paul Vincent]

No, no, that was a great breakdown. I think that there's a strong consensus amongst a lot of people who watch and have seen the end of the season that Washington might have busted their nut too early, right? They had a heavy, heavy sack, and it was busted with the OV goal chase and how it was broken. And. And then all of a sudden, like, they. You know, the amount of celebrations, and then after it's all said and done, they got the real juicy J in the hallway with the third jerseys on. So, like, like, it's been this, like, long, happy celebration. And then all of a sudden it's like, I agree with you. They have not been playing good hockey. I would have said. I still believe in them. First round, six games with Demidov coming in and playing the way he's going and seeing that crowd roaring, I think that it gets pushed to seven. But ultimately, Washington is going to beat them. They're just overall a better team. And that's all I have to say about that. An incredible run by Montreal, but I am excited to watch this series way more now than I was probably about a month ago, knowing it was going to take place. So just a crazy, crazy run by Montreal, and they have all the. They. And they got the. They got the youth. They got the youth in the juice as of right now. So I'm sticking with Washington, but I'm pushing it to seven games.

[Ryan Whitney]

For me, I'm. I'm going Montreal. I. I think this is the one. One of the series where, you know, there isn't the clear cut who's got the better goalie. I think, you know, Washington's goaltending's probably been a little better this year, but, you know, anyone can get hot. And I played with Montembeau. He's a guy that can. He can get hot. He can steal you some games. But I look at this as a coaching battle. Carberry, St. Louis. Two guys that'll probably be up for the Jack Adams Award. Two guys that you can tell their teams love playing for them. They know, you know, they know what they're going to get out of their guys. And, you know, the guys know what they're going to get out of their coach every night. And I also think Demidov playing his. I would imagine, boyhood idol, Alex Ovechkin. First series. You see him tonight, first game. He's got a goal assist. What he. The. The hype that he's going to have going into that series, playing against the grade eight the year that he broke the record, you know, he might be. He might be the type of guy that, in his head, he's like, yeah, you can enjoy it now, but I'm Going to come coming for that record in 20 years, you know, So I like Montreal. I like the juice that they have. They're a younger team. They, they play a little bit faster. But I think it's going to be a great series, a ton of fun. OVI is going to be laying people out. Tom Wilson must watch TV in playoffs. I just think the storybook for Montreal with no one having them get in the way that they've done it. And I think they're going to shock some, shock some people first round and, and, and win this in six biz.

[Paul Vincent]

Six games for Montreal. Hey, both teams had the luxury. You said Monte Bow, he didn't play at four nations. I don't think either team had a guy playing in the four nations. So they should be well rested. Both groups. Right. Like Washington didn't have one guy who went.

[Ryan Whitney]

Monty was the third goal.

[Paul Vincent]

Suzuki and Caulfield were both snubs as well. So you got the, you got the four nation snubs going at it.

[Whitney]

Murray, what do you got on this.

[Mike Grinelli]

Montreal did I think Joel Armia, I think he played for Finland. I believe as one guy. Yeah, exactly. I'm on Washington. I'm going to take Washington in five. Even though I love everything in Montreal. I just remember back whit when you and army went up with Pittsburgh and played Ottawa, your first ever time in the playoffs. And you guys, you're heavy breathing, you're having a heart attack. Like you couldn't believe that the L like the level had grown so much. You guys weren't ready for that. I feel like that's going to happen in this series. These young Montreal kids never experienced it. A grizzly old Washington Capitals team that will get back to recommitted to blocking shots, playing defense, not just looking to get OV goals. So I'm going to go, I'm going to go for the Caps and five.

[Whitney]

So I got, I got this. I got the Caps in six. And the main reason is Keith, Tom Wilson running around. I don't think Montreal can really handle them physically. And Josh Anderson can get in the mix. Right. But overall it's a smaller, quick team where Washington's going to just try to bully the shit out of them. You're exactly right, Mer. And I think that they'll be able to. The Logan Thompson injury thing is. Or health is weird. I don't know how he is. That's kind of a question mark. But you're right. Murder the veteran team. But I think it's going to be a good series. Six games. And I, I can't believe right now because Bedard sitting on the bench, he's probably like, we could have drafted this guy. No, no offense to Lashunov. He may be a phenomenal defenseman that plays a long time. And this is a period. Are we overhyping Demidov? But we talked earlier about the records and this goal. The puck, he ends up like with a. The buck puck comes off the wall. He's got like a breakaway almost fake slap shot, backhand like these are. It's a beautiful goal and an assist and he went fifth overall. And now he's here. I can't wait to see him in the playoffs. But I think the Caps got it. We were lucky enough to chat. Actually, Biz was, I was sick. Yan's was delayed sitting on the tarmac. But Nick Dowd, he's. He came on the show. We're going to throw it over to him right now. I think our second time on. But he's another guy pain in the ass to play again. So let's chat with him right now. Guys, Whit here and I need to talk to you about no Bull. Noble is a footwear brand for training and for daily life, built to support you in your pursuit of physical, mental and emotional strength. The man biz nasty, always searching for that extra edge, mentally, physically, emotionally. He only wears Noble. He is the pickiest person I've ever seen about shoes and he rocks Noble non stop. They sent me the rip stop runners. They're incredible comfortable. Gee, what are the ones they sent you? Right there.

[Keith]

I got the SC runners. I love these bad boys. Little Chiclet shot out there almost too. I love it.

[Whitney]

Yes. And Murr was running around St. Louis in them. You were as well. G. I. I've been wearing them non stop. Just perfectly comfortable. You can work out in them. They look great. No Bull celebrates a no bullshit approach to wellness with options across training and lifestyle. Noble has options for everyone. Right now, exclusively for Spit and Chiclets listeners, no bull is offering 30% off your order. Not 10, not 20. We're going 30% off your order. Visit no bullproject.comchiclets for 30% off your entire order. That's www.no B-U-L-L-P-R-O j e c t.com backslash Chiclets and you get 30 off. It's a no approach to wellness and amazing shoes. Check them out. Now.

[Paul Vincent]

I am pleased to introduce to you guys my former teammate and actually his second appearance on Spit and Chiclets. He was on episode 358. That's when we talk more about your career doubter. But now we want to talk about the Washington Capitals. You're now in your seventh season there. Probably none as exciting as this one. The OV goal chase, all these new guys on board. You guys got the Mojo Carberry, probably going to win coach of the year. What a fucking run it's been so far.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, man, it's been. It's been awesome. It was a little different than last year, I can tell you that.

[Paul Vincent]

You guys did make playoffs, but you guys had, like, the worst analytical numbers in, like, NHL history to get in.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, well, we.

[Biz Nasty]

You know how the analytics go. They don't tell the story right.

[Paul Vincent]

Not a fast pasha underneath the hood, man, over here.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, it's been good. Like, I. I think, you know, you know how it goes. You played on a lot of hockey teams. You know, same with me, like, there's. There's certain teams that just feel a little different than other ones.

[Mike Grinelli]

Right.

[Biz Nasty]

Like, and I'm not going to say, like, this one feels any more special than when I entered the league onto a team of the Washington Capitals where, you know, seven years ago, they just won the Cup. They were filled with a ton of mega studs. Like, you know, all guys are at the top of their game. I mean, that was an elite team, too.

[Merles]

And.

[Biz Nasty]

And there was a bunch of, you know, ever since I've been here, the team's been chock full of really, really good people, which, you know, you know how it goes. Like, that makes such a big difference in the locker room and, like, guys playing for each other and, and. And stuff like that, and. But this year it's been. It's been. It's been interesting because we added, like, eight new guys. And historically, the Caps haven't really added anybody. And so we added all these new guys and no one knew how it was going to work out. It was like they just, like, all slipped in just seamlessly. And then they've all been having, like, career years. It's. I think it's been. It's been awesome, man.

[Paul Vincent]

What do you think did that? Was it the way that Carberry addressed the team and kind of like, called out the elephant in the room where it's like, hey, we got kind of this whack back of. Of all these guys that just got added to our roster. Was it maybe like a team bonding experience that you went on early on where everybody got really, like, you know, comfortable around Each other where it just felt right.

[Biz Nasty]

Really banged up.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, that. Well, I mean, the rookie parties earlier in the season can really help. Or if you go get off the rails on one of these, like, what was the one that we did? I think we ended up going to, like, an army base or something at some point.

[Biz Nasty]

You took. You took us because not a lot of us had, like. I mean, including myself. I didn't know much about fine dining at the time. So, Biz, you took the reins and we did our rookie party. We did it. You remember Justin Bieber was there.

[Paul Vincent]

No, what do you mean? What do you mean?

[Mike Grinelli]

You took us, like, downtown.

[Biz Nasty]

I forgot where you took us. You took us to a place. We ate dinner somewhere. We all dressed as. We dressed the rookies, dressed as wrestlers. And. And then you took us to a restaurant. Like, you know, like, we're all dressed, like eight guys dressed as wrestlers walking into this nice restaurant. And then you took us to, like, a club after. And B. Yeah, Beeves was there. I didn't see him.

[Paul Vincent]

I don't even remember this.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah.

[Paul Vincent]

Was this. So this is when we were in Manchester?

[Biz Nasty]

No, this was Ontario, I think.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, Ontario. Okay. So that we. We played our first year together when we were in Manchester, but I guess that next year. I mean, I remember when we used to go to that, like, is it chinos? That was. That was when I grabbed the Blakey. I got the card off Blakey, and we ended up dropping, like, 15 grand and he wanted me dead. They were like. Like, the owner was probably like, why the. Is the AHL guy spending 15 grand at a restaurant?

[Biz Nasty]

That's like, when they used to tell players, like, I remember, I'm not going to tell the guy's name, but the guy was negotiating for more money in the America League. And they're like, hey, we're going to feed you lunch next year, though. That's at least like, 15 grand.

[Paul Vincent]

Like, that's true.

[Biz Nasty]

And it's like, we can't give you the hundred that you wanted. We'll have to stick with the 85.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, you're on the greener pastures now, and you're getting paid for what you're worth. Right? So. But what did you guys do? Did you guys like a rookie party earlier in the season? Was it. Was it the way that he addressed the team? Like, what made it feel so good?

[Biz Nasty]

We. We had some guys that were, like, joining our squad that. That may have not had maybe a good run at their last organization, or maybe they weren't quite used as much as they they needed to be. The role that they were in wasn't exactly, like, fitting them right.

[Paul Vincent]

And then.

[Biz Nasty]

And then, like, from that point of view, from, like, a hockey perspective is, I think, like, everybody that's slid into our organization so far has, like, had really big impacts in the lineup. And that goes all the way from, like, a Dubois, who's arguably been one of our best players. Like, the guy's been a maniac. He's been like. Like, just, like, you know, like, you know, the guys that you don't play with, and you're like, you're like, I don't. I don't really know much about that guy. Like, I don't know if he's that good. And then you play with them and you're like, oh, my God. Like, this guy is elite. So Doobie's like, I think he just maybe didn't. Didn't enjoy his role as much when he was on. In other organizations. And now I feel like he stepped in here, and it's like, he's just been running with it, and he's been. He's been like a shutdown centerman, an offensive centerman, a power play guy. Like, he can do it all. It goes all the way to, like, Duhame. Like, I play with Dewey. I think we've. I've logged more minutes with Dewey than I have with anybody all year. And having a career year himself, just tied his career goals, stepped into a role, like, with me and him on the penalty kill and stuff like that, where, like, guys can really embrace it and then you go down the line. Like, I could go through every guy, like, Ratty Royzy Tommer. Like, I'm gonna forget someone in here. Chicky. Like, all these guys, like, stepped into these roles, and. And it's like, it fit them perfectly. I feel like everyone's happy with what they're doing. And that's another big thing with, like, a championship team, is you. You know, guys got to accept their roles and be happy about it. Otherwise, it's kind of tough to ask guys to go out and block shots and do this and do that, which, you know, I don't think has. Has been an issue at all this year. But, I mean, we've. We've definitely. We definitely off the ice, we have a lot of guys that enjoy the pints and, like, to get together, and that makes that. Yeah, that makes, like, a great. A great team where there's no. No lack of effort for guys, like, you know, texting in the group and, you know, hey, anybody want to go get a beer, like, you know, go watch the basketball game, whatever. We had a.

[Mike Grinelli]

We had a.

[Biz Nasty]

We had like a team sponsored golf outing at the beginning of the year when we, when we went to Columbus when that. The numbers got kind of cut down to where they were basically going to be the team. We flew out to Columbus on the game day, played the game one, which always makes you feel better. And then we stayed for like, like three days after that. Which is kind of in Columbus. In Columbus, which is kind of unheard of, right?

[Paul Vincent]

Sounds like punishment.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah. I mean, you think so, but Columbus is kind of sneaky, awesome city.

[Paul Vincent]

I was just. But cornelli's got a top five in the United States.

[Biz Nasty]

Really?

[Paul Vincent]

I don't know if I have it ranked that high, but the people are incredible there.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Biz Nasty]

So it ended up being like, like we. We played the. We played this like Double Eagle golf course, which is like the owner of Columbus kind of Kenny McCuttin, who are, as our skills coach, who is one of the like most notorious hockey personalities like you'll ever meet in your life. Like, incredible human, but just, I mean, I. You need to meet. You should have him on here. That would actually be incredible.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay.

[Biz Nasty]

But anyway, so Kenny kind of set it up and so we play this like, elite golf course and there's like, guys are like doing things out there they shouldn't be done. There's like, you know, guys are getting pretty after it. We don't have a game for like four or five days. And, and, and I think, you know, we, we rolled that into like, we went and watched like an MLS game in Columbus with the fellas. And like, we, you know, got that all set up and that was awesome. We got to watch Messi play and we just rolled that into like another day. And then, I don't know, I felt like that was like the point at the beginning of the season where we really got to know each other and we, we kind of got to step away from all the noise and kind of see what type of people we're dealing with. And it's. It's been awesome. I mean, ever since then, I feel like guys have really gelled and, and it's, it's one of the teams where it's like, I feel like guys are like, just as happy when. When Biz scores as when, like Nick scores. Like, if I'm on the bench, I, like, if I score a goal, I'm pumped, but if I see Dewey score a goal, it's like, I'm just as pumped.

[Paul Vincent]

I Feel, though, that there would probably be just a little bit more excitement for number rate right now, though, when he gets his goals.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, I would agree.

[Whitney]

I would agree.

[Paul Vincent]

How soon in the season did that chatter start? Like, was that in training camp, too? Is that kind of like a part of the rallying cry or just because he got off to such a hot start? Were you guys like, holy fuck, man? Like, we got something here to the point where this guy's gonna break it this year. Because right now when we're recording this interview, he's five away from breaking Gretzky's record. So right now, Gary Betta and. And. And Wayne are going to be bunking up on the road. They're going to be following. They're going to be following this chase together. So can you believe that it's actually happening this year? And how awesome has it been just being around this group, winning, chasing for the President's trophy, chasing this record together? And it just really seems like it's been a magical year with them.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, man, it's been. There's a lot to, like, you know, that's a bit of a loaded question, right? There's, like, so much going on. And it's funny because, like, oh, doesn't, like, we joke about it, like, well, you know, we'll. We'll be playing cards or something, or he'll be playing, you know, and it's like, talk about the great chase, you know, and it's, you know, history. And, you know, it's history, babe. You know, it's.

[Ryan Whitney]

It's.

[Biz Nasty]

But, you know, he honestly doesn't talk about.

[Paul Vincent]

Say that. He'll say, you'd be like, oh, yeah, history. History.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, but he doesn't talk about it too much. He doesn't bring a lot of attention to himself. And I mean, it's obviously the elephant in the room. Like, we don't talk about it too much. You know, you can find ways to, like, organically bring it up and. But I mean, it.

[Paul Vincent]

It.

[Biz Nasty]

I think it's one of those things where it's like, our team is winning hockey games and always scoring goals. So it. It's. It's. It's great, right? Like, there's, you know, he scores a huge goal against Winnipeg to tie it up and force overtime. Like, guys are, like, immediately pumped that we tied it off with, like, six minutes left against a great hockey team in Winnipeg. But then it's like he kind of triggers like, holy shit. Like, he's got six more, you know, and so, I mean, I Would say it's not a distraction. He doesn't bring it up a lot, I think.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh.

[Biz Nasty]

Probably has to think about this shit a lot more than the Nick DS of the world that are playing next to him. But obviously, like, we all want to see him succeed and we all want to be like the tiny fly on the wall that gets to be there when it happens. Right. You know, and like, it's going to be like some like, like the. I'm just, you know, just. You pray to God that you're on the ice for the empty netter when he's. When he's going for it. So maybe you can get a tickle on it.

[Paul Vincent]

That'd be a. That'd be a nice trivia question. Who assisted on the record breaking goal? Nick Dowd. Because he wouldn't get off the ice. He won the face off and was supposed to change, but he stayed out there.

[Biz Nasty]

Guy played 60 Minutes, no TV timeouts. Yeah, yeah. No, no, seriously. But it'll. I mean, Pete, I think we're all thinking about it and we all just like really want him to succeed because like I said, it probably weighs a lot more him. The guy scored like I ate. What is he, 890?

[Paul Vincent]

890 as of right now.

[Biz Nasty]

I mean, it's insane, man. And like he does that with every single person in the building knowing, like, okay, every time this guy gets a puck, he's gonna shoot it and. And he still does. He still gets a puck, he still shoots and he still. So it's like. I think that's probably one of the most impressive things to watch is like he, he's like, he's just. He's still doing it. Even though it's like everyone knows he's gonna do it. He's still doing it.

[Paul Vincent]

How cool has it been seeing, I guess kids like old enough to understand too. So it's kid in some cases been sitting along the glass. So has he been in the locker room a lot? Like, I know you got what, two kids now? Yeah. Is it, is it fun being in that mix with having all the kids around the families and especially like seeing, seeing like the, the eventually the greatest goal scorer of all time get to share that moment with his kid.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, I mean, I think that's super special. I think the fact that Sergey and Ilya are right in the mix. I mean, Sergey's a little older, I'm sure they both understand. But Sergey, I think he might be around 7 now, maybe a little older. But like the guys on the glass, like high five and dad, like, after Patrick's and stuff, you know, like, I mean, that doesn't get any cool. I see my kid during warm ups and I'm like, you know, this guy's like, high, giving him knocks after he scores his eighth goal of the night. So it's like, you know, I mean, that's probably that. I mean, for. Oh, that's probably one of the coolest moments as a. As a. As a dad, as a player, you know, getting to experience that. I'm just like, for me, perspectively wise, like, Like, I'm happy now that Lou's old enough to understand that, like, dad plays in the NHL.

[Ryan Whitney]

And.

[Biz Nasty]

And although, like, Lou treats the NHL is like, he's like, you know, he's like this because he's like, dad, are you leaving today? I'm like, yeah, I got a game in Boston, man. He's like, how many days? I'm like, well, only two. Two days.

[Mike Grinelli]

He's.

[Biz Nasty]

Two days is too long, you know, where. Where. So it's like, it's like, I'm glad that he knows I'm in the NHL. Whereas, like I said, like, Sergey Ilya, they're like, you know, they're getting to watch dad do something that no one else will do in history, and they kind of get to be a part of it, right? Like, there's going to be photos, there's going to be, you know, high fives on the glass. Like, you know, oh. Kind of keeps all of his equipment for, like, you know, every. He's gonna, you know, supposedly put in a museum right as he gets older. But I. I think. I think it's pretty special. I mean, my kid wakes up in the morning, okay, wants me like, dad, Obi scored last night. I'm like, no, I know. He's like, he's five away, you know.

[Paul Vincent]

So I was like, you're like, no.

[Biz Nasty]

Dad, no, I didn't score. You should score some more.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I know.

[Paul Vincent]

I should just giving it to you now. Hey, listen, you did get a nice little surprise from your kids, though. You were presented with the Caps Care Community Award. I saw the video. Were you surprised that you got it? Like, did you. Were you aware at all? Or were you more surprised that it was your. Your wife and kids delivering the. The news to you?

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, I mean, the whole thing. I was surprised about the whole thing. I. I kind of. I kind of picked up on it. Like, right before that, I'm. I might be like, okay, like, maybe I'm gonna win this. Like, I don't know, because they basically were like, yeah, like, you know, Tom Wilson won the inaugural and Tommy, you know, Tommy's like, oh, yeah, you know, and then I was like, okay, so he's obviously not gonna win this one. It's not something that you think about, right? Like, daily. Like, I didn't, I didn't even know this meeting. I. To be honest. Like, this meeting happened right after our 9:30 dirty film. And then like, you know, carbs is like, all right, guys, we got another meeting at 9:45. And I'm like, what though? Like, why do we have another meeting?

[Paul Vincent]

You're trying to get your stretches in. You're trying to a foam roller. You got your routine. You're probably more mad than anything.

[Biz Nasty]

100, 100. I'm like, sir. Because I was like, you know, our pr. I'm like, what are we doing here? What is this? And he's like, oh. He's like, we got another meeting with the, you know, the pr. I'm like, all right, you know, like, okay, like, I'm not gonna be able to warm up today, you know, and so then I go and sit down. They go through the whole thing and it kind of starts clicking. But I had no clue. I. I thought, thought. I thought maybe they were going to bring in one of the families that I worked with, you know, that had come to the game or something like that. But then, like, yeah, like when. When Lou rounded the corner with that little sign, man, that was. Yeah, they had all the feels, had.

[Paul Vincent]

Me going, that's awesome, dude. And what exactly are you doing in the community where you ended up getting this. This award? Like, what was it that kind of struck a nerve with you in order to give back?

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah. So, I mean, not to do it too long, but. But when I was in Vancouver, my wife, Paige, she's honestly the one that I can thank for all this. And I'm glad I had this whole moment because I forgot to thank her in the. In the speech where I got the award.

[Paul Vincent]

Oh, yeah, no, you're getting all jammed up. You're like, ah, I'm trying to get my stretches in now. I got an award.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, it's hard to roll out and accept things like that, but yeah, so honestly, it was all her. I'm just. I have the platform. But it was. It was her that got all this role and she should really get the award. But I. In Vancouver, she wanted to start doing something with autism. She. She graduated with a. A speech pathology degree from St. Cloud, so she had already worked with autistic kids and families in that manner. And then we got shipped from Vancouver to, you know, didn't resign there. So that kind of fell apart when they were doing stuff with Vancouver briefly. And then we went to Washington and she kind of like, we had no kids at the time, so she had a little bit more time on our hands. And basically, along with like Monumental and the people that worked there for, for the, for the capital, she wanted to start a, like a, basically a foundation that works with autistic kids in some capacity and kind of makes hockey, you know, for everybody. And so, long story short, we started Dallas Crowd, which is our foundation partner with Monumental. We have a wonderful woman in, you know, named Caroline who helps us out a ton. She's with Watt with the cap. She does all the behind the scene things for community outreach. People can write in. Generally what happens is parents write in about their kids, you know, and why they should be brought to the game and what makes their kid special to them. And, and me, me and my wife read these. We pick them based off of, of that, you know, based off of how the parents kind of talk about their children. And because we have kids now too, right. So that hits home. And then we, we sponsor them financially, we take care of the tickets, we do a meet and greet after the game. Paige puts together these sensory kits, which you can imagine it's, it's anybody that has any type of disability with light, sound, anything that bugs them in the stadium. I mean, you know, the stadium's loud, right? You're gonna walk through the metal detectors. You know, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna see a lot of people. There's gonna be mascots everywhere, like things that people don't think about if they don't have some type of switch to, to loud noises or people or crowds or st. Children. And so we bring him to the game, we meet with him after, we give him a bunch of signed stuff, we with the families and generally it's, I mean, actually not generally, it's been incredible. We've, we've stayed in touch with a lot of these families. I'd say probably the, the most meaningful thing is, is like these, like, these parents come in and they're generally like lifelong Caps fans, but they're like, oh, like, you know, my, my son maybe has autism and he's 8 and we have an 11 year old girl who used to come to games with us, but we haven't been to games because sensory overload. And we've, you know, been scared that if we Purchase thousand dollars worth of tickets. We come here and we can't even get through the door. So these parents are like, you know, this is. You can just see how excited they are to do something that they've done. And they get to share that experience with their kid who may have autism or may have a sensory disability. And then generally. I mean, not generally, again, like, their kids have loved it, and they come to more Cats games, and they're, like, totally relieved that they can have a family outing together. So it's been.

[Paul Vincent]

That's unreal, dude. Yeah, that's really special. Yeah. You were always an amazing guy, man. No shocker that you're doing stuff like that in your new community. And one of the other. It's hard to shift out of that. But speaking of other amazing things, that tunnel you guys got going on the way out. Bands make a dance. Bands make a dance. I saw all the antics with TJ Oshi and Tom Wilson. Where are you at in the pecking order? And what are the funniest ones that you're seeing, other than obviously, ov Chirping chickering about? The Bands make a dance. Where did that come from? Is that a tune that's playing in the locker room? What other snm. Crazy shit's going on in that tunnel that we don't know about?

[Biz Nasty]

Oh, man, we got. We got so many things. I mean, coming here a long time ago, I feel like osha's the guy that brought all that, you know? So it's sad that we don't have him there, because he's the man when it comes to that stuff. But there's like. They got something going on. I'm not in the hallway yet, but, like, some. I mean, you guys have seen it. Like when they were playing Vegas, I think they had it going on, but it's like Ovie says something like, you know, I got my chicken parm, babe, or something. He, like, sprinkles like, Parmesan. I don't know. He's like. He's doing something. I'm not out there, man. But it's like the. The stuff I hear him and Willie, like, getting into it. The stuff that I hear when I'm not out there, right? Like, it's just the band.

[Paul Vincent]

Why.

[Whitney]

Why.

[Paul Vincent]

Why is it the chicken parm thing for? He just loves chicken parm over, and then he sprinkles more Parmesan on it. That's what he does. That's the. They go like this and sprinkle more.

[Biz Nasty]

Parmesan, like, way up High. Like he's like.

[Paul Vincent]

He'S a sauce crosser. Apparently Boyd Gordon said when you play with him, he would take the marinara and throw some marinara on and then you would use the same ladle and go over to the Alfredo. So he would get the marinara sauce. Sauce in the Alfredo. It used to drive Gordo bananas. Is he still crossing the sauces?

[Pasha Ashkey]

No.

[Paul Vincent]

He must be a savage at the pregame meals.

[Biz Nasty]

He's very respectful. Very respectful. But I will tell you this. Like, I'm not going to give, like, I'm not going to give away too much stuff. But like, I think just like get it. You want to get a camera in there and you guys can track it all. But our team, including myself, if I didn't say that, my, my boys would give me heat. But like probably one of the most superstitious teams that I've ever been a part of.

[Paul Vincent]

No way.

[Biz Nasty]

Oh yeah. Like, I, we, we could go really deep. But like, like the chicken parm thing is probably from like 12 years ago for all like we know.

[Merles]

Right?

[Biz Nasty]

Like it, you know, it has not. Maybe, oh like had chicken parm and he had like, you know, a double hat trick and then it just stepped on from there. And like, you know, like the same stuff that I do, like I have a handshake with, with almost every single guy. I mean, some of it's not different. Some of it's just like pretty simple. But like I got one with Willie, I got a Johnny one, an Obi one, a, a, A Martin Faravari one, a Protoss one. I mean they're. Yeah, they're just there.

[Merles]

It's, it's.

[Biz Nasty]

But it keeps it light, man, which is great. Like, you go into a, you go into that hallway, it's like it's like you're gonna go play a game of the NHL and you know, like always you doing the bands to make her dance and all this stuff, like everyone's dying laughing, like it's, it just keeps it light.

[Paul Vincent]

Cuz they just kind of say it in different tones and the camera's already in there. You could see the smile on their faces. So you almost feel like you're a part of the group. That's why when Oshi was gone, I felt like he was the catalyst in all of it. When he'd be doing those cup checks with Tom Wilson. I was a little sad when he wasn't around anymore. But it's nice to see that you guys have continued that tradition.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah.

[Paul Vincent]

And keep keeping the along in the hallway.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Paul Vincent]

I know you're worried. I know you're worried about all your other stuff going on before the game. So you're probably not getting too, too deep into the handshake.

[Whitney]

Yeah, yeah.

[Biz Nasty]

You remember, you remember I had a.

[Merles]

Lot of shit going on on.

[Paul Vincent]

You were, you were man, like you were a man of routine and you were extremely professional and you kept up that routine and that's why you were always ready to play and that's why you've evolved into the player you have at the NHL level.

[Biz Nasty]

I appreciate that, man. Thanks.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, you were met. We were talking about the pregame meal with the chicken parm. Is it weird having pregame meal with chicken? Does he have a completely different menu now? Because there's been a lot of stories coming out about how just crazy his diet is. No more Tesla, can't sit on the battery. They're saying that he's, I don't think he's doing cell phones anymore. Candle lit. Everything's candle lit in his house. He, he apparently said that it's been, it's been overblown. But he's obviously been very disciplined about his approach to how he handles things, especially diet wise.

[Biz Nasty]

A lot of it has been overblown. I mean, I think, you know, there's some stuff like said to the media that got taken and ran with and like Chickies. Like Chicky's probably honestly a guy who's just like. I don't even care if people say that, you know, so he's like off social media. So you know, he's, he's just like. I don't, he's like whatever. You know, this is all noise. He's just worried about getting to 40 rips because that's what he's basically on pace for. But.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, but no, I mean he, yeah.

[Biz Nasty]

He, he's a, he's a specimen man. I mean he's, he's, he's ripped. So he and he, and you know, he's a horse. You know, congrats to him on that new contract. I mean we got, I think we got, you know, any given night, regardless of, you know, who's in and who's out injury. Like our, our defensive core is probably in my opinion one of the best NHL man. They're studs. So. But yeah, Chicky, I mean I, I think it all got overblown. I don't think, I don't think he's, you know, I don't know, maybe, maybe him and the wife are doing candle lit dinners. Maybe that's what, what was said. And then, you know, he kind of got blown into no light bulbs. But, you know, he's a man in routine. He, he, he's very in. Oh, he's like you, he's like very in tune with his body. Remember you had the, you had the, you were massaging the quads before the game. You're telling me about the qls.

[Mike Grinelli]

You gotta.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, I was trying to wake him up. For sakes.

[Biz Nasty]

I'm older, I'm older than you were then.

[Paul Vincent]

He's trying to score 30 goals. I'm just trying to get, you know, 30 shifts in a season now.

[Biz Nasty]

I'm just trying to get a shot. That's how hard it is.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah, well, you're, you're, you're, you're always defensive minded. How about this? Is it protoss? Is that how you say it? Protoss? Is he Russian?

[Biz Nasty]

Belarusian?

[Paul Vincent]

So does he speak like fluently with ovi? Like, is that. Yeah. Yeah. But he's just been an absolute force to be reckoned with. Another guy who's taken a massive step. One of the best contracts in the league too. So, I mean, it's got to be fun seeing, seeing the dynamic between him.

[Biz Nasty]

And Ovi Bro's taken along with like, you know, McMichael. You know, there's some younger guy. I'm gonna forget guys too, but guys have, you know, those two like obviously started the season off incredibly well. Helped helped our team win a ton of hockey games as young guy. And you know how it works, right? Like, you need guys like that to step up in those two did. But yeah, pro's been. Yeah. All of a sudden it's like, man, he's like picked up like five steps on the ice. Like the guys can absolutely gallop, you know, so it's. Yeah, it's been fun, man. I mean, he just reached 30 rips the other night, which is, I mean it's, it's impressive. So. But yeah, I mean, he play and he plays with. Oh, he plays really well with O and he finds him and Pro is like a great all around player.

[Paul Vincent]

It's kind of like they reboot, birthed another Tom Wilson. Maybe not as, as squirrely as Tom Wilson. Were you guys, were you guys a little surprised when he didn't make the Four Nations?

[Biz Nasty]

I think it was something where it's like you're telling me that like, you know, any team couldn't use Tom on their team, right? I mean, I think the guy can score goals. He can, you know, he can, he can act like there's not a puck out there if he needs to, you know, and he's a force to be reckoned with. So, I mean, he's a great, great hockey player. Great person. Like, you know, he can fit in with any team. He's a leader. I mean, yeah, I mean, I mean, they won, right? So, like, you can't really say too much, but I, I think that, you know, should he be on the Olympic team? In my opinion, probably, yeah. I mean, why wouldn't you put him on there, right? Like, I think there's a couple guys in our team that could be on the Olympic teams of their countries. But that Willie, Willie would definitely, I think you should be on there for sure.

[Paul Vincent]

For you personally with Carberry, like, like, like what did he instill in you when he first came on board, board last year? Like, this year you've had a great year offensively. 12 goals, 12 assists. I believe I saw, like, what's your relationship with, with like, him? And, and where do you, where do you feel like you fit in?

[Biz Nasty]

I think, you know, I was really able to gain a lot of traction in my career under Labulette. You know, I, I, I, I got a big, like, you know, I owe him a lot, right? Like, he was the first person I didn't even know I was this type of player. Like, I mean, you know, we, we all, we all think we're one thing trying to get to the NHL. And then you got to realize that, like, man, there's a lot better people out there that are better at this than me, so I'm gonna have to figure something out. And it took me a while to figure it out, but Lavi kind of helped me figure that out a little bit. You know, that was just back when I was playing with Hathaway and Haglin and, and we kind of turned into a shutdown line. And I kind of just stuck with that, you know, for the last four or five, six years, whatever it's been, but with carbs, I think. I think at that point in my career, I was pretty well established. And what I, what I did and what made me a good hockey player, like the roots of my game, right? Like, I was a shutdown centerman, have to be good at face offs, good penalty killer, like, you know, try and do the right things on the ice and, and try and chip in offensively and that that's kind of what's going to make, make it, make my game tick. I think, you know, what was good is that I feel like he kind of understood okay, like, this is what I'm gonna get from Nick every night. But it. I felt like he did a good job of like, trying to like, push me a little bit offensively and add to my game that way. To be honest. Like, we, you know, it's one of those things where it's like if I type if I'm gonna have a, you know, if carbs is gonna talk to me, it's usually like a whack, right? It's like, so it's like I'm not. Most of the time we're not chatting unless it's, you know, you know, high buy, whatever in the, in the rank at the. But so it's like if, oh, it's like he's pull, you know, if he's gonna pull me aside, it's typically like, oh, like you gotta do this better that. So I wouldn't say we talk a whole bunch, but I mean, we have a good relationship. Like, I think it's just at, at 34 now. Right? So I think I understand and, and, and, and kind of like can perceive like, you know, what, what, what, what makes me a good hockey player and what, what, what can I do to help the team out? And you know, every now and then you get away from that and you get whacked and you, you know, you get back into it. But, but yeah, I think overall the.

[Paul Vincent]

Old stutsy pee pee whack.

[Merles]

Yes.

[Paul Vincent]

Is he as hardcore? He's not as hardcore as stutzy, is he? No. Seems like a little bit more calm demeanored.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, he, he is. Yeah, he is. I mean, I, I still talking about Studsy, man. I still remember that time I was, I was still basically a rookie, but I, I felt so good about myself. I sent you in there telling you that Stuts, he needed to see you, and you walked in there right in the middle of a meeting and Stu looks at you and goes, the you doing in here Biz?

[Paul Vincent]

You're a fucking asshole. I do remember that. It was, I think, I think it was a leadership meeting. And they're like, yeah, we don't need you in here. One other thing I wanted to ask you about was Ryan Leonard. So he, he just signed. He's coming in like, this is a guy who people thought he was going to come in at the beginning of the year and sign at the end of last year after school, but he takes that one extra year, he has an awesome year, and then now all of a sudden, like, he's the type of guy who's coming out of college who might even be able to help your lineup instantly. Don't know where he's going to fit in, but have you got a chance to talk with him, like, maybe in training camp? Like, like, what are your expectations for this young stud?

[Biz Nasty]

I think obviously at this point in the season, we've put ourselves into a great position and I'm sure the organization's gonna, you know, he signed, signed today. I'm sure the organization's gonna want to, to give him an opportunity to play some games. You know, I, obviously, I don't, I don't know when that's going to be, but I think they're gonna want to see what he can do. Right? I mean, you know, I think that's the whole point. That's why you draft guys in the first round. And I, I've only met him once. We, we met at, at the Garden, actually. I think it was last year or the beginning of this year, one of the two, you know, and obviously he's from around here or went to school around here, so he dropped in and watched the game. You know, I just said hi to him, talked to him for a little bit. I went to college, so you kind of got that, you know, immediate, you know, kind of connection. But yeah, other than that, I, I, I texted him, just texted him today, along with a bunch of other guys, I'm sure, you know, just welcome to the team, saying congrats. And I think with any, with anything, like, you can have the ability for those college players to sometimes step in and be really good and then. So I'm sure that's the hope, so.

[Paul Vincent]

Well, we saw it firsthand with Adrian Kempe, everyone. Kempe came in and that called their cup run. Yeah, there a couple games before playoffs started, they threw him in the mix. I think he had like eight or nine goals in that run. So you never know when a, when a young kid, like, come in like that. Any, any other funny going on around the locker room. Like, what are, what are some other big stories? I mean, this Connor McMichael kid lit the world on fire too. He had a great pop off year year. What's he like and what do you think the reason are for his successes this year?

[Biz Nasty]

I mean, he, yeah, he did, he had a great start, man. I, I think a lot of con. Honestly, I think it was probably just confidence, right? Like he came in playing for a coach that had played that, that, that had knew him, had history on him. You know, they, I, I don't know if that, I think I Think he had him in the American League when he was with Hershey for a bit. And it's just confidence, right? Like, you know how it goes. Like, guy starts feeling good about himself, he knows the coach trusts him, he knows the coach feels good about himself. He can go out there and play his game. And yeah, he's been, he's been dynamite this year, man. He's a, he's a great player. Like a really good player. He can do it all. I think, you know, one of the few young guys that can actually play defense, you know, and I think that, you know, right now the emphasis is all on scoring, scoring, scoring. And Mikey can do that, no question. I mean, he's got like 20 some rips, but he can do it all. Only kill. He's on the power play. He's a, he's a stud.

[Paul Vincent]

So you alluded to. You're 34 now. You're getting old. I always remember, I always remembered you as some young guy. Who do you hang out with as far as the older guys on the team? Is John Carlson a guy you hang out with?

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that, that, that's the. I say that's the one. One of the great things about our team that is a little bit different than, than a lot of teams is that like, I go, like, I go to dinner with a different crew almost every time. You know, I mean, it's, it's not the same, fellas, right? Like, I, I go to dinner, like, basically it's just in the, in like a couple different group chats, right? Like, hey, what's for dinner tonight? Or hey, can I join here? You know, like guys. Yeah. So I, I hang out, but it's. I like hanging out with the young guys. I mean, it's. They got some, they got some weird stuff going on now. Some of the clothes they wear, you.

[Paul Vincent]

Know, some of the, you just, you just rip them the entire meal. What are they wearing? The off white sneaker. Is that what you're chirping?

[Biz Nasty]

All types of, like, you know, do hands big into kiff, which I had never even heard of.

[Paul Vincent]

I know, but. So it chickens into that stuff too. He was wearing all that stuff. He, He's a bit of a sneaker head. What's the type Are the. They're called hype beasts, these kids.

[Merles]

I don't even know.

[Paul Vincent]

So what, like, they pay like 150 bucks for a T shirt because it says Kith on it, right?

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, yeah, like, like, like dude like Dubois and my kid calls him Dubla. I almost Called him Dubla, but yeah. So Doobie's like. I mean, like, he shows up the other day, he's got, like, a Members Only jacket on from, like, ysl. I'm like. I'm like, my brother had that back in the 80s, like, that, like. And he was like, what's a Member's Only jacket? I'm like, pull it up. He's like. I'm like, look at this, man. He's like, oh, yeah. It's like. He's like, yeah, this is a YSL jacket. I found this at a thrift store somewhere. I'm like, well, that's kind of cool, I guess. But, like, you know, everything's got, like, a. He's into it.

[Paul Vincent]

Is that dude boss single? He's a stallion. You guys got a few stallions on that team?

[Biz Nasty]

He's got a fiance now, actually.

[Paul Vincent]

No.

[Biz Nasty]

Congrats to him. Yeah, she's great.

[Ryan Whitney]

She.

[Biz Nasty]

She's awesome. So he. I think he got lucky with her. So.

[Paul Vincent]

He seems like the nicest guy. Like, I. I don't. Things didn't necessarily necessarily pan out for him in la. I don't know what, like you said, maybe it was where they had him slotted or, like, what he was playing or.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah, I mean, you gotta, like, you know, you gotta. You got a horse. Like, you can't play him, like, 11 minutes, right? And I'm not saying they did in LA, but I'm just saying, like. I mean, you kind of gotta let those guys play, and then they get better and better and better, and I feel like that's kind of what he's done this year, so.

[Paul Vincent]

That's awesome. Well, buddy, we thank you for joining us. We've ran a little bit long. This is an incredible run, man. I hope you guys end up pulling in the President's Trophy. You guys are going head to head with Winnipeg right now, and I hope you're able to be a part of ov. Breaking the. The goal record. I. I would imagine it comes in the last few games of the season, and hopefully, just. Hopefully you get that. That assist on it, bud.

[Biz Nasty]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the worst comes to worse, hopefully I'll be right there on the bench with the fellas, so.

[Paul Vincent]

All right. Well, buddy, thanks so much for coming on.

[Biz Nasty]

All right, thanks, guys.

[Whitney]

Thank you very much to Nick Dowd. Great guy. We'll see what he brings to the first round against the Canadiens. Guys, the Rangers are a disaster. Just kind of a nightmare season. The fourth team ever to win the President's Trophy and then not make the playoffs the following season. Same with Montreal. No one's seeing what they did. I, I imagine every one of us had the Rangers in at least the top three spot in the Metro. Got out to a great start and then we're just like a bottom five team in the league for what felt like, like I don't know, 60 games. Weren't able to get in. And Calvin Dahan kind of got in the news. Apparently he came over two of his first games. Maybe two of his first three games they won with shutouts. And then he's just been Robada island not playing health bombed every game. Bag skate after bag skate biz. You know the feeling brutal. And he's walking onto the ice and I believe he said can you believe how they're treating me here? Or I'm like, kind of like it was something to that extent of like they are just fucking with me.

[Paul Vincent]

Like how I said it's like almost over. I can't believe, can't believe the way I've been treated here.

[Whitney]

Yes, yes. And then got off the ice and I think was going to address it, but the team kind of told him not to. He ends up sending out a tweet. I'm sure he would have much rather kind of sat in front of some reporters and a camera and explained his thoughts. But where do they go from here? Like they're, they're, they got some older guys. Zabanajad's contract, I think he has five more seasons. Kreider has another year. The only, the only kind of like good news on the year was Sam Rosen finished his legendary career. The voice of the Rangers and Kenny Albert. The news is taking over. So incredible send off to Sam Rosen and Kenny Albert will be in there, there. But the hockey club itself is, is in one.

[Paul Vincent]

I think that they had a situation though where like everybody had bad years. Like right, they got LA Frontier, got his deal. I don't think that he played up to his potential. Shusterkin even they had to worry about his deal at the start of the year. So maybe that was a bit of distraction. The Truba issue. So it just seems like there was a lot of shit internally that they had to figure out this year. And yeah, it went off the rails. It's. I think we've talked about this before. I don't think it's going to be an issue for them to continue to attract free agents just because it's the New York Rangers and the way that they treat their players. But yeah, as you could speak more of it's it's not a good thing that a lot of players are now being vocal about the fact of how cutthroat they are, how they treat their guys. They also, in a. In a situation of not even players on the ice, but people who worked for the organization for long periods of time, were let go over the last 18 months that people were surprised by. So I don't know if that trickle down is starting to become cancerous as far as far as people wanting to even be there and. And, you know, potentially be the next guy out the door quickly if things aren't going right.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. So my thing is, when I, When I got to the Rangers, you know, my first eight and a half years in Phoenix, you know, like, you were there for the majority of them. There's like, it was budget team, you know, not getting, you know, the fruits, the labor that, you know, other NHL teams were getting. Then you go to the Rangers and everything's first class. You get. They are an amazing organization, but I think for them, every team's kind of got to that point where the New York Rangers are. They've kind of set the standard, but all these other teams are there now, and team and guys are probably like, I don't have to go to New York to get treated this well. I can go to a team like Florida or Tampa or Vegas and still get treated like that and not pay state taxes. Busy. So I, I think. I think it's kind of one of those things where guys might, you know, not want to sign there as much as they did in the past just because of the whole, you know, you know, the whole feel being a New York Ranger. It. It. It truly is one of the best things. And wait, I remember you coming to our games there when we were playing. The atmosphere is amazing. They treat you like gods, especially when you're playing well. So. So. But I just, for some reason, feel like it's kind of lost that luster a little bit where the other teams have caught up and they, you know, the product on the ice hasn't been to where it needs to be to stay stay. Having guys wanting to be there every single year and guys begging to sign there in the summertime. But I think Drew, I think he's done a great job there. I think he's kind of, I don't know, the whole, you know, if his hands have been tied in some trades, you know, with the ownership there. So you. There's probably a lot to unpack as a. As a Rangers fan, but it. It's tough to See, because as a team that you want to see in the playoffs, you want them to see do well. You know, it just hasn't been there and it. It looks like Drury tried everything this year. You bring in a guy like J.T. miller, you trade your captain. I, I do think they're a little quick to trade guys. There's. But yeah, I don't know. It just seems like all the other teams have kind of caught up to where they are with how they treat their guys and you know, it might not be the destination that everyone has on the top of their list.

[Whitney]

Merles, do they. Do they fire Laviolette in your opinion?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, they. They look like a team that quit on their coach. I don't see any heart, I don't see any like discipline of playing a system. They're all kind of just out there playing a beer league skateboard. Um, I would definitely, you know, I, I'm not the biggest fan of his but something's gotta change there. You always start with the coach. But on a positive note, I just saw the score come through. Matt Rempe is third goal the season. So that cashes his over two and a half goals for the season. So that was.

[Paul Vincent]

That's what you're bringing. Yeah, that's what you're bringing to the. To the Rangers breakdown. Hey, the Matt Renp.

[Whitney]

Hey, that's a cash ticket.

[Paul Vincent]

Hey, let's. Let's go through the list of Benedict had off year. He was not but might not be.

[Whitney]

What he's paid to do like again. Might not be that way again.

[Paul Vincent]

La Fernier, I would say ever since he signed the de. What?

[Whitney]

Yeah, he was good until that deal.

[Paul Vincent]

Then got the deal. Not good. Shisterkin for his standard. Not great. Adam Fox, he had a brutal year.

[Whitney]

He was brutal injured.

[Ryan Whitney]

I think he's banged up.

[Paul Vincent]

Keandre Miller. Not a great year. Right? You can keep go Kreider brutal. I don't even. I don't think Crider's even going to be there. At one point you probably would you not have agreed that Kreider was on pace to have his, his, his number to the rafters. He's like don't they call him Mr. Ranger? He might go down as one of the last year.

[Whitney]

I don't think if they were going to retire as Jersey. I don't think this one season would have them not.

[Paul Vincent]

Are you saying that this season here to me looks like he won't be there moving forward. Like I don't know if are they going to trade him in the off season, like, I feel like the relationship is soured a little bit. So in order to get his number to the rafters, I would have said, well, if he kept doing this consistently for another two, three years, you might be looking. And G can look it up. Is he not one of, if not the highest scoring Ranger of all time?

[Ryan Whitney]

Probably, yeah.

[Paul Vincent]

Pop up the list or he would have been potentially able to pass that number. So it just, it was a year from hell from the Rangers and a big letdown after everything that we saw last year with them winning the President's Trophy and then them falling short in that series against the Florida Panthers.

[Biz Nasty]

So he's third all time in goals.

[Keith]

Behind Rod Gilbert and Jean Retell.

[Paul Vincent]

So there. How. How many goals?

[Ryan Whitney]

He's the one.

[Biz Nasty]

253 goals.

[Keith]

John Ratel is 481 and Rod Gilbert has 615.

[Biz Nasty]

Oh, wow.

[Paul Vincent]

Okay. Those are some old school stats that nobody.

[Mike Grinelli]

What did G column Gilbert like? It's your buddy Tom.

[Whitney]

Tom Gilbert from Wisconsin.

[Mike Grinelli]

Wasn't he a righty? A little righty legend?

[Whitney]

Yeah, he wasn't even. Literally, he was.

[Mike Grinelli]

Let me ask you guys something. You had Shusterkin, a little bit of a contract dispute. Nothing too crazy. Like the one up in Boston. That was really crazy. And then both teams, they kind of seem similar where it's just a complete vibe killer compared to the last couple years we've seen them. Any, any weight on that. That it's. It started with both those goalies.

[Whitney]

I think that's a. I think you could see Swayman and Shuster can have big time. Bounce back years. Next year.

[Merles]

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[Whitney]

With a full off season of no thought of contract extension and all the security that they have and the money that they're going to make, it's like, all right, let's get back to basics. Let's have a great summer. Now, I don't know about the Bruins with Swayman's case. Like, what. What kind of team are they going to have next year? Maybe he's playing great, but his numbers aren't good. But it's like, wow, without him they'd be really off. And Shusturkin, Yeah, the Rangers, they. They have to make some moves. They gotta get, I assume, a new coach in there and then I think Panarin only has one more year there. Maybe there's a chance at looking at like different buyouts, but I don't know the possibilities. Like, I'm not really well aware of their exact financials and how that's gonna work in the summer. But the free agency route that you talk about with the way they got Panarin and how you can get guys that you want, want that want to actually be on your team, you don't become like a true contender that way anymore. You know, you need these like elite prospects coming in. You need guys that are drafted high, that end up being game breakers and you can't rely like maybe they go out and try to get Marner if he hits free agency. But then they already have Panarin, who's a smaller righty. I don't know. But it's going to be weird to see if, if the summer all of a sudden like some ant, some. Some questions aren't answered. I do like that Will Cooley a lot. He's kind of nails, plays tough. He has 20 goals this year. So that's a younger guy they got going in the system. We'll see. Gabe Perot came in. I saw he ended up getting scratched, maybe even could spend time in the ahl. I don't know if he'll be ready to be a dominant in the NHL. But that kind of leads us over to Celebrini had a three goal, two assist game. It was incredible to watch. Will Smith, I don't know how many points he had that game game, but they are fun to, fun to watch right now. Like San Jose coming down the stretch, playing loose, playing free. You're seeing those two rookies, like I can't imagine how long and how good they're going to be together. I don't know if you guys caught that game, but that was an exciting one.

[Paul Vincent]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

In other news, Alec Martinez announced his retirement along with Pat Maroon. This guy scored that goal to win the cup for LA against the Rangers. Steady City just kind of had him like Scuds. I, I know I kind of use Scuds a lot, but 21 minutes, no mistakes. When you're out there, you know exactly what you're going to get. The D coach just loves them. And what a career. I just want to say congrats. Biz. Do you know him at all?

[Paul Vincent]

I got to spend a little time with him in that organization. Just a workhorse, true professional shot blocking machine. Will sacrifice his body in any way, in any way he can force for. To help them win the team. And did he not score a huge goal against the Blackhawks too? The. The. The one I think he scored like in. In the, in the conference finals against the Blackhawks. So he had some monumental goals for that LA Kings team. And, and and, and a huge component to those runs. And then moves on to the Vegas Gold Knights and gets it done there. Three time Stanley cup winner, six cups between him and Patty Maroon retiring at the end of this season for the Chicago Blackhawks. So hopefully they were able to sprinkle some of their, you know, their veteran leadership in their winning ways on that team and, and the young team in Chicago. And I mean tip of the cap to both guys, but especially a little bit more involved as far as minutes played and lugging the mail for Alex Martinez. And what a hell of a run man. He had that scary eye injury too that he bounced back from. So, so once again just a warrior and he deserves, he deserves his flower and hopefully some rest in retirement. Well, well deserved, my friend.

[Whitney]

Biz, you were bang on. And the fact I didn't remember this is a disgrace. Cause he got the overtime winner in Game 7 against the Blackhawks in 2014.

[Paul Vincent]

Holy fuck. So he scored the. Was that the same year he got the winner against the fucking the, the, the Rangers or was that a separate year?

[Whitney]

They won in 12 and 14. Which one was the. The Rangers and the Devils Pasha?

[Paul Vincent]

I think their first one was against the Devils in 12.

[Whitney]

So he would have been game seven OT and the OT winner the same season.

[Mike Grinelli]

Wow, that's ridiculous.

[Paul Vincent]

Jesus Christ. Get the man a blowjob. But yeah, that's pretty much all. I think that there's rumblings it also might be Couture last season.

[Whitney]

I know a press conference tomorrow that he's not going to be able to continue his career. That was Frank Saravelli reported scheduled to hold a press conference Tuesday. So today to announce that he's unable to continue playing because of his injury. Really tough way, you know, for this guy to end his career. Frank's tweet also said that he led the playoffs in separate years and goals, assists and points. I just think of him as just like in your face, so skilled. He had a great release. You'd watch those 10 o'clock Sharks games, playoffs, that he would just show up. They went to the finals against Pittsburgh and. And he signed that massive ticket. Gee, can you kind of look up what the exact injury was? I know it's hip related, but he was a top end player in the NHL and all of a sudden like he's given it his best and you see Landiscog who's gone through three years and he's coming back and it doesn't seem like Couture is going to be able to. That's unfair. That Sucks you feel for him, him. But I don't know if you have any memories of playing against him.

[Merles]

Keith.

[Ryan Whitney]

My fondest memory of him is at the All Star Game in Ottawa. He. He did the. It was kind of before guys kind of got the crowd involved and all that stuff. And he played in Ottawa in junior for the. And they were doing like, the breakaway contest and he took his jersey off and he had his Ottawa 67 jersey on. So I thought that was cool. Place went nuts for him. Him. Yeah, just. I remember, like, his demeanor when he was playing. He was a calm guy off the ice, though, you know, wasn't high, you know, bringing energy or anything, but just a cool dude on the ice. Just played hard, did what it took to win. You think of him and Thorton and Marlo like those guys with those great teams for so long and terrible to hear that he has to end his career the, you know, like this and, you know, a guy that. That, you know, cemented his name in Sharks history. And Alec Martinez and Patty Maruntu. I just want to say amazing careers from both of those guys. True, true pros of pros, you know, were amazing leaders, amazing winners. They both got their cups and they'll be messed in the game for sure.

[Whitney]

Yeah, he ended up scoring 701 points, 323 goals, 116 playoff games, 48 goals, which is tied with Pavelski for the second most in franchise history behind Patrick Marleau. Yeah, that's it, boys. We're into the playoffs. We're ready to go. We got coming at you Wednesday, this week, tomorrow. Game notes, 12 Eastern. We will be back on Friday and then we're into the mix. We're into the mix. We're coming to you every week. Monday, game notes Wednesday. Chicklet's back again Friday. I cannot wait to see the exact series when we get the exact matchups, what's going to go down and the Frozen 4 vlog on YouTube Thursday, Merle's army and G and Mimzy. They ran around St. Louis like a couple of lunatics. And the vlog will be out Thursday at, I'm guessing 12 Eastern.

[Paul Vincent]

Go ahead and back with obviously four breakdowns of. Of potential matchups. Praying for the Battle of Alberta, the Battle of Florida. What would you guys like to see? I'd like to see Winnipeg, Minnesota.

[Whitney]

What do you mean? The Battle of Alberta?

[Ryan Whitney]

I want to see Winnipeg, Calgary, Battle.

[Whitney]

Of Ontario, Battle of Ontario. Biz.

[Paul Vincent]

I said that.

[Whitney]

I said no, you said Alberta. Your head's not even in the playoffs.

[Paul Vincent]

No way. I said you're out of the Jesus.

[Whitney]

Yeah, I can't wait to talk about that series. I can't wait to talk about Toronto, baby.

[Mike Grinelli]

I want to see the Blues versus Winnipeg. I think they can disrupt them And I think that's the 8:1 upset we can get. And that would wow. Coming in hot mix.

[Whitney]

And tonight, guys, hockey fans, you got playoff hockey a little early. Starting tonight, St. Louis, Utah, Minnesota, Anaheim. We got action out west and out east. We'll see if Montreal gets it done by now. You know if you're listening, we love you all. Incredible show. Had a blast catching up with you guys. Merv G. Thanks for all what you guys did in St. Louis and I'll be watching on Wednesday. Peace.

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[Biz Nasty]

Any other way Even if I.

[Merles]

Don'T know.

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