Spittin' Chiclets Episode 575: Featuring Henrik Lundqvist & Marco Sturm

Summary

Podcast Summary: Spittin' Chiclets Episode 575 – Featuring Henrik Lundqvist & Marco Sturm

Podcast Information:

• Title: Spittin' Chiclets
• Hosts: Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette, Mike Grinnell
• Guest: Henrik Lundqvist & Marco Sturm
• Release Date: July 29, 2025
• Platform: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music (ad-free for Prime Members)

---

Introduction and Summer Updates

Timestamp: [01:29] – [21:23]

The episode kicks off with Ryan Whitney and Paul Bissonnette sharing updates about their personal lives and current events in the sports world. They discuss the end of the summer season, touching on their children attending camps and the transition back to school routines. Ryan mentions his involvement in an upcoming basketball game between the Kirk Manahan coached team and the Barstool New York City office team, highlighting his role as an assistant coach focused on bringing positive energy to the game.

Paul shifts the conversation to baseball, praising the Boston Red Sox's recent performance and recounting the development of young players in the league. The hosts also share anecdotes about their families, emphasizing the balance between professional responsibilities and family life.

Notable Quote:

• Paul Bissonnette: "Baseball is humming right now. And the Red Sox, they just took two out of three against the Dodgers. Just incredible showing at home."

---

Interview with Henrik Lundqvist

Timestamp: [21:24] – [52:00]

Introduction to Henrik Lundqvist: The hosts warmly welcome Henrik Lundqvist, a two-time guest and a highly respected figure in hockey. They reminisce about his illustrious career with the New York Rangers and his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Career Highlights and Hall of Fame Induction: Henrik shares insights into his career achievements, including his tenure with the Rangers and the various Hall of Fame inductions he has received. The conversation delves into his transition from a player to working with MSG, the organization behind the Rangers.

Heart Condition and Retirement: Henrik opens up about his health struggles, specifically his heart condition that ultimately led to his retirement. He describes the emotional and physical challenges he faced leading up to his decision to step away from professional hockey.

Notable Quote:

• Henrik Lundqvist: "The way things ended, 15 years, my last game was in the bubble. No fans. I never really had a chance to say goodbye, to get closure."

Relationship with Teammates and Coaches: Henrik reflects on his relationships with teammates and coaches, highlighting the supportive environment within the Rangers organization. He shares stories about his interactions with fellow players and the impact they had on his career.

Notable Quote:

• Henrik Lundqvist: "Having teammates that kind of made you smile every day was essential. It was always great to have support from the guys I played with."

Conclusion of Interview: The discussion wraps up with Henrik expressing gratitude for his career and the opportunities he had with the Rangers. The hosts congratulate him on his achievements and reflect on the profound impact he has had on the hockey community.

---

Interview with Marco Sturm

Timestamp: [52:00] – [76:05]

Introduction to Marco Sturm: The hosts transition to their second guest, Marco Sturm, the newly appointed 30th head coach of the Boston Bruins. They discuss his extensive experience in the NHL, both as a player and a coach, and his recent trade to Boston.

Coaching Philosophy and Strategy: Marco delves into his coaching philosophy, emphasizing the importance of system-based play and adaptability depending on the team's roster and performance. He discusses his approach to balancing the Bruins' storied defensive identity with a push towards a more offensive mindset.

Notable Quote:

• Marco Sturm: "It's all about balance. We don't want to lose our defensive side, but we aim to inject more offensive energy into the team."

Trade to Boston Bruins: Marco provides an inside look into the historic trade that brought him to the Bruins, exchanging Joe Thornton for significant assets. He candidly shares the challenges and emotions associated with such a high-profile trade, including the immediate pressure from media and fans.

Notable Quote:

• Marco Sturm: "Being traded under such circumstances was tough, but it ultimately gave me the opportunity to lead an Original Six franchise, which is a dream come true."

Building Team Dynamics: Marco discusses his plans for fostering team chemistry and leadership within the Bruins. He emphasizes the importance of understanding player personalities and leveraging their strengths to build a cohesive unit. The conversation touches on his strategies for developing young talent and integrating veteran leadership.

Notable Quote:

• Marco Sturm: "Developing young talent while maintaining veteran leadership is key to building a sustainable and competitive team."

Future Outlook for the Bruins: Looking ahead, Marco expresses optimism about the Bruins' potential under his leadership. He outlines his goals for the upcoming season, including improving offensive play and maximizing the team's defensive strengths.

Notable Quote:

• Marco Sturm: "Our goal is to blend our defensive prowess with a more aggressive offensive strategy to compete for the Stanley Cup."

Conclusion of Interview: The interview concludes with the hosts expressing their excitement for Marco's tenure with the Bruins and his vision for the team's future. Marco shares his enthusiasm for the role and his commitment to achieving success with the organization.

---

Additional Discussions and Announcements

Timestamp: [76:05] – [120:42]

After the interviews, the hosts engage in light-hearted banter, sharing humorous anecdotes and personal updates. They discuss upcoming events, including the Chiclets Cup, a local hockey tournament, and highlight achievements within their community, such as coaching youth lacrosse teams.

Notable Quote:

• Paul Bissonnette: "Registration begins Wednesday, July 30th at 12pm Eastern. Open registration for the Chiclets Cup at Harpoon Brewery in Boston."

The hosts also promote their latest merchandise collaboration and upcoming episodes, ensuring listeners stay engaged with the ongoing content and community events.

---

Notable Quotes Throughout the Episode

1. Ryan Whitney: "Summer could be a grind with children, but it's been awesome."
2. Mike Grinnelli: "Music is more a feel and, and you can still be relaxed in a way."
3. Henrik Lundqvist: "Having teammates that kind of made you smile every day was essential."
4. Marco Sturm: "Developing young talent while maintaining veteran leadership is key to building a sustainable and competitive team."

---

Conclusion

In Episode 575 of Spittin' Chiclets, hosts Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette, and Mike Grinnell engage in insightful conversations with hockey legends Henrik Lundqvist and Marco Sturm. The episode offers a deep dive into Lundqvist's illustrious career and his courageous battle with a heart condition, as well as Sturm's transition into coaching and his ambitious plans for the Boston Bruins. The hosts successfully blend personal anecdotes, professional insights, and community announcements, providing listeners with a rich and engaging experience.

For more episodes, visit barstool.link/schiclets and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or enjoy ad-free content on Amazon Music for Prime Members.

Transcript

[Ryan Whitney]

Hey Spit and Chiclets listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Introducing all new footwear from Reef Reef has taken everything they know about sandals and created a whole lineup of stylish shoes full of technical features. Features like breathable knit uppers, memory foam insoles, new expanded TPU sock liners and they sound like performance shoes, but they feel like a vacation. The Neptune. The shoe that I've been wearing is the Neptune swimming suede. They take their most popular footwear style with easy kickback style so you can breeze through whatever you're doing. Or the brand new Del Mar that pairs the same laid back vibe with the structured sneaker silhouette. For more all day versatility, check out the whole lineup of new footwear [e-mail] Barstool get 15% off your first order over $49 or free shipping on orders over 65 bucks. That's reef.com Barstool for 15% off your first order over dollar 49. Lucy is the obvious choice for a true nicotine pouch connoisseurs. That's why they're official nicotine pouch partner of Barstool Sports.

[Ryan Whitney]

They go up to 12 milligrams in strength and have unique shape that feels great.

[Paul Bissonnette]

We all use the breakers. They're the only pouches with a hydration capsule inside. They're a totally new kind of pouch.

[Ryan Whitney]

Only available from Lucy.

[Paul Bissonnette]

You pop it in your mouth, break it with your teeth and it's instantly hydrated, releasing that nicotine faster and it's a burst of flavor. No other pouch has that. I promise you that. Gas station pouches get the job done. But once you've tried Lucy, you won't want anything else in your pocket.

[Ryan Whitney]

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

[Paul Bissonnette]

Our white whale, Sydney Crosby. Shave his head.

[Ryan Whitney]

Shave his head.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Shave his head. Ryan Whitney. Paul Missonnette RA Mike Grinelli. Spitting chicklets. What is up folks? How you doing? Happy summer. End of July coming up here and welcome to episode 575 of the Spit and Chicklets podcast presented by Pink Whitney. Shout out. Pink Whitney showed out the big ball of the little ball of the nips. I saw someone recently at a little league baseball game have a nip of Pink Whitney. He looked over, he gave me a wink. I said, buddy, I really appreciate that. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate everyone out there who's had Pink Whitney this summer, who will have it maybe this winter, who brings it out on the boat. Who brings. Shouldn't be driving the boat, but brings it out on the boat, brings it to the beach, brings it to the pool, doesn't matter. But this podcast, really, really, really. Thanks, Pink Whitney, because without them, are we even sitting here? But is Pink Whitney exist without me? I don't know the crazy questions right now. As you could tell, I'm solo right now. Just, just kind of checking in. We got two great interviews. We're pretty much just dropping those interviews. We're still in the dog days of summer. Hockey is just a little on the, on the, on the afterburner right now. I don't think that makes sense. On the, on the back burner. I think that's what I meant. Some news. Saw Jackson Blake signed a nice big eight year extension with the Carolina Hurricanes. I mean, played his rookie season and people kind of are like, what's going on here? I think he's going to be sick. I think in two, three years you're going to look at that deal and be like, what a deal for Carolina to have him sign. And same time he makes what, 40 million? Over 40 million bucks. He'll get another deal when he's like 28, 29 years old. A win win. I believe some people may think, oh, why do you give a guy that hasn't proven that much that much money? I think they know how good he's going to be. And so that's one deal. And Fish had mentioned to me before we started recording, he ran into him this weekend. He wants to come on Chicklet at some point. So Hurricanes fans, I actually played with his dad, Jason Blake. So a lot to talk with him. Hopefully we get to have him on. But congratulations. Big deal, big contract. What else is going on? Not much. Not much, man, I'll tell you, like baseball, I've been bringing that up. Baseball is, it's humming right now. And the Red Sox, they just took two out of three against the Dodgers. Just incredible showing at home. They lost both series. They lost to the Phillies. They got the third game in that series. And before that, who did they play? A nice team in the National League that I think they also won the third game to kind of get one of those three. I mean, super fan win. I can't even remember who the other series was. But things have been, things have been very relaxing, very nice this summer. I hope it's the same for everyone else. The kids, they're at camp this week. Riders at a hockey camp. Wyatt's at, at a junior camp. No skating For Wyatt, little too young for that, so that's nice. I mean, drop them off at 8 in the morning, pick them up at 3. I feel like they're back in school. I think parents know what I'm talking about. When, when summer's great and you get so much family time and you get to go to the beach pit, shout out Pink Whitney and the pool and all those things. But when your kids are, you know, I got seven, four and one, you're kind of, you're kind of like waiting for school to start again. Like, I know that may sound bad, but the structure of the school day and, and okay guys, it's like 8 o', clock, time for bed. Not like, hey, it's 10 o' clock and Ryder's asking to watch another episode of Full Swing. Summer could be a grind with children, but it's been awesome. But this week it's camp. So it's kind of like they're at school. Like, this is a nice little break today for me. It's Monday. Right now it's 9:04am Monday. I'm heading to Berlin, Connecticut for a 7:30 tip off between the Kirk Minahan show basketball team against the barstool New York City office basketball team. Just, it's basically like getting ready to go to war and that. No disrespect to all the soldiers out there, amazing people and what you've done for our country and Canada, incredible. So I don't want to consider, but it is kind of war for basketball. Both teams have won one game. I, I am so confident in the Kirkman Show. I'm an assistant coach. Do I know anything about basketball? No. But do I feel as though I could maybe fire these guys up with some positive vibes, positive energy? Everyone who knows me knows I'm a positive energy guy. I mean, I, it's just one of those things you see wit. He's positive, he's energized and he's ready to just have a great day. So that's how when people think of me, they think of just positive energy. That's really what it is. And I'm going to bring that to the game tonight. I cannot wait for that. What else is going on, Ryder? Playoff baseball town baseball got waxed by Dorchester. They threw out a lefty. Actually, I knew his dad, Blandino, firing gas. Then they threw out a righty. I knew his dad, Griff, his kids throwing gas as well. And then they brought in a third kid who was throwing gas. We didn't have anyone who threw Gas. Ryder can throw strikes. Not much gas in the tank there. He weighs 49 pounds. I don't really think there's a way to throw gas if you weigh 49 pounds. But a fun little baseball season, right? Like I, I got into baseball this year, I bring it up and now you go watch the kids. You see a nice ground ball, fielded, thrown over to first base. You're like that. That is impressive for seven and eight year olds. That's. That's what makes the game so special. If a kid rips a ball, I think ripping a ball is considered maybe hitting it over the infield's head. Besides, maybe. There's probably kids in like other states that are 7 and 8 are just nasty. But around here it's nice. Milton has great baseball. So fun season there. What else? I mean, I got to. I got a very special member guest coming up. The Fallon Cup. That's what is that 10 days from now. I can't wait. There's a lot of energy around Wallace and Golf Club. It's a great member guest. I've talked about this before now. If you're already like, what is this guy talking about? He's solo. It's not as easy as you think to sit here and talk to yourself. This member guest, though is 18 hole qualifying. That's gross. So no strokes. So you and your partner, whether you're a scratch and a plus two playing together, which there's a lot of teams like that. We're or 2, 13 handicaps playing together. It's ball and hole, best ball and from there they flight it. 16 teams in every flight. And then the strokes come into play. So you got to shoot like 2 under, 3 under to get into the championship flight. And then you're playing for the Fallon Cup. Any other flight, you're just paying or playing to win your flight. Guys are playing for money. It's a great event and it's just a fun time. They got the Thursday night smoker for the guys. We get a lot of card games going. That's a lot of fun where, you know, it's all the men and then Friday the wives come for an enormous party out by the pool. I mean, it's the best part of my summer. And I think most people that play in the tournament that are either members at Wallacen Golf Club or get to play in the tournament as a guest, they say it's the best part of their summer as well. So I'm very excited for that. I actually shot 76 yesterday, so I'm kind of like that. That's a good sign, right? That's the for. For nowadays. That's. I'm very happy with that. I was 82 the day before. That was pretty disgusting. But the 76, I was five over through four holes. And then I played the last 14 holes of one under. So I'm kind of humming along right now as I get ready to drive to Connecticut, because my last 14 holes of golf, I'm one under par. I won't, you know, think about the five over par on the first four holes. So kind of really just rambling a little bit here. The interviews we have. Henrik Lundquist, I mean, we can talk about how he looks very handsome, this video. He's probably, like, awkwardly handsome. It was a little bizarre sitting next to him. I'm like, pale, out of shape, gross. And then he's just like, tan and beautiful. Probably odd to say that about a man, but to each his own. And then Marco Sturm. Marco Sturm was willing to come on right after he got hired by the Bruins. This was zoom. But we were all together in the finals at Keith's house. Shout out Keith's daughter. It was her Mila's birthday, I believe. Also, I think she's right now playing for Team Florida in tournament women's lacrosse, where, you know, every state sends their all stars. So he sent a picture of the jersey. It's Florida Gators colors, orange with white and blue. Florida. So pretty sick that she made that team. So good luck to Mila, Mila Yandel, and happy birthday to her. So Yance is traveling around. He's on the lacrosse circuit. Kind of crazy to see every parent with kids who are into sports. I mean, you're traveling around. You're just an Uber driver. You're a chauffeur. It's amazing. That's why I like. I like how much Ryder loves golf because we just. We ride our bikes over and we just play golf. We just play golf. We got to play golf with my buddy Foles. If people remember Fairway Foles, he had an incredible Instagram following. And he. And he just stopped doing it. Now, in fairness, he has three daughters. I think his oldest is four or five. So kind of hard to be a content creator, Instagram golf person when you have three daughters, five and under, and you're a little busy with that. But me, I played in the tournament Saturday, and then Foles had played at one o'.

[Mike Grinelli]

Clock.

[Paul Bissonnette]

He's coming off at five, and I'm bringing Ryder out. Ryder wants to play. I said, Foles you want to keep playing? Want to keep playing with me? And Ryder goes, yup, we got 16 holes in finishing in the dark. So that was a great day. That was a great day. I don't see Fo Falls one of my best friends. Do other adults, are they going through what I'm going through, where you just don't see your friends anymore? It's like you used to see these guys or girls, if any girls are listening. Used to see them three, four times a week, every Friday. Saturday night, you're having drinks, you're going out. Now all of a sudden, you see your best friends, like, maybe once a month, maybe once every two months. And then you're just like, oh, it's so great to see you. And then, boom, I'll see you in, like, 90 days. So I know I just said one month, two months, and then the 90 days is three months. But I think people know what I'm saying. As you get older and you have kids, you just don't see your friends. So you better be friends with your wife, and you better get along with your kids. And that's not always easy. Obviously, as I mentioned, the summertime, it's more bedtime, where I'm like, you got to go to bed. Like, you need to go to bed. If you go to bed at 10, I don't even have five minutes because I'm then passing out. I need you to go to bed at 8 and just give me an hour, hour and a half of just like, hey, honey, how was your day? How's your life going? I know. Thank you for picking them up. I played golf again today. I really appreciate it. I love you so much. Are we going to see our friends soon? Nope, we don't have any friends anymore. So what else? We got the Internet Invitational coming up. That's really why I'm trying to find the golf game. I mean, there's. I think it's 1.3 million on the line. Apparently, four people are going to split that. No one really knows how the tournament's going to work or the. Or the format, but very excited in the Ozarks, Mississippi. Portnoy will be there. Will Portnoy be at the basketball game tonight? This guy is the coach of the New York team, this clown, and he's got a moldy Miami $20 million mansion that he has to tear down, sell, and then buy a new one. So must be nice being that rich. But apparently he's not even coming to the game. Barstool put in all these resources, did an Hour long documentary in incredible film. Go check it out. Obviously, by the time you listen to this, you'll know the final score of the game. 7:30 Monday night. I'm talking like this wouldn't have already happened, so it doesn't make sense. But Porto, he says he's not even coming. I mean, what kind of coach is that? So I think on the leadership aspect, the Kirk Manahan show far and above where, where New York City is going into this game. But the Internet invitation, I'm very excited for. Kirk should be in that. Complete bullshit, I guess. There's guys in the tournament who said they wouldn't play if he wasn't in it. That's just a joke. The guy's electric on a golf course. And I think most people know, like, it's going to be lacking maybe a little bit of enthusiasm, anger and intimidation without Kirk minahan there. But six powerful YouTube golf content creators said, we won't play. We're going to take our, our driver and go home. The proverbial take my ball and go home. Take my driver or my sandwich and go home. If Kirkman's playing, whatever. Still should be a cool event. Um, Big Cedar Lodge. I've been looking at pictures. Looks insane. I don't know if. How hot is it in the Ozarks in August? Are we looking at like 100% humidity with 115 degree temperature? I don't know. That's not great for a guy who doesn't wear a glove playing golf. What else? Oh, talk to Biz. Biz is just. I'm very happy. Biz is enjoying his downtime right now. He was at the Wayne Gretzky hockey School, I believe that was in Jackson Hole. Saw him go on the ice for that. Keith let it be known that, that he wasn't on the ice for the Yandel Hockey Camp, but he was able to help out Gretzky. He was just getting actually classic Keith. He texts me, hey, want me to get Biz going? I go, yep. And he immediately text me, biz, Keith. I mean, Biz. And yeah, Keith texts me and Biz and says, hey, Biz, saw you at the Wayne Gretzky Hockey School. Couldn't come to our hockey school, though. And Biz is, you know, he's class act right away. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was just on the ice for 75 minutes. I was there and I was in town. Keith says, that's 75 more minutes than you're on the ice at our camp. He's like, I'm so sorry. I owe you guys one. I owe you guys one. And then I'm just crying, laughing because I biz is rattled. Keith knew exactly what he was doing. And then meanwhile, Keith, like two hours later writes like, ah, just kidding. Like, just had biz just on his toes, basically just like flipping out. And he was totally kidding. So I love that. I love when the friends that we don't really get to see anymore, you could still fuck with via text. It's always fun. What else? I mean, I don't really have much else. I've been doing a lot of grilling lately, just getting that grill going. Steak tips. Steak tips are, I guess, are only like a Massachusetts thing. I've never really seen them anywhere else. I love steak tips. They're just. They come in the package. You don't have to cut them up either. They're easier to cook. Probably a pussy way to grill. I think real men are like, wait, you get a fucking big old steak, get a big old strip line, get a big old ribeye and chuck it on the grill. No, I have steak tips with all these different flavors that I like putting on the grill. So that's something I've been doing pretty well lately. Bree's got the garden going. She whips. I mean, she's got rat, I think raspberries she whipped out the other day. Strawberries. I didn't even know you could grow those in Milton, Massachusetts. But she is along with many vegetables. So it's really a farm to table situation at the Whitney household. Currently, if I'm eating cucumber, it's actually growing in my backyard. Always nice. Wyatt's swimming. He's like, all of a sudden he's just flying around. I think the bottom of our pool is like 12ft. It's a pretty deep pool, not gonna lie. I mean, that's the contract Sid got me. I got a deep pool. Wyatt's swimming down to the bottom. It's crazy. Now Cal's in the water. So Cal is 14 months. He's not walking yet. Kind of awkward, odd. I'm like, let's go, buddy. Let's go, let's go. But he's being carried everywhere. That's what happens. I'm like, we gotta stop carrying this kid because we need this kid to walk. None of my kids walk. All of them walked at 15 months. I see 9 month olds walking around. I'm like, is did. Like, was I walking at 15 months? I think with how athletic I was, not trying to pump my own tires, I might have Been walking at six months. My mom would probably disagree with that, but in my mind, I was probably. I came out of the womb walking. And let's not forget I ran a five mile test. BU hockey in 29 minutes and 30 seconds. That's sub six minute miles. So for everyone chirping my legs, these things could run. I ran like a deer now. All the ankle surgeries later, I can't even barely walk now, but I could run now. My kids, they don't walk till 15 months. So hopefully Cal starts walking soon. Bree sent me a video today, and I was. It was a video of him, like in the kitchen. And he's naked. Little awkward. But like this is husband wife stuff with our baby. So don't, don't worry about it. And he's. I'm thinking the video is him. He's gonna be walking. That's why she sends in the video. What does he do in the video? He just starts peeing on the floor. Little different than what I thought the video was gonna be when I pressed play, but he's just hosing on the floor laughing. So still. I gotta laugh out of that. But I was like, can we get this kid walking us? Junior M. I don't know, for any of you golf fans, incredible. These kids, I think you have to be 18 or under, they're hitting the ball 330 yards. It's like, I don't understand how these. I mean, there's 15 year olds playing that are shooting under par. Just wild. Tiger Woodson was in it. He didn't make match play. Still, what a swing on him. Just shows how hard golf is. You can have the most beautiful swing in the world and never even sniffed the PGA Tour. Not saying Charlie woods will ever not sniff the PGA Tour, but I mean, you watch the kids swing on the USGA Instagram and you're like, that kid didn't make match play. It's just wild. People are so good at golf. Such a hard sport. Yeah, I shot one under in my last 14 holes yesterday, though. Not a big deal. So I think we'll throw it over to Hank right now. Henrik Lundquist, one of the classiest guys in hockey. And we hadn't spoken to him. I thought we had had him on like a year ago. We hadn't talked to him since the West Coast Wagon Tour. That goes back, I think like seven years, like maybe six years. San Jose All Star Game. When was that? So lot to catch up on. He'd been inducted to the Hockey hall of Fame. Since then, not a Big deal. He goes into what he's doing for the New York Rangers. He actually works for msg, I believe. It's not just the Rangers. So we'll throw it over to Hank right now and then we're going to come back, we're going to throw it over to Marco Sturm and that's pretty much the show. Thank you guys. I know it's, you know, you're not getting all of us right now. We got some special news, I believe on the upcoming season. Maybe little changes to the show, Good changes, I think, and we'll end up really hearing from you on what you think of the changes and moving forward. It'll be kind of like an audience tells us what they like, what they don't like. But we're always looking to get better and better. You never want to stay stagnant. You're always reaching for more. Every part of life, you can't be ever, ever satisfied for where you're at. Even if you're crushing it in work, even if you're crushing at home with your family, there's always more you can do. That's how I looked at it growing up playing hockey. I was never satisfied. That's why I was running those five mile tests like a gazelle. So right now, Henrik Lundquist and then Marco Sturm. Enjoy, guys. It's wit. And we have big news in the spitting Chiclets world. We have launched our co branded hockey training aids with Skillz, the leading sports skill training brand. Now you can go to Dick's Sporting Goods and see Spit and Chiclets on the shelves. We just released training aids for players of all ages, whether you're 6 years old or 26 years old and you love playing men's league. We have the Universal Shooting Target, the Hockey Shooting Trainer and the Foam shooting targets. Those are very fun for kids. Perfect for the driveway or on the ice. These products will help your offensive game in a big, big way. The Universal shooting target builds a visual focus to improve shooting accuracy. The Hockey shooting trainer features five target areas and helps build the vision and muscle memory needed to increase scoring percentages. And the foam shooting targets have a quick hook and loop attachments for multiple shot locations. And it pops out, pops right back in and it's a blast for kids to pick that target like Ray Bork used to in the accuracy shooting. It's a great thing. All the training aids are sweet and you can go right now, get the brand new skills time Spit and Chiclets hockey training aids available online and in store At Dick's Sporting Goods. What an honor it is. We are joined by now a two time guest of the Spit and Chiclets podcast. But it's been I think seven years and in that time we got hockey hall of fame, we got broadcast career with biz on tnt. We got all these different things. The king, Henrik Lundquist. What's going on, buddy?

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, not much.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Clicks.

[Mike Grinelli]

Great.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I think you've missed two hall of fames since then.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Hockey, Hockey hall of Fame.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Right?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, sorry, I forgot a Hall of fame.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, yeah, squeeze that one.

[Paul Bissonnette]

How do you forget a hall of fame?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

And was it the Europe hall of Fame as well?

[Ryan Whitney]

The Europe hall of Fame, the Swedish.

[Mike Grinelli]

And then we have international hall of Fame.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Okay.

[Mike Grinelli]

And the big one in Toronto. Yeah, I told everyone that. I think that was the last thing. Now we celebrated, we got the jersey, we got a few hall of fames. Time to move on.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

Now you like enough partying, you know, we look forward.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Well, that's awkward because we're gonna induct you into the Spit Chicklets hall of fame.

[Marco Sturm]

Cancel the cake.

[Mike Grinelli]

Two episodes first member.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Just two episodes.

[Marco Sturm]

I'm also selling that part of the coach too.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah, yeah, it's already up. It's already pushing right here. That's so good. Well, last time we had yawn, Yan's wasn't here. We've added them since.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Right.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

So what was it like playing with Yans?

[Mike Grinelli]

You're unreal. I mean, listen, everybody you talk to, it's just great guy in the locker room, maybe not the best block shop blocker but.

[Paul Bissonnette]

But he wouldn't screen you. Get out of the way.

[Mike Grinelli]

Screen me. But I was, I was pretty intense. It was always great to have teammates that kind of made you smile every day. Yes. I love that.

[Marco Sturm]

Yeah, I remember one of my first time. Remember that like area guys would eat in at msg. Like there was like a little lounge area and Hank would come in three piece suit, looking like a dime with his headphones on. And I'm like, hey, what's up Hank? Give him a high five. Everyone's like, dude, you do not talk to him on game day.

[Ryan Whitney]

I'm like, yeah, we do.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

No way. He was that hardcore, eh, silent.

[Mike Grinelli]

I had days I don't think I spoke like I was quiet. I game days. I think I got better over, over the years. But I was so in my head just thinking about the game and kind of dealing with the pressure.

[Paul Bissonnette]

If you're the guy that's not speaking, you were probably doing superstitions at Home on the way to the rink and stuff. Too silent. Guys are usually, I'm guessing, you know, people that are superstitious.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I just want to know how you, like, explain that to the wife. Like, when you first started dating, you say, hey, game days.

[Mike Grinelli]

Just like, no, she knew. Even my kids knew.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Okay.

[Mike Grinelli]

They were quiet, like, okay, dad has a game. They were, like, sneaking around, whispering around. They opened the door, it was, like, slowly peaked in. It's like, okay, he's taking a nap, getting ready.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

That's awesome.

[Paul Bissonnette]

We're playing the Devils tonight. Sleeping.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

That is so good.

[Mike Grinelli]

But I got better. I got more loose.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Did you?

[Mike Grinelli]

I think finding that balance where. And. And we talk a lot about this now during the playoffs, how you escape from. And kind of recharge. If you're too intense all the time, you get tired. Right. So to find the balance of being intense. But away from the rink, not a game day, you try to have fun and do things that just recharge you.

[Marco Sturm]

And obviously, probably more pressure as a goalie in New York, too. Right? As opposed to other cities, like, where you're the. And obviously you were the guy, because you were amazing. But it's like, if you're a goalie in New York, it's got to be a different level of pressure.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, but I think everybody's different. I put a lot of pressure on myself and maybe sometimes a little too much. And that made me maybe a little intense at times, but probably the same for you guys. When I think around between 16 and 20 years old, you start to figure out, okay, this is my way of preparing. This is helping me. This is not helping me. And then I kind of stayed consistent for 20 years in terms of what I did, game days and how I prepared. It never really changed.

[Paul Bissonnette]

So that the NHL, I think guys more get to the NHL and see how veterans do it, and they change and maybe adapt when they get to the highest level. But you were kind of dialed in from your time in Sweden.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, well, I played pro. I say pro for four or five years in Sweden before I moved to New York. And so same type of days, you know, you had your morning skates and getting ready for games and dealing with pressure. Playing for the national team back home for a few years also help dealing with that type of pressure. But again, everybody's different. And we played with guys, goalies, too, that are way different. Yeah, a lot looser, smiling. That's their way of preparing and getting ready. Not to, you know, put too much pressure on yourself. But I was not. I Was the quiet.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

So you had such a good start there. So you'd earn the fans trust right away. Was there ever a point where it got a little rocky?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. You go toe to toe with Brooksie at all.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I, you know, I think I've asked you that and you said you had a really good relationship with all the. So was there ever a time throughout your whole career there where maybe I want to say they turned on you, but all of a sudden maybe you weren't playing good for a stretch where they're trying to be like, oh, is the king lost his juice and did that ever happen?

[Mike Grinelli]

Let's. I, I rarely read anything or, or watched interviews, so I didn't know if they were crushing me in the paper or on tv. So I approached them the same way whether I play great or not. If I read into it too much, I'd probably be like that guy. Well, you crushing me right now, so I don't want to talk to. But I didn't know you weren't reading a thing. No, I mean, rarely.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

And it helped me just to stay. I approached in the same way, way.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Smarter to do that.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

That is unbelievable.

[Marco Sturm]

Same thing. Yeah. You can't get. Especially in New York, I can't read.

[Mike Grinelli]

It's hard if, if they've been ripping you for a couple weeks and you still want to be nice to the guy. Right. But if you don't know, you just approach him the same way. But in terms of, you know, I remember signing my last deal, the big one. It's like a semi year deal. It kind of dragged on a little bit. I struggled a little bit. I'm for sure. People, they were wondering what's going on here. And then we got it in place. And that was the year we went to the cop.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, you're saying that they were, they were kind of questioning why wasn't the deal already done at the.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, more like, okay, he needs to step up.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, okay.

[Mike Grinelli]

Oh, once they got the deal, I could just put that aside.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, they weren't, they weren't willing to give you the deal yet.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, my last year. Okay, my six year deal, we were looking at a long term deal. And you know, I'm impressed with guys that can put things aside and just worry about the game. But at that point, I had been in New York for what, nine years, I think, and it would have been such a big change for me not to stay. So I just wanted to know, like, this is the place. I want to stay here my entire career. Yeah, let's make it happen. We did. It was just, you know, it takes time sometimes.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Was that something that like a veteran taught you early on about not kind of buying in and reading that stuff or were you just never really like that? Like even back in Sweden, like could you just avoid reading the press clippings there as well?

[Mike Grinelli]

I don't know. Nobody really told me.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Just kind of naturally did it feel.

[Mike Grinelli]

Like we play every other day so you can never read everything there. Right. That's all you do then, you know. And back to get away from the game. Like I, I was pretty even for practice, but then games there was so much attention and energy to going into that. If I would go home and then start reading and watching, it's like it would be non stop.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Right.

[Mike Grinelli]

I loved just getting away from and do other things and.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. And I think charge that way. I think reading the, the positive ones isn't even good for like, you know what I mean? Then you can get a little bit too cocky.

[Ryan Whitney]

Little big God damn, I'm good.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. Kind of like it's, it's either way, it's probably not a healthy thing, but I don't think it's that common anymore. I think guys, you know, even more so now like the current game are seeing everything. Like there wasn't Twitter.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

It's different now, I think. I think a lot of, lot of guys are seeing everything written. Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. It's so in your face.

[Paul Bissonnette]

You can't really. It's hard not to.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. And listen, they need thick skin. Maybe they're built different because they. This generation grew up with it.

[Paul Bissonnette]

But it was a shock.

[Mike Grinelli]

I don't know how it was for you guys. I remember like the first time Twitter came around, I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. At first I didn't get it, but then I, I, I signed in and, and at first, which is support. And this is great. Never forget this. We landed in Philly for the outdoor game and I turned my phone on. You get and I had so many messages. You suck. You're off.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Flyers fans just trying to bury you.

[Mike Grinelli]

Giving it to him was like, like this Twitter thing. Maybe it's not that good anymore. Delete.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Delete. Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Was that how you getting crushed like.

[Marco Sturm]

Getting away from the game, like you said? Is that where you got into music and the guitar or you had always been into that?

[Paul Bissonnette]

No.

[Mike Grinelli]

As a kid I started playing a little bit and then I stopped. But the guitar was always there. My brother played the bass, my sister played the drums.

[Marco Sturm]

Nice.

[Ryan Whitney]

We had a Little.

[Mike Grinelli]

Had a little band going at home. Oh, yeah, Loved it. But definitely one of those things throughout my career when, when you, you know, sit down and play a little bit. Couple hours, it takes this stress away. It's like watching a great movie.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

For those two hours, you don't think about anything. I love on the road.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Go for.

[Mike Grinelli]

For a movie just to get your mind off.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Were you on the road eating dinner with the boys or were you in the hotel room watching cheeseburger?

[Marco Sturm]

Weren't you?

[Paul Bissonnette]

A cheeseburger? Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

I love my room service. I think she's.

[Marco Sturm]

Burger before a game.

[Mike Grinelli]

Chocolate cake too. Maybe I mixed in a salad to start. Just so game day.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Afternoon. Cheeseburger.

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, no.

[Marco Sturm]

Night before.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Right?

[Mike Grinelli]

Night before.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, gee.

[Mike Grinelli]

I was gonna say, I've had a cheeseburger probably every hotel around the country. Yeah, I rated them too.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What's the top burger?

[Mike Grinelli]

I remember, the one that surprised me was in Columbus. It said on the menu it's like the best burger in Ohio. I was like, yeah, right. And I had it and it was actually delicious.

[Paul Bissonnette]

All right. Oh, New York. Yeah, New York's got the burgers. Oh, we crushed those.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

That one spot.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What was that? Barge.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I never remember the name.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Cheval. Oh, yeah, that's awesome. Burger.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

How did the band thing with McEnroe start? Like, how did that all come about? That's pretty badass.

[Mike Grinelli]

I was at a concert, we were watching Bruce Springsteen and we're hanging out and John was there, start talking. And then I don't know who said it, he, him or me. He's like, let's jam sometimes. And then one thing led to another and then we start jamming. And then I had a charity concert come up and I asked him if he wanted to join me for. For that show. So we. We've had a couple shows together.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

So when you say jam, like, let's jam together, like, you bring over your guitar to his place and you sit.

[Mike Grinelli]

There and you go to like a studio in the city where you plug in. You just bring your guitar. They have drums, amps, mics. You just plug in and, and. And you go, who would sing? We had. We had a girl at the time. She was awesome. Tara. But a couple different people over the years. John sings a little bit, but he mostly plays guitar.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

And then you just started adding, adding more like members, quote, unquote. Like, who is the. The most full time drummer?

[Mike Grinelli]

Like, oh, Jay Weinberg.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, oh, you had him.

[Mike Grinelli]

Oh, he played in that show that we had, the first show, me and Mac Played Jay Weinberg. Commit.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Isn't he an all time legend? And he. So his.

[Mike Grinelli]

His dad is. Max. Played for Springsteen.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Okay. So I was thinking. All right, so I knew the last name.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. So Jay stepped in for Max couple times when he was away. Played for Bruce. But he. Unreal drama. And he's been playing with Slipknot, so.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

He was with Slipknot. I think he's with someone else.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, no, he. He left now. But he was. At the time. I think he played for them. And I remember he. Because he hits it so hard when he. When he jams. And we play a pretty small stage. So when we did the. The sound check, it was so loud. Like, we kind of like, hey, Jay, can we.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, we're chill. Jam session. We're just looking at.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, it was unreal. It was so fun, you know, because.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Is it hard to hear yourself playing?

[Mike Grinelli]

Because when there's no people and you do sound check, there's such a big echo.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

And because the stage was small, we were right there by the drum kit. But no, he's unreal. We've been talking about doing maybe another show down the road.

[Marco Sturm]

Did you ever jam with Mr. Dolan?

[Ryan Whitney]

His.

[Marco Sturm]

His band?

[Mike Grinelli]

No, never jam with him. I watched him jam, though.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

And he came to Sweden to play.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Really?

[Mike Grinelli]

Summer.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Are you talking about the owner?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Okay.

[Paul Bissonnette]

He plays guitar or.

[Mike Grinelli]

Plays guitar, sings.

[Marco Sturm]

The people in his band are incredible.

[Ryan Whitney]

Right.

[Mike Grinelli]

Really good musicians. So he played at the Globe arena in Stockholm.

[Paul Bissonnette]

They're probably the highest paid musicians in the world.

[Marco Sturm]

I know.

[Paul Bissonnette]

It's just like, hey, come be my jam sesh member and I'll pay you 10 million. Have you been to the Sphere?

[Mike Grinelli]

Oh, yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

He was there for the construction of it. This guy was going there before we.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Were in the midst of it.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. I got a little tour.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Wow.

[Mike Grinelli]

Because we did the Vegas. Yeah. Final two years ago. So it was halfway done.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Who have you seen there?

[Mike Grinelli]

So I went for the opening of the Sphere. You too? I saw two shows. Incredible. I don't know.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Have you guys. No, I have. We were just saying we got to get out there.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I just went and saw the Eagles.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, you did go.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, buddy. It was 10 out of 10.

[Mike Grinelli]

How good is the sound?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

It is incredible. When you told me about this thing, I'm like, what? Yeah, right. They're building this dome in the middle of the desert for over a billion bucks. And then you're like, I think it's now at 2 billion because they kept spending and spending.

[Paul Bissonnette]

But I saw some of the Eagles one that you went to. It's almost like a movie. Like, there's just different video for every song. Like, I saw the Hotel California one. It's like it's all related. Everything you're seeing.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah. And obviously they're.

[Mike Grinelli]

I don't think you have not experienced anything like it, but, yeah, because the screen is that big. And in terms of sound, I think they have over 300,000 speakers in there, so the sound is so crisp. And then it's. Not until you watch a movie, you fully understand what they can do with that. Building the concert was amazing. But then you watch a movie where they have first postcard from Earth, where, you know, the seats are moving, you can smell. There was one scene in the movie where they were on a lemon field and you can smell the lemons.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, yeah. The scent comes.

[Mike Grinelli]

Oh, yeah. And then there was a storm and the winds are blowing in the hair.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Come on.

[Mike Grinelli]

Like, it's. It's.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah, but it was.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Do any of that.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Well, no, they weren't doing. Yeah. Smelling my farts. That's pretty much the only thing that people sitting next to me were smelling. But no, they didn't do the scent for the Eagles.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That stuff.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, no, that's the movie.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Were you more nervous for Cup Final, Olympic gold medal game, or, like, first time you were performing, jamming out in front of people?

[Mike Grinelli]

It's just different.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. You're not psychotic. Not talking to anyone.

[Mike Grinelli]

But, I mean, play music. It's a little bit out of my element.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Okay.

[Mike Grinelli]

So. Yeah, but music is more a feeling. There's no right or wrong, really. Sports is so black and white.

[Ryan Whitney]

You win or you lose.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That's it. Okay.

[Mike Grinelli]

Music is more a feel and. And you still need to focus, but you. You can still be relaxed in a way. It's a weird mix.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Were you as close of a friend of Dolan now as you were or. Or when you first started, when you were playing, like later on in your career until you are now, or when you retired, did you guys become a little bit closer? Because you have, like, one of the best jobs in the world, which is like. What is it? Like Ambassador.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Ambassador. He played for the ring. No. Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Okay. That's how it works.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

They make fun of me because I'm a leaf. I never played.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Ripped his jacket away from him.

[Mike Grinelli]

It's funny how he works sometimes, isn't it? No. But you know this. As a player, you don't really, really see management that often. It's definitely, definitely not the ownership group. But now when I Retired and, you know, start working as an ambassador. I. I go to a lot of different events at the Garden, Knicks games, Ranger games, concerts, different partnership events. So.

[Paul Bissonnette]

So Tuka's doing it for the Bruins. Said that every game, like, he's going into suites, he's meeting teak ticket. Like, is that kind of similar to you?

[Mike Grinelli]

No, I'll stay in. My sweet.

[Paul Bissonnette]

They come to you.

[Mike Grinelli]

Well, usually, you know, there's. You have some executives or guests that. They're in that suite. But it's. I just love. When I retired, I knew I wanted to be part of msg. Yeah, I love hockey. I love the Rangers. But there's other things that interest me as well. So it was not so much the management side, it was more MSG as a whole because there's so much going on there. So I feel like this.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Not just Rangers.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, no, it's. It's that. That building is a machine.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

You know, there's something going on every day. Sometimes you have two shows a day. You know, you can have the Knicks at one and the Rangers at eight. And there's just a turnaround is every night there's something.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Right.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. Yeah. And it's. It's just amazing to be part of it.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Top three coolest things you've seen at msg. Is it easy to narrow it down like this?

[Mike Grinelli]

My own first shuttle, like I. Pearl Jam played at a 911 trivia concert, which was really cool. Talked to some people that had a very strong personal connection to that day and to see what it meant to them. And. And yeah, Eddie put on an amazing show, so that was cool. The one that surprised me the most was probably Harry Styles. I didn't know what to expect. I brought the kids to that show and it was so loud, it felt like we were watching Elvis back in the day. Everybody was just screaming.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah, he is.

[Mike Grinelli]

It's like a new generational audience where.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Girls, they just scream they love him.

[Mike Grinelli]

And he was such a great entertainer. So he. I would say he surprised me.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I want to do Billy Joel. Msg. I heard that's pretty legendary.

[Mike Grinelli]

It really is. But he.

[Paul Bissonnette]

He's done.

[Mike Grinelli]

He's done.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Good call it.

[Mike Grinelli]

He did it for 10 years, right?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, I missed it. See the Beatles there. Well, I heard he. I think he was. I think you. I think he was taking a helicopter like 12 minutes from his Hampton's place, hopping on plane for a million and then hopping in his helicopter and being home in like 12 minutes.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

That was Billy Joel.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. An hour. Whatever. It is something crazy.

[Mike Grinelli]

Well, he did it every month, right. For 10 years.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

It was a lot of shows and. Yeah, that's like a New York staple. Yeah, right there.

[Marco Sturm]

He's got his jersey retired, just like Hank.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah.

[Marco Sturm]

It's up there in the. In the rafters.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

He's getting splinters in his toes through every.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What a job.

[Marco Sturm]

I want to ask you. Hockey. I don't think I've ever asked you this question. What was the Mickey Mouse gloves? For those of you who don't know, Hank wore these white gloves underneath his.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

To keep it dry, probably.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Right.

[Mike Grinelli]

His grip. And actually one of my childhood heroes, I saw him wear it. So I tried it as a kid, or Maybe I was 15, 16. I just realized because you start sweating so much, the gloves get slippery. I want it to be super tight in there. So the gloves, which I switched every. Every intermission to keep it dry, just gave me more grip in the glove. And then over time, I switched to black gloves with, like, rubber on it. So even more grip.

[Ryan Whitney]

Wow.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Why wouldn't you do, like the players, like, mid period, you switch out your gloves, like, to TV time out, go get a new.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, no, I would not be comfortable with that.

[Marco Sturm]

I wonder if anybody.

[Mike Grinelli]

I was pretty.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Did you break it in in the intermission? A little bit. Wearing them, like.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. For me, I. You need a. Probably at least a week or sometimes two weeks to break in gear. I couldn't use like, brand new gear or.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, yeah, I get. I didn't. You wouldn't get a rotation going, gloves.

[Mike Grinelli]

Practice gloves, but for game. No, I would. I don't know if any goalies switch gloves during. During a game. Yeah, I haven't seen it. I don't know if you guys seen it, but. No, the Mickey Mouse. It was for grip.

[Paul Bissonnette]

When did you know or like, find out you'd be with TNT or. No. You want to do that, right? Because that's a big step weekly thing down in Atlanta. Like, right away, did you figure, all right, I can do this? Did they reach out to you first?

[Mike Grinelli]

I don't actually remember how it came about, but when I retired, I had a great meeting with Mr. Dolan. And, you know, I kind of. What I do today is what I wanted to do when I retired. But that first year we started just doing tv, so I did a few shows for MSG Network in New York.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Intermissions.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, exactly. Same thing as I'm doing with tnt. But then throughout that year, I don't know. I can't tell you how it happened, but I came in Did a few shows.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

That year, not many. And then the following year, signed a deal with them to come on. But I. I don't work as much as you biz. Like, I. I do like three a month, but more in the playoffs.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Okay.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

But hey, it's all about balance, right? It's all about TV with tnt. Does the MSG network with Vala Cat, right?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. John G. Known. Great. They're great. It's very different how we do tv, though. TNT is more of a discussion. You know, we have more longer segments. MSG is more quick, quick in and out, a lot of information.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

And then obviously family time. But going back to. You talked about when you talked to Dolan after your retirement. Like, we never really talked about your. Your heart condition. Right. Because we got you on before that. So, like, how did you end up finding out about all that? What exactly was it? And. And obviously it led you to. To have to call it quits. And that's when you went to Washington and on Netflix.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Now that is it. Netflix.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, Netflix Open Heart. Unreal North America and Scandinavia on Netflix Open Heart kind of takes you through my. My journey a little bit. And I. It's funny when I start to think about maybe telling the story, it was more about not so much my career. It was more the power of being in a good place mentally. And. And I think we all go through stuff in life where everything just gets turned upside down. And how do you deal with that? How do you find happiness? And. And I did. So I was like, wow, this is so cool. I want to tell this story, but I also want to show when I come back to the NHL, that was my mindset.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, when you first agreed to do it?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Well, kind of like Laniskog did.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. Kind of the road back. And then, you know, if you go back a little bit, you know, when. When my time in New York was over and. And I really thought I was gonna hang it up, I couldn't see myself play anywhere else. Like, the impossible. But then I remember a month or two months after we're talking August maybe, I went to the rink just to skate. And it's like I loved it.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, I'm not done yet.

[Mike Grinelli]

I'm not done. It was. I was not done. I could feel in my body and in my head, I felt like I had at least three more years. Physically, I felt great. So then, you know, a few. Few weeks later, I started talking to different teams. And in the end, Washington felt like the. The best match for. For me, family, where I'M at. And, you know, my career. And then that fall, it just. Things started to happen. I knew I had a condition where my valve was leaky. I've. I've known that for years. So I knew at some point we probably gonna have to do something. But it was steady for so many years. And then that fall, and already first meeting with the doctors in Washington, it's like, what do you think about this? And then I think for the next couple months, I thought it would come down to me convincing my wife, like, no, no, I'm gonna do this. Yes. The risk is a little higher right now because the. The leak is getting worse. The pressure in my heart was going up. My aorta was growing too much. So there's a few things going on. But then in the end, I'm like, no, no, I'm doing this. And I never forget it. I brought up, like, bags to pack and go to Washington. I was already there, like, a month prior to check everything out. And then. This is the lockout year.

[Marco Sturm]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, what was it? No, after Covid.

[Ryan Whitney]

Right.

[Mike Grinelli]

So we're supposed to start after New Year's.

[Marco Sturm]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

So we're mid December. You just start to pack. And we had this call with the doctors, and they like, no, no, no. The. The. All the tests, everything is actually worse than we thought. Like, my pressure used to be 19, 20.

[Paul Bissonnette]

It was at 60.

[Mike Grinelli]

At 70, your heart stops. And then my order was too big, so we need to replace that. And the valve was hanging on. So, yeah, it was kind of an easy decision to, like, okay, I gotta.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I have to do it.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, it was not. If it was in the gray area. Yeah, I would have told my wife, I'm doing this. I'm gonna play. But when you hear that, you knew there was no going back.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, that's.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Was the condition related to hockey and maybe, like, pressure and stress and in exercise, or was it just a natural thing that all of a sudden, in that period of time just happened to spike again?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, no, I think that it was more. I had it for many years. I didn't. I didn't know about the order, you know, and the pressure in my heart that happened over time and probably putting a lot of stress on it. But I'm. You know, the valve itself, I'm probably born with it, that the. It was just not closing well enough.

[Marco Sturm]

And I know obviously it sucks not being able to play, and obviously you wanted to play, but is there any part of you that's like, I'm glad I just played for the Rangers. Because when you think of Rangers, you think Henry Conquest, like, selfish. For me, I was like, he should retire as a Ranger. That's where he belongs. Like, was there anything like that for you?

[Mike Grinelli]

I definitely found peace in it.

[Marco Sturm]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

To your point, like, no, it was never meant to be. Yeah. Because a few months after surgery, I was really close coming back. I reached out to Washington. Okay, I'm ready. I'll come join you guys in April, like a couple weeks before playoffs. And then were you skating? I was skating hard for a month and a half.

[Marco Sturm]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

Remember the video? Unreal coming out of them.

[Marco Sturm]

They're like, what does this guy do?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

No.

[Mike Grinelli]

Seven weeks after the surgery, like the first couple weeks after the open heart, I was not. I was hardly walking. Like, it was every week just got better and better.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And you started getting bored.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, bored, no. But in my head, I was. I was coming back.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, so you're just waiting to.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Told you could skate again.

[Mike Grinelli]

Six weeks. You have to wait for your chest to heal in terms of pressure. You can't, you know, exercise hard after three weeks. You got to do it week by week and kind of listen to your body. Right. So then seven weeks out, I. I felt step by step, I was in a good place to start skating. Not hard. I was just on the ice to feel, get the timing. And then no high shots, obviously. Only ice shots for first couple weeks. Not to put pressure on the chest.

[Paul Bissonnette]

But then base comes out, buries you in the car. Wouldn't have felt it, but yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

A month and a half on the ice and I was just a week away or something. Week away to join the. The caps. And. And I had the follow up test for. For the surgery and I had a lot of chest pain. So I. I told them about that concern and what's going on. I thought it was related to the surgery, but unfortunately for me, I had percoditis, which. It's inflammation around the heart created somehow. We don't know exactly why.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Common after some surgery like that.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yes, it can happen after surgery, but we're talk. So maybe I had a virus in my body or something that kind of attacked the heart. Most people have it one time and it's gone. I, for me, unfortunately, I had recurrent pericarditis. So he kept coming back. So instead of going to Washington, shut it down. And then six months later, I tried to go on the ice and it came back, dude. And then when it came back, I knew it's over. That's when I retired.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And your wife I'm guessing wanted you to retire.

[Mike Grinelli]

Like, yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

She's like, all right, we've had enough kind of scares here.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. But it's hard, you know, and until you're ready, when you feel like you have more to give and honestly, physically, mentally, I felt so good, but I knew I can't, I can't fight this thing. So it was time to hang it up. And yes, you said it like, me only play for the Rangers. It was, it was meant to be. Looking back at it and also knowing now four years later that I've had issues with the inflammation keeps coming back. So I, I know that I made the right decision to hang it up.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

When I did, did you were like, did you figure that you would be inducted and let your jersey to the rafters?

[Mike Grinelli]

Like, did you like, it was actually pretty cool.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Like, I, I would hope you knew that was coming.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Well, I know. I just want to ask if you ever feel it inside, it's, it's like unbelievable till it actually happens.

[Mike Grinelli]

I'll tell you this. The way things ended, 15 years, my last game was in the bubble. No fans. I never really had a chance to say goodbye, to get closure. So the day I retired, I did it back home in Sweden that summer in my old rink where for London Place. That's where I played for many years and a special place. But I announced my retirement and I'm doing the media and my phone rings and I see it's Chris Drury. I'm like, I excuse myself. I gotta take this. And it's like, congrats, he said, and then New Jersey is going up this year. Right away, right away, as I'm talking to me, I couldn't believe it. But to me, to come back then six months later or seven, to get that closure and to have that opportunity to thank so many people, it was incredible moment for so many reasons. I will never forget it. But yeah, it was one last time.

[Paul Bissonnette]

To hear them, like, chanting your name, like it's right. It's incredible.

[Mike Grinelli]

I, I, When I stepped on the ice that night, I, My leg kind of, I lost power. It was almost like I fell. Yeah, that's when I stepped on the ice because it was such a big part of, of my life for 15 years, and then it was just gone, you know, with COVID and then it's time to move on. So, so grateful for, you know, how the organization handled all it with all the friends, family we had there and just share that moment. It was, yeah, top moment for sure.

[Marco Sturm]

And then the hall of Fame, too. I remember I was lucky enough to go up and play in that game with you. And I don't think you let in a goal, the saves.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I'm like, oh, I know. I saw the video.

[Marco Sturm]

This guy might get signed.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

My heart before this one.

[Marco Sturm]

Exactly.

[Mike Grinelli]

Sign. But no hard test.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

For you. I was like.

[Marco Sturm]

I'm like, this guy probably thinks he's going to go play again. Probably could have.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I think you posted a few videos. You back on the ice. I'm like, holy, this guy's on his edges, like, perfect. Yeah, you just sliding around out there.

[Mike Grinelli]

Oh, you know what? I never thought I would ever skate again. Why would I put the pads back on? But then when they reached out for the hall of Fame game, I'm like, okay, I. I'll do one. And I. I love that. Yeah. So fun. And. And so now I played two, three games a year. Charity games. We had a great one in Stockholm earlier this year. Incredible lineup with Forsberg, lstr, Sundberg.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What was that for over there?

[Mike Grinelli]

So it was for Boris Salming, the charity game, and we played mostly Finnish players, but Alesh was there a couple of Czech guys as well. We played at the Globe Arena.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That must have been packed.

[Mike Grinelli]

Lower bowl. Yeah, but it was just, you know, when you go back into the locker room now and you see all these players that you play with, it's like going back in time. Guys haven't changed. Some guys are still ripped. Some guys that let it lose, some.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Guys really let it go.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, yeah. I'm right here, guys.

[Marco Sturm]

Did you talk to anyone before that game?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, I did. Yeah. I actually smiled. Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

What are your favorite Hank moments, like, when playing with them? Like what. Do you remember that if he ever.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Snap on you for screening them? Oh. He used to say, if you're not.

[Marco Sturm]

Going to block it, get out of the way. So I'd be like, all right, I'll just get out of the way. No, the one thing I remember, it was my first game, it was like a two on one and he was like, just take away the pass. Like, I just love the confidence in a goalie where, like, just let me see the puck so I can save it. But probably my favorites were after a game, after a loss, and we had a wagon that year, we probably should have won the cup. We were just so banged up. But after a game, if we lost, you just hear he'd get undressed super quick and then you just hear he'd be punching the soap. Soap dispenser in the, in the shower. I'M like, oh, my God, this guy's gonna break his hand for the next game. Like, screaming swears in Sweden, you get angry, flipping out. Like, you have never. I forget what the swears were, but punching it, screaming it was. I'm like, all the, like, you know, stalls and G. Like, they'd been around it for so long. Like, just. Hank, you'll get used to it. I'm like, dude, we can't let him break his hand. Like, what are we doing? They're like, yeah, no, he's fine.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

How long until you were back to normal after that?

[Mike Grinelli]

Next morning, sleep it off.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, man.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh.

[Mike Grinelli]

But it all depended on the game, how we lost. I mean, if I was terrible, I was. I was not happy. I was not pleasant to be around, that's for sure. But we started the conversation about the pressure I put on myself. I think that sometimes got the best of me after games. Looking back at it now, it's like, wow, I was really intense.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

But any.

[Marco Sturm]

But you. You were like that in. In practice, too. The first guy I ever seen, like, in Matt Zuccarello, they would always, like, bust child. He was one of the best teammates ever. But there'd be a drill going on, and Zook would be in the corner and he'd shoot pucks, like, to try to score. And Hank would be, like, facing a two on one and then, like, try to make another save. Like, didn't want any pucks going in the net.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

That's kind of like Mark Andre Fleury was. Yeah, he was the same way. He would just compete, compete, compete till the end.

[Marco Sturm]

Like, yeah, the whistle would be.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

The next guy would be coming down over the blue line, and he' battling out the last puck with the last guy. Yeah. That's unreal.

[Marco Sturm]

The breakaways at the end of warm ups. The first time I saw that, I'm like, what is going on here? Like, you know, at the end of warm ups in the game, you just have a line of guys doing breakaways on them.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I actually remember planning. It's the Rangers. And seeing that you.

[Ryan Whitney]

You.

[Paul Bissonnette]

It was almost like a European type.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, Most goalies do it in Europe.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

Take breakaways, end of warm ups. I love that drilling practice, too.

[Paul Bissonnette]

The.

[Mike Grinelli]

The breakaway.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

And the three puck, that was my favorite drill. It's like quick feet, the competition, one on one. And certain players got under your skin for sure in practice.

[Ryan Whitney]

This is one of them in your New York career.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Like, who owns you in practice? If there was anyone, like, one guy, like, played with some legends Kind of had my number a lot. Pissed you off? Is there really no one there? Really?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, it's like no one scored on me.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What are you talking about?

[Ryan Whitney]

No one?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah, he said legends you played with, like, who were the top?

[Mike Grinelli]

I mean, listen. First year yogs. Kidding me.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And he was sick then.

[Mike Grinelli]

He was. He won the scoring title that year. He was unreal. You know, and being 23, you come over rookie year and. And he was actually my first roomie. Crazy.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Your rookie year was first year after the lockout? Yes, my rookie year.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

There you go.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

This is my new wingman.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Had a roommate. Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

He's like, this is my new wingman.

[Mike Grinelli]

Oh. So this was during camp, just. We went up to West Point.

[Marco Sturm]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. For, you know, team building at this point, we're 30 players. Y and we show up there and I'm looking for my name, like, Lus Lun was Yager. I'm like, are you kidding me?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Right into the fire.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. I texted my brother, like, guess what my room is?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Y.

[Ryan Whitney]

He's like, no way.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That's what.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, my God.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Was he a silly roommate? Like, would, like.

[Mike Grinelli]

I, I, I don't think it. Is that a word?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. I knew my place.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah. I would have been like, what's up?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yo.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

How you doing?

[Ryan Whitney]

Past the remote?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Lights out at 11. How's the day trading going? You mentioned Europe. How did you, like, get your start back home? Like, what made you fall in love with being a goaltender? We might have covered his family.

[Marco Sturm]

Band didn't cut it. Yeah, they didn't make it.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Had some brothers snipped them.

[Marco Sturm]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Like what? Like, what made you want to be a goaltender?

[Mike Grinelli]

I remember watching a national team when I was probably 5, 6 years old, and I just loved it. And then actually kindergarten, we had two teachers. They played hockey. So they introduced a game to me and my twin brother, Joel. So we were only four or five when we started skating, but it was not until we saw the national team play, probably world championships or something. We're talking, what, late 80s? So it's not like there's a lot of hockey on tv. Definitely not an NHL. But watching the national team was definitely like, wow, I want to do that one day. And then they build the rink, like, half hour outside our hometown RA It's a ski town, but they build a rink outside. When we were probably 8, 9 years old, that's when we started playing.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

And you were there, what, like, every other day?

[Mike Grinelli]

No, because our parents had to drive us. We were not there every Day, but be probably skated every day on the lake or at school or played lots lot of street hockey on the street hockey and.

[Marco Sturm]

And Solomon's like the. It seems outside looking in, he's like the number one guy that everyone looks up to. But what about for goalies? Like, is there.

[Mike Grinelli]

So my first Harry was Peter Linmark. Never made it to the NHL, but at the time he was the best guy in Sweden. Mid late 80s after that, you. You just. You watched a lot of the guys playing the Swedish Elite League. And then as I got older, started paying attention to the NHL. Patrick Ra, Dominik Hashek was two guys that really inspired me.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Your did your brother ever come over?

[Mike Grinelli]

So he played in Dallas for a couple years.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yes. And then he was a legend in for London.

[Mike Grinelli]

Played 20 years. He was a captain for 14 years.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Number retired.

[Mike Grinelli]

They have this rule where they have to wait five years.

[Ryan Whitney]

Okay.

[Paul Bissonnette]

But he'll have.

[Ryan Whitney]

He'll have that.

[Mike Grinelli]

I would be very surprised if it's not up there because he has pretty much every record.

[Ryan Whitney]

Wow.

[Mike Grinelli]

For that franchise. I mean, he played for 20 years, but. Yeah. That's sick. Yeah. No, he came over my second year here. He came to Dallas and we played against each other for the first time. That was extremely weird.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, that's bizarre.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, it was so bizarre.

[Paul Bissonnette]

You're like, he is not scoring on me.

[Mike Grinelli]

Exactly.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Did you ever have any say in your goalie tandem or like, was it Joey's just like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you got to be good, pretty close and good buddies with your goalie tandems throughout your career?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, no, I had nothing to say.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Nothing to say.

[Mike Grinelli]

I don't know. You sure.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Who are your favorite ones?

[Mike Grinelli]

Honestly, I think back there's so many good ones. Different personalities. You love them for different reasons. But to your point, you become really close because you spend every day together. You're on the ice with the goalie coach before practice and you talk about.

[Ryan Whitney]

The game and.

[Mike Grinelli]

You know, for most part of my career, it was pretty clear that, okay, I'm gonna play a lot of the games. So it was never really a battle. It was more of a support team. Right. Like it maybe if you're in a situation where you don't really know who's gonna play, it can be more competitive. But in my case, I felt so much support from the guys I play with because it was pretty clear. But favorites. Oh, I don't want to forget anyone, but it was a great start with Kevin Weeks.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

That was my rookie year playing With Kevin.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Was he a veteran?

[Mike Grinelli]

He was a veteran and he, he knew what was up. Like, he's so classy, respectful. Yeah, I think that that was a great start to, you know, join him. And then, I mean, Steve, Alley Cat, Marty B. Ron and the list goes on. But a lot of fun guys.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

That, with Biron's French accent make you laugh.

[Mike Grinelli]

He talked so much.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, I knew it.

[Paul Bissonnette]

He's talking from the bench all the time, right?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Was he really?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, yeah, he like talk. There's like clips of him like talking when he was on the Sabers and stuff, right?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I don't know.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And that's an imaginary 100%, right?

[Mike Grinelli]

Awesome. He was so funny.

[Marco Sturm]

It's like when we interviewed him, I texted someone, they were like, yeah, good luck getting a word. And he's going to talk the entire.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Time, which is perfect. That's why you want to interview guys. You just throw them softballs.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What about these days when it's really becoming different? Like the splits in your mind? Did you want to play 65? Like, like, you know what I'm saying? Nowadays it's just. It's changed.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, it started to change. I think 10, 11 years into my career, the first, at least eight, nine years, I was close to 70 games every year. And then we start to drop and.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And you didn't like.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, I understood. Okay, we can't be around 70, but then we just go down to 65, then low 60s. That's when you started. Hey, hey, hold on, hold on. What are we doing?

[Marco Sturm]

Give me my net.

[Mike Grinelli]

What are we doing? But again, there's so many teams now that have. They have so many good goalies. So it works. They have a tandem and then it's also a very taxing game. I feel like it's more open now maybe. So you have to be on it. If you're not on it, you're gonna get lit up.

[Marco Sturm]

Did you have any dust ups with torts at all over the years?

[Mike Grinelli]

Do you know this?

[Paul Bissonnette]

No.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

With Torch, your coach, when you were there?

[Marco Sturm]

No, no, I had av.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, okay.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Listen, why are you doing that with your hands?

[Marco Sturm]

He used to do when he talked Yan's. I just don't know if you got it anymore.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

And he used to go like this. Why would he keep his hand?

[Ryan Whitney]

I don't know.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

You ever asked?

[Marco Sturm]

No, it's not something you asked, Coach.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

I love playing for Torch because I'm a guy that I love people with passion and he brought it every day, practice games. It was tough, but it was good tough. Be challenged that way. And, And I mean, did we have dust up? Yeah, we probably had one or two. But that's the good thing about him. You know, you clear there and then you move on. It's over.

[Marco Sturm]

That's good.

[Mike Grinelli]

But that passion that he brought to every game, every practice, the, the speeches, I was fired up for every game.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

He was the best speech coach you had, where he'd come in and he'd just bang, let's go, and then walk out.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, I resonated with him a lot in terms of that energy and fire. So that's why that part I really enjoyed. I've had a lot of great coaches, and they're good in different ways, but that part of Torch was something that really resonated with me. The, the fire and, and I love going out to game feeling like we go into war. And if I had a coach that helped us as a group get there, even better.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

And what would make you guys ever battle if you, like, maybe scratched you a few games in a row and you go clear his desk out?

[Mike Grinelli]

Well, you know, I had.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Love the juicy stories behind the stalls. Tell us you took a. On his desk.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, no, no, no. But I, I, I was playing good. But then I had a few games where I, I just was. I was not very good. I was terrible. Okay. And then I get a text one morning. It's like, hey, Hank, towards what? Wants you in this office tomorrow morning at 9. Okay.

[Marco Sturm]

He didn't even text you?

[Mike Grinelli]

No, I think it was the PR or whatever. So I get there and we had this long conversation. It's like, I don't know what you're doing. I hear, where's your focus at? I saw you at the Garden watching a show the other night, and you're not playing great and this and that. It was a list of things that he didn't like. And then he ends with, you know, people say, you're the king. You're not the king.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I'm so happy I asked that question, Marsh.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Like, what? Excuse me. Wow.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, and then it. It was a, A little bit.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Did you watch?

[Mike Grinelli]

I didn't say much, but it, it was a lot of yelling. Not from my side, mostly from Torch and people.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Like, as soon as he uttered out those words, though, you didn't react. You just were like, you just stayed there.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, yeah. No, I didn't say much because I knew I didn't play great. I just said, like, I'm going to. You can never question my, my commitment to the game. I knew that in my Heart always.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Just because I'm out at an event, like, you know, when I'm at the rink and I'm going to be preparing, like, this is all that matters. Like, if he's questioning you being out, seen out and about at something, you're like, no, like, yeah, that's. That's not a. That's not taking away from what.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, but. And I think sometimes coaches, it's great to be challenged at times. You know, I. In the end, afterwards, like, wow, I. I didn't see that one coming, but it was great to be, like, challenged.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Did you start playing?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah. What was the run you went on?

[Mike Grinelli]

I don't remember. Well, things did turn around. Otherwise I wouldn't be playing. But was he. Sometimes you get into a slump and it's hard to sometimes figure out why you're putting in the same work, but it's just. You're off.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Was he the coach when you guys made your run to the finals against the la?

[Mike Grinelli]

No, we made it to conference finals.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Finals.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Okay. And that was when you guys lost in game seven.

[Mike Grinelli]

We lost game six. Oh, game six to Jersey. And then two years later, that was.

[Marco Sturm]

The year LA beat us.

[Mike Grinelli]

That was 14.

[Marco Sturm]

Okay, so LA, Jersey in the finals.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yep.

[Ryan Whitney]

Right.

[Marco Sturm]

Jersey beat you guys. LA beat us.

[Paul Bissonnette]

LA beat Jersey and New York.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yep. In the finals. Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Both their cups.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yes.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Remember Bernier hit Scuds from behind?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yes.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

That was their first one. And they got the eighth seed, I believe, and beat Vancouver.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

So you went to the Stanley cup final one time.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. We're in the conference final in 12, 14, 15. And I have to say, in 15, I thought that was. That was going to be our year after losing in 14, 15 had a great team. And they just, you know, watching this year, watching Edmonton, how they went through conference finals, it's a different feeling. But then we came up short. Game seven against Tampa. 15.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That must. That was a great series.

[Marco Sturm]

And we were so, like. Girardi had, like, a broken foot.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Chicago won it. Yeah, I had a. Oh. That was the year, I think it was the top four or five D had injuries.

[Marco Sturm]

Everyone. Yeah. Klein had just broken his arm. Remember of Dan Boyle, Like. Yeah, we were so bad.

[Mike Grinelli]

Zuki got hit in the head too.

[Marco Sturm]

Like, lost.

[Mike Grinelli]

He couldn't speak.

[Marco Sturm]

Couldn't speak. What got hit with us? He speaks, like, four language. He couldn't speak anything. He got hit in the head with a slap shot and was in the hospital for, like.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, he skated off the ice and he couldn't say one word. Yeah.

[Marco Sturm]

It was a serious thing.

[Mike Grinelli]

Hit a part of your brain that controls your speech.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I don't ever remember hearing that.

[Marco Sturm]

It was scary.

[Mike Grinelli]

Was that in second round?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Maybe.

[Marco Sturm]

Might have been first round versus Pittsburgh.

[Mike Grinelli]

Okay. And then he came back, you know, a week or so, and just. He came for dinner.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Mike Grinelli]

And he was struggling. Speaking. Everybody's like, oh, my God. God.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Holy.

[Marco Sturm]

And he was like one of our best for.

[Ryan Whitney]

He was.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, he was unreal.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, he was like, those were his heydays. He's still good playing with Caprisoft. Maybe just a little.

[Ryan Whitney]

Not.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Not as fast.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Which one of those years was Gabor? Gabor. How do you say his name? Yeah, like lighting it up, like. Because one year he had like 45.

[Mike Grinelli]

The first year with us he had 40. Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Was that.

[Marco Sturm]

That would have been like 2000.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That wasn't one of those years.

[Ryan Whitney]

I don't know.

[Marco Sturm]

Maybe like 12, 13.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. Around there.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What's he do now? Is he in Europe?

[Mike Grinelli]

He's back in Slovakia. Yeah, I saw him. When did I see him? Yeah, he came to New York a couple months ago. I saw him. He's doing great.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Really?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What a player he was.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Boys, this has been awesome. Hank, thank you so much for sitting down. Do you have any other hockey questions?

[Mike Grinelli]

Might repeat that torts thing. I didn't get it right. He said, people treat you like you're the king around here. Guess what? You're not the king. That's how he said it.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Okay. We could just keep it in the free flowing. Interview like this.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, exactly.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Corrected yourself.

[Paul Bissonnette]

All right, Hank, we got the rollback. Last question. Use code chiclets on rollback.com for generous. 20 off your first purchase to the end of the week. C-H-I C L-E-T S on R-H-O-B-A-K.com 20 off. All polo shorts, swim trunks, and more with code checklists. Do you think Stuart Skinner isn't tying his skates tight enough?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

We're gonna have to release this right during the cup finals.

[Marco Sturm]

Now.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What do you mean? It's last question. You know what? Because if he says no and they go on to win, he'll have been correct. If he says yes and they go on to win, he'll be like, I don't think Hank knows how you're supposed to tie your skates as a goalie.

[Mike Grinelli]

All I know is this is really.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Affecting him because I know you brought it up and it's possible something panger discovered it.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

They we brought up on the panel And I just thought it was weird because, like, you know, if it's that loose, you might be trying to push off and you might skid out a little bit and then you're not getting the full push. Right?

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, but everybody's different. Some. Some goalies want a lot of mobility with their feet to. To be able to have that better balance, but for me, it was quite the opposite. Just to have that tight boots or when you do push to the side, there's no give. If it's loose, you kind of have that split of a second where there's a little give and then you get the push. But if it's stiff, it's like right away you get that push.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Okay.

[Mike Grinelli]

But again, everybody's different. Everybody wears the equipment in a unique way and they tie the skates in a unique way. So it doesn't. No, it's not going to come down to how hard he's.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Since it lays them off.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Since it came out and, and you talked about on the broadcast, how many goalies have texted you, like, oh, that's weird that he did that.

[Mike Grinelli]

No, no, no text.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Not one.

[Mike Grinelli]

No.

[Paul Bissonnette]

What?

[Marco Sturm]

You're the only one making it a.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Big deal, I think. Yeah. Busy. But I texted you. You didn't play Go. You didn't play goalie biz. All right, Hank. Unreal. Honestly, congrats on everything. All your success. Great. On TNT and buddy, I. I think the hall of Fames are done, though.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, we're done.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Let's move on.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah, we're moving on.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Are you great having you on.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Allowed to play ball hockey in that. I got a. A tournament that coming up against this idiot.

[Mike Grinelli]

All right. When?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

It's in September in Boston. The Big Deal selects are taking on the Boston Stranglers for pink slips and we can't really find a goalie. We've never won our own ball hockey tournament, Hank.

[Mike Grinelli]

Okay, consider it. Yeah, send me the details. Let me do the details.

[Marco Sturm]

Have your guy reach out to my guy.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah. Love it.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Thank you very much. To the ultimate man Rocket, Henrik Lundquist. Crazy story to hear what he went through with his heart. That is some scary shit right there. Was going to play with Washington and I mean, it's good to hear that now he's kind of happy that he was only a New York Ranger for his entire career and that he's, you know, at peace with how it all ended. But that's wild scary stuff for him and his family and. Great guy. We appreciate him coming over to Yans. They are Good buddies. So he came over, took some time on one of his off days between the finals and that was great to catch up. And congrats on an incredible career. The guy's just crushing it in life. So now we're going to throw it over to Marco Sturm. Marco Sturm. We go into the trade. The trade to Boston with Wayne Primo. Brad Stewart for Joe Thornton. Always kind of looked at as one of the most lopsided trades in history, but Marco Sturm, you'll see here. Great dude, fun to talk to, a lot of energy. And I mean, he lit it up for the Bruins for a few years, like, so it wasn't, it wasn't really his fault. We kind of go into the trade and how hard it was for him and some of those guys when it's like, I didn't. I didn't choose this trade. This isn't on me. I'm just playing as well. Well as we could. We can't good talking with. So we're gonna throw it over to him right now. Great interview. And Bruins fans, I think you should be excited. I think you should be fired up that you got this guy's coach who's been around the game for so long and knows what he's doing. So we'll see what he can do as a head coach in the NHL. So without further ado, Marco Sturm. Guys, we gotta talk about RO Sparks. I've talked about RO Sparks before, and you know what this involves? Big heart erections. Yup, that's right. You heard it here. A big old hard erection. It's a two in one prescription treatment for stronger, harder erections. Always a little weird saying that, but God damn if you're a man who doesn't want a big, strong heart erection. RO Sparks dissolve under your tongue, meaning they hit your bloodstream faster than pills, so you can get ready for action quicker. Once the medication dissolves, they work in about 15 minutes on average, giving you the boost you need for thicker, longer erections. What? Yeah, I'm doing the RO Sparks ad read again. I know you want me to try them. Thanks, honey. And helping you last longer for more fun for both of you. Plus, RO Sparks stay active in your system for up to 36 hours. That means you can be ready to go round after round or even in the morning after. And no need for an awkward in person doctor visits where you're kind of standing there like doc. Nope, nope, nope, nope. It's not awkward like that because RO connects you with a medical provider 100% online and if prescribed, your treatment ships right to your door. If prescribed, new sexual health patients get 15 off Sparks on a recurring plan. Connect with the provider at RO Company to find out if prescription RO Sparks are right for you. That's ro.co chiclets for 15 off your first order. This episode of Spitting Chiclets is brought to you by Body Armor Flash iv. If you need a little juice in your life, a little bit of I'm dehydrated. What do I do with my life? There's one answer that is Body Armor Flash iv. It's incredible tasting. It works to perfection. And Flash IV delivers faster, longer lasting hydration with over 2,000 milligrams of electrolytes. And no artificial dyes, flavors or sweeteners like those other drinks. None of that trash. You don't want that crap in your body. You want body armor flash IV. 2000 milligrams of electrolytes. Are you kidding me? None of the trash flavors or sweeteners or any of that junk. It's perfection in a bottle. It helps you feel good again. It helps you get rejuvenated. It helps you not be dehydrated any longer. That's Body Armor Flash iv. So whether you're training, traveling, or just feeling the heat, work hard, drink Body Armor Flash IV, and hydrate hard with body armor flash IV. Grab yours today at a local 711 or a convenience store near you. We are now pleased to be joined by the newly named 30th head coach in the history of the Boston Bruins organization, a man that 29 years ago was drafted in the first round himself by the San Jose Sharks, Marco Stern. What's going on, buddy? Thank you so much and congrats.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, thank you, guys. Thanks for having me. I mean, as soon as I hear you guys reached out, I'm like, I was all checked up.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, yeah, you put everything on hold. Are you gonna play golf today?

[Mike Grinelli]

Hold on.

[Paul Bissonnette]

No. The Chicklet boys are asking.

[Marco Sturm]

You might get fired though.

[Ryan Whitney]

They hate wit.

[Marco Sturm]

The GM hates wit and biz.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

He actually only came on and tell you to go yourself and then he's gonna log on.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That'd be viral for us. That's okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

So take the Boston guy. So I gotta be. I've got to be careful.

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, no, no. I got your back. I got your back. I can't say the same for Don, but take us through kind of how. How this all went down. I'm guessing that. Do you kind of apply? Do they reach out to you? How does it Work when you got in the mix originally for interviews with the Bruins?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, no, it all started probably like six, seven weeks ago. You know, as soon as my season was, was done with the rain, you know, I got the text from, from Don Sweeney. Hey, just a heads up, I called the Kings for permission and that was it. Right. We started with some phone calls first and we got into some zoom calls with his management, with the staff, and then it went on to the next round and next round. And then I was, all of a sudden, I was in Boston a couple times, and here I am today. Right. Got the job and I was the last, last guy standing. So I'm very excited.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Was that your first time applying for a head coach job and was that your first interview at the NHL level like that?

[Ryan Whitney]

No. You know what? Last year I did it with San Jose and that really helped, you know, going through the process. And even before San Jose, I reached out to a bunch of guys and coaches and they're like, everyone will tell me, it's like, this will not be your best one.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Trust me.

[Ryan Whitney]

It might be a worse one. So just give you a heads up. And I thought I did okay. But you know what? I learned so much from last year, so I try to, you know, get prepared a little bit different this year and, and, and, and thankfully it helped. You know, it worked out.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I'm wondering, with, with a coaching interview, are you going in prepared on like almost what you do with lines D pairings? Are you giving a maybe kind of a future four to five year Runway of what you see the team could turn into, like, preparation wise for yourself? What are you doing?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, no, I mean, I always started with who I am, right. As a person and then also as a coach. So a lot of guys know me, but they don't really know me as a coach. So I kind of explained that what my vision are, you know, just as a coach. And then I go deeply into probably more the system too, the way I see the game, and then, and then obviously go into the team. All right, I'm going to address exactly what we need, what needs to be done, what things we can change, we can do better roster wise, on and on and on. So, so that's, that's my plan. But in the meantime, during that whole thing, you know, GMs, they do the homework too, and they don't want, they want to know everything. Yeah. How I develop, how I do, how do I communicate with the players, with the young guys, older guys, special team, you name it. So it's It's a whole process and, and that's why it, it takes six to seven weeks sometimes.

[Marco Sturm]

And you, you know, obviously came in the NHL in the 90s and played till, you know, 2010s and you obviously have seen the way that play players have related with coaches and you know, the way to handle players nowadays. What are some things that you're going to bring to, you know, even being an assistant, having relationships with guys. There are things that are way different from when you started, you know, talking to a coach. Then that and then you're gonna have to do.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I know. And, and I'm so lucky enough and don't Smee said to the best the other day, timing is everything. And, and I'm, I'm 46 years old. And you know, you mentioned when I start playing in the NHL at Darryl Sutter and I had quote Julian, right. It can't get even better than that.

[Paul Bissonnette]

So.

[Ryan Whitney]

But I learned so much from them by just being, just being honest and direct. Right. They, they, they were telling me every day like how it is either I like it or not. And, and I had to get the job done basically. And you guys know that too. So now the new generation is like, hey, why Right? I always want to know why. And, and, and I was and you know, 46 years old and the way I came in now I seen both sides, right? So I seen the old school side, what I really like for me personally. But now I feel like, you know, the younger guys, you almost got to treat them a little bit different sometimes. And you got to know as a coach who can you poke and not right. So that's the beauty about, you know, the new generation of coaches as well.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Daryl Sutter, he's almost like a mythical figure in a way. We've heard some hilarious stories chucking guys on millionaires row. They're not playing well. Do you remember any kind of specific instances of, of him giving it to you or in a funny but also like mean way? Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

When do you look him?

[Ryan Whitney]

I gotta be careful though, because I might or he might get in trouble.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That's true. That's the 90s.

[Ryan Whitney]

We're talking moments. There are, there are good moments with that. But, but you know what the, the good thing is end of the day, he was so hard on me. But, but he loved me. He absolutely loved me. So as long as you work your butt up, right, you give everything you have every day, you will be fine. And he gave me that feeling and that's why I love them. Right. And then I got traded to boss and then Claude was up that extreme, but he was kind of like the same too. And that's why those two are my two favorite coaches.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Marco, you mentioned like at the beginning of that meeting with Boston, you kind of have to describe who you are as a person. I reached out to a few guys that you played with and the way they described you was a true pros pro. Like you'd show up early, you put the work in, not complaining. You just put your head down and go. How would you describe yourself to maybe Boston fans listening to this who don't know your personality, who maybe weren't big fans of when your time there or, or even knew about your, your long career? You played just under a thousand games and, and put up some great, great numbers as well.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, no, I mean I, I think, I think I coach exactly the same way I play. I'm very honest. I am a hardworking guy. That's why I show up. I show up early at the rink in the morning now as a coach because I want to be prepared, right? And I want to, I want to set the tone every day for my guys, for my coaches. That's where I am. And I'm just. And that's why I'm, I'm trying to show and also, and be direct, you know, with my guys and be honest and, and go from there. So again, I'm very structured as well. I was a forward just like you best. You know, we like to score.

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, you weren't. No, you weren't like this. You had eight years in a row with 20.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

You might get fired if you don't take that statement back.

[Ryan Whitney]

But that's something that I have to, you know, that's on my, on my agenda here with the Bruins that, you know, in our DNA. And I played here, right, with the Bruins and you guys know it's, you know, we know how to defend and yes, we got to tweak a few things. We know that. But I think now I just got to give him a, I just got to help him a little bit more to get, get more on the offensive side of it, of the puck and, and also be more hungry and have that, that, that offensive mindset.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

How I was just going to ask, jump in there. How do you plan on doing that? Because like, you know, Posternach, obviously an offensive superstar, I feel like maybe that's one thing the Bruins are lacking are those offensive threats. So with keeping the, the defensive identity of the Bruins with a great decor and Swayman and Net how do you plan on, on, on squeezing out maybe more offense from this team?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I mean, again, we, we don't want to lose that defensive side of it, but again, this is. Comes a lot comes from between the, between the years, I think. Right. And we gotta, I gotta, I gotta show on. Right. We gotta practice a lot and, and I'm gonna have to repeat and follow up. So that's the process with that, that, you know, new generation. So. But for me, it's gonna be day, day one training camp. There will be no gray area in my game. It's very clear, very simple, I think. But that's. I'm gonna almost brainwash them, right. Day one. And, and, and they will see it. Yeah. They will see the difference how I want to play right away. So that's why for me, it's always, you know, the best thing for me was working with Todd McClun. I thought he was just the perfect coach for me to learn. Because you know what? Every year he built that foundation right away. And then we moved up. Moved up. Right. Weeks after weeks and months and progress system wise. And I think that's what I'm going to start right away again too, you know, and you can skip middle school. You know, that's what biz did. Re. Establish our, our identity, our standard. I think that that's going to be my first goal. And having that again, that offensive mindset, that's just part of the.

[Paul Bissonnette]

When you finished playing pretty quick, maybe a year or two, you became the head coach of the German national team, won a silver medal at the 2018 Olympics while you were finishing up your career or even earlier, did you know you wanted to get into coaching? And, and how did the, the German national team coach, you know, come about? Like, how did it all go down there? Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. No, absolutely not. I was in Florida. I, I had the best life. Sunny every day. I enjoyed my family and, and, and I got into, you know, youth hockey like junior Panthers. I always put myself on the ice all the time and, and all of a sudden I got the call. I wanted to do a little bit of scouting to help the German national team. And I got the call. I remember that. I flew home to Germany and I visit, I had a visit with the, with the president that time and he's like, no, we don't want you to be a scout. I'm like, okay. He's like, I want you to be the head coach in the gm. I'm like, what? And also he kind of threw it at me, but I knew Right away. This is. This is actually something I like and it got me into right away. I spent four great years with the national team. I prepared him for, obviously, the Olympics, I mean, ended up really good, but, you know, it's just a great first step for me as a coach. And that Olympic, that double medal, it opened up everything right. All of a sudden I got calls from the NHL. Blakey and Glenn Murray called me, you know, you know, and, and, and all of a sudden I got a job in la.

[Marco Sturm]

And. And now you got Chris Kelly and Jay Leach on your staff there. Had you known them before? Like, have you guys ever played together? And, you know, how much trust are you putting in those guys to help you out and get the team where it needs to be?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I think Kels came right after me in Boston, but I met him a few times. He's an outstanding person and a good coach. Lychee. He was actually there, but he was. He spent most of the time in Providence when I was in Boston, so I know him too, a little bit. And Bob Ascenza, he was there when I played there, so that's how old he is. Right. And no, there's a good people. And those, and those were the guys I wanted to have around, you know, and, and now we could just going to look for one more guy, probably more for a power play or power play position. But no, I really look forward because the one thing I learned about coaching, you know, we. We got to be prepared and, and we gotta have a good look because if not, players will know, you know, so that's something. I don't want to give them any excuses.

[Marco Sturm]

You know, the NHL is a copycat league, and it seems like a lot of teams kind of steal from other teams. Is there a team that you kind of see that you want your team to play? Because a lot of years everyone was trying to play like the Bruins, especially in the. The defensive zone. But is there a team right now that you like watching and would take some stuff from their game?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, no, it's a good question. And, and yes, he used to be the Bruins, and that's what we want to. We want to get back to it. I mean, me being around the LA Kings, I think that's a. It's a. It's a classy organization that we've done a really good or they done a really good job the last. The last five, six years. So, of course there's a lot of good things happening there. All right. And now if you look at, you know, if you look at today's game. You got to look at the Florida Panthers, right. Just the way they play, the way they're structured, you know, defensively, offensively, it's. It's pretty impressive. So Paul Murray's did a really good job. I thought in for the Panthers and. And they do. I mean they have the players for it but. But that's something. Yeah. I think every coach is kind of looking at.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

You mentioned Todd McClellan is the one three one. The infamous three one three one as we call it, the ambient attack here on the spit and Chiclets podcast. Do you plan on implementing that into the Bruins system? Because people have complained about it being a little bit boring, but extremely effective and really slowing teams down through the neutral zone with their attack.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

No. And you know what? Believe it or not, it really helped us. Word or that was our foundation where we had right now with the Kings or where they had right now because of the one three one. You know that. That we the players believed in it and then they just got bored. Right. And that's why they wanted more. We got better and then was the switch. So I think it's. To answer your question is I think it always depends where we at as a team. Right. And I think if you're in a total rebuild just where like we were in with the Kings, I. I thought it was the right neutral zone to play. All right. I think if you're. If you a Stanley cup contender, you know that I. I don't think it will be probably a good fit either. So I think I go by my roster, I go by personnel, the players who I have and then we'll see. I mean right now I'm looking at few more options but you know, this year the Kings we in Ontario. We switched to a one two two Ish, you know, a little bit different but it worked out well too. So we'll see. We'll see. I will surprise you.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

And I actually looked at the hockey db. I don't know if it's been updated, but you have back to back 40 win seasons. Did you guys make playoffs with Ontario this year?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, we did with it and got kicked out the first. The first round and.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

And what was your experience like there? I mean I played there. It was great. Great place to live.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, it was great. And you. You visit us. You left a thousand bucks on the board. So I remember that this year.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Did he pay?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

No.

[Ryan Whitney]

I really appreciate.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Get the starting lineup. And he left us a thousand bucks. So. Thank you.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yep. I got you. I Bet the kids got drunk off that.

[Ryan Whitney]

It was, it was great. This is exactly what I needed. And going through the process with, especially with the dawn screening, this is what they wanted, right? They wanted. And they knew me as a player, they knew the national team, they knew I was assistant with the LA Kings. But what they all wanted is having more head coach experience. So the time, you know, going back to the minors, going back on the bus, that, that came up a lot. And, but for me it was a no brainer. And those three years, it was just great. You know, being my own boss and especially being in a King's organization in Ontario, it was, it was just great.

[Paul Bissonnette]

You mentioned how teams play kind of based on the roster. And now the Bruins, who've been the Standard, right, for 15 years in the league, like they have so much money to spend. There's, there's areas they need to address. Do you get to be a part of that once free agency comes around or trades? Or is that kind of all the, the GM and Don Sweeney because you wonder if there's, if, if they talk to the coaches about who they might sign or is that kind of out of your element right now?

[Ryan Whitney]

I mean the GM always makes the last call, but we, we had those conversations.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

I had it with, with, with Don Sweeney the last, a little while here. Just, he just wants to know what I think and what the need is and, and, and he's just going to go out and try to see what's out there. You know, with today's salary cap and cap and numbers and this and this and that. So it's getting a little bit more complicated. The good thing is in Boston you're not allowed to lose, right? And they will spend money. So that's a good thing here. I think he's going to try the best he can again to add few players here July 1 and, and what I do like about our team right now, we still have a good sport. You know, the Bergeon, the Char, these guys did a good job passing that court. And also now it's the McAvoy and these guys, the Lindholms and on the Pastanak. Like these guys, I can already hear when I talk to them, they already have that Bruins DNA in them. So that's good. So again, we just have to add.

[Marco Sturm]

A few pieces and you guys are one of the only teams without a captain. And you know, I'm not going to ask you who you want to be captain or whatever, but how excited are you just to be a part of that? You know, decision making and getting to know guys and getting to know their leadership skills and just to see how guys, you know, like you said, are around the room and how they are with their teammates.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

We would appreciate some breaking news if you do want to mention who's going to be captain.

[Ryan Whitney]

Sorry, I don't have one yet. But, no, we had, you know what we had not too many small conversations about it. I think we gonna. As of right now, we're just going to take our time. You know, they have their thoughts, but like you said. Yeah, like, I want, you know, I want to know them first to, you know, and I'm not going to jump in and. And tell a guy he's going to be the new captain of this franchise. This is the Boston Bruins, and this is not a, you know, different team in the league. It's a big deal. Right. So I think it's going to be very important just to. To take our time here and maybe we don't have a captain start off season. I don't know. Right. I do like to have one, but if not, it's not a problem.

[Paul Bissonnette]

You know, I saw an incredible picture of your family. I think your daughter, son, your wife on the ice at the game at Fenway park, where you got the OT winner in that Winter Classic. And then all the family together. Your son looks like he's grown about 5ft since then. I read he's playing at Bowdoin. But you guys were in Boston as a family. Dc, Vancouver, la. And then, you know, then you go to Ontario, Germany, when you're coaching. How excited is the family to be back in Boston in a place you guys got to. To spend so many years before?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I mean, they're so. They're so excited, I can't even tell you.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Because that helps you, right?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yesterday in the press conference. My family's been bugging me for years now to get a. Hey, dad, can you get a place in Boston?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Because no way.

[Ryan Whitney]

Right? And. And here we are. Right? The wish, the risk came through. And my son, now he's up in Bowdoin. My daughter committed to UMass Boston, like three months ago.

[Paul Bissonnette]

No way.

[Ryan Whitney]

Now we're all together. He can't. He. He can't write a better script. So. It's unbelievable. Everything happened for a reason. I always believe in that. And that's exactly what Marco did.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

You ever see the movie Dumb and Dumber?

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Is it hard not calling Cam Neely Seabass? Or, or. Or do you call him Seabass?

[Paul Bissonnette]

That's how he got hired. He. Oh, yeah, he looks like Seabass to lose.

[Ryan Whitney]

I can't. I. I was telling the other day. I was telling. Actually him. I reminded him, remembering in Montreal when we. When we played the, you know, the Canadiens. It's a big rival. We lost the game. And after the game, you know, we're in the bus on the way out from the rink, and those fans, Canadian fans, they didn't move at all, right?

[Paul Bissonnette]

They didn't move.

[Ryan Whitney]

They're like, whatever. Cam got out. Cam got out. He was so pissed. And I didn't know what he said, but all of a sudden, in, like, seconds.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Come on.

[Ryan Whitney]

That's Cam. That's C. Bass, right? I don't know. He's great. You know, he's been great. I know him for a long time. He's very. He just wants to win. He's a winner, right?

[Paul Bissonnette]

And.

[Ryan Whitney]

And. And it hurt for the whole franchise, but especially for him last year, last season. It really hurt.

[Paul Bissonnette]

He's like, do you see what Chara just did to patch you Already there. That'll look like a trip to the sauna if you don't get out of the way of our bus.

[Mike Grinelli]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Trip to the Med Spa Biz mentioned your career, and incredible. Like, eight years in a row, over 20 goals, just under a thousand games. I kind of would like to go into that a little bit, maybe, like, growing up in Germany, I think one of the biggest names or the earliest, best players from Germany to ever play in the NHL was yourself. Like, who did you have look to look up to growing up? Was it guys in the del? Like, what were your dreams like? Was it more del or playing in the NHL? Like, I always wonder for the Europeans that are a little older, how it was in youth hockey and junior.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, no, it started with the DL.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

So you want to be, you know, you want to be in the German league. But when I. I think when I hit, like, When I was 13, 14 years old, I could already tell I was better than anyone else. Right? Yeah. You know, with the. Going through the national team, the under 16, 7 and 18 year go, going through that and playing those world championships, those big tournaments. So then I knew, oh, you know, now I got a different goal and different dream. It's going to be the NHL. And sure enough, you know, I was lucky enough the San Jose Sharks drafted me. I remember, you know, Dean Lombardi, he. He visited me a few times, you know, before they drafted me in Germany. So I. I knew. I think I knew with. Especially with 14, 15 that I will end up, end up in the States.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And now looking at German hockey and, and, and draisaitl cider stutzel, like could you ever have imagined, like the skill and the talent and I'm sure there's some 14 and 15 year olds now there that'll be over here in four or five years, that, that'll dominate. But what has, what has been the biggest thing to change the skill level of these German players coming over, like they've just turned into some real elite talent in the league.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, we have some, I mean, you name it, we have some really good talent. I think that the one thing we were keep working on it is we just need more of them. Right. The only, you know, there's a price hustle and then there's a little stretch, five to 10 years and then there's a cider and then it's another stretch. So we, you know, we want to shrink that process a little bit and develop more and more German guys, but it's, it's not easy. You know, it's a country, it's all about soccer.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Germany, it's not the number one sport. It's sometimes it's a money issue too. So it's not easy. I think they're trying for years. They're trying the best they can. I think you could see it already, even with the national team, you know, with, with those kind of players, you could see, yeah, you see the progress, I would say, over the years, but still, there is still a lot of work to do, but it's not easy.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

So you get to San Jose, Darrell Sutter's your coach, and then you guys have a pretty wily veteran group like Owen Nolan, I heard he's as old school as they come. Al Iafredi, what was it?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Planet.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Smoking cigarettes and darts with his skullet and warm up.

[Ryan Whitney]

He actually did. That's a true story.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Come on. He was not on the bench or nothing.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, not on a bench, but between periods, you know, there's that hallway, you know, I don't know if you remember the shark at the tank, right. There's a locker room and there's that hallway. It goes all the way around. He was like.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Ripping one.

[Ryan Whitney]

Timers, get back in.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Unbelievable. With that huge slap shot. Like how big of a culture shock was that? Maybe your first year. Like, obviously you go from journey to Germany to being in California, but also like with an intense coach like that. And then some of these like, like men, like old school men that played the game a different Way.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I came in. I. I think one point, I. I think it was even. Oh, no, he asked me, hey, can you. You can speak English?

[Paul Bissonnette]

I.

[Ryan Whitney]

Of course I did, but I was. I had so much respect and I was, you know, I was a young kid. I was 18, 19 years old. I didn't want to say anything wrong either. I was just watching these guys and. But it was the best, though. You know, look, now, looking back, and. And Daryl was great because back then we had all. We all had roommates, so he always put all the guy with me. So I had Tony Granado. He was my first roommate. Right. I had Ron Sutter, I had Mary Craven, you know, so he always put guys in my room, like, all the guys so I can learn from. And it was the best. I mean, we had so many great people in our locker room and. And they took me everywhere, me and Pat, in my world, we were like, we were their toys, right? We were there. There's their stars. And they took. Just took us everywhere and. And it was outstanding. You know, we learned so much. We had a lot of fun and. Yeah, I couldn't ask for better.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Wait, sorry, Biz, I never knew. So Daryl coached his brother Ron?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, holy. Because I just looked. He's only five years older than him. Was he just giving it to his brother, too?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah. What was that like?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. You know, the good thing is Ron is he's. He's a quiet guy. Okay, so that's good. Maybe that's a good thing, right? Yeah. What I remember, I think he left him alone a little bit. I don't know what happened. Maybe he called him later.

[Mike Grinelli]

He's like.

[Paul Bissonnette]

He's like, ron's got dirt on me from growing up. I can't.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, yeah. You want to know where the bodies are buried, boys?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Shirt me about my forecheck one more time, you little.

[Ryan Whitney]

You know, Ron was great being my roommate. He told us. He told me some stories.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, that's probably why I left you alone.

[Ryan Whitney]

You know, back. Back in the house. Like how they. You know, we're fighting it out and.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That'S got to be the only time a brother's coached a brother. It's insane in the NHL, but I.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I heard that they would all scrap at the farm. Like, I heard it was just an absolute gong show out there.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. And it was.

[Paul Bissonnette]

If you're from Viking, Alberta, you're fighting your brothers at the farm, you're fighting.

[Ryan Whitney]

Your mom at breakfast.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Just. Just going toe to toe. So of those guys you mentioned in your first couple years, like who was the most interesting roommate? Like you got to have some wild story maybe coming in a little too late.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, I mean I never had him, but I heard a lot of stories because Patty Marlo had him for a while. He was. Marty MC was just, just animal. Just by. It's just. Even by looking at him, he's just massive. And no, he was good. He just had a different routine, I guess. But you know, my guys are all really good. I mean, you know, Tony Granado is. I don't know, you probably met him too. He's one of the best human beings out there and. But he was just great. But there is some wild ones just like Marty for sure.

[Paul Bissonnette]

You know what? I. I got a question about a guy in San Jose who turned into like a sex symbol. Was Mike Ricci, right? Do you remember him?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, yeah. Best looking guy every year.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, you know him? Yes. He must have been fun to play with that he turned. He had like a. Yeah, he.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Absolute man missile.

[Paul Bissonnette]

But he was.

[Ryan Whitney]

He will tell you too. He will tell you.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I think he won.

[Marco Sturm]

Tells you about a six goal game. Every time he sees.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

You scored six goals in a game, right?

[Marco Sturm]

Marco was. It was like five or six goals.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Every time he.

[Marco Sturm]

You'd come into the lobby, he'd be like, I would tell you about the time I scored six goals. You're like, yeah, dude, yesterday.

[Ryan Whitney]

That's them. That's. And this guy, listen, he couldn't even skate, first of all, right. No, he couldn't shoot the part. But he had a, you know, he had a big ass and he had a good stick and you know how to tip part. So I give him a lot of credit. But this guy is funny. I mean this guy, he is. I think his, you know, his time was always after warm up and from, you know, after one until the game. That's what. That was his moment. That's where he had all these jokes and. But he was losing the guys up. I think that was great. But evil. Yeah. He will tell you he was sexiest athlete. Are you gonna hear that for.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That? You hear about that more than his copy?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah, absolutely. I didn't see the press conference, but my understanding is you apologize right away for the trade for Joe Thornton and said yeah, yeah, you have nothing to do with it. So, so we, you gotta walk us through this. Getting the call and finding out you're. You're moving from San Jose and, And ultimately for the, the.

[Paul Bissonnette]

The.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

The MVP of the league.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, yeah, no, it was, it was actually now It's a funny story, but we got, we got to Dallas. We played, we played Dallas in Dallas. We did the warmup, everything for the game, right? So we're warm up, we're outside, we went back in a room and all of a sudden one of our systems, I, I can't remember, came in. He's like, durham primo Stuart, just come to the coaches room. So I'm like, okay. So we went in a room and I didn't know prem said, oh, he said it right away. He knew, he knew, he knew.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And.

[Ryan Whitney]

But that was my first trade. So I went in there and here's Dougie Wilson already waiting with the coaches. And he's like, hey, listen, I know it's a bad timing, but I just made a trade with Boston and yeah, thanks for everything, kind of. And you know what? We got in the room, we got undressed, went to the hotel, right? The guys had to play short. We had a flight the next day, 6am we went to Boston and played that night, right? We had nothing. We had not. There was a snowstorm going on, right? We had no clothes. We have nothing. We had no jacket. I didn't go home. I didn't see. My wife was pregnant that time. I didn't see her for like another month. It was just wild.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And.

[Ryan Whitney]

But yeah, that, that was the big trade. And you know, going into Boston was. It was not easy. And that's why I said it's not my fault. You know, like the guy. Everyone was pissed and how can you treat a guy like Joe? And especially for those three clowns, probably, you know, that's what they thought.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I didn't do this.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Did you feel like instant pressure, like even like from the media side and fans because of that anger with, with moving on from them? And like, did it affect your play at all? I mean, all the other intangibles, like moving, not being around your wife who's pregnant, new scenery, that would have enough impact in itself. But all of a sudden you're maybe dealing with that backlash from the media where you're like, I don't make the trades around here.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, I mean, we felt him for sure. The, the, the good thing was, you know, the good thing we were so bad right now. Then everything turned into, you know, they, they just hated the gm, right? So it was more management, ownership, whatever. So they were all, all on them. So, so the, that was the, the fans focus a little bit for me personally. That game, right away, Game one, they put me with Bergeron and Brad Boyce. If you remember him? You were one of the hottest lines in the league for that season. I had, I played, I scored right away. I had assist. I had the best time ever, right? And I had one of my best seasons ever. So. So for me personally, it was just, it was a great trade. You know, I, I knew they wanted to build a team around Bergeron. He was only 20 years old that time, but I think it all worked out, both sides.

[Marco Sturm]

Speaking of Bergeron, obviously the legend that he is, you got to play with him. Is he a guy that's around the team and, like, you're gonna, you know, kind of bounce things off? I don't know what his role is there, but you see him around, like, you know, just a. Such a smart hockey player, like, obviously a guy that you'd love to have around.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I think he's trying to convince him to come back and play.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, yeah, I saw him yesterday. He, I think he's, I thought, you know, he's one of the guys. He came in with 7,7% body fat. That's almost impossible, right? And look at him yesterday. He's like, never changed. Like, he still left 7%. He's such, he's such a good shape, right? And, but yeah, no, he's actually, he's staying away a little bit. He has four kids right now. His wife went back to school, so he's really busy with his kids. I hope he's gonna be more around a little bit. I mean, I love this guy. I love to pick his brain, but he's just, he's just not there yet.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, looking. So your last year on the Bruins, was that the year you guys were up 3, 0 against Philly?

[Ryan Whitney]

Do you really have to remember?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, God.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, my God. Well, I'm looking, I'm looking. I'm like, oh, Jesus. That was. Then you were in la. I, I won't even, I won't even make you talk about that.

[Ryan Whitney]

I will not even make you talk about game one. I got hurt. I blew my acl. That was, that was a bad one. But we were up three nothing and even game four. I think we went to OT or something. Yeah, I don't know what happened. That was a tough one.

[Marco Sturm]

It must have been even worse watching from the press box like you.

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, he was playing. Did you play?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

He said he got hurt. Game one.

[Ryan Whitney]

Game one.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, I had my guy.

[Ryan Whitney]

That was my fault.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I had that.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Point the finger. What do you got, Woody?

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, I'm just, Yeah, I guess. I, I, I, I don't really have Much else. I'm. I'm very happy for you. Congratulations with everything. I mean, it's just. It's a cool story, right? Like you. You get traded there, which is kind of a disaster at the beginning because it was Joe Thornton, and you come back and I guess the main thing for me is, like, your first head coaching job in the NHL is an Original six franchise. So that, I mean, that's not very common at all. So you just must be more excited than anything to get going, get camp going.

[Ryan Whitney]

Absolutely. I mean, you said it. I mean, being back, I still can't believe it. Austin and being back here in Boston. Original six. You know, I said the time it. I mean, topazi. The good thing was they didn't play good last year because otherwise I would. I never thought of having a chance here to be the head coach, but here I am not.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I had a couple more. It's cool because, like, towards the end of your career, you played in Los Angeles and Washington and back to back years. Like, you play with Anze Kopitar. Not a captain when they won the Stanley cup, but obviously a leader. What was it like seeing him and then Alexandro Ovechkin when you were in Washington as these young superstars budding in the league? Like, that must have been so cool as a veteran to see those guys and also probably have an impact from a leadership standpoint on their careers.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, no, and it sucked that time because I was moving around a lot. It wasn't fun. But, you know, now looking back, you know what, it helped me a lot now because to see. To go into those different locker rooms and different superstars, it's. I could. I could tell you right away, like, who's close to winning Cups and not. And again, coming from Boston, I thought LA was really similar, you know, with the Kopitar, the Doughty, the Quick and these guys. It's. It was very similar locker room, you know, very focused, hardworking. You know, then he got into Wash. You know, a little bit different, right? OV is a different leader, way more outgoing, having way more fun than anyone else. It was just different. Right? And then going into Vancouver too, you know, it was a bad timing, I think, because they lost game seven that summer against the Bruins. So that was just a bad timing by me. And. And then going back to Florida again, you know, that was the first year we made the playoffs. So again, it was great to see, right, to hang out and also to see those kind of different characters and different kind of players, you know, in different cities.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I noticed in your last year it was a quick, what was it, five games in Germany. Was that more of like you wanted a proper send off back home and where it all began and, and basically say goodbye to, to hockey in your own special way.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, that was the, the lockout year. Right? So that was a lockout year. So I was trying, I was working my butt off all year. Tried to get a job back with the Panthers, didn't work out. NHL started and then I think it was February or something. I'm like, you know what? I just wanna, I wanna play. I worked so hard to come back. Let's play in Germany. You recruit called me. He was a coach in Cologne, so he called me. So I played five games and then we made it to the final. Unfortunately we lost Trooper Lynn, but what a great, that was just a great way to finish. Not the way I wanted. I wanted to finish the, you know, in the States, in the NHL, but you know, playing back home, that was pretty cool.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Well, you're back there now, buddy.

[Marco Sturm]

I just want to know what guy you're most looking forward to working with. Just to kind of even get to know them. Obviously I'm sure you know every guy's game, but just getting to know their personality off the ice and how they operate every day.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, no, I, I mean, I think the older guys, it just by talking to them, they got me all fired up too, all excited. You know, if you have a guy like pasta, you know, I think that's pretty special to work with a guy like that. We do have a bunch of Europeans too, you know, so that's. I hope I can help them a little bit more than, than, than, than, than others. But you know, but I, you know what I learned also in Ontario is working with young kids. So I really, I really have a, have a thing on those young kids now because I have one. Those them to, to be better. I want them to have success.

[Mike Grinelli]

Right.

[Ryan Whitney]

And I spend a lot of time in the past and I will try to do it again. So it's, it's hard to name a name, but there is still, still a lot of good players in this room. I, I'm glad to work with and.

[Marco Sturm]

If we can give you any little advice, do what Carberry did this year. Have cameras on you in the locker room after every game and you'll win the Jack Adams because it just, you know, people fell in love with them and you know, like, we've seen your personality here today. You've been amazing. I think everybody's gonna Love you in Boston.

[Ryan Whitney]

If you wanna know, I appreciate it.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

If you want to start a reality show, we'll, we'll, we'll take care of that. We'll get the whole production team.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, it'd be big.

[Ryan Whitney]

I got the experience yesterday. They call it behind the Beast. Wherever the guy was following me right from my. It was all. They end up in my shower here, you know, he's like, he was like.

[Marco Sturm]

Ready to business commercial.

[Ryan Whitney]

I'm like, oh, is that going to be every day like that? He's like, yeah, welcome to Boston.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Okay.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Last. Okay. Actually my last one about you got the chance to coach Quentin Byfield. Is, is, is this like, I'm thinking like a hundred point player here watching him this year. Like you kind of saw this from the start, right? Did you. Can we expect to see a superstar in this guy?

[Ryan Whitney]

I think so, yeah. Oh, I'm.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yes, absolutely.

[Ryan Whitney]

Okay. Just the way he had a low, a slow start, I would say. But he just, you know what, he was 19 years old. He just needed a little bit more time than other guys.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

But now you can see he's still not there yet, but he can see already how good he is. And I think he's just going to get better and better. I think lineup or line wise, like he's going to move up, he's going to play even with better players. You know, he was still playing a lot of times in the third line. All right. Can you imagine play? You know, he plays every day with a guy like Kempe and I think he, he's just gonna get better.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. Well, thank you so much.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I just had one last one. It's not hockey related. I'll be spending a little bit of time in Boston after the Stanley cup finals is over. What are your favorite staples about Boston? Like when you were there and what are you excited to get back to? Whether it's restaurants like where you hang out. Like, what were your favorite things about Boston that you look forward to getting back into?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. Suburbs or city for your living next year?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, it's, you know, when I got here, everyone moved from the outside, from the sub to, to downtown. I think my kids and we all grew up here. They grew up here downtown and we had the best time ever. So I'm really looking forward to be back in the city. Right. We love city life, we love restaurants, we love to go out and, and, and, and eat well and have a good time. So I think that's something we really looking forward to.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Favorite restaurant.

[Ryan Whitney]

We gotta win though first.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Gotta Win. Favorite restaurant in Boston.

[Ryan Whitney]

I mean, Avon Lewis is always a good one. It's always solid. You know what you get? I like Prima Prima in Charlestown. I don't know which if you know that.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. New spot. Incredible spot.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. Yeah, I like that.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. All right, well, Marco Sturm, new head coach, 30th coach of the Boston Bruins. Congrats once again. And we appreciate you spending some time with us.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Big time.

[Ryan Whitney]

Hey, thank you. Thanks, guys. You're doing great.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Thank you. All right, see you, Marco.

[Ryan Whitney]

Can I. When I. Can I say something?

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Oh, here we go.

[Ryan Whitney]

Next time you went. Yeah. I gotta say, you guys, you guys are awesome. You know, Iman pnt. You guys are great. But it was. I was on the plane the other day, and when Gary Bettman came in, I thought that was hilarious. You know, Biz.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Put him on the hot seat, Marco.

[Ryan Whitney]

Okay, what are your thoughts as a kid? Like.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Come on, man, you can't leave me.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Hey, you're the coach of a team that needs that rule to change.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Yeah. What do you think about it?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, I mean it. It's a good question. I'm not going to comment on it. I can. Come on.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Well, Se Bass is behind him right.

[Ryan Whitney]

Now, but you know, on the plane that were like, what is this guy laughing at? I was just laughing at.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

You were laughing because I teed him up for that. I threw him a softball, he got.

[Paul Bissonnette]

The dunk, pounded it out of the park.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

I'll be sending him a invoice this off season for. For letting him dunk on me on national television. That comes at a cost, Gary.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

All right, Marco, have a great one.

[Ryan Whitney]

Okay, thank you. Thank you, guys.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Thank you very much. DeMarco Sturm, great interview. Interesting to see, like, the German talent. And, you know, we brought up cider and Stutzel and Draisiedl and kind of just discussing more, like how do we produce more of those world class, like, high level elite players. We'll see what happens. But you got three absolute young studs in the league. I don't know how young Leon is anymore, but I mean, he's top three player in the world, so. Thank you to Marco Sturm. I've been solo here, fishy. You're backstage. You have anything? What have you been up to? Yeah, so I've been in Minnesota this whole summer, and I want to give.

[Ryan Whitney]

A quick shout out to the Maple.

[Paul Bissonnette]

GROVE Crimson, the U14 lacrosse team close.

[Ryan Whitney]

To me, of which I am a.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Coach, going undefeated this season.

[Mike Grinelli]

I am an assistant coach.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I do skills with the team. So I go to all the games and we coach twice a week.

[Ryan Whitney]

It's.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And for people who don't know, Fish was a very good lacrosse player. I never played lacrosse. Fish, the town I grew up in showed out Scituate, Massachusetts. So showed out Henry Lockwood. Hank. There was no lacrosse in Scituate. And so it was, you know, I love baseball then and. But there wasn't even an option. I don't know how old I was. I had already moved out when lacrosse became a thing. Now I think it's pretty popular, but great game. I kind of wish I'd played because it's probably better if you're super into hockey and that's what you want to do. Try to play college hockey or junior. You're probably better off playing lacrosse at 11, 12, 13 than you would be baseball. Just because stick skills, running cardio more similar to hockey and like how you're playing and training. It's physical more than baseball. But you were good. I didn't know you were that good. And then I found out you were good. I was pretty impressed. So it makes sense you're doing the skill work stuff. Yeah. So I. I didn't want to be.

[Mike Grinelli]

The head coach, but the skill stuff.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I can definitely do. But I want to give a shout out to the team because they won their state championship this last weekend.

[Mike Grinelli]

We went undefeated season. Oh yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And I also have one other thing.

[Ryan Whitney]

I want to call a. I guess an audible maybe. I don't know the right word here.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I thought you were calling a fatwa on someone. No, no. So the. With the Kirk game, this. This basketball, I guess. Well, it'll already be out by now.

[Ryan Whitney]

But I want to call if the.

[Paul Bissonnette]

New York team loses. I want it to be known I did text taint to beers that I.

[Mike Grinelli]

Would be willing to fly in to go to this game.

[Paul Bissonnette]

My claim to fame in basketball is.

[Mike Grinelli]

That I went to a Jim Boeheim.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Syracuse basketball camp when I was 12.

[Ryan Whitney]

Years old and he said that I played like Pistol Pete Maravich. So I would just want to call.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That out there that I was willing.

[Mike Grinelli]

To go and play in this game.

[Paul Bissonnette]

And Dana. But you don't work in the New York office, Fish. But I do. I mean I was in the New York office.

[Ryan Whitney]

I just moved.

[Paul Bissonnette]

But I could totally play for the New York office. I started there. You have games. I mean Pistol Pete average for you don't know. Is he one of the most skilled players ever? I believe you could go to the YouTube and check out his dribbling like, that's you. I was all pass. All passing.

[Ryan Whitney]

No points.

[Paul Bissonnette]

But I can dish the rock, okay?

[Ryan Whitney]

That's my claim to fame.

[Paul Bissonnette]

So if the New York team loses, just want that known.

[Ryan Whitney]

I want that.

[Paul Bissonnette]

They were. They were missing Fishy. They were missing me.

[Ryan Whitney]

Exactly. Okay.

[Paul Bissonnette]

All right, Fair enough, guys. Lastly, and if you notice I have a different shirt on, if you're watching on YouTube, it's because I had to fix what I said earlier. I was incorrect. But we got to some very special news about Chiclets cup. Registration begins Wednesday, July 30th at 12pm Eastern. That's noon Eastern. Open registration for the Chiclets Cup. The location this year, very Special. Harpoon Brewery, 306 Northern Ave. Boston, MA. It's going to be a scene. It's going to be a movie. As our guy memes likes to say. Harpoon Brewery is Boston's original craft brewery. They've been making beer there since 1987. Wouldn't you. Wouldn't you know, that doesn't make sense. Can you believe it? Also, this tournament is. It's kind of like the immovable force meets the. What is the saying? Fishy? That's a wittism. That's a tough one. I couldn't even get through it. Basically, it's two. What is it?

[Ryan Whitney]

The unstoppable force meets the immovable object.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Okay, well, I actually don't even think I should have said that because one of those forces or objects is business team. They stink. They've never won a thing. They've never won their own tournament. So Keith Yandel came in and put together his own team. The Boston Stranglers versus the Big deal Selects basically like winner take all. I don't even care if neither one of them win it. It's when they play each other. Heads will roll. I can't wait for it. It's going to be drama filled in a beautiful area in Boston, the Harpoon Brewery. It's going to be incredible weekend. The best time to be in Boston's late September, even early October. Unreal time of year around here. So noon Eastern on Wednesday, open registration at the Harpoon Brewery. It's going to be a movie and we get the Stranglers versus the Big Deal selects. It's going to be incredible. So thank you very much to everyone who tuned in and listened to my nonsense. I can't wait to get back with the guys. I don't know what. I don't know who's going to be here next week. I know I will. I know I will. Getting ready for the Falcon. Also, shout out Matt Barzell. Two hole in ones in six days. Last week. I just saw that on Instagram. That's like he never had one. And he got one and then he got one six days later and they're both at Deepdale, which is one of the best golf courses in the world. Legit. Like incredible. And this guy gets two aces in the six days. He's good looking, he's fast. Some guys just got it all. He's probably got a hog. A little weird. And what else was there? Bunch of weddings too. Shout out Nick Suzuki, his wife. I saw Patrick Lyne getting after it at that wedding. And then Matthew Tkachuk. Congrats to Matthew Tkachuk. Married. The guys were carrying around Big Walt. They were carrying around Walt Tachuk. Keith Tkachuk, the legend himself. Brady as a shirt. Had his shirt off. Yanz was at that wedding. Maybe catch up with him on that. So that's about it. Open registration Wednesday. Chicklets Cup Harpoon Brewery. Stranglers versus Big deal selects. Let's go. Stranglers.

[Ryan Whitney]

I get someday.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Get the crew together and head off to the course in the new 2024 Chevy Traverse. With impressive cargo room, three room seating and the first ever Z71 trim Traverse can handle your buddies and their golf bags with ease.

[Mike Grinelli]

Chevrolet together.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

Let's drive.