A (118:38)
And, and it's great, man. It's, yeah, it's like, it was like Christmas Eve, man. I, I got up early. I've been off the wall since I got up. But before we get to the fun stuff, I, I just want to do a little bit of housekeeping, you know, before we get to the good stuff first. Thanks to you guys, biz wit Dave Portnoy for allowing me to go on ltif for as long as I did. I needed a little bit of a timeout, and I, you know, happens in life, sometimes you fall in skinny knee, sometimes you fall in a ditch, and you can't get up for six months. And that, that's what happened. And you guys really helped me out. You kind of gave me the kick in the pants I needed, and I, I took a little time out and yeah, I, I was a more of a mental thing. Like I said, you guys, it was just, and then I turned the corner, man. All of a sudden, things were good. Things weren't bothering me as much, and I just, like, felt like the old goofball I was 10 years ago. Also, I want to thank the crew, G Fish, Merle's Army, Pasha, Memesy, Nick, Berta, Jeff Jacobson, and Julia for being great teammates. You guys keep the best podcast in the universe. Hockey podcast in universe. Going without all you guys, it doesn't happen. And I also want to apologize to all you gang, too, for, you know, being a up. I, I was such a bad bus driver with even the MBTA wouldn't hire me to drive one of their buses last year. It was a rough ride, so I apologize for that. I love all you guys. I made your jobs harder, was a pain in the ass. And, you know, I wasn't the teammate I pride myself to be, so I'm Sorry. And I love you guys. To the fans, same thing. I apologize for sucking at my job and not giving you guys the, the quality shows you deserve because we're nothing without with all you folks, man. You guys are all over the planet. Canada, Sweden, Australia, all over the place. That's one thing that's always amazed me. Just the, the support we get globally, it's awesome. So sorry for up, but I also thank you for the support so many of you guys. I know certain social media sites, I might be less popular than others, but I, I'll tell you, the Instagram dms, man, but that was very helpful. I mean braggadocio, but I mean every day for the last 16 months, it was, whether it was one or 10, it was people on their real names, you know, chiming in, checking in, asking and, and I couldn't get back to everybody. I, I read them all. I got back to some years and I just want to thank all the fans so much for that. Check it in. And you know, just if I was coming back, all this stuff and I would have loved to have gotten back to everybody but I, I read them all. The support was awesome and you know, I love the fans. I love you guys. So I just want to again apologize for, for off and thanking you guys for the support. Also my many friends in both hockey media and in the NHL, a lot of guys reached out. You know, like you just mentioned a few minutes ago, Coop, who was just on, you know, it's, I mean, it's funny to say like this crazy job I have like, you know, like a pals with the future hall of fame coach. It's just the weird vagaries of life. But he's been aces, man. He's a guy who's checked in on me frequently. So I, I love that guy. But you know, even media folks who I, I don't know well of DME and sent them messages and you know, the hockey world, you know, we know how good it is and that just sort of reiterated with me and of course the best friends in the world that I have and my dynamite family, you know, they've been aces through this whole thing and I just want to thank them as well. And one final thank you to Clint Milachuk. You know, this is a guy who, when we interviewed him, I, I didn't know him before we interviewed him. Two hours later, I coincidentally bumped into him in the casino and you know, he saw something in my eye, on my face. I made a comment about divorce and he just saw something was off. With me. And he. And he's like, hey. He pointed me in the chest. Hey, take your phone out. Take my number down. And it was just like, this guy, you know, just met me, doesn't know me from a hole in the wall, and he's willing and offering to help me out. And, you know, it took a couple months for me to get out there, but I went out to his ranch. It's called the Ranch Teammates for Life out in Minnesota. I went out there for a couple of weeks to come up for a little bit of air. And I just want to thank Clint. He does so much for so many veterans out there. It's a. Primarily a veteran in place. It's. They do, you know, rehab and PTSD and guys who don't have houses, stuff like that. They do so much stuff. So I do want to shout out. It's the. The ranch teammates for life.org. yeah, the ranch teammates for life.org. all one word, the top right of the screen. You can donate there if you can. I'd appreciate it. He'd appreciate it. Again, you're helping a bunch of veterans. So, Clint, I love you, brother. I'm eternally grateful for everything you did for me, and I. That's all the serious stuff.