Spittin' Chiclets Episode 600: Featuring Craig Fitzpatrick & Derek Stepan

Summary

Spittin' Chiclets Episode 600 [Nov 27, 2025]: Craig Fitzpatrick & Derek Stepan

Episode Overview

Theme:
Episode 600 of Spittin' Chiclets is a milestone installment featuring a powerful mix of NHL banter, league analysis, and deeply personal storytelling. The episode is split between the core Chiclets crew (Ryan Whitney, Paul "Biz" Bissonnette, Rear Admiral, and producer Mike Grinnell), former NHLer Derek Stepan, and an extended/inspirational interview with blind veteran hockey player and advocate Craig Fitzpatrick.

The show oscillates between irreverently breaking down NHL headlines, heartfelt gratitude around Thanksgiving, and celebrating adaptive hockey's growing impact. It’s also a showcase of hockey as a unifying force—both for able-bodied and disabled communities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The State of the NHL: Trades, Struggling Teams, and Playoff Odds

Timestamp: 03:16 – 21:44

• The Oilers' ongoing meltdown and poor defensive zone play takes center stage. Whitney rails against their lack of effort:

  • "Who fucking cares out there right now?" (09:07 – Whitney)
  • Debate around whether adding goaltender Jordan Binnington is really the solution, as Skinner’s stats aren’t much worse, but Binnington has “big game” credibility (05:00).
  • Detailed speculation on trade markets for Vancouver and Nashville, with only a few untouchables on each team.

• Coaching Dynamics:

  • Paul Coffey’s absence as Edmonton’s D coach is dissected; Biz speculates on "butting heads" and a lack of urgency/coaching accountability:
    • "You need to fucking lay into these guys right now. The inmates ain't running the asylum..." (08:19 – Biz)

• Canadian Team Woes:

  • Discussion about all seven Canadian teams missing the playoffs, with ongoing frustration from fans and media piling on both Edmonton and Toronto.

• Thanksgiving Benchmarks:

  • The classic "78% of teams in playoff position at Thanksgiving make the playoffs" stat is discussed, with shoutouts to surprise teams—specifically the Islanders (East), Anaheim and Seattle (West).
  • Praise for young stars like Islanders’ Matthew Schaefer and Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson.

2. Interview: Derek Stepan, Former NHLer & Current Wild Player Development

Timestamp: 21:49 – 44:19

• Minnesota Wild Turnaround:

  • The “closed-door meeting” led by Jared Spurgeon is highlighted as a critical turning point, returning the Wild to their "stingy D" identity—“Good for Spurge, good for all the guys in that room...” (24:57 – Stepan)

• Player Insights:

  • Stepan analyzes goalie Jesper Wallstedt’s emergence:
    • "He’s been the Wally that I saw two years ago in the A when he was probably one of the best goalies in the league." (22:58 – Stepan)
  • Young defenseman Brock Faber’s maturity and confidence.
  • Stepan talks about Kirill Kaprizov as “top five in the league” and “an insane talent.”

• Player Development Philosophy:

  • Explains how the Wild alternate which prospects they mentor by month so players don’t "get sick of the same washed up voice" (28:45).

• Inside Management:

  • Stepan jokes about Billy Guerin’s relentless chirping in meetings and shares funny anecdotes about team banter.
  • Reflection on the psychological grind for players/teams coming off long playoff runs.

• NYC Media & Pressure:

  • Stepan is candid about media/fan scrutiny in New York, especially during losing skids—sharing run-ins with the late Larry Brooks:
    • "He was always fair to me...but we definitely had our matches. He kept saying, well, what do you think? And I was like, this is what it is, Larry. ... became a fuck you match.” (40:09 – Stepan)

3. Interview: Craig Fitzpatrick, Blind Veteran Hockey Player

Timestamp: 46:09 – 102:44

A. Craig’s Journey and Blind Hockey Basics

• Losing Vision & Military Service:

  • Craig describes how Stargardt disease and military deployment (including chemical exposure and stress during the USS Cole recovery) led to near-total blindness by his late 20s.
  • "You have all these challenges thrown at you all at once...what can I still do?" (55:09 – Fitzpatrick)

• Discovery of Hockey:

  • Attended his first hockey game at the Air Force Academy despite no southern exposure as a kid. Hockey became a passion after vision loss.

• Learning to Skate & Play as an Adult:

  • Enrolled in Learn to Skate at age 37—“It was as a 37-year-old adult going to a Learn to Skate 1 class with U.S. figure skating...not being able to see what the heck is going on but also afraid to tell my coaches that I was blind because I wanted them to let me take the class.” (57:22)
  • Blind hockey uses a large, audible steel puck; goalies are completely blind; attacking teams must make a clear pass before shooting.
    • "This puck...made of 22-gauge steel, it’s got eight ball bearings inside...when it’s moving, it makes noise." (60:40)

• Vulnerability & Perseverance:

  • Talks candidly about stigma, mental health, and why skating was a lifeline:
    • "It was both vulnerable but also kind of validating that I could get out there with them...they were going through the same stuff I was." (58:52)

B. Growth of Blind Hockey & Paralympic Advocacy

• Blind hockey’s history in Canada and the U.S. is traced; major push to get the sport into the Paralympics by 2034.
• Fitzpatrick’s role in introducing over 300 blind children/adults to hockey; all proceeds from his memoir go to blind hockey initiatives.

C. Memorable Stories & Community

• “Flyby on the Wrong Bench”:

  • "I got so excited that I just started cartwheeling my arms...and I did a flyby on the wrong bench because I couldn’t [see]..." (66:45)

• Penalty chaos, bench/box confusion, and the visceral, sometimes even rough, competitive environment of blind hockey.

• Grid Memory:

  • Explains how blind and elite sighted players both rely on mental mapping and spatial memory:
    • "This is a fascinating parallel between really good elite-level NHL players and how blind players' brains function...this phenomenon called grid memory.” (69:39)

• NHLers’ Involvement:

  • Shoutouts to Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, Mitch Marner, Miko Rantanen, Milan Hejduk, Matthew Tkachuk, Rope Hintz, and others for hands-on support.

• Team Names:

  • Shares clever blind hockey team names: Hartford Brailers, Colorado Visionaries, Toronto Ice Owls, Montreal Hiboux, and more. (82:21)

D. Inspirational Closing & Gratitude

• "Helping a blind kid get onto the ice is the most rewarding part of this game for me." (75:42)

• Asks the hosts to close their eyes and thank those who got them into hockey—sparking emotional reflections:

  • Whitney: "For me, that's pretty emotional. No doubt." (95:03)
  • Biz: Recalls parents and youth coach Mark Larose’s impact.

• Surprise: Craig donates his milestone goal puck (assisted by Biz, with Gretzky scoring) to the Hockey Hall of Fame, coordinated with Phil Pritchard.

  • "Phil will be getting that puck to become a part of the collection at the [Hockey Hall of Fame]." (100:35)

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4. Ra’s World: Thanksgiving Vibes, Jersey Talk, Rants & Recommendations

Timestamp: 104:06 – 128:12

• Rear Admiral’s assorted stories about back pain, mountain biking, celebrity deaths, and peeing logistics.
• Extended chatter about alternate NHL uniforms (Rangers, Bruins, Stars, Panthers, Blackhawks, etc.).
• A rant against private equity firms owning rinks and threatening to penalize youth teams if parents film games (“Imagine you go to a rink and someone says you’re taping your kid, we’re gonna strip them of a victory” – 126:10).
• Gambling picks, pop culture talk, and Thanksgiving well-wishes round out the show.

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Blind Hockey Puck:

  • “It’s made of 22-gauge steel, it’s got 8 ball bearings inside of it, and when it’s moving it makes noise.” (60:40 – Fitzpatrick)

• Chirping the Oilers:

  • “Who fucking cares out there right now? That’s why the Clattenburg kid’s up there – at least he’s willing to run around.” (09:07 – Whitney)

• Grid Memory Parallel:

  • “You start to remember patterns of where you can do certain things on the ice. That’s the same thing blind players' brains do.” (69:39 – Fitzpatrick)

• Emotional Reflection:

  • "Helping a blind kid get onto the ice is the most rewarding part of playing this game for me. If you’re around to give a kid that opportunity, you forget real fast about anything you do on your own.” (76:15 – Fitzpatrick)

• Flyby Story (Chirping):

  • “...I did a flyby on the wrong bench because I couldn’t [see]. Can you imagine if an NHLer...? Unbelievable.” (66:45 – Fitzpatrick)

• On Gratitude:

  • “You don’t really appreciate till you get older and you have kids on your own. That’s something for me that’s pretty emotional. No doubt.” (95:03 – Whitney)

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Important Timestamps

• Oilers/League Storylines: 03:16 – 21:44
• Derek Stepan Segment: 21:49 – 44:19
• Craig Fitzpatrick Interview: 46:09 – 102:44
• Ra's World/Jerseys/Thanksgiving: 104:06 – 128:12

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains the trademark irreverence and banter of Spittin' Chiclets, seamlessly mixing deep-cut hockey analysis, gallows humor, and authentic, sometimes raw, emotion. Both the Stepan and Fitzpatrick interviews are full of both laughter and humility, staying true to the show’s reputation for being “for the boys”—but absolutely wide open to those who love hockey in any form.

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For New Listeners

This episode is a crystallization of what makes Spittin' Chiclets unique: elite hockey insight, deep locker-room banter, and real-life stories that transcend the game. Newcomers will get a sense of the passionate, sometimes profane, always hilarious world of hockey culture—but also a window into the powerful role the sport plays for those facing immense challenges.

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

[Ari]

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.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

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[Ari]

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[Craig Fitzpatrick]

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[Ryan Whitney]

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[Biz]

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[Ryan Whitney]

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[Ari]

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

[Biz]

I brought it toward the coyotes and I asked them if it was okay if I joined the Spit Chicklets podcast full time.

[Ryan Whitney]

Brian Whitney's got a Pink Whitney out there now. Geek Yandel, the song man case is.

[Biz]

A full time member.

[Ryan Whitney]

Marley just got an assist from Chris B. Whoa.

[Wit]

We're buzzing right now.

[Ryan Whitney]

What is up, folks? Happy Thanksgiving. Welcome to episode 600 of the Spitting Chickens podcast. That was pretty good. Wasn't as good as your I. I liked your goat noise in episode two of Peeking. We peeking. I find myself like wanting to do that little.

[Wit]

The lady that was doing it with you was hilarious.

[Biz]

Oh yeah, the Asian lady.

[Wit]

She was jokes.

[Biz]

Oh, she's. I married her. She's here.

[Keith]

Oh, you did?

[Ryan Whitney]

She's in Nice. Is she cooking?

[Biz]

Oh, yeah.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yep.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

[Biz]

Oh yeah.

[Guest Host]

Guys, real quick. Hate to jump in so early in the show, but I do want to mention this show is presented by our great friends at Pink Whitney. We are recording on Thanksgiving Eve, maybe the biggest Pink Whitney night of the year. You're going to your hometown bars. There's no better way than to rekindle a friendship Maybe an old love interest. Then with some pink Whitney, we have Thanksgiving. You're going to be watching football, you're going to be eating, you're going to be hanging with some family. Bam. The Pink Whitney nips. Nothing better. We have bottles in all sizes. And there's no better way to spend the holiday season than drinking some pink Whitney with some long lost friends or some long lost family members. So head on over to your local liquor store or even your hometown bar and you can't go wrong with the beautiful pink nectar from our great friends at New Amsterdam Vodka.

[Ryan Whitney]

We just caught up with everyone. I mean it's Wednesday afternoon right now, so everyone's getting ready. Keith back home in Boston, Biz in Scottsdale. We have an awesome interview that we just finished with veteran Craig Fitzpatrick. He's a blind hockey player. Biz. Got to meet him on, on the set of TNT about a month back on Veterans Appreciation Night within the NHL. What an interview. I mean, I didn't really know what to expect, but such an impressive person, very kind of inspirational, emotional interview and we had a blast. I hope everyone checks it out. We got Ra's World after the interview. So not a ton's gone on guys. Not a ton in the league. I mean the Oilers, they're, they're, they're pathetic. I, I, I'll, I'll say I watched the game last night. There was one game on Tuesday night in the NHL. Luckily tonight there's 15 games. So the only two teams who aren't playing, I think are Dallas and Edmonton. I was, I was sitting, ready, nine o' clock start, all fired up. It was a joke, an Absolute joke. 4 Nothing in the first period. Just pathetic. A goal scored by, I think it's Connor Clattenberg who was called up and he's a hard nosed player. Nobody even thought he'd be playing in the NHL already this year he gets his first NHL goal, makes it 4 1. They lose 8. 3. Just a, I, I have no idea what's going on. It kind of brings us into our first topic of trades all around the league that could possibly be starting. You're hearing a lot of rumors about the Oilers and about Bennington. I, it's kind of, I, it's a tough one for me to answer because I think like Skinner's numbers, like actually might even be better than Bennington's, which is amazing to say, but Bennington has that big game player attitude. The Four nations, the Stanley cup, but he makes 6 million. I think Skinner only makes 2 million, so I don't even know the. My brain is fried. I don't feel like Binnington's the answer. And I also don't think if you had Shusturkin the Oilers would be that much better. Truly, I, I don't know if they would but trade wise the Vancouver Canucks have pretty much said every single player's available every veteran open season, Nashville Predators open season. So you gotta think with Vancouver, Quinn Hughes is basically the only guy and he might be the guy that says trade me and in Nashville maybe it's Yossi and Forsberg are the only two biz. What do you think happens in Vancouver? Like is it does Will it kind.

[Biz]

Of want to go back to Edmonton.

[Ryan Whitney]

Where oh I knew you would, I knew you would.

[Biz]

No, but, but hey, not even from an anti antagonistic standpoint. Just like buddy, I'm Leafs ain't doing good either. I want to see a Canadian team bring a cup home. I want as many Canadian teams. I think I had all seven Canadian teams making the Stanley cup.

[Wit]

Might not have any.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, not good.

[Wit]

Like I want the hella bucks out. Like that could be.

[Ryan Whitney]

They could be down below Ottawa, Ottawa and Winnipeg.

[Wit]

Yeah, Ottawa, they're the.

[Biz]

Yeah, they're the two ones carrying the torch right now. But you know, I, I want to see Connor McDavid win the big one and I just feel like in some cases maybe some criticism unfair towards Skinner. I just feel like at this point there's maybe a lack of trust. And you. We kind of talk about how they have slow starts every year. I feel like this one has kind of lingered a little bit longer. I feel like aside from them, like I would love to see them get in Bennington and make the money work. Like I just feel like I think he's got three years left on his deal which is line up. Yeah, two or three sign a six year deal times six million where basically him and Connor will be lined up perfectly. And I just feel like a shakeup like that where you're getting a Stanley cup netminder where all of a sudden the guys in the room were like oh yeah.

[Keith]

And.

[Biz]

And then Bennington will be riding on straight ad adrenaline and it's hard to judge him based on how bad St. Louis has been. They've dealt with injuries, they've had injured Demen and I just don't think they look half as good as they did last year. Especially towards the end of the year after Monty took over. I think the biggest thing that we haven't really like hammered down. I think we've me Mentioned it in passing. Is Paul Coffee not coaching the D there? That has to be. They should go in and offer him $8 million to come back for the rest of the year and say that's one playoff game. That's what they make at the fucking gate for one playoff game.

[Ryan Whitney]

What happened? What is it? I'd love to know what happened, why he's not there.

[Biz]

I think that they're like, listen, I'm not an insider. I don't fucking make phone calls. I don't know Paul Coffey like that, where I would call him. I don't know anyone on. I'm drawing a blank on the head coach's name now.

[Ari]

Knob. Block.

[Biz]

Knoblock. But I just heard that there was maybe some butting of heads and, and, and unaligned on certain things. I've also heard that where, I mean, Paul Coffee's won how many Stanley Cups? He knows when a coach needs to be hard on its players. And, and, and I don't know. I think Knoblock is very patient and calculated and, and I have so much respect for people like that because that's not who I am. I, I, I wear my heart on my sleeve.

[Wit]

Shoe from the hip.

[Biz]

I was a captain one time in junior, and it was too young. And it's just a lot like, you need people like Shane Doan who are thinking with a level head and who don't ride this constant wave. Vinnie Laverde is a guy. I won a championship with the minors. It's, you know, guys like that who, who. But I think that one of the frustrations that Coffee was having was like, you need to fucking lay into these guys right now. Like, the inmates ain't running the asylum like they need. And, Buddy, go talk to some of the best ever. They loved when they got challenged and called out. And this isn't good enough. Right.

[Wit]

But Wayne talks about it with Slats all the time like that he was even a whipping boy. And I'm sure Cough got it the same way. Like, those guys have to be held to a certain, you know, accountability. And then it just trickles down.

[Biz]

I. Yeah, you hit it on the head. Like, Wayne's the prime example. I think Slots used to have him sit in the chair. We talked about the clown way.

[Wit]

Yes.

[Biz]

That they would have to watch their highlights of the mistakes they were making. So, listen, can this all be resolved in oiler land? Yeah. I feel like. I feel like they like to push it to the brink and they're like, I, let's turn it on now, boys. Which they can and have proven to do over the last couple of years. I just, I don't know. I don't know.

[Ryan Whitney]

This is a different feeling, man.

[Biz]

It's a different feeling in my opinion.

[Ryan Whitney]

It's a different. Granted, like who to say it's different from when they were in like dead last or whatever and lost to the Sharks and then ended up in the cup Final. Like, I, I know that sounds crazy, but there's no jam in this team. And like you watched the game last night. Four, not the first period. Everyone's just skating around. It's like, holy. And it's something where I don't feel super comfortable calling people out for that because I wasn't that type player. I think the best hockey I played, I actually did have a little jam at those moments. I was never able to carry that consistently. It wasn't in my DNA. I wish it was, but when you're watching as a fan, it's like, who fucking cares out there right now? Like, that's why the Clattenburg kid's up there. He's at least willing to run around. I think he had like seven or eight hits and he. But everyone else, it's just, they just.

[Biz]

Buddy, if you guys didn't, if you guys hadn't signed Ross Levic, you guys might have four wins.

[Ryan Whitney]

I know they have six regulation wins. I mean it's. The Flyers have five. I think five might be the least in the league. Maybe there might be a team with four regulation wins. But is it the coach or the players who like, like, who do you blame for just no jam out there, no fire, no pushback? I think it's probably a combination of both. But NAWBlock is a very relaxed, well spoken guy. And yeah, maybe that's something where Paul Coffey's like, dude, that doesn't always work.

[Biz]

Well sometimes though, in a locker room, like when they had that dynamic, you get the good cop, bad cop and obviously you can bounce ideas off of Paul Coffee. I don't know how many times Knobloch would have those types of conversations where he left, left it being like, I don't agree with him, but I'm going to go with what he said just because I entrust in what his opinion was. I don't know what that dynamic was, but it was sure working a lot better than the one that's going on right now. And the longer that this continues, the other thing too is you're looking at Oilers and Toronto, who I don't think maybe people put Toronto as a top five team coming in the league. I think maybe some people were hovering around between 5 and 10. I definitely think a lot of people picked Edmonton to be finished top four, top five in the league. So the chatter and the news and how brutal it gets north of the border, this is when you see why, you know what, I'm going to take my two year extension and I'm, I'm getting the, out of this disaster. I'm peace and out. And yeah, it's sort of look, look at how bad it is in Toronto. Like every time I flick on my phone I get asked to do like, like some, like, some like, you know, 20, 30 minute hits. I'm not going on there every week, just on the, they got to figure it out, man. It's ugly and it's, it's, it sucks when you're losing, especially when there's expectation and you're in those two markets.

[Ryan Whitney]

One thing I, I, I do think is, is pretty valid is that you go to the cup final, you lose and then the next year it is like, oh my God, 82 games and then they actually did it again against the same team. So this is the second year in a row where regular season hockey is just a lot harder to get up for and get ready. And there's probably enough belief in that room like we're gonna get to the, the playoffs and we're gonna end up figuring it out. But it just, as it goes on and on and on and you get, I mean we're at American Thanksgiving. It's like you can't wait that long. There is plenty of time left. But I do think it is so difficult after one, let alone two, just long, long seasons where you didn't even win at all of playing games that you're just, they, they are a grind. And I think fans are sometimes I getting paid millions to play in the NHL. No doubt. I'm with you. But having been through it, it is a lot more difficult than, than I'm kind of describing it to get up.

[Biz]

For every year you've played, you've went all the way to the dance the last two years, you don't bring it home. You got the negativity of that, the negativity of McDavid coming to the season you've played how much hockey over the last, you know, two, two and a half years. So I, I get it. And if it's hard to get up for, it's hard to get up for. But I think that most people can agree that yeah, they might go to the conference Finals and maybe even finals again. But are you winning it with that team? Are you winning it with that team that's on the ice right now if nothing changes?

[Ryan Whitney]

Not the goal, not the goalie.

[Biz]

Well, something's got to change.

[Wit]

Wait. I could also see Skinner being like a Devin Dubnik going somewhere else and just.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh yeah, coming to life. He's not that old at all.

[Wit]

No, I think he's 20.

[Ryan Whitney]

I might even be 26. I. Yeah, dude, what you wish for, right?

[Wit]

But it, but it also could, like you said, bringing in a guy like Bennington who's got that mindset of I don't give a. I'm just here to play hockey and win games, who hasn't been a part of that noise the last couple years? It could be a nice change for them to get somebody else in there. But I would be very careful of Skinner going elsewhere and being a stud.

[Biz]

You gotta be frustrated though, as an Oiler fan, seeing the overhaul that the Abs were able to do last year at the beginning of the year.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

And look at it this year.

[Biz]

Minnesota pick being this fucking. The Walmart or however you say his name.

[Wit]

Great Wall of Minnesota.

[Biz]

Yeah, I was thinking of all Mark Wall stad.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh my God. Keith, I guess you have a surprise guest for us, but one sec, I don't even know who it is. Yeah, I just. Cornelli just said Keith is a surprise guest, ready to go. But just because we're at Thanksgiving and, and you know, it's the 78% of teams in the playoffs at America Thanksgiving end up getting in. I wanted to shout out a couple surprise stories so far, at least for me, for sure. And my, my number one in the East, I think, is the Islanders. I think Detroit's there, sitting second in the Atlantic right now, but the Islanders, man, talk about one player switching it. And we've, we've, we've mentioned how different that team is watching and when he doesn't even have points, there's clips coming out of shifts that is very Cale McCarish and the pivots and the tight turns beating guys one on one. Matthew Schaefer is even more than advertised. And he just, he turned 18 like when Camp started. So it's just a crazy thing. And I saw this. Matthew Darsh gave a little interview and he was actually talking about that he, he knew that he, he'd come in, be in camp and get, get exhibition games and at least be around for five, six games. He had no CL expect after that. And he, I think within like training camp games or Even inner squad scrimmages. Like, he called. He called his junior gm. He's like, he ain't coming back. And the guy's like, I know, I know. So the fact that and. And Darsh made. Made a. Made a point of saying, like, we are. We are a completely different team because of this one guy and the other crowds, I. I know, I know. And the excitement around him and the. And the defending of him from the team when he, when he did take that one hit, I forget who did that.

[Biz]

Zadorov got him. And then there was one, the game before that. He. There was a moment in time where he was getting roughed up a little bit.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yup. And. And he also mentions Patrick was. So when Darsh got the job, Patrick wa. Had already been signed by Lou. And he didn't really know what to expect. He didn't even know him. And he got his phone number, called him. They met for five hours one day in Montreal. And he said he was just kind of blown away with. With who he was and was very comfortable in him coaching the team. And he didn't know what to do with the. With the head coach spot. And he said something that I. He said, patrick's not like what people think he is. Like, it's not his way or the highway. He's not as cocky as people think he is. And. And that kind of makes. Makes sense for the success they're having. And then even the, The. The passion and the anger he showed towards Ronton and that we talked about, it's like, that's something where we've. We've mentioned coaches yelling at players. I don't know, but I think the guys on that team probably loved it based on, like, how passionate he is with the group and how a lot of people, including myself, thought he was. You know, hey, we're doing it my way, and that's it. And that's really not the case, which I was kind of surprised to read.

[Biz]

Yeah, I think, well, you hit it on the head too. I think they. You don't really care about the judgment externally and him talking to Rotten and on the, on the way down, you care about what the guys in the locker room feel about him handling it that way. And by the way, I think Romanov is. He's out for what, five, six months because of that. So, yeah, I mean, that obviously makes it a lot more reasonable, the fact that he fucking lost his mind losing a top four guy like that. But, yeah, I think that you. You heard him kind of change his. His old ways with the way that he went back to junior and led the Ramparts to a championship and the way that his, his players there spoke about him. And then also, like, even when he was wrong and maybe the way that he handled Duclair last year, I believe that he went and met with Duclair like in person to apologize with the way that he handled it and handled it in the media. So, yeah, I think that it's a, it's been a completely a complete culture shakeup. And you know, that team, that team, definitely I'd agree with you with, is one of the biggest surprises of the east because of, because of a few guys.

[Ryan Whitney]

And then out west, if any person, any hockey fan said that the Pacific Division at U.S. thanksgiving would be Anaheim 1 and Seattle 2, they're, they're just flat out lying. They're lying. And the Anaheim thing, I guess it makes a little more sense because of how much skill they have. Right? And like, I don't think people thought Leo Carlson be this good this early. I was almost expecting him to be this dominant, maybe next year, the year after. But he's incredible. Gauthier has been unbelievable. Their defense, they don't even have Mitnikov doing anything. He's possibly a trade target, but they're that good. And, and, and Quenville, right. We talk about why and what Quenville's done there, and I think that that's an incredible story about Seattle. I, I, I thought Seattle was like a lottery team. And once again, it goes back to their first year. It's like the same thing. It's a no superstar, a bunch of guys doing it, getting solid goaltending, and a team that probably isn't that exciting to watch, but they wear you down over and over. Eberle's done great. I mean, that's a guy who's been around the league long enough. He's a leader. Jaden Schwartz, same thing. So they have guys and I think Beniers, he scored a goal the other night, quick shot, like bar down, like he's making steps and, and becoming the player they kind of need him to be, being that, that high of a pick. But that division's wild to see Vegas in a wild card spot. You see Edmonton out of the playoffs, you know, it's like I didn't see any of that coming. LA sitting top three in the division. So they're figuring things out. But it's been a wild start to this season.

[Wit]

I think Anaheim, we all thought and said that there would be a fun young team to watch. This year. But could they put it together and be the team that they are? Winning games, finding ways to win games. But they've been amazing. I. I love their group just having, you know, the older veterans like Guess, Fortrano Killers there, like guys that. Who, you know, they're going to help out these young kids and they're going to help them get to the next step. So to see them playing as a team, obviously when you have young individuals, you know, that could be fun to watch. They might not win a lot of games, but you can tell that they're a team. Right. And like you said, Whit, I would imagine a lot of that's coming from Q as well. But yes, Seattle too. Like, I mean, they were on the no watch list for a while. No way.

[Biz]

Oh, yeah. I think they still are because they're still.

[Wit]

Yeah.

[Biz]

I didn't even know they started like last episode. We had Andrew Ladd on. And when you hear former players of Q talk about him, it makes a lot more sense as to the quick turnaround. Yeah, I know that, that Chicago, I can't even say they were that much farther along in the.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

In.

[Biz]

In their rebuild because it was still pretty early. I think he came in Kane's third year you mentioned. Right. Whitney Quinville, maybe his second year.

[Wit]

Yeah, I think first.

[Biz]

Second or third year, but just him coming and first in saying we're going to win a Stanley cup here, it kind of just make. And then someone saying it, you believing it is a little bit different. Right. So I'm sure he had the same words for them in camp. And it just seems like these young guys have taken a huge step already out of the gate this season. And you know, you talk about that 20 game. You hit the. The, you know, the, the rookie wall, the young guy wall, so to speak. It seems like they're fucking breaking right through it. I watched him play against, what was it, Vegas the other night. I think there was five, four or five goals in the first period just on. Just a shootout.

[Wit]

Merle said the under.

[Ryan Whitney]

All right, Keith, who you got? I got no. No clue who's coming here.

[Wit]

Yeah, so last week, you know, we didn't quite get to pumping Minnesota's tires as much as possible. So we're going to bring on a good friend of the program. Smallest wrench I ever played with Derek. Step on. Wow.

[Ryan Whitney]

We haven't chatted with you in a while. I think last time you big timed us after 10 minutes you had a tea time.

[Biz]

That's how he did it again.

[Keith]

I did it again. That's a good intro though, Keith. Thanks for that. That, that's good. All the listeners listening now, now they.

[Biz]

Know he was an anomaly. Like Phil Kessel, probably like the guy who invested the least amount of time in the off season training to how good he was when he stepped on the ice in training camp. Al a little better career.

[Keith]

Yeah, I, I still like I, I, I, I did spend quite a bit of time on the I, the gym stuff that I didn't like. Love. I still actually skate quite a bit now. Get some old hockey in me. I love it, I love it. It's great.

[Biz]

Maybe some senior A in your future.

[Keith]

You never know.

[Wit]

He's only 26. Hey, but you know, I, I don't want to rub it in wits face too much, but can you talk about this goalie you guys stole from Edmonton?

[Keith]

Oh my. Yeah, so I got to watch him quite a bit last year in the minors and Iowa had a tougher year, but, and he kind of had a weird year because Flower was still around with the big club and, you know, he wasn't really sure where he was going to end up. I think the plan was to get some NHL games and it just never hit the ground. And so he had a goofy year and he came in this year and obviously, you know, anytime a guy spends the summer with the team, you know, and trains at home and he always comes in and he lights the world on fire and he's been, he's been excellent and he's been the Wally that I saw two years ago in the A when he was probably one of the best goalies in the league. And he's back and it's, it's, it's a big part of their turnaround for sure.

[Ryan Whitney]

He said the other day to the media, like, yeah, you guys were calling me busts last year, which I thought was kind of funny to like call him out like, hey, I saw all that noise and I, I can't. I have receipts here of who you got. Which one of you guys was saying.

[Biz]

Oh, no, who were, who were the, the big guys chirping them.

[Ryan Whitney]

I had no, I think he was just saying it to everyone. All you guys at the presser.

[Biz]

You, you, you're you.

[Wit]

I'm out.

[Ryan Whitney]

What a. We talked, I talked last episode about Faber's turnaround. After calling himself out, Succurello comes back, everything changes. What's Booyem looked like?

[Keith]

Yeah, he's, you know, he's still young and you know, I think there's, you know, as you Go through it. You, you, you always worry about it. But for me, you know, for being as young as he is, through 25 games, he's off to an excellent start. He's, you know, playing with confidence. He's. He's finding the balance of, you know, when he can make his plays and when he needs to, you know, keep it simple. He's really finding, he's really getting more and more comfortable. But through 25 games, I think he's been excellent as a young defenseman.

[Biz]

Well, I want to ask you about the closed door meeting. I believe that Spurgeon.

[Keith]

We've all played, you know, those meetings and no one ever really knows what's said in them, but we kind of have the gist of it and, you know, give everyone credit, you know, from the coaching staff to all those players in there. When the negative ball starts rolling against you and it starts going away from, and you can't find your game and you're struggling to be able to turn around. The way they have, I think, is like, it's top notch stuff. And if it came from that meeting, good for Spurge, good for all the guys in that room because it's, it's, you know, it's back to the identity that made him successful last year, is that stingy D and then let our superstars kind of just score on the other end at will. So those two combinations of things with goaltending, I think give a lot of credit to the leadership group in there, the coaching staff, to flip it around because, you know, I heard you guys talking about your two clubs that you love. It's hard to spin it around. Like when it gets a nick, gets on the wrong side of it, it is really difficult to get it back on the tracks.

[Biz]

But I would imagine things are probably pretty positive to start the year just given like the. What you saw McDavid go through and then Capri soft. Although getting a ridiculous number, you, the, the. The town must have just been in celebration of the fact that you locked in your superstar for that long and, and you bring back a guy who loves Minnesota.

[Keith]

Yeah, I mean, I think that's, that's you H. There is no way that Minnesota could not find a way to get 97 done and for them to get it done in the time that they got it done because this thing could have dragged on. So props to Billy for banging this thing out and, and to get it done and then for him to, you know, just accept that this is the club that we're going to go win with. And I'm going to be a big part of it. You know, I, I, I watch quite a bit of hockey and Krill is, he's at a different level, man.

[Biz]

Where's he at in your book, like number wise in the league?

[Keith]

Well, he's definitely in the top five. How about that? And I would even argue that the, the guy that we have that's on the wing too is, is right in that category. Oldie is insane.

[Wit]

He's insane, man.

[Keith]

He's insane. He is crazy good.

[Wit]

His confidence, like just the little things I see, just carrying the puck through the neutral zone, like when you're younger you don't really have that confidence, but his confidence of getting it in the offensive zone and bring or in the defensive zone, carrying it through the neutral zone with possession, getting it in the offensive zone, it's like he's a 10 year vet. It's amazing to watch.

[Keith]

Yeah, I think he's pushing 97 too. You know, I think that's, that's a big part of it too is as a, you know, good teams, they got guys that push from underneath and, and 12 is definitely pushing 97.

[Biz]

That's awesome.

[Ryan Whitney]

As a player development coach, are you doing work with like AHL guys and prospects? Because the rider Richie at BU's nasty and is it Charlie Strammel at Michigan State looks great. Are you working with those guys or just maybe AHL and NHL?

[Keith]

Yeah. So we kind of pod guys off. You know, you get groups of guys and you follow them for the month and then you kind of keep rotating as the year goes on. Each month we have Iowa in one of the pods. So for me, I started in Iowa and then I kind of bounce around and, and I've got to see, I got to see Ryder and Charlie play each other actually in at BU and Michigan got the better of them but you know, they kind of looked like a veteran team versus a younger group for sure. But yeah, so I kind of work with all those guys. I, I bounce around quite a bit. I, I try to keep my fingers on Iowa and, and keep it going.

[Wit]

That's kind of a good idea to do the month on, month off. So you're not seeing a kid too much. Is that the reason to do that? So you're not just seeing it all, just seen as blemishes.

[Keith]

Yeah. And I think it also from the kid standpoint to hear from me all year, just kind of get sick of hearing from the same washed up.

[Ryan Whitney]

You're like, yeah, I toe dragged the guy last night. So like just Work on, like, I know how to do it, man, if.

[Biz]

You want me to. Like, I got you my men's league tape here if you want to take a peek. Just kind of follow my example here. I always knew that you would end up in management of some sort. Obviously this is just a start for you as I'm sure you're going to work your way up and learn from the ground up. What's the transition been like for you? Are you enjoying it? Like, are you enjoying it as much as you thought you would?

[Keith]

Oh, absolutely. It, you know, it. There's. When I first came out of the game, Billy Garrett's my neighbor, so he literally came walking by with his dog and he was like, yeah, come hang out. And so I didn't really have like a full year away from it. Like I did a part time gig with him to start, so the transition actually became easier because I never really fully left. And then last year is my first year in player development. This is my second year, so it's been fantastic. I think it's fun. I think player development, I, you know, it's player development's one of those gigs where with a younger family there's a little more flexibility. As you work your way up, you kind of get buried in work. So right now it's a perfect spot for me and, and, and being able to kind of make my schedule and catch the games I need to catch and, and, But I've had a blast with it. It kind of gives you another locker room feel with your group, which has been awesome.

[Wit]

Just talking all the players, how bad they are to the other coaches, and this guy stinks.

[Ryan Whitney]

You say you'll never do it and then all of a sudden you're just in the mix in the room and you're like, that guy's brutal.

[Biz]

Oh, I had no problem. Or at the start I wouldn't criticize guys. And then by the end I'm getting guys traded or, or, or forcing them not to sign with teams. What, what about the game, like, just from being on that side has impressed you the most? Even from being removed from that and like where the game's headed, like, what's, what are you noticing that, that, that is the most improved thing about our game skating?

[Keith]

It's definitely without a doubt, these kids nowadays, they, their edge work, their, their ability to get up and down the ice is crazy. I mean, you rarely see a guy that doesn't have like great feet. You know, I, you know, other than maybe a few unique ones that most of the kids Nowadays, all can move extremely well.

[Wit]

Steps. We interviewed that kid, Mason west, and the. Oh, and he. He told us that Minnesota never offered him. And the only two guys I had ever heard from Minnesota not getting an offer from Minnesota was you and Mack Truck. Like two legends of the game. Right? Like, why do you think they didn't offer him?

[Biz]

Are you from a Dinah, too?

[Keith]

No, no.

[Biz]

I heard something online that they. They're not crazy about the kids from Medina for whatever reason.

[Wit]

Told you.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I said they're. No, they. They call them the cake eaters.

[Keith]

That's.

[Ryan Whitney]

I just know. Mighty Jocks.

[Keith]

Yeah, that's it. It's not. It's. It's definitely where, like, all the guys that play here live in Edina. It's a great area to live. Obviously. It's. It's, like, close to downtown and. Yeah, it's. It's a good area, but you're not.

[Ryan Whitney]

Well, you're. You're a Wisconsin alum and.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

What the hell's going on there? They. They. They've turned that thing around pretty quick.

[Keith]

Yeah. You know, I think. I think when. When a new coach came in, when Mike Hastings came in, I think he.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

You know, the way he did it.

[Keith]

At Mankato is a little different than what he had. And so I think the transition of what he wanted and what he had is kind of starting to blend together, and he's found a way to, you know, really turn it around pretty quickly. So. Yeah, it's good to see, obviously, badgers. Badger world is. Is very happy to see a number next to Wisconsin when they play. It's always a good thing.

[Biz]

Is Billy G. Just like chirping guys and fucking around in these meetings you guys have all the time. When you got the big round table last time we had him on, he was just giving it to me the entire time.

[Keith]

Yeah, he. You know, he's not afraid to give it, that's for sure. Especially if he finds an easy target. This.

[Biz]

Who's the easy target in that room?

[Keith]

Probably me.

[Ryan Whitney]

Kels. No, hey, Chris Kelleher for sure.

[Wit]

When he was on with us and Kels wasn't even on.

[Keith]

Yeah, it is Kels. Kels is definitely his punching bag.

[Ryan Whitney]

Made you a wooden. A little wooden sculpture, yet. He's like Geppetto.

[Biz]

He's making wooden dildos in his Geppetto garage. I don't know if he told you one side's a beer opener for a bottle opener and the other side's a full Fledged dildo.

[Keith]

He's one of a kind and I am very, very lucky that I he moved into my neighborhood and I was able to land a job with him because it's been fantastic.

[Ryan Whitney]

Your neighborhood?

[Wit]

Your neighborhood, yours stuff. That's right, baby.

[Biz]

Establishing dominance.

[Keith]

This, I was here first. It's the only thing I got over them.

[Wit]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Okay.

[Wit]

Put the stake in the ground.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Keith]

No, what a g. I, I'm curious, I was listening to you guys talk about Edmonton in Toronto and I'm curious, what do you honestly think is going to turn both of them around? Like truthfully, like, no, you know, we could do this. We get a new coach. I don't think a coach is always the answer. What, what do you truthfully think?

[Biz]

I just, I think for Toronto it's, they look worse than what Edmonton does just for overall and like when you don't got the guys like that, I don't think you could turn the switches easy. I just think that they, they have to cut as a group. They have to understand what's happening outside their doors and basically say double barrel, fuck you. Let's figure out what we got inside this locker room. As, as hard as that is, that's the worst market to do it in. And, and I mean the goaltending hasn't been as good as it was last year and a lot you always look at like what it comes down to. You just talked about your guys rough start there and all of a sudden you start getting some saves and it turns things around. So I felt like they had a good rotation going last year where both of them are fresh and we're giving them the saves they need. Like people want to go back to the Marner thing right now. It's like one of those, it looks like one of those breakups that nobody won. He's at a way worse point per game rate, although definitely having probably more success than what Austin's had given he's injured and I think it's his like worst pace for goals and points in the is maybe since his rookie year. So yeah, I, I, I think that Toronto is just a little bit of everything. I, I tend to go agree with Wit in the sense of Edmonton's a little bit of board of regular season hockey. Like there's no doubt in my mind they're making playoffs. But my question is, is like I just don't think that they're going to get to where they got last year. What move can they make to solidify that? I don't know what they can do.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I said quickly about Edmonton. Just, like, the lack of, like, passion. It's a couple things. It's that where all of a sudden it's not even fighting. It's just like there has to be a game where you see, like, everyone finishing every hit. I know it sounds kind of ridiculous talking about McDavid or Leon finishing hits, but, like, starts there and then limit all these high danger chances. Like, I watched last night, it was against Dallas. They, like, there was goals, guys, hints, scores, gold, and there's not even anyone near him in front of the net. And so it's like, all right, let's at least figure out our D zone. Stop giving up so many grade A chances in the slot with no stick checks, no body checks. And then if we can get that going and the goaltending still looks that bad, you got to fix that. But maybe it could get that much better just with the D zone. Because I said, I don't even know if there's a goalie in the league who would be, like, making them win games right now. And then the final thing would actually probably be McDavid and Leon go sicko mode, which, I mean, their numbers are great, but, you know, like, they can go on one of those 25 game stretches where they both have 50 points. Like it now, you don't want to rely on that.

[Wit]

It's.

[Ryan Whitney]

It kind of sucks to have to rely on that, but you kind of need one of those right now, similar to two years ago when they just went off. So, like. Like, I'm not. I'm way less worried about them than Toronto, which. Which biz agrees with. But it's still. At some point, it's like, all right, guys. Like, it's December in what, five days? Like, enough's enough.

[Keith]

Yeah, I. I played when. When in New York we went Eastern Conference final, Cup finals, Eastern Conference final. And that next year, it was a kick in the ball to show up for training camp. And I completely agree that the regular season hockey gets really, really rough. And you look at it, they have 25 games, and some of the teams in the west only have 22. Those three games in this schedule right now are massive. Like they are. They are wear and tear. Like travel, like it is. There is a wear down a factor, too. And, you know, and those big boys, you know, they can handle it, but they play a lot.

[Biz]

You think. You think that that's not being emphasized enough is the amount of hockey they've played. We talked about it earlier. I think it's brutal.

[Keith]

I think it's part of it. And you know, Olympic year, we all played during those years. It's, it's those, it, the schedule is insane. Like, I talked with every team and a lot of the guys that I played with are like, they tell me one of their road trips, like Pittsburgh, one of Pittsburgh road trips was one of the most insane thing I've ever heard in my entire life.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, they're like, we go from Anaheim to Sweden back to nat. You're like, what? What the fuck? Hey, I got a question for you. Because the noise in Canada when a team isn't doing well, it's just different. But New York's kind of crazy as well. And like, you had a lot of success there, but at any times in slumps or seasons that didn't go great, does, does the pressure of that market kind of get into the room at all? Because there's, it's, it's, it was, it was awful at home, great on the road, and then now it's just kind of back and forth. They look good. They look like shit. What, what do you remember about the pressures of New York when things aren't going well?

[Keith]

I mean, it's, it's probably not Canada. I, I, you know, I can't say that I, I played in Ottawa during the lockout or during the COVID season, so that's the closest thing I had. I probably wasn't the same. But it's, it's, it's up there. It. You definitely, you know, you have people in your room afterwards that are looking just to carve you up. And that's, and that's, I think that's in any really big market, I think, for them. I mean, I actually just was out there recently and I was talking with Chris Jury a little bit, and I, you know, you can feel the weight in, around the room and stuff like that. And they solely wants to get it back on track. And you know, for them, for me, when I watch them, the biggest thing that makes New York go is when I was with Carolina and they're beating us all the time is their power play. When their power plays automatic, that's how that team goes. That's their, that's their driver. They got to figure that thing out. And I think everything else will fall into place.

[Wit]

They need a slats meeting. Remember a slats meeting? Steph, Just fucking go around the room.

[Biz]

What was that about? He always had one where he just peepee rocked everyone.

[Wit]

And then you'd rip off somebody with a cigar.

[Keith]

He's chewing on his Cigar.

[Ryan Whitney]

Can't we win a couple games so.

[Keith]

We can have a good Christmas?

[Biz]

That's what he'd say.

[Ryan Whitney]

Hey, Steps. Larry Brooks, you know, passed away. It was brutal news. And did you ever have any run ins with him? Was he. Was he pretty good in his articles towards you? Was there any beef at any point?

[Keith]

Yeah, we had some good ones.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

We, we.

[Keith]

He was always fair to me, and Larry was a guy that I always took time for because, like I said, he was fair. But we definitely had our. Our matches. We had a stretch, you know, talking about New York going through a tough stretch. We had a stretch where we were losing a bunch of games and we were losing at home. And he came in and he was looking for. And I just didn't really give him anything. Like, I gave him nothing. Like, he kept saying, well, what do you think? And I was like, this is what it is, Larry. And it just kept boiling over, boiling over. And then it became a fuck you match. And the guy, really.

[Biz]

No way.

[Keith]

Dan Boyle, you remember Danny Boyle and him had a tough one. He came from the top ropes.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Like, nobody likes.

[Keith]

Hilarious. They're walking on the roof.

[Biz]

What? But like, when you say you magic, you were getting in one with him.

[Keith]

Yeah, it was just like, he was like, you have to answer the question. I was like, I don't have to answer anything, Larry. Like, it's not going well. That's all you need to really know.

[Ryan Whitney]

He was needling you, though.

[Keith]

Yeah.

[Biz]

He was wearing a letter at that point.

[Keith]

Yep. And Zuki came in, threw a bomb into, like, it was. It was mayhem. What do you mean?

[Biz]

What did Zuki say?

[Keith]

I think Zooky was the one that said, nobody likes you, Larry. He's walking out of the locker room.

[Biz]

But you guys did. You were just trying to go at each other's hearts. Cause you.

[Ari]

And he was right, though.

[Keith]

He was dead on. Like, it wasn't good enough. And we had lost four or five in a row and at home and kind of flat games at home, you know, like nothing. No jam, no passion at the start of this year. Yeah.

[Biz]

Fuck, that was brutal. Not even saying they were playing that horrible. But, man, you can't get shut out. I think they were shut out, what, five of their first seven home games. That is. They'd scored six goals.

[Keith]

Yeah, yeah. Six goals through seven home games.

[Biz]

Yeah. Wow.

[Ryan Whitney]

Steps with. With Billy G and Kels being a big part of the U.S. olympic team. Have you gotten to be a part of any of that? Or is that kind of like you're just with The Wild. You haven't.

[Biz]

What do you think of Team Canada sending in Tate McCrae?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Jesus.

[Keith]

Listen, I. I think.

[Ryan Whitney]

Don't listen to this guy.

[Wit]

Don't listen.

[Keith]

I think. I think whenever Kels is around, I'll bounce stuff off them, but they keep it pretty close to their chest. I don't really get a whole lot from them. No, I think they. I, you know, I know that it's. It's a big load of work. I don't think people realize how much work these guys are putting in on top of what he has here. But it's got to be fun for him. I know that they probably really enjoy it. It's got to be like this cool, like, build another team of, like, superstars.

[Ryan Whitney]

Hey, it's just another reason to get together, have a couple beers and talk about another team. So it's like they got double. They got double this year. Well, Steps, thank you so much for joining Buddy Yan's. I love you bringing in your surprise guests and we appreciate you coming on. Dude, keep up the. Keep up the great work. Have a great Thanksgiving.

[Guest Host]

All right.

[Wit]

Thanks, Step. Happy Thanksgiving.

[Biz]

We'll have to get you on every four to six weeks, Buddy. And thanks for not blowing us off for your golf game this time.

[Ryan Whitney]

It's cold.

[Wit]

Too cold.

[Keith]

Yeah, it snowed. We got snow yesterday.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, geez.

[Keith]

It drilled.

[Ryan Whitney]

All right, boy.

[Keith]

Thanks for having me.

[Ryan Whitney]

Appreciate it.

[Keith]

Have a good one.

[Ryan Whitney]

You too.

[Wit]

See you, dude.

[Ryan Whitney]

I actually got a kick out of. I read a quote by John Cooper today. They were. People were asking him about the Canada and the list and he was saying, I'm getting like all team. Team Canada hopefuls best efforts when they play us, you know, he's there watching, which he's like. Which kind of sucks.

[Wit]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

You know, like all of a sudden I got every guy trying to make this team just lighten it up. But Tampa's another team we should mention before we throw it to. To Craig Fitzpatrick in that. Dude, they look bad. And Coop came on and he was poopy pants coup. He wasn't happy. You could tell he didn't want to talk about it. And they're now sitting in first in the Atlantic. They look great. I think they're 7 and 3 in their last 10 ripping off wins. So Tampa kind of right where we thought they'd be. I didn't think they'd be in first in division, but I thought they'd be top three and. And they've really turned things around. So long year. Long year. But thanks to Steps Yance Great job. I think now we throw it over to veteran and blind hockey player, an amazing person. I think everyone's gonna love this interview. Kind of all about gratitude. So Craig Fitzpatrick.

[Guest Host]

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[Ryan Whitney]

A few months back or a month back, it was veterans appreciation night in the NHL and this man joined Biz and the boys on TNT was an incredible segment. I watched your video on NHL.com Craig Fitzpatrick. What's going on, buddy?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Hey, good to see you guys. Joining you from. Joining you from downtown Denver. Family and I are out for Thanksgiving. Loving the Thanksgiving week here in Colorado.

[Ryan Whitney]

It's great. It's a great time. Biz was just showing your book finding the puck and for people who don't know you are a blind hockey player, it's incredible. I watched the video. It's awesome. I want to get into all that, but how did it come about where you went over to TNT and, and what'd you think of that whole experience?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Oh, I Mean, it was incredible. You. You talk about what happens on set, and then you meet the crew and that whole team that's behind making hockey feel like kind of you're in the living room talking with anybody else about hockey, whether you're an old fan or brand new to the game. And the production team behind the scene is incredible. Getting to watch an ABS game with Wayne was obviously a once in a lifetime experience, but they were. They were just an incredible team to work with. The NHL asked me if I would go down there on behalf of one of our sponsors, Navy Federal Credit Union, and they did a whole thing with Veterans Appreciation Night. So they brought us out here to Colorado and we got to film on the ice at the Air Force Academy with some blind children. I'm guessing you guys maybe saw that segment as part of the broadcast. And then Atlanta was a surprise. We didn't know they were going to do it, but it ended up being a wonderful experience.

[Biz]

Oh, it's. They're so thoughtful there. And it was such a great night and get to meet you. I mean, you wouldn't stop talking about Ra the entire time. So I'm like, I got to get him in the. I gotta get him back in the mix here for the interview. But it was just unreal getting to know your story and how it all began. And I guess one of the more shocking things to me was that you'd actually never played before before you went blind. But you did have a love and appreciation for the abs and I'm assuming that that's grown. And I guess even before we hop in all your story, you must be loving these. These Avalanche right now. This is crazy.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah. I mean, joining you from downtown Denver is pretty fun. They've got a game tonight. We're recording on Wednesday, and I think this will come out on on Thursday. But as soon as we're done recording here, I've got to go meet up with my family about an hour north of Denver, and I'm gonna see at the Avalanche let me borrow their wagon to go up there since I can't drive. I don't know how many horses they have pulling that thing.

[Keith]

Oh, it is.

[Ryan Whitney]

It is a wagon. When I watched the video, I want to get into this, and I got some questions in it. You mentioned you. You have Stargardt's disease. And. And I kind of looked into a little bit where you're not born. You're not born blind. And is it something where no matter what, at some point in time, you will be blind and kind of how did you find out that you had this? Can you take us through the story of. Of how you did lose your vision?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Really good question. So Stargardt disease is extremely rare. It's about a one in a hundred thousand instance, and that. And that's worldwide. There are two forms of it, and I have the recessive form. So you're born with the gene for your retinas to start dying from the inside out. But not everybody that has Stargardt's disease has it progressed as far as I did. So I'm actually the oldest of four kids, and three of us were born with the gene, if you can believe that. But I found out when I was 24 years old that I. I'd been diagnosed with Stargardt's disease. And this is a condition where you don't ever completely lose all of your vision unless it's an even rarer case for people that have Stargardt's. But for me, if you put your hands up to your face like this, about three inches away from your eyes, and look at the ring of peripheral vision that you can see to your left, right, up and down. That's what I'm left with. So the middles of my retinas died from the inside out, and that's progressive. It's going to continue to get a little bit worse throughout the rest of my life. And right now, I have about 5% of my assay left.

[Ari]

So it's strictly genetic. There was nothing, like from your service that contributed to it. Just.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Oh, there was a lot, you know, really, really smart question, Ra. So there was a lot from service that's called service aggravation. So people that are born with Stargardts might maintain a lot of their vision into life. Um, for me, I was unlucky enough to be deployed at a time when. When my. My retinas were already starting to get a little shaky. And then the fall of 2000, I was. I was in the Middle east on the Arabian Peninsula, and the USS Cole was attacked. So my deployment got extended, and I was the closest Air Force logistics officer to Yemen at the time. So my team and I had to help with the recovery. USS Cole is a Navy destroyer, and for anybody that's never heard of that incident. October 2000. Al Qaeda carried out their first successful attack on a U.S. asset that was not here in the States. They had tried once before with the World Trade center, and they were unsuccessful. But after the coal was attacked, all hell broke loose on the Arabian Peninsula. Obviously, I happened to be the guy that was there, and the retinas really started absorbing light, aviation chemicals, heat, stress. There was about a week when I really didn't sleep at all, and then for a couple months, minimal sleep. And by the time I got back home to the States, which was about six months after that, it kicked off this chain reaction, my retinas, that really killed them pretty severely. And so by the time I left California, which is where I was stationed, and moved across the country, which was In March of 2001, the ABs were on quite a run there, as some of you may remember. So I stopped in Colorado along the way, but I, at that time only had around 10% of my eyesight left. Just didn't know it yet.

[Ryan Whitney]

I speak for all of us, and thank you so much for your service. It's incredible, and it. It's amazing that you're on here with us right now, and. And Biz had the idea of having you on. I love it. And part of that is because I think you have found a lot of peace and. And enjoyment in hockey. And it's. It's so cool for our show. Kind of like just hockey's for everyone, right?

[Biz]

And.

[Ryan Whitney]

And when you say that, you think of all these different people, and maybe the last people you think of are blind people who love hockey. And. And you. You fell in love with it. And kind of take us through your.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Your.

[Ryan Whitney]

Your journey to find hockey and figure out this game while not being able to see what you're doing out there.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Well, starting to know about hockey was probably just as improbable as playing it. So I'm from Irmo, South Carolina, and there. There wasn't a lot of hockey on when I was growing up. We had TBS was the. The station that had most of the sports on. So Saturdays with the family. For me, we're watching a. A fishing show called Fishing with Orlando Wilson and then NWA Wrestling. Those were. Those were my sports when I was growing up and really didn't hear about hockey until I got out to Colorado at the Air Force Academy. And there was this one night when my roommate was being a little loud and I had an exam the next day in Thermodynamics, and I needed a place to go study. And tickets to the games were free for cadets at the time, so I went down to the rink. Air force had a D3 team, not quite D1 yet. I think they might have gone D1 the year after I left, if. If memory serves, but pretty. Pretty small but growing program in the mid-90s. This is 1995. First time I went to a. A hockey game, and I have my book and I'm studying, and I had played soccer growing up, but didn't really know hockey. And I found myself, with every shift, kind of putting the book down a little bit more and paying attention to what was going on the ice and. And paid attention to the book a little bit less. And by the time the game was over, I was hooked on hockey. And I forgot my book in the stands and had to go back towards it the next day. It was still there, even that.

[Wit]

So I. I actually. I have a cousin, and she. She has. I want to say this right, uvitis, and it's same. Same type of thing as you. And she now has one fake eye, but same type of. I was reading your book and a lot of the same type of trauma. She lost her dad young. I know you. You lost your dad young. And just little things I see in her and what she's doing now. She's now a doctor. She was probably the best athlete in our family. And she's still skiing. She's still mountain climbing. Like, what message? Because I've asked her too. It's like, what message can you send to even kids who are, you know, have everything and of just being perseverance and having the drive? Because the stuff that you guys are doing with your disability is completely insane to me. And so, like, it's just amazing.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

So, first of all, for your cousin, my message to her would be, can you ice skate? We're always looking for players, and I don't know what our vision level is, but the. The important thing about losing your vision is. And all of us go through this. You go through this process where either the world is closing in. If you have retinized pigmentosa and you only have this pinhole left, or in my case, the. You know, the blindness is creeping out. And you. You're asking yourself, especially when you're alone inside your head, which. That was the case for me. It was really isolating. You're asking yourself, what can I still do? And you have these things taken away from you one at a time. You can't drive anymore because your vision is good enough to pass the test. And then eventually, it's hard just to walk down the street and you might need to go get a blind teen. And, you know, the emotional part for me of beginning to carry around a blind cane was. Was a big transition. And you get to this point where, okay, I'm. I've now collected my thoughts on the things that I can't do anymore. What can I still do? And for some of those things, you have to learn them all over again just like you were a kid. I mean, for me, it's clipping my toenails, tying my shoes, let alone functioning in society, having a job. For a lot of people that lose their vision earlier in life, it's, it's a really, really more challenging experience even than I had. Unemployment rates among blind people are at 50% in a lot of the country. And for children that lose their vision, 50% of them have a secondary disability in addition to blindness. So you, you have all these challenges thrown at you all at once. And then there's this mental process that you go through for what can I still do? And for me, hockey changed everything. So I, I didn't know if I could ice skate, but I had been a fan for a while and I took a class and realized I could do that. And then once I realized hockey might be a possibility for me, it really changed the way I think about everything else.

[Biz]

How, how was it a possibility for you? Like, what was the first step you were able to take? And, and like getting on the edge. You said it's hard to find players even now. I'd imagine when you began it was, I mean, how much less was it?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah, I didn't know about blind hockey when I first signed up for an ice skating class. So my wife and I live in the D.C. area. And this is back in 2013, I signed up for a learn to skate class. And I don't know what it's like for people that are elite hockey players like you guys in America or Canada going through learning to skate. But for me, it was as a 37 year old adult going to a learn to skate one class with us, figure skating and getting out there the, the first time not being able to see what the heck is going on, but also afraid to tell my coaches that I was blind because I wanted them to let me take the class. And first time I got out there, I, I fell after a few strides in black and blue for a few days. It's harder when you're an adult, right? Like when you're a kid, you bounce right back up. But as an adult, the, the learning process is different. And then there's this overwhelming kind of feeling of you can hear what's going on around you, but can't see it. You can kind of smell the rink, which was really cool. And it took me a couple of months to orient to some of the sounds being things that can Help me instead of feeling threatening. And then once I got comfortable on skates, I started shifting my thought process to, okay, I've picked myself up off the mat a little bit. I was in the tough place. I signed up for this ice skating class. I did it. I wonder if they let me play hockey.

[Ari]

Your first time out there, Craig, was it the most vulnerable you've ever felt in any situation? Just, you know, being out there the first time and not be able to, like, see, see anything? Like would. A little bit.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah. Really good question. Ra and I, I think, yes, it's, it's right up there. I don't know. Most vulnerable. I mean, when I got diagnosed, that was probably the, the most vulnerable I've ever felt. Because I'm in this, I'm in this chair with my pupils dilated, having these lights flashing at my retinas, being treated like a science experiment. They're trotting doctors in it. That was really tough. But getting out onto the ice, you don't know how it's going to go. And to compound that, I was at a, I was really at a low point in my life at that time. And I had a lot of other things that I was asking myself, can I still do this? What's my career going to be like? I, at the time was on an anti depressant and ice skating for me was, was a lifeline. It was getting my legs moving first and foremost and being around people in a shared experience where you're all trying to do something hard that none of you are any good at. It was both vulnerable but also kind of validating that I could get out there with them. And all these people that can see, they were going through the exact same stuff I was. They're falling, slipping all over the place, trying not to get their hands skated over. I mean, it really kind of normalized things for me.

[Ryan Whitney]

When you talk about blind hockey, like, take us through, like, how it goes. I mean, I know I saw the video of the Pac, which is really cool. It has something on the inside so you can hear where it's at. But are all the rules the same in terms of regular hockey? And, and, and how does it go? Like being on a team, like, is that. I guess there's a leader on every team. There's, there's different lines, like, take us through the, the games.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah, really good question. So just the mechanics of blind hockey, it looks and feels very similar to regulation hockey. I'm actually going to pump here, guys, so I'll show it to you. This is going to be hard for those watching it on video to tell whether it's the same size as a regulation. But if I had a regulation puck, it's about what, five and a half ounces, and it would look like this next to the blind puck. And it makes noise so that we can find it on the ice. So for those of us that have a little bit of vision left, we can find that big old puck against white ice. It's made of 22 gauge steel, it's got eight ball bearings inside of it, and when it's moving, it makes noise. So that's the first adaptation that's different than regulation hockey. The second one is the goalies. So the goalies have to be complete completely blind. And every player that plays blind hockey has like a different gradient level of vision left. Everybody that plays competitive blind hockey needs to be legally blind or worse, which means best corrected vision of 2200, that translates to about 10% of your eyesight left. It's not true for everyone, but that's roughly what it is. And then the goalies are completely blind. So a goalie that's completely blind is probably the most impressive story on the ice. I mean, you could go through a blind hockey locker room and everyone that's in that room could have their own documentary, but especially the goalies. So they're completely blind. And then they're defending a net that's a foot shorter than a regulation net. And so they have a blocker and a glove, but they're not able to go up here like Henrik Lundqvist would and make glove or blocker saves because the puck doesn't make noise when it's in the air. So the net's a foot shorter. Third adaptation is the play inside of the offensive zone. So when the team that's trying to score crosses the blue line and is on side, they have to complete a tape to tape pass before that attacking team can score. And when the pass is completed, this pass whistle blows. Everybody on the ice hears the pass whistle. And then the defending team knows, okay, I'm going to orient myself to where I think that whistle came from or where I hear the puck and start trying to play defense to block a shot. And the goalie gets situated on whichever post is closest to where they think the puck is and they're ready to make a short side save. And then the rest of us that are in the defensive zone are trying to take away the, the weak side shot, which is what every forward or, or defenseman that, that can see the Net is trying to aim for in.

[Wit]

In blind hockey, how many players were like you that never played hockey before in, you know, learned on the, on the fly like you did?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah, really good question. Well, first of all, compared to guys that played junior A or major junior or a couple that played for a bit in college, which, we have a few of those. In blind hockey, when our sport gets more competitive and we find more players, guys like me shouldn't be on the ice in an elite level competition.

[Guest Host]

But.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

But for now, because the game is still going, you know, kind of across local programs. And then we had national teams, and now we've got this thing called the bhl, the Blind Hockey League. There's a, there's a place for, for players like me to earn their way into the game. So there are a few of us, I'd say 10 to 20% of all of the blind hockey players that are playing competitively right now learned after they lost their vision. But the best of us, the. The best players, the, the elite players, and I can name a few names. There's a guy named Jason Yuha, I mentioned he played junior A. There's a guy named Kelly Serbu, the place for the. Or he did play for the Halifax Moose Heads for a bit. These are guys that made it really far before they were diagnosed. And some of that's just luck of the draw. Right? So if you lose your vision when you're 20, 21, 22 years old, you've got time to build a little bit of a career and have some success in hockey before you have to transition to playing blind hockey. For those of us that are diagnosed earlier, you've got to do it the other way around, which is harder, but not impossible.

[Biz]

You told me a fun, funny story about when they thought you were taunting the other bench. I'd love for you to retell that. And, and also, oh, my God. One of the best things about hockey is the banter. I mean, the Brad Marshawns, the way they chirp on the ice, is it. Is it similar to that? And I'm sure that you guys appreciate and really miss that environment as well.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Oh, it might be even worse. I mean, if you guys are on the mentor blind hockey game, you'd probably have to cover your ears.

[Biz]

We got to get you guys mic'd up. We could probably get on tnp.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

So. So I got, I got picked to play at Canada's highest level in 2017, which was at that time called the Select Division, and this was the level that eventually became their national team. When we started playing best on. Best in. In. In 2018. And I had actually broken my fibula after I got kicked, but before the tournament. So I leaned on a doctor real hard to slap some titanium in there and seven screws and get me back out there so I could play in this thing, because I thought it would be my only shot to play at the highest level. And I'm on the ice and I'm very clearly the worst player at this level and struggling to keep up. And I. I was. I was attacking off a. Off a. A bad turnover with a player named Anthony Chula, who's a really, really good Canadian player. And I was on his wing coming across the line, and he sent me a nice clean pass with a straight line to the net. And I let one go, and it. And it went in, but I didn't see it go in. I just heard the whistle go off and I black out because I. I didn't think that I would score a goal at. At that level. And that happened to be the deciding game of the gold medal match in. In Canada's national. National championship. That was our fifth goal of the game, and it ended up being the game winner. And I got so excited that I just started cartwheeling my arms like this and looking for somebody to high five. And I did a flyby on the wrong bench because I couldn't. Can you imagine if an NHL or. Unbelievable.

[Biz]

Yeah, that just would clear.

[Wit]

Marshawn's gonna do that.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

I've never laid that one down. There's all sorts of other. Like, I'm getting back on the ice right now, and I had a game Sunday night with my beer league team. We're called the Cluster Pucks. And not everybody in that league knows that I'm blind yet, you know, And I don't, like. I don't go put it in people's spaces. They figure it out at some point. Some people think I'm drunk. Some just think I'm stupid. But. But I actually lined up at the wrong face off circle for a face off the other night. And I. The other team was thinking, like, is this guy gonna fly the zone? Like, is this some sort of secret formation? I just had no idea where the puck was. So there's. There's all sorts of stories like that for those of us that are blind and. And try and figure out how to orient to the parts of the game that aren't active gameplay. They're. They're pretty funny. You could interview any blind hockey player and they tell you they. We've all ended up in the wrong penalty box. I've tried to hop over the boards of going to the wrong bench once and that was a, that was a show too. But, but you learn to take things like that in stride. And for me, I've been blind for over 20 years now. And so that sort of stuff is no comparison to what I deal with when I'm walking down the street or trying to order food in a restaurant or going through an airport. I mean it's all the same.

[Ari]

Speaking of penalties, are they called pretty frequently? Is there, are they called, you know, the same rate as a regular hockey game? What's the deal with that?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah, good question, Ari. So yes, we have all the same rules and blind hockey is supposed to be non checking, but that's the one where some of us sort of figure out where the refs are going to let something go as an accidental collision versus straight up, put a shoulder into someone. But we have tripping, we've got all sides, we've got uh, you know, we have high sticking, we've got everything that regulation hockey has. And for the people that officiate blind hockey, it takes them some time to adapt to. Okay, what are these players doing on purpose? What should I let go? All size is a show. I mean imagine if you, if you have like 1 or 2% of your vision, which is low, less than I have. Some of the people that, that skate out go off size a lot. I, I go off size all the time. But you learn to count strides, you learn to kind of orient off of where everybody else is and guess it where the puck is and, and get into the zone at, at the right time. Compared to other blind players, I probably spend a little more time in the box.

[Biz]

So not only while like stick handling and moving around and, and cardio, you have to be counting in your head how close you're getting to each wall. Remember which way you're turned. That is just. That is fascinating. No wonder you, a lot of us, no wonder you went to the wrong bench, for crying out loud. It almost started a scrap.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Well, this is, you know, this is a fascinating parallel between really good elite level NHL players and how blind players brains function, right? So this is this phenomenon called grid memory. So when you lose your vision there's this part behind your eyes called the visual cortex. And for anybody that's gotten a lot of ice time in hockey and yance, this will probably resonate with you because you were looking to get shots through from the point a lot and you're Looking one place but also trying to figure out what your stick sees. You start to remember patterns of where you can do certain things on the ice. That's the same thing that blind players brains do. All of us figure out our own system for what usable vision do I still have? How can I project that into the parts of the ice that I can't see or the parts of the play that are going on around me? And then if I get enough reps with that same pattern, can I be successful out there? All of us that train enough reps in hockey do it. It's just that blind people have to do it off the ice too.

[Ryan Whitney]

I have kind of a two part question, the first being do you know when, you know, the blind hockey leagues like started like when this became a thing? And then the second part would be it's wild that it's not a part of the Paralympic Games yet. And I know that's something that you're very passionate about and something that you'd love to get for and God, talk about making total sense and being a part of the Paralympic Games. Blind hockey sounds perfect. So I'm just wondering when it began and it became organized and is there any discussion in of terms, talk about how you could ever get it, get it a part of the Games?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah, thanks for that question. That's, that's really top of mind for me right now. And thanks for mentioning the book before guys. But you know, we donated all the proceeds from this book. Fine. I can't even tell if it's on camera, but maybe the people center. So, so we donated all the proceeds from finding the puck to, to helping get blind hockey toward a world championship and then the Paralympics. So I'm a massive sled hockey fan and their path really showed us the way. So they've been a part of the Paralympic Games for I think around 30 years now. And it takes a lot to get there. So blind hockey right now is being played competitively between the US and Canada at the national team level. And that's been true since 2018. Our next step is to try and get a Four nations tournament going. So there's flying hockey being organized in Finland right now. We're actually working with a couple of Swedish players to get something going in Stockholm next summer in Sweden. But you've got to have eight countries playing at a national team level for a sport to be considered for the Paralympics. And we're not close to there yet, although we've got kind of these grassroots level programs in other countries outside of North America coming. So the women's sled hockey path is really showing us the way. And they're doing incredible job taking women's sled hockey from U.S. and Canada, being really, really competitive against each other, and then helping other countries come along. And you've got your Japans, you've got your Swedens, you've got your Germany's all forming women's sled hockey teams. And I really hope that that sport makes continues their great progress toward the Paralympics for blind hockey. Our goal is to be in the Paralympics for the Salt Lake games in 2034, and we've got an outside shot to be able to be on the ice in the French Alps in 2030 if we can get a Four nations and then a World Championship going. So the NHL has been very supportive of that.

[Biz]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

I don't know how familiar you guys are with Kim Davis, but she's been a total champion. Anson's got real interest in helping us kind of nudge the sport along internationally. Got a chance to talk with him. So shout out to Anson Carter and thanks in advance for the help that you want to lend. But for anybody that wants to know how to help get line hockey on the path toward the Paralympics, it takes a lot of funding and a lot of organization to be able to play, bring blind players from Finland together in Helsinki or wherever else they're going to play in Finland, and then get across the pond to come play in Toronto. So our next chance to do that is in March at the Canadian National Championships. For anybody who's never seen blind hockey, that's a really good example of elite level competitive blind hockey. So tune in the weekend of March 20, 2026, for the Canadian Nationals. We'll have hopefully some Finnish players, some Brits, maybe a couple of Swedes playing on what we're hoping to plan as Team World playing against the US And Canada. And if we're able to pull that off, then we're on our way to a four nations, then a world Championship, and then hopefully the Paralympics. I'm on the board of the International Blind Ice Hockey foundation, and my role is is to help with the fundraising side of closing that gap so that these teams that have such a steep hill to climb, being able to get on the ice in the first place and then compete internationally, can be able to do that without struggling through all these funding gaps that keep players from being able to come to tournaments. These pucks, for example, These things cost 55 bucks a piece. You need a lot of them to pull these tournaments. Off. So we want to help with things like that.

[Biz]

And it's obvious how much joy this hockey's brought in your life. And, you know, it's, it's given you a purpose. And, and, and you talked about it getting to the Olympics. You take a lot of pride in the fact that you've, you've helped teach over 300 kids or blind people, hockey, adults and children throughout your time. Like, where do you do so? And, like, obviously, the money that you're raising from the book will go towards that as well.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

I'm sure the money, the money from the book is 100% of it is donated toward, toward charity, toward growing blind hockey. And that's part of what I'm trying to do for the game right now. But helping a blind kid get onto the ice is the most rewarding part of playing this game for me. I couldn't tell you how many goals I've scored. Not that I've scored so many. I just, I don't. I don't really even care. And you guys talk a lot about life after competitive hockey, right? I. And I know that, you know, we as guys have something that, that we do that we spend so much time building ourselves up toward, and then we look around and ask, okay, I've done all this. These are individual accolades that matter. Is there room for me to use that to help other people? These programs that we organize to help blind children and adults, we, we, we do both get onto the ice, really give me purpose. And if I, if, if we had more time, I could tell you a hundred stories of children that I've met that either didn't think they could skate or if they figured out how to skate, didn't think they'd be able to get a stick in their hand and, and stick handle or find the net and score a goal. And if you're around to give a kid that opportunity, you forget real fast about anything that you do on your own when you're playing blind hockey. It's one of the most rewarding things that I've ever done. And obviously, you know, my, my family and my career come first and second, but giving blind people the opportunity to have some of the experiences that, that I've had, it's, it's extremely rewarding.

[Ryan Whitney]

Are there any NHL players who've ever done anything or pro hockey players? Yeah, within. Within the blind hockey community?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah, good question. With lots. And I, I could be, again, I could be here for a while listing all the NHLs that have, that have gotten involved in blind hockey but let me give you a few stories that you might not know about NHLers. So first of all, the Philadelphia Flyers did an incredible event. So I reached out to Zach Hill, who's the, the head of public relations. He may still be, I'm not sure, for the Flyers, and shared some of the video content of what we had done and he showed it to Claude Giroux. Claude saw it and said, guys, we have to do this. I'm going to bring the entire team will skate after practice. You bring your, your blind athletes. So we brought the school for the blind from the Philadelphia area onto the ice. And Claude was incredible with the blind athletes that he was out there with. But their favorite was actually Wayne Simmons. So this was in 2019 when he was still with the team and there was one kid that got to work with Wayne one on one. And Wayne asked him, hey, what do you want to work on today? And Simmer was expecting something like, oh, help me crash the net. And he said, I want to learn to skate backwards. And Wayne was like, oh God, you're asking the wrong guy. And he pointed at me.

[Ryan Whitney]

I'll teach you how to fight.

[Keith]

But.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

So Wayne Simmons was incredible with the blind kids. Claude Giroux, the whole Philadelphia Flyers organization and they've got an amazing youth focused blind hockey program. Now you've got Mitch Marner. So his foundation from early on when he started it has been active in both organizing and fundraising for blind hockey. And he's opened a lot, a lot of opportunities for, for our community. You've got the Avalanche, obviously. So Miko Rantman came out and did blind hockey with, with the kids here in Denver and he was probably the, the best one that, that we've ever had on the ice out here in Denver. Milan Hayuk is, is very involved also from the AS alumni. But mo, his personality was, was incredible around the, the blind athletes. And one more that, that you guys might not have guessed, but in Calgary early on in his career, Matthew Kachuk came out with the, the Calgary blind program, they're called the Calgary Seeing Ice Dogs. And there was this one moment the cameras weren't there and he noticed one of the goalies kind of off on his own trying to figure out how to slide in pads and the UNO he played before. And Matthew just kind of went off to the side and spent probably 20 minutes hanging out with this young man and asking him about his wife. And you get a chance to see somebody like that that has one Persona that you see on camera or on the ice and then you get to See a real moment of compassion like that from somebody like a Matthew Kachuk and it makes you realize what kind of a capacity everybody that plays our game has to make a difference for people that are new to our game and a little bit scared to try it. So extremely grateful for the NHLers that use their platform to help grow blind hockey. And then the last one that I want to bring up, and this doesn't get talked about a lot, probably because he doesn't want it to, but Rope hints is kind of our goat right now. So Rope in Finland put on a charity golf tournament for, to raise money for the wine hockey program there. Raised a bunch of money and through his efforts, Finland is now able to put programs onto the ice and try and build a national team. So I had a chance to thank Rope when he was in, in Denver last month. But Rope, if you happen to, to hear this, thanks a million man, for everything that you're doing to try and move blind hockey forward. What you're doing is, is helping us get on that path toward the point Paralympics.

[Biz]

I'm sure. I hope Ryan Smith also catches wind of this because it's in Salt Lake. I'm sure he would love to, to have it be the first spot where, where it's introduced to the, to the Olympic Games. All right. You had one. I was, I was going to quickly hop in though, and you mentioned the, the Calgary CNI Dogs. Is that what you said?

[Guest Host]

See?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Ice Dogs. Yeah. So we've got some pretty incredible names in, in blind hockey.

[Ari]

That's awesome.

[Biz]

That's what I was going to ask you. What are some of the, the best team names?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

I think the best one is the Hartford Brailers.

[Wit]

Oh, that's amazing.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah. Hilarious.

[Biz]

Okay.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah, I think is the best one. Yeah.

[Wit]

Might have to explain to Biz, but yeah.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

So I actually. So when I was helping organize the team in Washington D.C. where I live, we were trying to pick a name and we decided to name it the Washington Wheelers as kind of a, a tongue in cheek thing because, you know, blind people can't drive. And I thought it would be a, a funny name. So the logo was a blind guy driving a motorcycle with a seeing eye dog in the, in the sidecar. We had to retire that logo and we're, we're called the Washington Blind Hockey Club now. But I still have the hoodie. I enjoy wearing them all the time.

[Biz]

Give us like two or three.

[Wit]

All the teams in Washington are getting their names taken.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yep. Yep. Yeah. If you guys want some Washington Wheeler SWAG I may have one of those hanging around or. Oh, you get a chance to. Yeah, if you get a chance to pick up a heart for Braillers hoodie, I've got one so.

[Wit]

Good.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

And, and that's. That. That's probably my favorite one. Other than.

[Biz]

Can we get, can we get like one or two more?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yep. So the Colorado Visionaries are here in Colorado and we actually had a naming contest for that one. So that's. I. Every time I hear that I think, oh man. I mean, LSD is making a comeback here in Denver. I wonder, I don't know, I don't know if it's related into there, but Visionaries is the name of the Colorado team. You've got teams in Edmonton, Halifax. The Toronto team is called the Ice Owls and then Montreal is called the eboo, which is you guys. I assume some of you speak French. So they're also Owls. And you asked earlier about the history of line hockey. So the Ice Owls were the first blind hockey team and I think they're coming up on a 50 year anniversary. They've been around for a long, long time and the IBU were close behind them. Blind hockey got organized in Canada in the 70s. And then about a decade ago, a guy named Mark Demanis rollerbladed all the way from the east coast to the west coast of Canada to try and raise money to grow blind hockey in Canada. And with the funds that he raised, he helped organize a charity called Courage Canada. And Courage Canada was the, the genesis of Canada having a national tournament, kind of normalizing the puck. So this puck, you know, there were like four different versions of this puck originally when blind hockey was getting going in Canada. So they helped make a, a puck that everybody could use. That was a compromise between Montreal using an apple juice can that made noise on the ice and a smaller puck in Vancouver. And, and then it percolated down from Canada to the states around 2015. And then the team started being formed after that. Some of the NHL teams actually give their names also and that puts a lot of wind in our sails in the blind hockey community. So for the Chicago Blackhawks and recently the Vancouver Canucks, we've got, I'm sure there are a couple of others. Minnesota Wild. These are teams that really bring the blind hockey team under their umbrella, give their logo, let the blind team wear it. And that really, really helps the athletes that play blind hockey take a lot of pride in being on that team. So some of the, some of the programs eventually get, get adopted by the, the NHL clubs As well. Good question, Craig.

[Ari]

I asked about penalties earlier, but have there been any fights at all? Any scraps?

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Pretty, pretty close. So a few glove punches thrown. I, I lost it a little bit with a guy named Kelly Serboo who is an elite level blind hockey player, way better than me. And we were, we were crossing paths near the blue line on a zone exit with his team and I went straight into his chest and I went down. He weighs about 30 pounds more than I do and I kind of lost it and went and tried to hunt him down after that and went shoulder first into him. Thought I was going to get him and I went down again. He just kept skating and laughed at me. Um, and I, you know, I thought there, there might be a little bit of aggression after that, but he just laughed it off. Found out after the game he wasn't even wearing shoulder pads. So joke's on me. But we have some scrums and there, there's some, you know, we, we have some glove punches thrown but in blind hockey we wear full cages and those, those don't and can't come off for obvious reasons. So I've never seen a full on fight in blind hockey. But, but you can, you can get somebody pretty good in, in other ways than throwing a punch.

[Ryan Whitney]

I know you have an incredible surprise for Biz as we wrap this thing up. But before that, I, I do have a question. And you know, I, I don't, I don't want to speak out of turn, but I would, I would think that what you've been through and losing your vision, you know, in your 20s, 30s, is a lot harder than being born blind. Right? I mean, you know, you, you, you, you never really know what, what you were missing if you're vision. And I'm wondering for you is, is there anything, you know, whether you know, it be your family or a sunset or a mountain rage that's has stuck with you specifically. Like it's, it's still so clear with you in your mind.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah, there's a few really insightful question with. And first of all, you know, if everybody that lost their vision in life with their, you know, put their problems into a bowl and, and pick them out of the bowl, you pick your own every time. I meet children all the time that lost their vision when they were 8 or 9. And I would say they have challenges that I didn't have to deal with. I was able to get a college education, I was able to serve in the military, and there were certainly some advantages that came with losing my vision. Later in life, but a couple things that stick out. First of all, my wife is absolutely beautiful. And, you know, I met her after I was blind, and I wish often that, you know, that I was able to see her better.

[Wit]

Biz.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

You met her? Yeah. So I don't know.

[Biz]

You've done very well for yourself, my friend.

[Ryan Whitney]

Well, you kind of look like Sean Connery.

[Biz]

Yourself. And we'll be doing a reboot of the Rock. Welcome to the Rock.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

When we were getting ready for this, G told me I look like his dad. So I've never. I don't know what his dad looks like, but I guess that's a compliment.

[Biz]

Like the Rock.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yep. So. But the other one, you know, I'm a. I'm a huge hockey fan. And I had a moment when I was driving from California to. To Illinois when I was changing duty stations in the Air Force, and I got to stop here in Denver. And I didn't know at the time I was losing my vision, but it was St. Patrick's Day, 2001. It was called the Pepsi center at the time, and I had tickets to see the ABs play the wings. And this was at the height of their rivalry. They were neck and neck for, you know, first in the Western Conference. And I got to see Joe Sack. I could just barely, like, still make out that end of the ice. And I got to see Joe Sackett come down his off wing and put one past Chris Osgood a few minutes into the first period on the Avs way to beating the Wings. I think that game was 5 to 2. I couldn't read this scoreboard by this point, but I. I have that moment with the Aves really etched into my. My memory. And going to a hockey game now, there's other things I can pick up. And I listen to the. The broadcast. Most arenas have something where you can follow the game now, but I. I miss being able to see those games live. There was only about three years, four years where I was a. A hockey fan and could still see well enough to. To go. But the. The few of those, I, I really miss. And then the last one really is I. I really enjoy the outdoors. I. I was a survival instructor in the Air Force, and I've always really enjoyed being outside. And I got to hike old rag with. With my wife. It's. It's one of the hardest hikes on the. The east coast. And I miss really being able to see what's around me when I'm, When I'm out in nature. I grew up on a Farm until I was 8 in Pennsylvania and then we moved down to South Carolina. But being able to see the little details outside are, are things that I really wish I could connect with more. But at the same time I'm really grateful for the vision that I still have. I was able to tell this fall that the leaves had changed colors and seeing little things like that is really fulfilling for me and it makes me, it makes me enjoy being outside. Really? Yeah, really. Good question about the vision loss.

[Biz]

You mentioned listening to the games. Do you listen to the Altitude broadcast Avalanche probably have the most electricity broadcast team in all of hockey and now they get, they get to call the most electric team. So it's just an unreal combo.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Well, I was, I was listening to every game in the 48 point season which was Betsy's first year. And you know, you're, I feel like I've trauma bonded with Mark rycroft and, and moj and, and the team. I miss Peter McNabb. I had a chance to meet him a couple times. He came out and helped with the blind broadcasts. But this broadcast here in Colorado on Altitude, they've got so much heart. John Michael Lyles has given his time with wine hockey also. If we had more time, I'd tell you a couple of those stories.

[Biz]

We get him on all the time. He's a regular here.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

He's, he is, he is the absolute best. I ran into him last time I was over at Ball arena. And we're really grateful for what he does for the Colorado visionaries. But yeah, I mean, just like you guys do on the TNT broadcast biz, Colorado does a really good job not taking it too seriously and making it feel like you're in the apps living room and not living in, in the Colorado or you know, in the, in the Denver area anymore and still feeling like I can connect with my team. They're incredible. Especially if you can't see what's going on. Listening to the guys descriptions of, of what's going on with the ass and the stories they tell about things away from the ice. It's just they're, they're, they're elite. I really enjoy their storytelling.

[Biz]

This has been awesome.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

I wonder if I could ask you guys one thing before we, before we sign up.

[Biz]

Oh, we're good. We're good. Time's up.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Well, I'm not gonna ask you about your haircut because I can't see it anyway. Right. So if you want me to cut your hair next time, I'll be glad.

[Biz]

Yeah, you, I think you might have been better than the guy I got in Atlanta. Yeah.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Oh, God. Yeah. I, I can't see mine when I, when I like brush it or whatever and I looks great 2 year old son and I, I let him trim my beard the other day, so I hope it doesn' too terrible.

[Biz]

I'm surprised I didn't get a joke that you're. You got better vision on the ice than I do. I thought that was coming for sure.

[Ryan Whitney]

I was gonna say it after.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

So if I could get a little serious on you guys for a moment. You know, it's a, it's a year of, a lot of gratitude for me and not just because, you know, my family's thriving and things are going really well with the book coming out, it's out January 27th, but also just reconnecting with hockey and getting to spend some time with you guys is a part of that. And I wonder if you guys could close your eyes and take a moment and think about somebody early on that shared hockey with you and helped you realize that either playing or becoming a fan was, was possible for you. Like one or two people that really shared this game with you and made you a part of hockey's community. I wonder if you'd be willing to thank them.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, I mean, it's kind of crazy. You say that and you just, you close your eyes and I think of my dad.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

You know, I think, I think of the, the man who kind of taught me the game and then all the times I was outside playing with him and, and just having a dad who anytime you asked him, hey, you want to go outside? Shoot pox, want to go sticking out. There was never ever a no.

[Wit]

Right.

[Ryan Whitney]

And, and it's just something that you don't, you don't really appreciate till you get older and you have kids on, on, on your own. And that's something for me that's, that's pretty emotional. No doubt.

[Biz]

I thought of my parents and my mom who used to, who brought me skating for the first time and she would, she would do it once a week and you know, I would, I'd had the double blades and I basically walking on the ice and I would complain about how much I hated it and she's like, no, no, we're coming every. And then eventually, obviously I fell in love with it. And I mean, look at, look at what it's provided in my life. And then the other guy was Mark Larose. He was a lawyer in, well, in Ontario and, and I had him very early in, in my hockey career. And I just remember him, like, he would, like, take us to play exhibition games against Buffalo teams, and he would, like, pay out of pocket and donate so much of his time. He. He would rent out, like, an old building in Welland where he put up. Put up nets and we put our rollerblades on and we go shoot pucks right when we didn't have ice time. So I rem. I felt like we'd played like, almost a hundred games. And he obviously that development helped out and that much time and ice time kind of helped advance me. So he passed away, unfortunately. So it's, you know, it's terrible. But, you know, he was a big part of my hockey career.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Hockey people have such big hearts, don't they? Yeah.

[Biz]

Oh, yeah.

[Wit]

Yeah. I think for me, and obviously the. The easy answer would be my dad just being my coach and, you know, teaching me the game. And, you know, he coached Ryan as well, but I'm going to say brother, and just. Just the fact that he was three years older than me, he was so much better than I was. I wanted to be as good as him. And, you know, even being friends with Whit, like they played together in the same team, you know, me wanting to hang out with them and. And be as good as them and get asked to play in the street hockey games and get asked to play in a summer skate game, just. Just, you know, in seeing their love for the game, because I think for me as a kid, it was just kind of one of those things. I was like, I'll go play hockey. My friends are doing it. But seeing the drive that those guys had at such a young age to better themselves, whether it was to go to a certain high school or a certain college and, you know, for wit, making the NHL. But yeah, definitely my brother. And, you know, just even from a young age, I just remember him like he was the type of kid that woke up my dad to go to practice. He.

[Ryan Whitney]

He was, you know, in the car.

[Wit]

Already had the car warmed up for my dad, where my dad was dragging me out of the bed. So I would definitely say my brother, just the. The, you know, commitment he had at such a young age to the game and bettering himself was very, very remarkable.

[Ari]

As far as me, it's my and dad, it's funny. I mean, I can't skate. We're at the lick, Craig. But I somehow managed the career in hockey media, which is kind of ironic, but, yeah, you know, my and dad, they had.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

I can't skate worth a lick either.

[Ari]

Ari, you're Better than me, pal, I'll tell you that. But, yeah, Myron, dad had season tickets. I was kind of born into the fandom. And, you know, dad would take us some games here and there. You know, they split up. Ma was always a fan, and, you know, we'd watch games of my road. Dad go to the game. So, yeah, just my parents really got me into hockey. And, you know, it's. Like I said, it's. It's. Give me. Give me a career. It hasn't give me a career in the game, but just, I'm so grateful for the game, which, like I said, it's ironic because I'm really not particularly good at it, but I'm very grateful for my dad being Bruins fans because it's, you know, let me know where I am today.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

The guy that coached my first game, named Dante Abercrombie, he's. He's now the head coach at Tennessee State. He really made me realize that it was possible for me not just to play a hockey game, which was my initial goal, but to really be a player. There was a hockey director at the Caps Rank named Dan Jablonik that had to make a judgment call on whether they were gonna let a blind guy play regulation hockey. This was well before I found blind hockey. And, you know, he cared more about giving me that opportunity than he cared about getting sued from, you know, letting. Letting a dangerous guy onto the ice. And, you know, Dan was really instrumental in me being able to get out there. Lion Messier, you know, Mark's son, if you can believe it, actually taught me to shoot. And he spent a lot of mornings with me helping me realize that. That I could play. And then I had a skating coach. She's actually a power skating coach for the Cats named Wendy Marco. And she spent many, many, many mornings with me trying to get me from Cascade at all to just took a skating class to maybe I can play competitively, and I could be here all day thanking more people, but our game has such a big heart, and hockey has really helped me rewire my brain and succeed off the ice and just feeling a lot of gratitude, and it. It's. It's fitting, you know, Congrats on episode 600, guys. That's incredible. And thank you guys for what you do for. For hockey's community. You really. You give people, whether we're not players at all or play a little or play a lot, you give us a chance to connect and feel like there's a place in the game for us also. So thanks for what you guys do.

[Biz]

It's an honor, brother. Thank you.

[Ryan Whitney]

Thank you, man.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

And I got one more thing. If I could. And Viz, this is for you. So you got the primary helper on Wayne Gretzky's first line hockey goal.

[Biz]

That's it. I don't know if his eyes were fully closed.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

I'm counting it. I'm counting it.

[Wit]

Wow.

[Ari]

Y' all were a biz.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

This is the puck.

[Biz]

And that is awesome.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

So I've been in contact with one of our board members, with Phil Pritchard, who, for those that don't know.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Bill is both the keeper of the cup as well as the curator of the Hockey hall of Fame. And Phil will be getting that puck to become a part of the collection at the hall, so.

[Wit]

Wow.

[Biz]

That is.

[Ryan Whitney]

That's incredible.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Whoa.

[Wit]

But they're taking your name off? No, they're taking this name off. Wow.

[Ryan Whitney]

I knew you'd get in there, biz. That's awesome.

[Biz]

That is such. Oh, my God. That is so thoughtful.

[Ryan Whitney]

Dude.

[Biz]

That is.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Happy 25 pound deep fried turkey, American style. Thanksgiving to you, bud. Hey, your puck is going to the Hall.

[Biz]

Hey, I'll be. I'll be listening tomorrow on my flight to go do TNT for Friday. But, Craig, thank you so much for your time and coming on and everything that you're doing to grow the game. And from the minute I met you, I knew we had to get you on and to share your story. I mean, you mentioned the word gratitude off the hop, and I think we're all feeling that right now.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

So thanks again, guys. Again, the book is. The book is Finding the Puck. Thanks to Audible for getting it out in. In audio format. And you can buy it on pre sale right now. The Release date is January 27th, and all proceeds from this book are donated to charity to help blind athletes get access to hockey. And if you want to know more about our game through the foundation, please visit support blind hockey.org and if you want to. If you want to actually watch blind hockey, just go onto YouTube. We've got the blind hockey league. We'll be on the ice December 19th through the 21st in Vegas. I'll be playing in that. And both Canadian blind hockey and US Blind hockey have some incredible content. If you want to. If you want to watch a blind.

[Wit]

Hockey game, we should call a game biz.

[Biz]

My dream right now is if we're there for the gold medal game between Canada and US And Salt Lake, once it's introduced to the parrot. That would be money. That would be money.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Let's Go.

[Ari]

So much.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Let's go.

[Wit]

Amazing.

[Ryan Whitney]

Not just for what you've done for the game, but, but for your service. You're a very inspirational person. So have a great Thanksgiving.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Happy Thanksgiving, boys. Thanks for having me.

[Guest Host]

All right, guys, real quick. I gotta jump in and talk to you about our great friends at body Armor. This episode is brought to you by Body Armor, the official sports drink of the NHL. Body armor has great tasting flavors like strawberry banana, which is my personal favorite, and peach mango. Love that. In the morning with no colors from artificial sources, which is so important nowadays. In a bold new look with the same great taste and now available in Canada. So whether you're hitting the ice, the gym, or just need something refreshing, go grab a body armor today at Walmart or your local grocery store near you. And for our friends up north, you can also grab some body armor at your local Sobeys Body Armor. Choose better.

[Ryan Whitney]

Thank you so much to Craig Fitzpatrick. That was incredible. Finding the Puck is his book. I think he said Jan. 22. So everyone grab a coffee. Coffee. What? Geez. Grab a copy. What a guy, what a person. And, and, and gratitude is for sure an amazing thing. So with that, I think it's time for a little ra's World. Bring them in.

[Ari]

Hello, everybody. Gobble, gobble. Welcome to Ira's World, the fifth version on the Spit and chickens podcast. All fight up, boys. Little turkey week. Great interview we just did. Craig Fitzpatrick. Awesome stuff. How you boys been? I missed you last week, you guys out in California. I was on the couch all week. I was walking around like Yoda biz. My sciatica acting up. My hitman getting old quick, boy, not fun.

[Biz]

You got to get yourself a trainer. That should be your New Year's resolution. Get back in shape. Maybe get a six pack going.

[Ari]

Oh, my God.

[Biz]

Would you ever do a fast ra?

[Ari]

That'd be the first time I was ever fast at anything in my life probably. But no, no, I, I, I gotta get back out there because I can't, like, do my, you know, two, three mile walks. This I gotta walk like an old lady, man. It's like I need a cane of chance.

[Biz]

Do you get like, like a, like a softball and you roll on your ass and in your glutes and stuff?

[Ari]

Yeah, yeah, I get like. But I got like double whammies before. I, I never. I told you my L5S1. I showed you my, my thing. That's acting up too. But either way, boys, good to be back with you. How's that? How's everything going? It's been a minute.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Been a couple weeks or good on my end. I got some rest this weekend. I watched the movie Heat. I'm sure that you were loving hearing that Wit's got the family in town this week for Thanksgiving and, and Keith just got back to Boston, didn't you?

[Wit]

Yep.

[Keith]

Yeah.

[Wit]

Up here for the holidays. Can't wait to go see some family. I'll head over there after this and then tomorrow obviously see everyone. But great to see you as well. Ra.

[Ari]

Good to see you as well. Did you, did you have a catch? LA Confidential. On the flight out or the flight back? I know you said you might.

[Wit]

I didn't because I ended up trying to fall asleep the entire time.

[Keith]

Yeah.

[Wit]

But I got it downloaded.

[Ari]

Biz. I watched peaking, doing Donnie Absolute like chemistry off the, off the wall. But I, I wanted to ask you though, like you guys did the bike ride after you hiked up the hill. I mean, I'm like trying to like, oh, dude, like your legs were on jelly, man.

[Biz]

I, I, I've been doing it all summer. Like I try train and I do stuff and I'm used to hiking. That's maybe why Donnie wanted a little bit more time and, and a proper lesson before he went down. But also completely different muscles. Right. You're not really pedaling, you're just gravity's taking you down. It's more of like an upper body and forearm and hand workout.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Vision too.

[Wit]

It's got to be.

[Biz]

What's that?

[Wit]

It's got to be like a vision and knowing where you're going. Right?

[Biz]

Yeah. That's actually, to me, the stimulating part where you're, you're not really thinking of anything other than just like, you know where you're going and it's kind of like, it's like skiing almost.

[Wit]

Skiing. Yeah.

[Biz]

Where it, it just, it gives you that adrenaline rush and you know, you have to be completely dialed in because if you eat in either of those two, you can end up in the hospital. So. No, it was, yeah, it was right afterward, buddy. And we had a blast. That was episode one you're talking about. And then episode two just dropped yesterday, which had the, the fishing, fishing and surfing scene, which probably one of the best fishing scenes going right now.

[Ari]

Haven't caught that yet. But you, you should put aside like five minutes each episode of you interviewing like an eight or ten year old kid. Because when you were talking to that little kid and you're like, hey, how'd you, how'd you know so much about mountain biking? He's like, well, I mountain bike all the time. It's like, hilarious.

[Biz]

He was a boogers. Yeah.

[Ari]

But when. When they cut to you, what's that, the camera on your head there? I couldn't believe how narrow that was, man. For you. Like, you've never riding a bike in a long time. That was pretty ballsy.

[Biz]

I understood. I. I never did mountain biking, but I would do. I had the ones that had the pegs on it, and I had bmx. Like a BMX bike where I would go off little jumps and stuff like that.

[Ryan Whitney]

Where your buddies would hop on too. You could. You could drive your buddy around.

[Biz]

Yep. That was easy. Especially if you got the, like, the both. Sometimes you'd have two. One on the front, one on the back. Because I would have both. Both wheels pegged.

[Wit]

That's why you got the strong legs.

[Biz]

Yeah. Yeah. I credited my. My NHL career to my BMX riding when I was a kid.

[Ari]

I. I drove when I was on Hawaii for my honeymoon. Psych. Good time. They. They pick you up at your hotel like two in the morning, and they drive Haleakala. It's a. It's a volcano. And you watch the sun come up. Like, you know, like, there's like 50 people. And then you drive your bike down. Down the hill when. When it's light out, it's pretty cool. I mean, but, like, you don't have to go all the way up. That's why. Like, jelly legs. I thought you guys would have jelly eggs. But it's awesome. You see the sun come up, drive down all the time. But it was my honeymoon. And, dude, Michael Jackson hijacked my goddamn honeymoon too. When I was in Hawaii. Oh, he died like this. I was.

[Guest Host]

I was like.

[Ari]

I poked my head to Rome like, hey, what's up? And all I'd hear was like. I was like, maybe I'll go fish with the turtles again. See you later. He's like, no way. It's like, oh, dude. Yeah, he died. That's all was on the TV all week. I'm like, all right. Fucking yeah, mj. Like, kind of like, ruined my honeymoon. Poor Farrah Fawcett. She died.

[Biz]

Well, I mean, when you're in Hawaii, you're in Hawaii, right?

[Ari]

That's. Yeah, yeah.

[Biz]

I mean, you could turn off the tv. I mean, the whole reason to be there is to get outside, but. Yeah, but I hear.

[Ari]

I wasn't watching. I wasn't watching it.

[Biz]

I remember when Princess Diana died. It was like, all anybody wanted to talk about at the. The time. Yeah, I remember, like, There's a few that. That really stick out to you of where you were when they passed. I mean, what's the. What's the number one to you guys?

[Ari]

Princess Diana was. Was a big one.

[Ryan Whitney]

It was a. I remember that and.

[Ari]

I remember Saturday night I stayed in it. I thought it was like an SNL thing.

[Wit]

Bryant, that's another one.

[Biz]

Yeah, that was. Yeah, that was like. It didn't seem.

[Ryan Whitney]

I remember saw. I saw a Tweet from Pat McAfee.

[Ari]

Was like, what the.

[Ryan Whitney]

Remember that, Jeff?

[Wit]

We were getting on a plane. It was during All Star break or whatever. There was like eight of us in Barbados. No, not, not Barbados. Turks and Caicos. And we were getting on a plane as every. Everybody found out at the same time about Kobe. It was so scary.

[Biz]

So scary.

[Ryan Whitney]

I mean, for. For us personally. Like, I'll never forget finding out that. That Johnny and Matthew passed away. Yeah, that's another one that you'll just. You'll just. Jimmy. And you just never forget those moments like where you were, who told you. But. All right. It's funny you say like two in the morning because people are like, what the hell? But like when you're. When you live on the East Coast. The one time I went to Hawaii, you wake up at like 3:34 because of the time difference. I remember. Like, that's kind of one thing. I was like, I don't. I was up every morning at 3:30, which I think is. I think that's 9:30 Eastern. So it's like. It's kind of hard to. You don't mind getting up early. And then every night over there I was asleep at like 8:30.

[Ari]

It's one of those places where you go and it actually exceeds your expectations. Like just the sheer beauty of it. And everything you see out there is awesome. But I know biz. I want to go back to a couple of things you're talking about. Yeah, it's kind of fun.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Weird.

[Ari]

You were so taking a leak with a Woodrow. You were talking about on a. Peeking last week, peeing with it with a hard one. You were talking to Donnie about that.

[Biz]

Yeah, I can pee with a boner, dude.

[Ari]

So I was like, why? Like you. You basically gotta have like. You gotta be like a magician to do it the way you were talking about like in the toy.

[Biz]

No, I just have always been good. Like. Yeah. Like, even if it's like extremely hard, I could just like find a way to pee with a bottle.

[Wit]

Ro.

[Ryan Whitney]

Sparks, dude. That's part of it.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Ari]

Dude, put. See, I was Gonna say, dude, if, if you know you got up with more than wood and you know it's tough because you gotta back up because your streams hit a decrease. Just put the shower on hot, dude. Stand outside the shower and let it rip. Because I mean guys pissing, it's all about the angle.

[Biz]

Like, you just have to like, you like do it and like just stand straight up. You kind of have to like, I'm a little teapot it. And once you get to a certain angle, then you can go. So I don't know. I, I, I'm pretty sure there's other people listening who are able to pee with a boner. I think we're a very select few. Kind of like the hall of fame.

[Ryan Whitney]

This is like what Craig Fitzpatrick was talking about. And thank you for what you do for the game is the these type discussions. So good fall all right.

[Wit]

Yeah, Great call.

[Biz]

Well, that's coming from peeking, right? That's different than the hockey world. So that's where he's bringing that from.

[Wit]

I'm peeing with my dick.

[Ari]

Is peeking good for like the, the sitting on peeing stuff. Like, I know guys give you a part, but we talked about it before on, on the show, man.

[Biz]

Like, I, I just think it's a weird insult.

[Ryan Whitney]

Like if you're giving somebody for that. It's like, dude.

[Biz]

Sometimes in the comments, are you biz sits down to pee. It's like, I know a lot. Like, like probably more than 50 of the time I sit down to pee.

[Ari]

Yeah, this faint and spell. I think I told you before, like 20 years ago, I, I ended up at Mass General twice. Two ambulance rides, a concussion and stitches because it's post micturation syncope. It's called basically. After I would piss, I would faint, my blood pressure would drop and like four different times I, I, yeah, I rushed the mass adrenal. I found the tablet one night, I felt right off the stool, smack my head.

[Ryan Whitney]

Those mornings though, that you've had big nights?

[Ari]

No, that, Nope. It was, it was literally I had like two beers one night and like it was a, it's a random thing. That's like fight or flight. Yeah, I'm like, oh, basically like, I pass out. I'm like, so thanks doc. You just tell me, tell me. I'm a basically because like, and it was a weird thing. Like, and so like they would tell me like when you get up in the middle of the night, don't, don't stand up, sit down when you go to the bottom because you're already A little bit light headed anyways. You know what I mean, when you get up some of those times. But. But I was gonna say biz. The, the last time I, I wet the bed was, like, probably 30 years ago. It was the same night. First time he took ecstasy.

[Biz]

Oh, shit. Okay. Well, that was one of the drugs I didn't take on. Although I love ecstasy.

[Ari]

Five times.

[Biz]

I just don't do it much anymore. I'm not on the technology.

[Ryan Whitney]

12 years.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah.

[Ari]

Drain me.

[Wit]

He was 12.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

All right. I got a kick out of your tweet. I really laughed at the New York Post tweet. Note that kids are choosing SEC schools over Harvard and Yale. That was kind of classic. I don't know if any kid has gotten into Harvard and decided then to go to sec. I think you called them out for that.

[Ari]

Yeah, because I, I, this doesn't make sense. And I clicked on the Post story, and they were just sourcing the. The Times of London. And I read that thing, and there was not one thing in there that said anything about students showing or not decide not to go to Ivy League schools until the sec. That was like. But the whole Twitter was. Everybody was jumping off that thing. It just drives me nuts. You know, I'm a journalist, a nerd, all that stuff. Like, there's, like, people just read the tweet and go off that. But, yeah. Oh, they're not gonna do that. It's the freaking New York Post. But I know. Here's another one. Biz, I want to talk to you about Matthew McConaughey. Did you hear about this story last week?

[Biz]

Well, I mean, there's a lot that come out about him. He's just, like, always got a magical quote or doing something very special.

[Ryan Whitney]

He seems like the man.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, yeah. I haven't heard many. Any bad things about him.

[Ari]

No, this ain't bad. He said it was. He was on a podcast. He said that basically he had a wet dream, and then he realized he had to, like, go out and find a. Find a wife. And said in his dream, he said there were 22 vehicles, 22 women, and 88 kids. Each woman was serene and satisfied. Every child was smiling, laughing, and healthy. I'm Connie. He said that he never got married. There was 88 kids there for each year of his life. I. I hugged all the kids. All of a sudden. 3, 2, 1. Then I came. I was like, what the. And then, like, like, he started, like.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Looking for a wife after.

[Biz]

That's one of those ones where I think you keep that One in the vault.

[Ryan Whitney]

That's not one you share in the pod because maybe the cars and the women, but once you say the kids, you're like.

[Biz]

I've also heard Ra break down a movie that he's seen sometimes and he's a little off. Now you're telling me that he's describing a wet dream and was reading the quote.

[Keith]

Quote.

[Ari]

Yeah. Direct. Direct quote.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Yeah. Sometimes it gets a little bit, you know, up.

[Wit]

Said something after that quote.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, he wrote that in the ambulance after passing out. Peeing.

[Ari]

Yeah, it's just like this, like, might as well, like. Can't be like Pakistan. He nutted well before he was married, huh? Yeah. He ended up meeting his wife like, three months later or some crazy.

[Wit]

Was this on the Theo Vaughn podcast I saw? He was just on there.

[Ari]

I don't know if it was out or not. I like, whatever the story was. I don't think it was Theo one. Some other.

[Ryan Whitney]

I'm guessing he didn't tell that, like, story on the first date with his future.

[Biz]

I'm surprised he didn't get final edit on that one.

[Ari]

Oh, what's he care at this point, right? I mean, it's just.

[Biz]

Yeah, it's caught. Yeah. But, I mean, I'm sure I've told weird, weird stories before. I just don't know if the. If the hugging 88 kids and busting my nuts.

[Ari]

Yeah, I read it. I was like, it wasn't like, it wasn't an erotic dream. It was just a dreaming. I don't know, maybe he must have been backed up or something, but I know we were just talking about the playoffs. I honestly think there's the 75% number we always cite, you know, playoff team, playoff position on Thanksgiving. I think the east might go below that this year right now because everything's so jammed up. 16 teams separated by just 10 points. I think I wouldn't be surprised if like, four or five teams drop out. I don't know. Every. Everyone's so jammed up right now. I think with Switzerland, Toronto's the last place, but they're still 2, 3, 4 points out of a playoff spot.

[Biz]

Right.

[Ari]

And I. And over the west, man, Barry Trots. Is he on the hot seat, you think?

[Biz]

I think that they said that he's safe. I think that he has also said that coach is safe.

[Wit]

Brunette.

[Biz]

Brunette. So I don't know. It's got to be a fire sale there. They're also saying that if you want Ryan O'Reilly, it's going to cost you a first. And, like, a decent prospect. Where? Yeah, I, I just, I don't know. Like, I think that Ryan O'Reilly would be an unreal third line center on, on, on a cup team where he's kind of like, you know, he, he, you know, he's running off, fucking. He's having like the best stretch of hockey he's had in the last couple years. Like, I think that that would be an ideal situation. But he also makes, I think he makes foreign change. So where do you know who can slide him in at that money for what he's going to bring to the last? It's, they got a lot of decisions to make there and I don't know, maybe because of how tight it is. Ra though they do end up squeezing out a decent return because teams are a little bit desperate. But yeah, as I mentioned, he's got a five and a half million dollar cap hit. I would see him to be the first to move before any of those guys.

[Ryan Whitney]

All right. Right now the Bruins are second wild card. Are they making the playoffs?

[Ari]

A week ago I was dancing around the house saying, yeah, when they were in first place, I, I, you know what? I think they, I think they do get in. I love the way swayman' Sturm's got them firing all cylinders. Like what they lack in skill and talent with, they make up for in hot ne grit. They, they play for each other. I love the way Zadoros were playing awful to see what happened with McAvoy last week. But I, I do think they hang in there and they probably get maybe a wild card spot. Okay. You know, they're just playing. Like I said, they, I, they figured it was going to be, you know, transition year, you know, whatever, see what happens. And I, I can't stand people saying, oh, they, they got a Tank. It's like, dude, when you get a Superstar, a number one D like, like McAvoy and Swamin, that you, that's not a position where you, you vote and Tank.

[Biz]

Did you see that photo of Macavoy voice?

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, yeah. He was holding his daughter too, right?

[Ari]

He, yeah, his son.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

I think his jaw was, was completely shattered. I, I'm like, that was, that was one of the worst image that, that video of the puck hitting him. It reminded me of Draper hitting the boards when Lemieux hit him from behind. It was that much of just like, oh, when you're seeing it, it was horrible.

[Ari]

Yeah. It was like the first, like when he went off, like, oh, maybe he'll come back for the third period. You might have thought he was spitting some Chiclets, but when they showed that other replay, like, right, you know. Right.

[Wit]

Yeah.

[Ari]

At his face, it's like, oh, and this poor guy.

[Wit]

But.

[Ari]

And just back to the preds biz. They're 51 goals last in the league. I only got 2.32 goals per game. And Trot said, I know what toxic is, and I don't feel that we're toxic right now. So I don't know if they're not toxic right now, I don't know what's going on there. But another thing, too, I want to go back to the Askarov trade. I mean, I mean, the San Jose, he's playing his ass off right now. They might get in the playoffs, the way obviously Macklin and Smith, the way they're playing. But ask, you know, they could have had Askarov in Saros for the next two before they trade. Ask for two years under contract for less than $6 million. So you could have Saros in freaking Askarov backing him up. And Sars ended up getting hurt. It was just like they kind of sold them low, I think, didn't he?

[Biz]

Yeah, that was one of the Trots moves where he's like, yeah, I'm not dealing with this, like, young, up and coming punk. That's. That's hard, man. That's a hard road to go down now. And I get where some of these established guys, like a guy like Trots, if some young guy is getting a little lippy and you're. He has improvement and you're like, okay, we want this distraction, but, like, if you. If you have a good asset and he's a good player, like, same goes for, like, Cutter. Go Che. I wouldn't have moved off of him for what they did at the time. I would have said, okay, yeah, I get if you don't want to be a flyer, you're not going to be a flyer, but we're going to wait till we get the best deal and.

[Wit]

You can be a phantom.

[Ari]

Exactly.

[Ryan Whitney]

But I think Askroff didn't ask out until Soros re signed that monster deal.

[Wit]

Okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

It was almost like he's like, all right, well, you got eight. You got eight years Now. I don't. I don't want to be a backup.

[Ari]

But, yeah, try. He Trots was pissed that, you know, it got leaked out, probably from his agent. But, you know, like you said, Biz, he's not obligated to trade him.

[Biz]

Going back to that conversation, it's like, well, buddy, like most, I Know, Saros is one of those guys who typically gets the net more, but we're talking about him playing, what, 55, 60 games? You're still going to get your 20, 25. You do that for a few years, and then if you're as good as you say, you would have already gotten the net there a little bit more and. Or you're free to then say, hey, I got to go be a starter somewhere else. So I thought the kid was a little bit above his skis, but I think at the end of the day, that's what you're going to deal with more and more as the, you know, as we're seeing. Just kind of these young guys run the show. Not like ever before, but you have to.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

You.

[Biz]

You can't. You can't let them, let them dictate the move and the return. Like, what did they get back for him?

[Ari]

It was a couple pro. A couple picks, prospects, but nobody. Nobody who's played for the Pred yet. Nobody who's played with the NHL yet. So they're still, still waiting on these guys. Yeah, just. I don't know, a couple tough, tough moves for the Presidents. I mean, they kind of fell off the clip real quick. But I want to talk about some of these jerseys, too. Keith, what you think of those ranges, blue ones that they played versus the Red Wings? I know ones that was unreal to watch on tv. Plus, when they all started scrapping too, that was. That was pretty good stuff. There've been some good ones. I love the Bruins ones. I love the all yellow Pittsburgh one. That's good. All blue St. Louis. But the Dallas ones, they. They dusted off last night. I said, gee, I goes, it looked like a teemu camouflage for like an army in like an Eastern European country or something. It was just, I don't know, just ugly.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Just.

[Biz]

I don't think it looked that great either.

[Ryan Whitney]

Nothing's better than the. The ones the Blackhawks released, the All Blacks that sold out in about three minutes. Those are the best jerseys in the league.

[Ari]

Yeah, those are. Those are nice. And oh, the. The ones. The Panthers, too. Yeah, though. The ones they got the Winter Classic, that's the, like the Leaping Panther. But they kind of made them like a little sort of cartoonish looking.

[Wit]

Yeah, I love them. I. I think some people don't love the pants and stuff like that just because of the, you know, the gold or yellow, whatever it is. But. But I think the. The jersey is sleek. I think Whit said it last podcast like, it's the old School cat. But it's like, it looks new school. I think they did an unbelievable job with them.

[Ari]

I. I don't remember this many jerseys being like, released them in one single year. Have you. Have you seen like 10 different things?

[Biz]

They do it all the time. A lot to do with it, but they're just. It's a money maker.

[Ari]

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, I'm going to jump to the gambling picks now. The NHL. No games Thursday. I don't have any lines of Friday and Saturday, but I do got an NFL pick Thanksgiving today. Detroit Lions with a two and a half on the spread. I'm going to take them on the money line. Minus 142. Green Bay spanked them earlier this year. Detroit won last week. They've been kind of iffy lately, but I'm going to jump on them tomorrow. It's Thanksgiving. They tend to play a little better on Thanksgiving, but that's probably my only play tomorrow. Any NHL stuff I'll post on my Twitter account.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

What else?

[Ari]

Oh, classic recommendation. This week I gave LA Confidential and this show. It could have been my fourth on my mountain, Rushmore, but I went with Cheers as a comedy. It's Deadwood on hbo. It's one of the best shows ever. You ever see a Keith? No, no. It's set in Deadwood, South Dakota, North Dakota, in 1870. And that's.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

It's.

[Ari]

It's a real time. It's a fictional story. And they did three seasons. Legit, one of the best shows ever on hbo. But what happened? This, like, writer strike came along and they, they. People signed contracts on the show, so they never gave it a proper finish. So it's like season three ended and then like 15 years later they had a movie. But it's one of the best written shows. Like Al swearing in, like, you know, you got Tony Soprano and Al Swearing, probably the two greatest characters in HBO history because you got to check it out.

[Wit]

It looks like a show biz would like. It looks like. It looks like a mixture of. Of gangs in New York and There Will Be Blood.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, wow.

[Biz]

Now we're talking. Now we're talking.

[Ari]

But it's. Yeah, it's about, you know, how like the story of America and how, you know, it's the Wild west and all these pioneers go out there and, you know, the violence and, you know, the rich dudes trying to kill everyone and take everything over. But legit, one of the best fucking shows out there. So I'll give that a look, see what else we got going on. That's not much else, man. I, I deadwood brand my gears. Oh, that's.

[Biz]

Oh, buddy, it's Thanksgiving, man. Take a load off. Enjoy some family time. And what's grinding his gears?

[Ari]

Yeah, grind my gears. This is a big one. So there was a, a politician, I think Chris Murphy from, from Connecticut. He was at a rink the other day and he was trying to record his kid's game. And they're like, no, you gotta, you can't do that. Like, what are you talking about? So these private equity places, they're taking over these rinks where they're buying these rinks and they have to abide by their rules. So you know, they do these like live streams of the game. This dude is trying to record his own kid's game. He goes, I was told, Chris Murphy from Connecticut, I was told this past weekend that if I live stream my child's hockey game, my kids team would be penalized and lose a place in the standings. It's like, what, like, what the we doing here? Like, these who were buying like rinks and they're not, they don't like hockey. They're not doing it for hockey reasons. They just, you know, they just want to do it for money and strip the money. And it's like, wait, you're telling parents they can't record their kids playing a game? They have to like buy the version of it, whatever. I don't know, it's just indicative of a lot of that's going on. And you know, this country, this world would, you know, people who already have enough money are buying stuff, splitting up for pots and. I know, I hate to see this. What, like youth sports? I mean, imagine you go to a rink and someone says you're taping your kid. We're gonna put them in a strip of a victory or something.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Biz]

It's kind of like it comes full circle on like, what was pumping Minnesota State. The state of Minnesota. And like how they run their youth sports and how it's all about like, you know, building culture and learning life skills and, and team camaraderie and community, really. Right. Like, community is extremely important. And like you're talking about these like conglomerates just all of a sudden like are buying up these things that they have no connection to. And that's just like, it's such a weird one. Like, so it's. Is it to refrain you to where you basically have to buy their live streaming of the game service?

[Wit]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Which is like, that's different than if you want to take a picture or record your Kid closed up. Like, it's so different.

[Ari]

Yeah, it's. The parents have been threatened that if they choose to defy the rules and record the game, they may end up on a blacklist that punishes their kids teams. I mean, like, what? So they can make another hundred thousand dollars or whatever. I don't know.

[Wit]

You can video an NFL game if you go to that game, but you can't do it for your kid. Like off.

[Ari]

Yeah, exactly. And it's again like, hey, I don't just p. Private equity. This is what they do. They buy stuff up, cut it up, up, make their dough, and then you leave it for somebody else. But, you know, this is kids sports. This is a rink. I mean, I don't. I just. I don't. You can't implement.

[Biz]

They're coming off of that decision fairly soon once they see the blowback. And if they don't, all these people just take your kid out of the youth league.

[Wit]

If, like, how are they gonna. How are they gonna implement that? Like, where you lose a point? Like, I would be like, okay, buddy.

[Biz]

I got a security guard, mall cop.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

What?

[Ari]

The fine print. The fine print, probably Keith, you know what I mean? Like, would you sign your kid up or whatever? Whatever. Nobody reads all the fine print. But it's. That's going to be in there. Like, if we see you recording your kid, you're going to. Wait, you're going to what, Punish my kid's team? I don't know. It's just asshole maneuver. These people shouldn't be anywhere in their hockey or youth sports or whatever, but I don't know. That's the state of the world right now. People just like, you know, got to fucking carve everything up and get more money. So, hey, P.E. leave hockey alone. Leave youth sports alone. Go fucking gash up everybody else and take their money. But leave kids alone. Leave the sports alone.

[Biz]

No, baby.

[Ari]

And listen, I want to wish everybody a happy, awesome Thanksgiving. I'm grateful for you guys, Bosto, all my family, everything. It's been a, you know, a little tough role the last little bit, but things have been great for a while and I'm just grateful for you guys. Grateful for what I have. And I hope everybody has a fantastic Thanksgiving and know what to do. Tune into Chip. Let's you. Our boy G just dropped it him and went up to Maine, up in Orono, Maine. Just dropped the episode yesterday. Awesome stuff.

[Biz]

Ready?

[Keith]

One, two.

[Ryan Whitney]

We want to be the best developmental program in college hockey. We have a pure hockey environment up here. You are playing for the whole state of Maine.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

All right, I'm out of here. I'm out. I'm out of here. Monty. I'm out of here, buddy.

[Guest Host]

This is mine now. Monty.

[Ari]

No. I'd rather see them spend money on locker rooms like that instead of carving up parents and punishing their kids. But gee did an awesome job with it. So check that out. Got plenty of time to watch it over the weekend. And what are you guys going on for Thanksgiving biz? Where you going?

[Biz]

I am flying to Atlanta to go do TNT for Friday. So to reiterate what you said, man, I'm just thankful for the. For the crew we got here and hopefully you guys have a great holiday and enjoy some family time. Everybody. Everybody listening too. And hey, congrats to G on Chiclets. You as fishy as well. And then happy birthday to army. I think we forget forgot to mention it. Last one of our. One of our Chicklets members had a nice birthday. I think he's what, 42 now? 43, dude.

[Ari]

And he's been crushing on. I mean he's. I feel like every time I put a game on it. Yeah, he's unreal. He's been doing job on us. Shout out to ami. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. And not any final notes, boys, before.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

We wrap it up.

[Wit]

No. Happy Thanksgiving.

[Ari]

Happy T day. Enjoy your turkey. Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll see you next week.

[Wit]

Won't happen, won't happen again.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Won't happen, Won't happen, won't ever again.

[Wit]

A bad habit worth breaking.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

But it's taking time.

[Biz]

I don't know.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Don't let it. It's going to happen.

[Ryan Whitney]

It's going to happen again.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

The pro football football show is presented.

[Biz]

By the Chevy Silverado.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Built for the hustle, ready for the game. Chevy Silverado is America's most dependable full size truck. Whether you're grinding through the week or.

[Biz]

Gearing up for kickoff, the Silverado is one ride that's always game ready. Just like football, it's about grit, grind.

[Guest Host]

And getting it done.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Head to chevy.com to learn more and.

[Biz]

Build your own Chevy Silverado. Hey, what's going on there, pal?

[Ryan Whitney]

We saw you at the hockey game on. Do I know you guys? I'm Ryan Whitney. I got a drink named after me.

[Biz]

Not a big deal. Pink Whitney.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

That's what I thought.

[Ryan Whitney]

See you fellas. I invented this, you pigeon. Pink Whitney. For legendary moments at Capella University.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Learning online doesn't mean learning alone.

[Ryan Whitney]

You'll get support from people who care about your success. Like your enrollment specialist who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve. You'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program. Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn [e-mail].

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Suffering from dry, tired, irritated eyes?

[Keith]

Don't let dry eyes win. Use Sustain Pro.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

It hydrates, restores and protects dry eyes.

[Biz]

For up to 12 hours.

[Craig Fitzpatrick]

Sustain Pro Triple Action Dry Eye Relief.