Latest / NHL Unscripted with Virk and Demers / Kris Versteeg Remembers Barry Melrose: Buium and Minten Get Paid, Marchy Being Marchy and Kreider Moves On.
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: NHL Unscripted is a production of the NHL and iHeart Podcast.
- 0:21Speaker 1: Coming up on NHL Unscripted, episode number 97. That's right.
- 0:24Speaker 2: We're just a week away from training camp, and it's
- 0:26Speaker 2: time to dig into the nitty-gritty of this NHL season.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Our special guest, Chris Versteeg, is going to join us.
- 0:33Speaker 3: Also.
- 0:33Speaker 2: cray baby chris crider is now moving on should it
- 0:37Speaker 2: be cry baby cray baby not only his fault i
- 0:39Speaker 2: think it's just been money city leaving really echoing my
- 0:44Speaker 2: man jordan belfort the wolf of wall street i ain't
- 0:48Speaker 2: going anywhere sydney crosby staying.
- 0:49Speaker 1: As long as he wants to and plus.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Booyah as the canucks lock up their guy big time
- 0:55Speaker 2: but Training camp is a week away. It's Adnan Virk
- 0:57Speaker 2: and Jason Demers. Nate Thompson is going to join us
- 0:59Speaker 2: for the Christopher Stieg interview. He is on assignment right
- 1:03Speaker 2: now in Alaska, his native Alaska, mystery Alaska.
- 1:06Speaker 1: But I ask you this, J.D., I'm.
- 1:08Speaker 2: Always curious, the mindset of a player, training camp a
- 1:11Speaker 2: week away. Are you cramming in one last trip to Cabos?
- 1:15Speaker 1: Are you going to the beach? Are you seeing friends?
- 1:17Speaker 2: Or are you already locking in saying, no, no, I'm
- 1:19Speaker 2: going to be in incredible shape? Right out of the gate,
- 1:21Speaker 2: the boys are going to go, wow, Demers showed up
- 1:23Speaker 2: as if training camp was a month ago.
- 1:25Speaker 3: Training camp, you know, this is the most interesting part
- 1:28Speaker 3: of the year because as I got older, I'd like
- 1:31Speaker 3: to go to camp and go to the city that
- 1:34Speaker 3: I was playing in earlier and earlier. I'd go probably
- 1:35Speaker 3: like a month before. Some guys are different. Some guys
- 1:38Speaker 3: show up two days before camp because they like the
- 1:40Speaker 3: situation they have where they're training. You know, usually the
- 1:44Speaker 3: last month is the month where you're dialed in. You
- 1:46Speaker 3: are fully ready to get off to a good start because,
- 1:51Speaker 3: you know, you got training camp. It's a lot. that's
- 1:54Speaker 3: comes very quickly and then now with the extended season
- 1:58Speaker 3: we're going to have at 84 games on top of
- 2:00Speaker 3: a shorter preseason you've really got to have your all
- 2:04Speaker 3: your eggs in one basket in the sense of like
- 2:06Speaker 3: you got to be ready to go you got to
- 2:08Speaker 3: be ready once once they say start because it's not
- 2:12Speaker 3: you're not you're not going to have a lot of
- 2:13Speaker 3: runway to really take off the plane and I've thrown
- 2:16Speaker 3: a bunch of just awful analogies all in a row
- 2:18Speaker 3: there but you're not going to be able to You're
- 2:20Speaker 3: not going to be able to have a good start
- 2:22Speaker 3: to the season if you're not ready and it starts now.
- 2:24Speaker 3: And it's so funny because I tweeted about it today
- 2:27Speaker 3: that I feel like this is my favorite part of
- 2:30Speaker 3: the summer now being outside of hockey and not playing
- 2:34Speaker 3: on a team is that this is when everybody's their
- 2:37Speaker 3: most optimistic. Yes. Media, fans, organizations, everybody comes in. There's
- 2:43Speaker 3: at least one guy that comes in. Every team's going
- 2:46Speaker 3: to say, this guy came in best shape of his life.
- 2:49Speaker 3: I'm in the best shape of my life. It's like
- 2:51Speaker 3: no shit, dipshit. I hope you are. You're in the NHL.
- 2:54Speaker 3: But I said everybody's like the Price is Right yodeler.
- 2:59Speaker 1: Yodeler, yodeler, yodeler. I love the yodeler.
- 3:01Speaker 3: Yodeler. And then who's going to be the teams that
- 3:04Speaker 3: just fall off the cliff and who are going to
- 3:06Speaker 3: be the ones that just kind of keep climbing? And
- 3:08Speaker 3: it's ones that are more ready, the ones that are prepared,
- 3:12Speaker 3: the ones that are going to have to adjust on
- 3:14Speaker 3: the fly to this short and preseason and longer NHL
- 3:17Speaker 3: regular season. But One thing's for certain, it's going to
- 3:20Speaker 3: be an interesting year, I think, with so much turnover,
- 3:25Speaker 3: so much change, so many big contracts. But yeah, for me,
- 3:28Speaker 3: it was get there early, get ready, get with all
- 3:33Speaker 3: the guys, get to dinners, and just really get that
- 3:38Speaker 3: closeness early so that once the season starts and preseason starts,
- 3:42Speaker 3: you guys are a fully formed team.
- 3:44Speaker 2: Love the Price is Right analogy. Bob Barker, much better
- 3:47Speaker 2: than skinny Drew Carey. Don't forget to get your dog
- 3:51Speaker 2: spayed or neutered.
- 3:52Speaker 1: He always was about controlling the pet population.
- 3:54Speaker 3: He loved it, Bob.
- 3:55Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
- 3:57Speaker 2: But Plinko, my favorite game. That was always great to
- 3:59Speaker 2: watch the way the chips would fall. My question is this.
- 4:02Speaker 2: Back in the day, baseball guys would say, well, I'll
- 4:04Speaker 2: get in Dick. I'll show up to camp 15 pounds
- 4:07Speaker 2: overweight and I'll play myself into shape. And then by
- 4:10Speaker 2: April 1st, I'm fine. Can you give me a hockey
- 4:13Speaker 2: player who had a similar philosophy? He didn't necessarily show
- 4:16Speaker 2: up overweight, but he was not raring to go.
- 4:17Speaker 1: And he goes, don't worry, give me a month and
- 4:18Speaker 1: I'll be good. Phil Kessel.
- 4:21Speaker 3: But see, Kess is so funny. Like I always, this is,
- 4:25Speaker 3: it's always a tough story. Cause it's like, it's Phil
- 4:27Speaker 3: and I love him. But like he came to camp
- 4:31Speaker 3: and he, You know, there's stories of Phil where, like,
- 4:35Speaker 3: he'd come to camp out of shape. And I think
- 4:37Speaker 3: it was in Toronto once guys were talking about it.
- 4:39Speaker 3: And they were giving him a hard time. Like, you're
- 4:41Speaker 3: not in shape. You're not in shape. And Phil's like, dude, like,
- 4:44Speaker 3: he's just like, this is the way I am. I'm explosive.
- 4:46Speaker 3: I'm strong. They started kind of razzing him about if
- 4:51Speaker 3: he can lift heavy weight. And he's like, dude, I
- 4:53Speaker 3: can outlift any of you. And he went to, like,
- 4:54Speaker 3: the squat rack. And I've never seen a guy, like...
- 5:00Speaker 3: More unassuming than Phil, lift that, push that much weight
- 5:04Speaker 3: on like Romanian deadlifts or squats or single leg. Like,
- 5:08Speaker 3: he's got so much power in his legs, he's got
- 5:10Speaker 3: tree trunks when he was playing.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Right out of the.
- 5:13Speaker 2: Gate, Marchie being Marchie, Brady Kachak will not play his
- 5:15Speaker 2: old teammates until October 21st on Amazon Prime Wednesday Night Hockey.
- 5:19Speaker 1: I'll be there.
- 5:20Speaker 2: But one of Brady's new teammates in Florida, Brad Barshan,
- 5:22Speaker 2: already lobbing bombs at the Ottawa Senators. replying on Instagram
- 5:27Speaker 2: to a post saying Tim Stutzla was being considered as
- 5:29Speaker 2: Ottawa's next captain.
- 5:31Speaker 1: Marsha went full mean girls and replied.
- 5:33Speaker 2: Ha ha ha, Stutzla, ha ha ha. Asked about the
- 5:36Speaker 2: comments at a recent media scrum, Stutzla said he didn't care.
- 5:40Speaker 2: Teammate Drake Batherson said he texted Marsha asking.
- 5:42Speaker 1: What are you doing? Is this just a fun little
- 5:45Speaker 1: chirp or is Marsha a little out of line?
- 5:49Speaker 3: Listen, if I'm Tim Stutzla, fuck him. Put that on
- 5:53Speaker 3: the board. Use that as fuel. I mean, this is
- 5:55Speaker 3: a rivalry, and your captain left and went to the
- 5:59Speaker 3: devil of the league. He's on the enemy territory. So,
- 6:05Speaker 3: you know, you don't know, and it's always funny because
- 6:07Speaker 3: those are the best chirps you could ever say to
- 6:10Speaker 3: guys is when I was on the ice and you
- 6:12Speaker 3: had a guy you didn't like on the other team,
- 6:14Speaker 3: you'd go and tell him, you know, I'd usually skate
- 6:16Speaker 3: by the bench and be like, dude, I talked to
- 6:18Speaker 3: your teammates. Nobody likes you. like nobody you're a joke
- 6:22Speaker 3: your teammates think you're a joke and you know the
- 6:24Speaker 3: guy would usually laugh it off but you know there's
- 6:26Speaker 3: some there's something deep inside him where he would go
- 6:30Speaker 3: back in the room and start looking around in between
- 6:32Speaker 3: periods looking around the room and be like who the
- 6:33Speaker 3: fuck said that nobody likes me.
- 6:36Speaker 1: Especially if they knew you were tight with a guy
- 6:38Speaker 1: who was on the team.
- 6:39Speaker 3: Yeah as soon as you knew that there was a
- 6:41Speaker 3: guy that was like you were close with on the
- 6:43Speaker 3: team you just go dude nobody likes you like you
- 6:47Speaker 3: are absolutely hated you are you are nerd you're a
- 6:49Speaker 3: loser And then you know the guy would go back
- 6:52Speaker 3: in the room and he'd look down the bench and
- 6:53Speaker 3: be like, what are you saying? What are you saying
- 6:56Speaker 3: to guys? So to me, I'm like, for Tim Stutzel,
- 6:58Speaker 3: I'm like, there's a little seed of doubt planted by
- 7:01Speaker 3: Brad Marchand. But I think, honestly, I think people think
- 7:04Speaker 3: Ottawa are in a much worse shape than they will be.
- 7:07Speaker 3: I still think they have a good team. I think
- 7:09Speaker 3: it's time for somebody to step up. I'm assuming Jake
- 7:12Speaker 3: Sanderson's going to be named captain there. Why wouldn't you?
- 7:15Speaker 3: He is their best player. You want to keep him,
- 7:16Speaker 3: keep him happy. But I think Tim Stutzel's going to
- 7:19Speaker 3: have to learn to be Tim Stutzla, not Brady Kachuk's
- 7:22Speaker 3: line mate. And I think it's going to be, this
- 7:25Speaker 3: is a nice bulletin board material for him.
- 7:28Speaker 1: And he's a lead offensive player. No doubt about it.
- 7:29Speaker 1: Stutzla should be great.
- 7:31Speaker 2: Meantime, Booyah and Booyah, Vancouver locking up on the main
- 7:34Speaker 2: pieces of their rebuild as Zee Booyah signs.
- 7:37Speaker 1: An eight-year, $ 75 million contract. This guy's 20 years of age.
- 7:42Speaker 2: Average AAV of $ 9. 38 million. He already has a world
- 7:45Speaker 2: championship NCAA title. two world junior gold medals, so you
- 7:49Speaker 2: know he's a winner. And he put up, I would say,
- 7:51Speaker 2: respectable offensive numbers last season between Minnesota and Vancouver, 26
- 7:56Speaker 2: points in 76 games. But J.D., he was also a
- 7:58Speaker 2: minus 33, one of the worst plus-minuses in the league.
- 8:02Speaker 2: I know some guys don't take as much stock in plus-minus.
- 8:04Speaker 2: And I can tell you this, having done a Canucks game,
- 8:07Speaker 2: talking to Adam Foote, who's no longer the head coach there,
- 8:09Speaker 2: he made Booyam.
- 8:11Speaker 1: A healthy scratch.
- 8:12Speaker 2: And we were very despondent because we were like, hey,
- 8:14Speaker 2: we want to kind of like feature Booyam. And he's like, Yeah, no,
- 8:17Speaker 2: I kind of had to push those guys, meaning upstairs.
- 8:20Speaker 2: And he was like, he's not where we.
- 8:22Speaker 1: Need him to be. And he goes, he's a good kid.
- 8:24Speaker 1: I like him.
- 8:24Speaker 2: But we need to see some progress. He goes, what
- 8:27Speaker 2: happens is that you're part of these major trades for
- 8:29Speaker 2: Quinn Hughes. And everyone says, OK, he's been anointed.
- 8:32Speaker 1: He's the next one. Jimmy Carson traded in the Gretzky trade.
- 8:34Speaker 1: He's the next one. It doesn't happen right away. So
- 8:37Speaker 1: I must admit, I was kind of blown away.
- 8:39Speaker 2: Eight years, $ 75 million. In some ways, I can tell
- 8:43Speaker 2: you the book is still out on Zee Booyah.
- 8:45Speaker 1: I can tell you in Vancouver, they're not going, oh
- 8:47Speaker 1: my God, we locked up our franchise player. I think
- 8:49Speaker 1: there's more head scratching than you might realize.
- 8:51Speaker 3: Yeah, well, Vancouver is just an absolute, geez, it's just
- 8:58Speaker 3: a dumpster fire of an organization right now. But, you know,
- 9:02Speaker 3: this kind of smells a little bit like when I
- 9:05Speaker 3: was in Arizona and they signed Clayton Keller to that
- 9:07Speaker 3: long-term deal and everybody kind of scoffed at Keller getting,
- 9:10Speaker 3: I think it was like seven by seven or something.
- 9:13Speaker 3: And they were like, he's not worth it. And obviously
- 9:15Speaker 3: I think now he's worth it and he's worth it
- 9:19Speaker 3: times 10. I just think he's such a great player
- 9:21Speaker 3: and a great leader. So you hope that when you
- 9:24Speaker 3: make a deal like this with a player that he
- 9:27Speaker 3: lives up to it, you're not obviously paying him for
- 9:29Speaker 3: this year and next year it's down the line. And
- 9:31Speaker 3: you're hoping that come year five or six, it's a
- 9:34Speaker 3: discount and the cap continues to go up the way
- 9:37Speaker 3: it does. But yeah, like I, this is the world
- 9:39Speaker 3: that we're living in now. Can I sit here and
- 9:41Speaker 3: be like, Oh, what was me? I should have made
- 9:44Speaker 3: another $ 60 million when I played. Yeah, I could easily
- 9:46Speaker 3: do that. And that would be the fun thing to do.
- 9:49Speaker 3: But I'm not going to do that. I'm not going
- 9:51Speaker 3: to cry. I'm going to support these young fucking lucky
- 9:55Speaker 3: sons of bitches.
- 9:56Speaker 4: Right.
- 9:57Speaker 3: And I tell you what, I'm just gonna i met
- 9:59Speaker 3: zeve bulliam great kid nice like i root for him
- 10:04Speaker 3: super nice kid talked to him a little bit about
- 10:06Speaker 3: vancouver you know said it was a difficult year in
- 10:09Speaker 3: the sense that you know he was hoping to play
- 10:11Speaker 3: more and he was hoping to get more responsibility i
- 10:14Speaker 3: think you know that kind of that corroborates the story
- 10:17Speaker 3: that you were mentioning with adam foot that he needs
- 10:20Speaker 3: to learn and and unfortunately You can't be just given
- 10:24Speaker 3: all the free reign in the world to do whatever
- 10:26Speaker 3: you want. I think if you are trying to rebuild
- 10:28Speaker 3: an organization, you have to teach and create a culture.
- 10:33Speaker 3: So hopefully him getting pee-pee whacked is a culture thing
- 10:38Speaker 3: for him and it teaches him to play the right way.
- 10:41Speaker 3: But obviously ownership has decided that they don't care about
- 10:45Speaker 3: what Adam Foote thinks of him. They're just going to
- 10:46Speaker 3: pay him that money and hope he looks at it
- 10:48Speaker 3: and realizes, oh yeah, I got to turn in this
- 10:50Speaker 3: defenseman then. Everybody thinks I can be it's in there somewhere.
- 10:54Speaker 3: I was very bullish on him at world juniors. Um,
- 10:57Speaker 3: I looked at him and I said, this is a
- 10:58Speaker 3: kid that could be a, you know, a poor man's
- 11:01Speaker 3: Quinn Hughes. Uh, I don't think this is a Quinn Hughes,
- 11:04Speaker 3: but I think this is a guy that can be a,
- 11:06Speaker 3: you know, 40 to 60 point player, but play good
- 11:11Speaker 3: on both sides of the puck. I'd say over 40
- 11:13Speaker 3: at 9 million, you better be getting 60 points a year.
- 11:16Speaker 3: And in today's NHL and, and, I think it's something
- 11:19Speaker 3: that he could possibly do. So the keys are firmly
- 11:21Speaker 3: in his hands. But, I mean, it's going to be
- 11:24Speaker 3: some lean, tough years in Vancouver coming up here. So
- 11:29Speaker 3: I think I would temper expectations and just let him
- 11:32Speaker 3: sit in the corner and count his millions.
- 11:35Speaker 2: Tal, is it a massive overpay, or is this going
- 11:37Speaker 2: to be a good investment for a young player?
- 11:39Speaker 3: What is an overpay now?
- 11:40Speaker 1: We don't even know.
- 11:41Speaker 5: No one knows exactly. How's it going to look in
- 11:43Speaker 5: five years? It might be an underpay in five years.
- 11:46Speaker 5: I mean, what I was going to propose is that
- 11:47Speaker 5: we may have a new metric we can use that
- 11:50Speaker 5: we can call a bullion. Basically, if you get an extension,
- 11:53Speaker 5: if the number of millions in your extension are roughly
- 11:56Speaker 5: the same as the number of games you've played in
- 11:58Speaker 5: your career, that's a bullion. So Zev Bullion played 76 games,
- 12:02Speaker 5: gets $ 75 million.
- 12:03Speaker 3: He's a bullion.
- 12:05Speaker 1: That's a bullion.
- 12:06Speaker 5: Bullion!
- 12:06Speaker 1: Vili Koivunen plays 39 games, gets $ 32 million.
- 12:08Speaker 6: Wow.
- 12:08Speaker 3: That's a bullion. So there you go. We now have
- 12:15Speaker 3: the bullion stat.
- 12:16Speaker 1: I love the player.
- 12:17Speaker 5: I think he could be the captain of this team
- 12:19Speaker 5: in a few years, but that's the bullion.
- 12:22Speaker 1: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- 12:23Speaker 3: You don't think so?
- 12:24Speaker 1: No, JD, you just said you were bullish on him,
- 12:26Speaker 1: and now you're crapping on the fact he could be
- 12:27Speaker 1: a captain.
- 12:27Speaker 3: I'm bullish on him, but I don't think he's a captain.
- 12:29Speaker 3: In like five years. Yeah, no. I think he has
- 12:35Speaker 3: the makings of a number one. I just think can
- 12:37Speaker 3: he get there is up to him. But I think
- 12:40Speaker 3: he has the makings of a number one and a
- 12:42Speaker 3: guy that can put up 60 points. He does.
- 12:45Speaker 2: Meantime, more guys getting taken care of. Fresh Minton, the
- 12:48Speaker 2: Boston Bruins lock up a key piece of their future.
- 12:50Speaker 2: Frazier Minton, seven-year $ 50. 4 million extension. That's similar to the
- 12:55Speaker 2: numbers you mentioned on Clayton Keller back in the day.
- 12:57Speaker 2: So it's basically seven for seven. It's going to kick
- 12:59Speaker 2: in after this season. 22-year-old center, average annual value $ 7. 2 million.
- 13:04Speaker 2: He broke out last season in Boston after coming from
- 13:06Speaker 2: Toronto prior to the Brandon Carlo trade. 17 goals, 35
- 13:10Speaker 2: points in 82 games.
- 13:11Speaker 1: So Minton and Elias Lindholm, Both locked up long-term.
- 13:15Speaker 2: Plenty of questions about Pavel Zaka now coming off a
- 13:17Speaker 2: 30-goal season. He's going to be a UFA next summer.
- 13:21Speaker 2: Do you like the Minton contract, JD? And what does
- 13:23Speaker 2: it mean for Zaka?
- 13:25Speaker 3: Again, what is money in today's world of inflation and
- 13:30Speaker 3: treasury buybacks? What is these millions of dollars? It's all
- 13:36Speaker 3: the fugazi anyway. Who gives a shit at this point
- 13:39Speaker 3: what everybody's making? It's all just numbers on a chalkboard.
- 13:42Speaker 1: But yeah, I.
- 13:44Speaker 3: I like Fraser Minton a lot. I think he really
- 13:47Speaker 3: came into his own last year. And I do think
- 13:50Speaker 3: that this is a guy that is a good, solid
- 13:55Speaker 3: second line center to third line center all day long. I,
- 13:57Speaker 3: if I'm, you know, Boston fans, I think Toronto for
- 14:00Speaker 3: putting him in that deal and Toronto giving up on
- 14:02Speaker 3: him because it shows you what you can turn into
- 14:04Speaker 3: as a player when you are given a little bit
- 14:06Speaker 3: of structure and You know, credit goes to Marco Sturm,
- 14:10Speaker 3: what he's done with that team there and a lot
- 14:11Speaker 3: of those players, and also when you get an opportunity
- 14:14Speaker 3: and taking advantage of that opportunity.
- 14:15Speaker 1: What does it mean, though, for Zaka, JD? There's only
- 14:18Speaker 1: so much money in the kitty here.
- 14:20Speaker 3: Yeah, what do they got? 5.9 million left over? And,
- 14:24Speaker 3: I mean, do they see him as the replacement for Zaka? Again,
- 14:29Speaker 3: do I love this Boston Bruins team?
- 14:32Speaker 1: No.
- 14:33Speaker 3: They're a fun team to watch. They play a good
- 14:35Speaker 3: brand of hockey, but are they this team that, is
- 14:38Speaker 3: gonna is this the team that's gonna make the playoffs
- 14:41Speaker 3: like or or contend for a playoff spot you know
- 14:44Speaker 3: I thought last year they did a very good job
- 14:46Speaker 3: I think a little bit of what Marco Sturm implemented
- 14:50Speaker 3: was fresh but I think there's some other teams that
- 14:52Speaker 3: are making a comeback this year the Florida Panthers Tampa
- 14:55Speaker 3: Lightning are gonna be good again Montreal Canadians are gonna
- 14:57Speaker 3: be good Toronto's gonna be back so where does Boston
- 15:01Speaker 3: fall in that and I mean You know, they got
- 15:04Speaker 3: Casey Middlestad as well that's coming up, so there's some
- 15:07Speaker 3: decisions to be made in Boston. I think I would
- 15:11Speaker 3: pay Pavel Zaka. I just love what he brings. So
- 15:15Speaker 3: I would pay him, and then you have a good two,
- 15:17Speaker 3: you know, him and Minton are kind of both two Cs.
- 15:21Speaker 3: And then, you know, you look at where maybe they
- 15:23Speaker 3: move on from Lindholm and Elias Lindholm at 31 years old,
- 15:26Speaker 3: but I don't know. They're kind of meh, Boston, to me.
- 15:30Speaker 3: They're just a good structured team, but You know, when
- 15:33Speaker 3: I look at their roster and I'm, you know, back
- 15:36Speaker 3: end does not really give me much confidence. So do
- 15:41Speaker 3: you save that money for a defender? I think McAvoy
- 15:44Speaker 3: needs some help, but yeah, I don't.
- 15:48Speaker 1: I like their stars though. Pasta knocks Swayman. Like I
- 15:50Speaker 1: feel like they're almost top heavy. Yeah.
- 15:51Speaker 3: You got pasta Swayman McAvoy, but you need, you, you
- 15:54Speaker 3: can't win with one or two players. No, you know,
- 15:57Speaker 3: like they'll get you there and they'll steal you some
- 15:59Speaker 3: games in the playoffs, but they're not going to, you're
- 16:01Speaker 3: not going to be a team that beat a team
- 16:03Speaker 3: that's deep. So I do think that Zaka needs to stay.
- 16:08Speaker 3: I like what he brings. He's a very intelligent, high
- 16:11Speaker 3: hockey IQ player, but I just don't know at, at
- 16:14Speaker 3: what expense, you know, with the cap where they're at,
- 16:17Speaker 3: but listen, I think there, I wouldn't be, I'm like,
- 16:24Speaker 3: I'm looking, I'm looking at the numbers and I'm like,
- 16:27Speaker 3: you know, Mason low rise up. What are you going
- 16:29Speaker 3: to do with Mason low ride this year? That's $ 3
- 16:31Speaker 3: million off the cap. Do you pay him? Pens is
- 16:34Speaker 3: kind of a prove-it year for him. Casey Middlestat. What's
- 16:37Speaker 3: Casey Middlestat going to get?
- 16:39Speaker 4: Seven?
- 16:39Speaker 1: That's about Middlestat, Zaka, and Corrales, all UFAs next summer.
- 16:42Speaker 3: Corrales is probably gone, which is fine. That's 185.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Zaka and Middlestat want seven each.
- 16:48Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 16:48Speaker 3: Ace Amant is going to be gone at 145. So,
- 16:51Speaker 3: you know, you've got $ 3 million gone, so you have
- 16:53Speaker 3: eight to work with. I mean, there's a realm in
- 16:56Speaker 3: which they can get this done, but I think Middlestat
- 16:59Speaker 3: and Zaka, you might have to pick your poison. Yeah.
- 17:01Speaker 3: And take one of them.
- 17:03Speaker 1: You know, as far as teams, I was going to
- 17:05Speaker 1: say the teams are going to drop off. I do
- 17:07Speaker 1: think the Penguins are going to drop off this season.
- 17:09Speaker 1: The reason I mentioned this is because Sidney Crosby says
- 17:11Speaker 1: he wants to hang around for a lot longer.
- 17:13Speaker 2: Speaking with the athletics, Mark Lazarus, the recent NHL player
- 17:16Speaker 2: media tour, Crosby didn't have an update regarding his new contract,
- 17:19Speaker 2: current contract up next summer. And I'd like to continue
- 17:23Speaker 2: playing for a number of years. It's just I don't
- 17:25Speaker 2: know what that number is. I guess your mind and
- 17:27Speaker 2: body tell you that eventually.
- 17:28Speaker 1: Right now, I feel pretty good, though.
- 17:30Speaker 2: If you're keeping track, 654 goals, 1,107 assists for 1,761
- 17:36Speaker 2: career points in 1,420 games. So still a point-of-game player. Obviously,
- 17:43Speaker 2: health is a big factor, JD. If he has a
- 17:45Speaker 2: serious injury this year, then clearly he'll be like, okay,
- 17:47Speaker 2: I'm done. I've got one more year after this.
- 17:49Speaker 1: But if he continues at his pace, I don't think
- 17:50Speaker 1: it's out of the realm of possibility. We talked about
- 17:52Speaker 1: this at the Olympics. Could Sid play for one more Olympics?
- 17:55Speaker 1: It's not inconceivable this guy plays three or four more years.
- 18:00Speaker 3: I think the fact that they didn't win the gold medal,
- 18:03Speaker 3: I think he makes a push for one more Olympics.
- 18:06Speaker 3: Retires in France.
- 18:07Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 18:08Speaker 3: Just do a nice send-off at the Olympics, win gold,
- 18:13Speaker 3: because that Olympics team in four years for Canada is
- 18:15Speaker 3: going to be pretty good, I think. Nice to be pretty,
- 18:18Speaker 3: pretty good. But no, I do it. I just think
- 18:23Speaker 3: Sidney Crosby's kind of got like the Alex Ovechkin treatment
- 18:25Speaker 3: where if he wants to come back, they'll find room
- 18:28Speaker 3: for him. I think they have to figure out how
- 18:30Speaker 3: to build a team around them and find some players there.
- 18:33Speaker 3: I think they're not going to have a great year
- 18:35Speaker 3: this year. They're going to be unless they surprise us
- 18:37Speaker 3: once again. But they have a lot of youth they
- 18:40Speaker 3: brought into that team. A lot of guys that kind
- 18:43Speaker 3: of have to prove it. I mean, Koivunen gets that deal.
- 18:45Speaker 3: I'm assuming he's going to play big minutes because he
- 18:47Speaker 3: got four million a year for 10,000 years. They bring
- 18:51Speaker 3: in Nick Robertson, who's on a prove it, you know,
- 18:55Speaker 3: Kindles on his second year. You know, you look at
- 18:58Speaker 3: Kuzmenko Chinnikov was there last year. They're bringing him back
- 19:01Speaker 3: and he was very good for them. Can he repeat that? So.
- 19:05Speaker 3: And not to mention, I think their back end's a
- 19:07Speaker 3: lot weaker than it was last year. So listen, I don't,
- 19:11Speaker 3: I'm not excited for Pittsburgh this year like I was
- 19:14Speaker 3: last year. I don't think they make the playoffs. This
- 19:17Speaker 3: isn't a playoff team. And maybe sometimes losing at an
- 19:22Speaker 3: insane rate could make you reconsider. So maybe if they
- 19:26Speaker 3: have a very bad start, Sidney Crosby turns around and goes,
- 19:29Speaker 3: you know what? Just move me. I want to win
- 19:31Speaker 3: a cup. Get something for me. But I think this
- 19:35Speaker 3: year will be tough for him, and then we'll see because, again,
- 19:38Speaker 3: a guy of his ilk that's won on every level
- 19:42Speaker 3: and at every level to then all of a sudden
- 19:45Speaker 3: say you're in a rebuild and lose, it's probably not
- 19:47Speaker 3: the most exciting, entertaining idea to think of. So that
- 19:50Speaker 3: could maybe get him. Losing can get him out of there.
- 19:53Speaker 2: Yeah, a tough pill to swallow definitely would be for
- 19:54Speaker 2: Crosby if he's just mired in mediocrity there in Pittsburgh. Meantime,
- 19:57Speaker 2: a lot of scuttlebutt now around Conor Halibut making his
- 20:01Speaker 2: trade demands public. Rare to see hockey discussed on ESPN,
- 20:04Speaker 2: but on part of the interruption, Michael Wilbon was taking
- 20:07Speaker 2: shots at him. So I got one message to him
- 20:09Speaker 2: and his agent.
- 20:09Speaker 1: Go to hell.
- 20:10Speaker 2: He's like, we signed you to a big-term contract. You
- 20:13Speaker 2: got five years up to $ 8 million a year, and
- 20:16Speaker 2: you got the audacity to say, no, I want out
- 20:18Speaker 2: of here.
- 20:18Speaker 1: He's like, how about you play better in the playoffs?
- 20:20Speaker 2: Again, I don't think Will Bunn's locked into the playoffs
- 20:22Speaker 2: like you and me, but I have been amused, J.D.,
- 20:24Speaker 2: just how many people who don't necessarily talk hockey are
- 20:27Speaker 2: shitting on Connor Hellebuck. The bottom line is this. According
- 20:30Speaker 2: to Pierre Lebrun, Carolina, Buffalo, and Utah, all potential spots.
- 20:34Speaker 2: As Nate Thompson told us, Sheffield AF will be unafraid
- 20:37Speaker 2: to pull the trigger if he needs to do it. Florida,
- 20:39Speaker 2: by the way, would have been in the mix. Once
- 20:41Speaker 2: they got Brady Kachuk, obviously they moved on. I think
- 20:44Speaker 2: Buffalo's the play. Halibut to the Sabres.
- 20:46Speaker 1: Let's go.
- 20:47Speaker 3: What do you get back? You trade Halibut for what?
- 20:49Speaker 3: UPL and what, two of the three goalies there?
- 20:53Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be one of the defensemen. Now,
- 20:55Speaker 1: I don't know if you can sell them on this.
- 20:58Speaker 3: What, power?
- 20:58Speaker 1: Yeah, so own power for sure. Own power, UPL, and
- 21:00Speaker 1: you'll have to go forward.
- 21:02Speaker 3: And you go Yuri Kulik? Sure. or helenius helenius is
- 21:07Speaker 3: not a bad one yeah i mean it could work
- 21:10Speaker 3: but man i don't know like where are we at
- 21:13Speaker 3: in the what's the nhl doing right now this is
- 21:16Speaker 3: crazy we're we're we're a soap opera i kind of
- 21:19Speaker 3: love it though i'll be honest with you it is
- 21:21Speaker 3: entertaining there's like there's no bad news days there's always
- 21:24Speaker 3: some shit going on guys are running amok the inmates
- 21:28Speaker 3: are running the asylum it's uh Yeah, I don't think
- 21:31Speaker 3: shovel day off. If I'm shovel day off, I look
- 21:33Speaker 3: at them and say, you get your ass in the
- 21:34Speaker 3: net and you start doing butterflies up, down, up, down motherfucker,
- 21:37Speaker 3: because you're starting game one and then you're starting game two.
- 21:42Speaker 3: And you know what? I'm going to play you fucking
- 21:44Speaker 3: 75 games this year.
- 21:46Speaker 1: Nice.
- 21:46Speaker 3: Get used to it. You playing bitch.
- 21:49Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 21:49Speaker 3: You're going to, you're going to earn every cent of
- 21:50Speaker 3: that contract and you better play good because the worst
- 21:53Speaker 3: you play, no one's going to want to trade for you.
- 21:55Speaker 3: So you fucking play. And then if you sit out,
- 21:57Speaker 3: I ain't going to trade you either. Motherfucker. I'll fold
- 21:59Speaker 3: the goddamn team.
- 22:00Speaker 1: I love this. Shibbledayoff, yes.
- 22:02Speaker 7: J.D.
- 22:03Speaker 3: Chandler and Shibbledayoff. This is awesome. I'll pull the goddamn team.
- 22:05Speaker 3: I don't care. I'll put Eric Comrie square in the pipes.
- 22:08Speaker 3: Eric Comrie will run out there. Oh, no, they got
- 22:10Speaker 3: Stuart Skinner. Fuck, they got Skinner.
- 22:13Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 22:13Speaker 3: They got the skin stew.
- 22:15Speaker 1: Well, that's what makes it interesting. Imagine Hellebuck in Carolina.
- 22:18Speaker 1: You win a Stanley Cup, then you get Conor Hellebuck.
- 22:20Speaker 1: What do you make of that move?
- 22:22Speaker 3: Once again, I'm Shibbledayoff. I see you park your ass
- 22:24Speaker 3: on the bench. Stuart Skinner's got this net. Go fuck yourself.
- 22:29Speaker 3: And I ain't trading you unless it's for three firsts
- 22:33Speaker 3: and Sidney Crosby himself.
- 22:34Speaker 1: Oh, my God. I love it.
- 22:36Speaker 3: Chevy wants a huge price tag. I just think it's like,
- 22:38Speaker 3: when's the line for these GMs? And I wonder if
- 22:40Speaker 3: we've hit it. I'm not inside that room. I don't know. But,
- 22:43Speaker 3: you know, it's like, listen, enough's enough. I'd say the
- 22:46Speaker 3: same thing to Dylan Larkin. Good, you don't want to play?
- 22:48Speaker 6: Great.
- 22:49Speaker 3: I'm going to tank your trade value. We'll still pay you.
- 22:52Speaker 3: But there goes your NHL career.
- 22:54Speaker 1: One more topic. It's about Chris Kreider.
- 22:56Speaker 2: This should not be that surprising, being put on waivers,
- 22:58Speaker 2: purpose of terminating his contract.
- 23:00Speaker 1: 35 years of age, 22-goal season.
- 23:02Speaker 2: 348 goals between the Ducks and the Rangers. He's due
- 23:06Speaker 2: $ 6. 5 million from Anaheim. Wanted to go back east. Could
- 23:09Speaker 2: be on a new team by the time you hear this.
- 23:10Speaker 2: But for Anaheim, JD, everybody knows they're trying to lock
- 23:13Speaker 2: up Cutter Gauthier. They just paid Leo Carson $ 18 million.
- 23:16Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, Danny Breer. And now you lose Kreider, Trouba, Carlson, McTavish.
- 23:21Speaker 2: Zellweger and Radko Gudis and Troy Terry is expected to
- 23:26Speaker 2: be out until at least November after hip surgery. Does
- 23:28Speaker 2: it make sense to you that Crider's gone because they're
- 23:30Speaker 2: trying to give all the money that they can to
- 23:32Speaker 2: Cutter Gauthier?
- 23:33Speaker 3: And somewhere, someplace, Danny Breer is butt naked, covered in
- 23:40Speaker 3: coconut oil, playing with himself.
- 23:43Speaker 1: Oh, no, geez.
- 23:44Speaker 6: Oh.
- 23:44Speaker 3: Over what he has just orchestrated, the dismantling of an organization. Hey, Carter,
- 23:49Speaker 3: go to you. You didn't want to come to Philly?
- 23:51Speaker 3: I fucking destroy Anaheim Ducks.
- 23:54Speaker 6: Sorry.
- 23:55Speaker 3: Listen, this is bad. I know this was like the
- 24:00Speaker 3: collateral damage, but not getting anything for Kreider. Like you're
- 24:05Speaker 3: telling me you can't get a pick? You can't get nothing?
- 24:09Speaker 3: You can't get a seventh rounder? Just complete termination? He
- 24:13Speaker 3: just walks? a guy that's so integral to your power play.
- 24:16Speaker 3: And then do you see the comments from Leo Carlson? No,
- 24:22Speaker 3: what did he say? He talked to Kreider. He basically
- 24:26Speaker 3: apologized to Kreider, and Kreider was like, yeah, it is
- 24:28Speaker 3: what it is. Happy for you to get your deal, though.
- 24:31Speaker 3: But Leo accepted that deal. Correct. I'm wondering, where does
- 24:37Speaker 3: the blame fall on this atrocious and horrendous offseason for
- 24:42Speaker 3: the Anaheim Ducks?
- 24:43Speaker 1: Does it fall on the Ducks front office?
- 24:45Speaker 2: Yes, because if you want to take care of your
- 24:47Speaker 2: own house, you take care of those guys before you
- 24:49Speaker 2: even let anybody come in the hen house.
- 24:51Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 24:51Speaker 1: Breer starts sniffing around like a wolf. That's on you, buddy.
- 24:53Speaker 1: Should have taken care of it.
- 24:55Speaker 3: Like, because this is bad. Like, they don't have a
- 24:57Speaker 3: decor to trot out there this year. You know, and
- 25:01Speaker 3: up front now, they have some holes. Yeah, they're going
- 25:04Speaker 3: to lock up Cutter, Gauthier, and they got Leo Carlson.
- 25:08Speaker 3: But I'm sorry, but this team is, you're not better
- 25:11Speaker 3: than the LA Kings. You're not better than the Vegas
- 25:14Speaker 3: Golden Knights. You're not better than the Edmonton Oilers. And
- 25:18Speaker 3: you could argue you're not better than the San Jose Sharks.
- 25:21Speaker 3: So where are you fitting into this playoff race?
- 25:27Speaker 1: Not at all.
- 25:27Speaker 3: You're done. You're not making the playoffs because if you
- 25:30Speaker 3: look out into the Central Division, that is an absolute
- 25:34Speaker 3: juggernaut of a division. There's going to be five teams
- 25:38Speaker 3: making that. Five teams are going to make the playoffs
- 25:41Speaker 3: out of the Central. So you're definitely not making it
- 25:45Speaker 3: in a wild card spot. So you're going to be
- 25:46Speaker 3: one of the top three in the Pacific. And I
- 25:48Speaker 3: don't think they have it. They don't, they don't have enough.
- 25:50Speaker 3: They don't have enough gold thing. Don't have enough depth
- 25:52Speaker 3: on D and up front. Now they have some glaring holes.
- 25:55Speaker 3: So I feel bad for this, this group, this core group,
- 25:58Speaker 3: you know, and, and again, it's like, where do we
- 26:00Speaker 3: put the blame? Do we put it on Pat Verbeek?
- 26:02Speaker 3: I think it is Verbeek tried to play, you know,
- 26:04Speaker 3: tummy sticks with the guys and, and screw them around
- 26:07Speaker 3: a little bit and play yo-yo with them. And they
- 26:09Speaker 3: called their bluff and Danny Breer called the buff. Now,
- 26:12Speaker 3: I'm sure Pat Verbeek's got a dart board with Danny
- 26:15Speaker 3: Breer's face on it, and he's just hucking axes and
- 26:19Speaker 3: darts and knives and whatever because it just goes to
- 26:23Speaker 3: show you that you cannot rest on your laurels now
- 26:27Speaker 3: as a GM. I think players have so much power,
- 26:30Speaker 3: and other GMs that are willing to take shots and
- 26:32Speaker 3: pay guys are going to be the ones that end
- 26:34Speaker 3: up with all the good players, and then you're going
- 26:35Speaker 3: to be left overpaying second-line, third-line guys.
- 26:42Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the world we live in now. Tal, quick
- 26:44Speaker 1: thought on the situation?
- 26:46Speaker 5: I mean, I was just going to really just posit
- 26:49Speaker 5: the fact that we're a couple of years away with
- 26:51Speaker 5: this team for potentially having Carlson, Gauthier, Seneca, Lacombe, and
- 26:56Speaker 5: Minchikoff accounting for about half of the cap on this team. Wow.
- 27:00Speaker 5: And I like those players, but is that a core
- 27:03Speaker 5: of a championship team?
- 27:04Speaker 4: I don't know.
- 27:05Speaker 1: I mean, we'll find out.
- 27:06Speaker 5: But that's just something I was thinking about when it
- 27:09Speaker 5: comes to the Ducks.
- 27:09Speaker 3: It's going to be a tough year for them. And
- 27:11Speaker 3: Troy Terry's got, what, how many years at $ 7 million?
- 27:15Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 27:15Speaker 7: Four?
- 27:16Speaker 3: Four left? You got Killorn.
- 27:19Speaker 5: Four left at $ 7 million, and Granlin, I think, has
- 27:21Speaker 5: three left.
- 27:22Speaker 3: Granlin's got two. Two left. You got Killorn up this year.
- 27:26Speaker 3: You got Vetrano that they're probably going to move at
- 27:28Speaker 3: four and a half. Who's going to take him? I
- 27:30Speaker 3: don't know. You just signed A.J. Greer to 4.25 for
- 27:33Speaker 3: four years. Ryan Poehling to 3.75. I like that. But
- 27:37Speaker 3: then after that, I'm like, you're going to have to
- 27:39Speaker 3: re-sign Beckett Seneca– Next year.
- 27:42Speaker 1: He's getting paid.
- 27:43Speaker 3: Getting paid, too.
- 27:44Speaker 1: $ 9 million a year.
- 27:46Speaker 3: Because here's the thing is they're going to suck, but
- 27:47Speaker 3: those guys are going to get their points this year.
- 27:49Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 27:50Speaker 3: Because they're going to be exciting.
- 27:52Speaker 1: It's just a bad job at Pat Forby.
- 27:54Speaker 3: It's tough, man. So much promise on this team. It's sad.
- 27:58Speaker 3: So much promise, and now it's back in a goddamn shitter.
- 28:02Speaker 2: Still to come on NHL Inscripted, we'll get out of
- 28:04Speaker 2: the shitter, back into the penthouse. Two-time Stanley Cup champion
- 28:07Speaker 2: Chris Versteeg will join us. Seven different teams he played for.
- 28:10Speaker 2: He's got stories for days. Versteeg's coming up right after this.
- 28:26Speaker 3: Our next guest was drafted in the fifth round by
- 28:28Speaker 3: the Boston Bruins in the 2004 NHL Draft. He would
- 28:32Speaker 3: go on to win the Stanley Cup twice as a
- 28:34Speaker 3: member of the Chicago Blackhawks and collect 149 goals and
- 28:39Speaker 3: 3,358 points in 643 games with the Chicago Blackhawks. Maple Leafs, Flyers, Panthers, Hurricanes, Kings,
- 28:46Speaker 3: and Flames. He's been a very, very busy boy since
- 28:49Speaker 3: retiring in 2020. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Chris Versteeg. Versteeg,
- 28:55Speaker 3: how we doing, buddy?
- 28:56Speaker 6: I'm happy you gave me that intro after 2010.
- 29:00Speaker 3: Hey, listen. 2010 hurt. That sweep really did hurt. And
- 29:07Speaker 3: I just played golf with Taser the other day. And
- 29:09Speaker 3: I was like, I think I was putting something out.
- 29:13Speaker 3: And he's like, well, at least you drained something after
- 29:16Speaker 3: we swept you.
- 29:19Speaker 4: Oh, man.
- 29:21Speaker 6: Setaguchi and me, we're best friends since we were little.
- 29:24Speaker 6: So it took him a good year to talk to
- 29:26Speaker 6: me again.
- 29:27Speaker 7: So now we're back at it.
- 29:29Speaker 3: It was a good battle. I felt like Rod Brendamore.
- 29:32Speaker 3: I sympathize with Rod Brendamore when he was like, it
- 29:34Speaker 3: was a good series even though we got swept. But Seeger,
- 29:39Speaker 3: talk a little bit about the summer. It's officially over.
- 29:41Speaker 3: How was yours? What are you up to?
- 29:43Speaker 7: Yeah, it's been good. I got two young boys. They
- 29:46Speaker 7: play hockey. I got a young girl.
- 29:49Speaker 6: She's a cheer cheerleader. So I'm a cheer dad. Got
- 29:52Speaker 6: my shirt on and just busy taking care of them.
- 29:56Speaker 6: Got a couple of Things on the go, I guess,
- 29:59Speaker 6: just whether it's my Clever app that I've had around
- 30:01Speaker 6: for five years, a streamlined video coaching software platform. So
- 30:06Speaker 6: a little busy with that, trying to get people to
- 30:08Speaker 6: understand how to use the technology.
- 30:10Speaker 7: And pretty much.
- 30:11Speaker 6: Besides that, just watching my kids play baseball, hockey, soccer,
- 30:15Speaker 6: whatever it may be, and enjoying being a father.
- 30:19Speaker 3: Before we get into all that amazing stuff, and that's
- 30:22Speaker 3: awesome on what you're doing, obviously I'd be remiss if
- 30:24Speaker 3: I didn't mention the passing of Barry Melrose. just a
- 30:28Speaker 3: staple in the NHL community and just an amazing human analyst.
- 30:33Speaker 3: Everything that encompasses what it means to be a great
- 30:36Speaker 3: hockey player, a great steward of the game. Do you
- 30:39Speaker 3: have any memories of Barry or anything that stands out
- 30:43Speaker 3: for you?
- 30:44Speaker 7: Well, just a larger than life personality.
- 30:47Speaker 6: When you'd run into him in cup finals or wherever,
- 30:50Speaker 6: always took the time to talk to you.
- 30:51Speaker 7: He lit up a room, but My kind of most.
- 30:55Speaker 6: Fondest memory of Barry was in the, I believe it
- 30:57Speaker 6: was 2022 All-Star game. I just went out to Vegas
- 31:00Speaker 6: to watch the All-Star game and I was walking in
- 31:02Speaker 6: the hotel and he pulled me aside and just had
- 31:05Speaker 6: a conversation, right?
- 31:07Speaker 7: He didn't really have to do that.
- 31:08Speaker 6: I didn't even know he still remembered what I looked like,
- 31:10Speaker 6: but it was just kind of the person he was,
- 31:13Speaker 6: really recognized faces he'd met in the past, wanted to
- 31:16Speaker 6: have conversations with them. And honest conversations too. It wasn't
- 31:20Speaker 6: just there to get in and get out of it.
- 31:22Speaker 6: He was a guy that truly cared about the people
- 31:24Speaker 6: around him. And the hockey world lost someone that gave
- 31:28Speaker 6: a lot to the game. I mean, he was there
- 31:29Speaker 6: grinding at ESPN when no one was giving him time
- 31:33Speaker 6: on that channel and stuff like that to try to
- 31:36Speaker 6: promote the game of hockey.
- 31:37Speaker 7: So that guy did a ton for the game and
- 31:39Speaker 7: a very, very sad day.
- 31:42Speaker 4: I love that you mentioned that, Steger, about him. you know,
- 31:45Speaker 4: being on ESPN and kind of a little bit of
- 31:47Speaker 4: a trailblazer in the U.S. because being an American kid,
- 31:50Speaker 4: you know, growing up for me, you know, coming home
- 31:52Speaker 4: after school was, you know, it was Bill Clement, Gary Thorne,
- 31:56Speaker 4: and then, you know, Barry Melrose and John Butchercross ran
- 32:01Speaker 4: in Chelsea tonight, so rest in peace to Barry Melrose
- 32:03Speaker 4: because he was an icon for hockey.
- 32:07Speaker 3: You know, we'll go back a little bit, Steger, you.
- 32:08Speaker 4: Know, before getting traded to Chicago, you know, we played
- 32:12Speaker 4: together in Providence and That year in Providence, you know,
- 32:16Speaker 4: you kind of took off. You had, I think, like
- 32:18Speaker 4: 50 points, 50, 60 points and kind of found the
- 32:22Speaker 4: next step. And then you got traded to Chicago and
- 32:24Speaker 4: then you were, you know, with guys like Brower and
- 32:26Speaker 4: Dustin Bufflin and Dave Bull and these guys and kind
- 32:29Speaker 4: of joined this core group of guys. What was it
- 32:31Speaker 4: that kind of got you that next level when you
- 32:33Speaker 4: were in the minor? Because I remember, you know, you were,
- 32:35Speaker 4: you know, you took a next step and then ended
- 32:37Speaker 4: up getting traded to Chicago and the rest is history.
- 32:40Speaker 6: Well, yeah, you probably remember me crying on the bus
- 32:44Speaker 6: on the ride home because it was on the way
- 32:46Speaker 6: to Worcester to play them. And then, you know, not Worcester, sorry, Manchester.
- 32:53Speaker 6: And I got traded on the bus. And, you know,
- 32:55Speaker 6: you think you've taken off. And then all of a
- 32:57Speaker 6: sudden you think you're getting called up that day when
- 32:59Speaker 6: I got called up to the front of the bus.
- 33:01Speaker 7: But I got traded.
- 33:02Speaker 6: And then I had to ride the bus with all
- 33:03Speaker 6: you guys back after the game. That was a pretty
- 33:06Speaker 6: emotional time because I remember that summer after my 19
- 33:09Speaker 6: year old year in junior, I really went to work
- 33:11Speaker 6: on the mental.
- 33:12Speaker 7: Side of the game. You know, that's where I really struggled.
- 33:15Speaker 6: And I did a ton of mental work and then
- 33:17Speaker 6: also physical work just to put on about 15, 20 pounds.
- 33:20Speaker 6: I mean, at my last year in junior, I was
- 33:23Speaker 6: 165 and I came into Providence around 185, 190. Like
- 33:26Speaker 6: I put on serious muscle and everything. And I think
- 33:30Speaker 6: the mental side of my game was where I struggled
- 33:32Speaker 6: turning pro, especially at 19 and at certain times was
- 33:37Speaker 6: the feeling of belonging, I think, or that I belong
- 33:40Speaker 6: with these guys who are first rounders or NHL guys
- 33:43Speaker 6: and stuff like that. So that was a mental hurdle
- 33:46Speaker 6: I had to get past in the summer. And I
- 33:47Speaker 6: did a lot of work with my trainer and my
- 33:51Speaker 6: mental coach. And I remember when I got to camp
- 33:53Speaker 6: that year in Boston, it was just about like, making
- 33:57Speaker 6: sure I was comfortable in my skin, you know, and
- 34:00Speaker 6: that's be myself, play my game, find two, three things
- 34:04Speaker 6: on the ice that are going to make me good
- 34:06Speaker 6: at the pro level, stick to those two, three things.
- 34:09Speaker 6: And like, it didn't start great in Providence either. Peter
- 34:11Speaker 6: Tenkrat was on the first line. I remember I was
- 34:13Speaker 6: on the fourth line, healthy scratch. Then he got called
- 34:16Speaker 6: up and I got my chance. So there was a
- 34:18Speaker 6: lot of work that went into in that off season and,
- 34:22Speaker 6: And then when I got my chance, obviously, with David
- 34:24Speaker 6: Kredshy on that first line in Providence, it just took off.
- 34:27Speaker 7: I mean, who couldn't play with David Kredshy? But that
- 34:31Speaker 7: was where.
- 34:32Speaker 6: I did take that next step, and I started to
- 34:34Speaker 6: roll and feel good about myself. But then when that
- 34:37Speaker 6: trade came, I'm happy I did all that work in
- 34:41Speaker 6: the offseason because it could have gone sideways again pretty
- 34:43Speaker 6: quick because I got to Norfolk. They stuffed me on
- 34:46Speaker 6: the fourth line, didn't get a lot of opportunity after
- 34:50Speaker 6: kind of being the guy in Providence. And so I
- 34:53Speaker 6: kind of had to rebuild myself again there.
- 34:55Speaker 7: And that's what I did.
- 34:56Speaker 6: But the mental side is really like I put all
- 35:00Speaker 6: the credit into that off season where I was with
- 35:02Speaker 6: my trainers, you know, five days a week working on
- 35:05Speaker 6: my goals, setting goals, thinking about what I want to
- 35:09Speaker 6: do and stuff like that.
- 35:11Speaker 3: Well, and obviously one of the goal for all of
- 35:14Speaker 3: us is to win a cup. So you get to
- 35:15Speaker 3: Rockford and like you talk about it's amazing the way
- 35:19Speaker 3: you had to even journey in the AHL and reinvent yourself.
- 35:22Speaker 3: But you land in Rockford with basically almost a large
- 35:26Speaker 3: portion of that group ends up winning a cup. You
- 35:28Speaker 3: got Troy Brower, you got Corey Crawford, Dave Bolin, Big Buff. Like,
- 35:32Speaker 3: did you ever think when you were down there, like,
- 35:33Speaker 3: was there like a blood pact, like an American pie
- 35:36Speaker 3: or something? You guys are like, we're going to win
- 35:38Speaker 3: this thing. We're going to all go up together and
- 35:40Speaker 3: do something crazy in Chicago.
- 35:44Speaker 7: I think at that time it was more about how
- 35:46Speaker 7: are we going to beat each other out for spots
- 35:48Speaker 7: on the big clubs.
- 35:49Speaker 6: You know, that's kind of, I remember my mindset when
- 35:52Speaker 6: I got to Rockford.
- 35:53Speaker 7: I was like, man, I got to get ahead of
- 35:55Speaker 7: Buff and Brower and Boland. And then you got Kane
- 35:58Speaker 7: coming in. You got Taze. You got Havlat up. They
- 36:01Speaker 7: just trade for Sharp.
- 36:02Speaker 6: I'm like, you know, Boston, I kind of saw a
- 36:05Speaker 6: bit of a clear path to get an opportunity. And
- 36:07Speaker 6: there it was like, when we were young in Rockford,
- 36:10Speaker 6: we were all best friends.
- 36:11Speaker 7: We hung out. But we really did all push each other,
- 36:14Speaker 7: wanting things. to get to the big club.
- 36:16Speaker 6: And I think that's where really it kicked in was
- 36:19Speaker 6: the competition between all of us and the good competition
- 36:23Speaker 6: that we're all friends, but we all wanted to beat
- 36:25Speaker 6: each other out for spots. I think that's the most
- 36:27Speaker 6: honest way I could say it, that we were there
- 36:30Speaker 6: to push each other. Some days I'd be on the
- 36:33Speaker 6: first line in Rockford, some days I'd be on the third, right?
- 36:35Speaker 6: And then that day you're on the third line, you're like,
- 36:37Speaker 6: I'm never going to get.
- 36:38Speaker 7: Called up, you know? So it was like, Constant competition
- 36:42Speaker 7: between us.
- 36:43Speaker 6: And that's kind of what, when we took that group
- 36:45Speaker 6: to Chicago, that mindset never changed. I remember, you know,
- 36:49Speaker 6: a guy like Quenville, he's always interchanging pieces. If I'm
- 36:52Speaker 6: with Kane that day, I got to play great. If
- 36:54Speaker 6: I'm not within a second, Brower goes in that spot.
- 36:57Speaker 6: So it was, I think that mindset that got built
- 37:00Speaker 6: in the AHL of constantly competing against each other for
- 37:04Speaker 6: competition got taken to the NHL. And that's why that
- 37:07Speaker 6: team continually drove each other or drove each other.
- 37:11Speaker 4: Out of that crew, Dustin Bufflin, who I have a
- 37:14Speaker 4: couple stories, but I can't share here on this. But
- 37:18Speaker 4: do you got any favorite Dustin Bufflin stories?
- 37:22Speaker 7: Oh, I got a lot. I'm trying to get this
- 37:24Speaker 7: cat out of my room too right now.
- 37:30Speaker 3: I heard a meow.
- 37:31Speaker 7: I told my wife, I'm like, come get this. So
- 37:33Speaker 7: I do JD's show all the time, right? Here. I
- 37:37Speaker 7: got to get him out of the room. One second.
- 37:38Speaker 3: I love this. We have a cat invasion. First ever.
- 37:43Speaker 3: First ever. Nate, is it? What's the? I had the
- 37:49Speaker 3: buff story.
- 37:50Speaker 6: This guy just busts in the room. He's done it
- 37:53Speaker 6: multiple times on radio.
- 37:55Speaker 3: What's your cat's name?
- 37:56Speaker 7: Kids named him Sneaker.
- 37:58Speaker 3: Sneaker.
- 37:59Speaker 7: Sneaker.
- 37:59Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 38:00Speaker 7: Sorry about that.
- 38:00Speaker 6: We were talking about Dustin Bufflin, right? Yeah.
- 38:05Speaker 3: Speaking of cats.
- 38:06Speaker 7: Yeah, speaking of cats.
- 38:07Speaker 6: So this is my favorite one ever. We're in Vegas
- 38:10Speaker 6: for Andrew Ladd's wedding. So we get in the pool
- 38:14Speaker 6: right before the wedding. Me, Buff, Barker, Boland, or all
- 38:18Speaker 6: of us are in the pool, right? And me and
- 38:22Speaker 6: Eager are like, okay, let's try to dunk Buff. Like,
- 38:25Speaker 6: let's jump on him and try to dunk him. So
- 38:28Speaker 6: I jump on his back and I'm like choking him.
- 38:31Speaker 6: Eager jumps on him, and then Cam Barker jumps on him.
- 38:34Speaker 7: And we're trying to drown him. We can't, right?
- 38:36Speaker 6: He ends up grabbing Eager, who at that time is
- 38:39Speaker 6: 240 pounds. He grabs Barker, who might be equally 230, 240,
- 38:44Speaker 6: and he's carrying three grown men through the pool, dunking
- 38:48Speaker 6: all three of us. It was one of the wildest things,
- 38:52Speaker 6: and after that, Eager's like, dude, I have no idea
- 38:54Speaker 6: how one human could dunk three grown men in the
- 38:58Speaker 6: pool in Vegas, but it was the It was just
- 39:01Speaker 6: one of those things where you realized how strong he was.
- 39:03Speaker 6: He loved it. He loved us trying to do that.
- 39:06Speaker 6: But that was my favorite memory of him, just showing
- 39:08Speaker 6: off his personality.
- 39:09Speaker 7: And the guy's a beast, man. He was a freak.
- 39:13Speaker 3: It's honestly, you talk to guys in the NHL that
- 39:17Speaker 3: played against Buff or played with him, and the large
- 39:20Speaker 3: consensus is, like, if he wanted to be, he could
- 39:24Speaker 3: have been a top five player in the NHL. And
- 39:26Speaker 3: you'd see it the nights where he was engaged. I mean,
- 39:29Speaker 3: it was the scariest human i remember playing in dallas
- 39:32Speaker 3: and we'd go in the room and guys are like
- 39:34Speaker 3: we'd come off the ice from warm-up and guys would
- 39:37Speaker 3: like skate by him and talk to him and they'd
- 39:39Speaker 3: be okay guy okay guys buffs hung over a little
- 39:41Speaker 3: bit like just leave him be like do not hit
- 39:44Speaker 3: him do not touch him if he's got a breakaway
- 39:46Speaker 3: don't even slash him like just let him let him
- 39:49Speaker 3: do his thing And then some idiot would go out
- 39:50Speaker 3: and like run him and he'd be like, I'm going
- 39:52Speaker 3: to kill everybody now and just turn it on. So
- 39:55Speaker 3: I don't know where that was. And maybe that's what
- 39:57Speaker 3: made him so good is his lack of, of, I
- 40:00Speaker 3: don't want to say caring cause he did care, but
- 40:01Speaker 3: like just his lack of, of not needing to be the, the,
- 40:05Speaker 3: the guy.
- 40:06Speaker 6: Oh, he, that's, that's kind of where I remember in 2008,
- 40:10Speaker 6: they were really on him about his weight. Like that
- 40:13Speaker 6: was the big thing. Buff, are you light enough? Can
- 40:16Speaker 6: you play all this? And, Dale Tallon actually did a
- 40:19Speaker 6: great job at coming into the trainers and just saying,
- 40:22Speaker 6: manage everyone else's weight, make sure they're in shape and
- 40:25Speaker 6: leave Buff alone. What we need is happy Buff. We
- 40:29Speaker 6: don't need rattled, pissed off Buff in the gym, right?
- 40:32Speaker 6: We need him to be comfortable coming to the rink.
- 40:35Speaker 7: We need him to be happy.
- 40:37Speaker 6: And so that's kind of where you started to see
- 40:39Speaker 6: his NHL game take off where, yeah, Buff, you do
- 40:42Speaker 6: got to come in shape, but we're not going to
- 40:45Speaker 6: micromanage every situation with you. And I think that's what
- 40:48Speaker 6: happened when he got to the NHL initially is they
- 40:51Speaker 6: tried to micromanage him too much. And he's such a
- 40:53Speaker 6: fun loving guy and he loves to play hockey.
- 40:56Speaker 7: He's a competitor.
- 40:57Speaker 6: You don't really want to wake him up, but that's,
- 40:59Speaker 6: that's where I started to see. He, he felt more
- 41:02Speaker 6: comfortable in his skin when he stopped being micromanaged.
- 41:08Speaker 3: Uh, sorry, JD.
- 41:10Speaker 4: Um, So you win a cup back in 2010 with it,
- 41:14Speaker 4: and basically it's a group back. You guys get everyone back,
- 41:19Speaker 4: and a few teammates, unrestricted free agents, and you end
- 41:23Speaker 4: up getting traded to Toronto after being in Chicago. What
- 41:31Speaker 4: do you remember about this debacle?
- 41:34Speaker 6: Well, yeah, I was part of that contract where I
- 41:39Speaker 6: got paid a lot more than I should have. So
- 41:42Speaker 6: I kind of knew that it was going to be
- 41:43Speaker 6: my last year in Chicago that year.
- 41:45Speaker 7: There was me and Cam Barker.
- 41:46Speaker 6: They missed us with the, uh, the, I forgot what
- 41:50Speaker 6: those offers were, those offers. They got to send all
- 41:52Speaker 6: the restricted agents, restricted free agents. So I kind of
- 41:55Speaker 6: knew that year might be my last year with the
- 41:58Speaker 6: Hawks after.
- 41:59Speaker 7: We won the cup.
- 42:01Speaker 6: I'm we're at this bar and I'm in this tunnel
- 42:03Speaker 6: and it's me, Vince Vaughn. And and it's Stan Bowman.
- 42:06Speaker 6: And Stan Bowman told me right there, hey, we are
- 42:09Speaker 6: going to trade you. And you have Vince Vaughn, like
- 42:11Speaker 6: Vince Vaughn does, like, oh, you can't trade this guy.
- 42:13Speaker 7: He just won the cup, you know?
- 42:14Speaker 6: So yeah, that's kind of where I found out I
- 42:19Speaker 6: was being traded for sure. But I kind of knew
- 42:21Speaker 6: the whole year after I got that bigger ticket that
- 42:24Speaker 6: it most likely was going to happen. So I wasn't shocked.
- 42:28Speaker 6: And then obviously you go to Toronto and it's a
- 42:32Speaker 6: storied franchise. We weren't the best team, but I actually,
- 42:35Speaker 6: I didn't mind it because I thought Chicago with the
- 42:38Speaker 6: limelight kind of prepared me for Toronto.
- 42:41Speaker 7: So I liked my time in Toronto. I didn't mind it.
- 42:44Speaker 7: And I love Brian Burke.
- 42:45Speaker 6: He was very upfront with me at the trade deadline saying, Hey,
- 42:48Speaker 6: we got to get picks back.
- 42:49Speaker 7: We got to do things.
- 42:50Speaker 6: So it was a short lived window for me, but um,
- 42:54Speaker 6: the time in Toronto was great.
- 42:55Speaker 7: Phil Kessel was my roommate.
- 42:57Speaker 3: I was just going to say you're, you had, was
- 43:00Speaker 3: like Colby Armstrong, Phil.
- 43:03Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 43:03Speaker 3: Uh, you had Joffrey Looples there. You guys had like
- 43:07Speaker 3: a great room in terms of like just one.
- 43:09Speaker 7: Loops came in when I left.
- 43:11Speaker 3: Right.
- 43:12Speaker 6: So I was only with him for like a week,
- 43:14Speaker 6: but yeah, he's a fun loving guy, but you know,
- 43:17Speaker 6: you had FNUF as the captain and you had Clark MacArthur,
- 43:20Speaker 6: who was a great guy, Nikolai Kuliman, you had so
- 43:22Speaker 6: many good guys on that team. And I liked our
- 43:25Speaker 6: time there. Obviously we weren't good enough. So changes had
- 43:28Speaker 6: to be made. And then I go to Philly for.
- 43:29Speaker 7: That, that run. And then, uh, but Toronto is, it's a,
- 43:34Speaker 7: there's a lot of pressure on you to succeed.
- 43:36Speaker 6: I I go home and my R eight had been
- 43:42Speaker 6: spit on and stuff was wrote in the side of
- 43:45Speaker 6: my R eight, you know, like you got a score,
- 43:47Speaker 6: you suck, you know, like, but I mean, I, I thought.
- 43:50Speaker 7: It was kind of funny, right?
- 43:52Speaker 6: It was, yeah, but you kind of understood that that's
- 43:56Speaker 6: the pressure you were under and.
- 43:59Speaker 7: That's what you want as a hockey player.
- 44:00Speaker 6: I know I've played in markets at times, you know,
- 44:03Speaker 6: where I'm in Carolina and we weren't very good and
- 44:05Speaker 6: you got 3000 people there.
- 44:07Speaker 7: It's two, two, third period. And you're sleeping on the bench.
- 44:10Speaker 3: Yeah. So I've been there with the coyotes and stuff
- 44:13Speaker 3: like that early on.
- 44:14Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 44:14Speaker 6: And it's hard to stay in it, especially when you've
- 44:17Speaker 6: kind of seen the peak of what fandom is and
- 44:19Speaker 6: playing in front of people that care. So that's where,
- 44:23Speaker 6: that's where, you know, I loved it.
- 44:25Speaker 7: I had no, no ill will towards anyone.
- 44:28Speaker 6: And Berkey brought me back to Calgary anyways, but I
- 44:31Speaker 6: just liked how upfront he was and honest about it.
- 44:34Speaker 3: Quickly. What's your, you know, you roomed with Phil Kessel.
- 44:36Speaker 3: We think we talked about, we're going to talk about
- 44:39Speaker 3: him a little bit on this show, but you know,
- 44:42Speaker 3: just give me your best Phil Kessel story that you got.
- 44:48Speaker 7: Some of these have gone viral I've seen in the past.
- 44:51Speaker 7: And I've, I've told this.
- 44:52Speaker 6: One a few times it's we're in Pittsburgh and he
- 44:55Speaker 6: used to take the clothes hangers to make sure no
- 44:58Speaker 6: sun came in the room.
- 44:59Speaker 4: Right.
- 45:00Speaker 6: So One day we're in Pittsburgh, the clothes hanger falls
- 45:03Speaker 6: off the drapes and the sun just peers perfectly in
- 45:06Speaker 6: on his eyes.
- 45:07Speaker 7: And he's like, oh my God, my eyes. Steger, I'm blind,
- 45:12Speaker 7: get up.
- 45:12Speaker 6: And I'm like, Phil, you're right next to the screen.
- 45:15Speaker 7: You get up and do it. He's like, oh my.
- 45:17Speaker 6: You know, just stuff like that. I've told that story
- 45:20Speaker 6: a few times. And I've, you know, even the one
- 45:23Speaker 6: where I told the other day too, he's in the gym, right?
- 45:26Speaker 7: And I'm like, Phil, I can lift way more than you.
- 45:28Speaker 7: Look at you. I can crush way more than you.
- 45:31Speaker 6: He literally takes like four pies aside, chucks them on,
- 45:34Speaker 6: rips off 10.
- 45:36Speaker 7: He's like, see, told you, Steger.
- 45:38Speaker 6: You know, just stuff like that where it was constant comedy.
- 45:43Speaker 6: Some of the funnest times I had was actually watching
- 45:45Speaker 6: him and Dion Phaneuf fight playing table tennis.
- 45:48Speaker 7: Like it was all out war playing table tennis.
- 45:51Speaker 3: He's so competitive in anything. It was nuts.
- 45:54Speaker 7: Yeah, it was nuts.
- 45:56Speaker 6: So yeah, I have a lot of great stories with Phil.
- 45:58Speaker 6: And I was with him in Boston for a little
- 46:00Speaker 6: bit too. That's when he had testicular cancer. He got
- 46:03Speaker 6: sent down to the minors and he played with us.
- 46:05Speaker 6: He was on a line with me in Kredge City
- 46:07Speaker 6: for like a week. I think I had the easiest
- 46:10Speaker 6: nine points in a week in my life. It was
- 46:12Speaker 6: just give them the puck and get an apple.
- 46:15Speaker 7: But I remember when he got sent down.
- 46:18Speaker 6: And actually, one more Phil story was the Johnny Whitesides
- 46:21Speaker 6: in Boston. He used to make me watch him during camp,
- 46:24Speaker 6: make sure he eats well.
- 46:26Speaker 7: So we go out for dinner.
- 46:28Speaker 6: And we're at a seafood place and we go back
- 46:30Speaker 6: home and I get there the next day and Johnny
- 46:32Speaker 6: Whitesides is like, what did he eat last night?
- 46:34Speaker 7: I'm like, yeah, he ate great. He had all this
- 46:36Speaker 7: like seafood. It was deep fried.
- 46:39Speaker 1: And he's like, what?
- 46:40Speaker 7: It was deep fried? Because I didn't know what healthy
- 46:42Speaker 7: food was then. And I'm like, he's like, it was
- 46:45Speaker 7: deep fried. I'm like, yeah, it was deep fried. And
- 46:46Speaker 7: he comes in, he's like, Steger, you're a rat. He
- 46:49Speaker 7: ratted on me.
- 46:50Speaker 6: And then he put him on the bike for fat camp,
- 46:54Speaker 6: you know?
- 46:55Speaker 7: So he had to go ride. So he's riding the
- 46:56Speaker 7: bike all depressed. He's like, you're such a rat, Steger.
- 46:59Speaker 7: You ratted on me. You know, stuff like that.
- 47:03Speaker 3: John Whitesides.
- 47:04Speaker 4: That brings you back.
- 47:05Speaker 3: I remember him.
- 47:07Speaker 4: Speaking of really good players, you know, you got to
- 47:09Speaker 4: play with Alexander Barkov as a rookie.
- 47:12Speaker 3: Did you see.
- 47:15Speaker 4: Did you see it right away and see what you're going.
- 47:17Speaker 7: To see now? Yeah, you saw it right away.
- 47:19Speaker 6: He was 18 turning 19, I think, at that time.
- 47:23Speaker 6: He came into camp and he was doing things with
- 47:25Speaker 6: the puck that none of us could do, but I
- 47:28Speaker 6: think it was the more mature game he already had
- 47:30Speaker 6: at 18, 19. I know his dad was a pro
- 47:33Speaker 6: and I'm sure he taught him well, but he was
- 47:36Speaker 6: already strong on both sides of the puck.
- 47:38Speaker 7: Very soft-spoken.
- 47:39Speaker 6: He didn't really say much, just came in, did his work,
- 47:42Speaker 6: did his job, but Just a guy that understood how
- 47:46Speaker 6: to play the game the right way from a young age.
- 47:48Speaker 6: I had great veterans like you and certain guys. I
- 47:52Speaker 6: remember McDonald in Providence who really had to pull me
- 47:55Speaker 6: aside to say, if you want to play in the NHL,
- 47:57Speaker 6: you've got to play better defense.
- 47:59Speaker 7: Or you've got to check more.
- 48:00Speaker 3: You've got to do things.
- 48:01Speaker 6: So I really relied on my veterans. That guy didn't
- 48:05Speaker 6: have to rely on anyone. He kind of had it
- 48:06Speaker 6: all figured out at a young age.
- 48:09Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a freak when I played with him. He's
- 48:12Speaker 3: one of those guys they had to pull out of
- 48:13Speaker 3: the gym and off the ice and be like, can
- 48:15Speaker 3: you just take a second? You're too much of a pro.
- 48:18Speaker 3: You're too professional, and you're making us all look bad, too.
- 48:25Speaker 3: But you play in Florida, and you touched on it earlier,
- 48:29Speaker 3: but I wanted to ask you, and I asked Phil, actually,
- 48:32Speaker 3: funny enough, Phil Kessler during the finals, but You go
- 48:36Speaker 3: back to Chicago, you win your second cup. What is
- 48:39Speaker 3: that feeling like? How is that to win a second cup?
- 48:45Speaker 3: Is it the same? What's your mindset going into that playoff?
- 48:49Speaker 3: And when the clock strikes zero and you guys are
- 48:54Speaker 3: throwing off your helmets and everything, what is that feeling?
- 48:57Speaker 3: Is it the same? Is it different? Is there similarities
- 49:00Speaker 3: to it? Or is it just a completely different experience?
- 49:03Speaker 7: I think it's a completely different experience for me. I
- 49:06Speaker 7: don't know.
- 49:06Speaker 6: I wouldn't ever try to say anyone else's perspective on
- 49:09Speaker 6: it or say what they thought. I know for me,
- 49:11Speaker 6: the first time it was like, you know, you proved
- 49:15Speaker 6: everyone wrong type of feeling. You had a sense of
- 49:18Speaker 6: relief that the season was over and you got the
- 49:20Speaker 6: job done. You finally won a cup and you can
- 49:22Speaker 6: say that you've won a cup. You know, there's like
- 49:25Speaker 6: there's that that excitement and everything all bottled into one
- 49:29Speaker 6: on the first one was something you know I've never
- 49:32Speaker 6: felt and then the second one was almost like wow
- 49:35Speaker 6: I did it again so it was the same excitement
- 49:38Speaker 6: the same feeling but almost less relief as the first
- 49:42Speaker 6: one where it was more about the relief of finally
- 49:45Speaker 6: getting the job done. So I would say the first
- 49:47Speaker 6: one for me, definitely, if you bottle it up, was
- 49:53Speaker 6: the best feeling I've ever felt in my life. The
- 49:55Speaker 6: second one was the second best, but it was definitely
- 49:58Speaker 6: two different feelings in the sense of, wow, I accomplished
- 50:01Speaker 6: this again. This is such an incredible journey to go
- 50:05Speaker 6: on with a group of guys and stuff like that.
- 50:07Speaker 7: But That first one.
- 50:08Speaker 6: Had a lot of pressure on us, right? Hadn't won
- 50:11Speaker 6: in 49 years in Chicago. We knew the team was
- 50:13Speaker 6: going to blow up after the season.
- 50:15Speaker 7: We had to get the job done.
- 50:16Speaker 6: A lot of guys that were best friends and we're
- 50:19Speaker 6: still all best friends today. So I think that first
- 50:22Speaker 6: one for me, it was just, it was every type
- 50:25Speaker 6: of feeling bottled into one.
- 50:27Speaker 7: And the sense of relief is nothing I've ever felt.
- 50:30Speaker 4: You guys were really tested on that, on that run
- 50:32Speaker 4: in 2015 too. And especially in the conference finals, um,
- 50:35Speaker 4: Broke my heart.
- 50:36Speaker 7: Well, you guys should have. You guys played great.
- 50:38Speaker 3: Like, it's crazy. It's like the Sharks. We should have
- 50:42Speaker 3: beat them.
- 50:44Speaker 1: That was a very good series that was.
- 50:46Speaker 4: Steve, your last season, you were with Calgary in the NHL,
- 50:51Speaker 4: and you get to play with Jeremy Yager. You know,
- 50:53Speaker 4: playing with Yager, do you have any other good stories
- 50:56Speaker 4: with this guy playing with him as a teammate?
- 50:59Speaker 6: Well, I remember the first game he played, we're in L.A.,
- 51:02Speaker 6: and I got to play on the line with him.
- 51:04Speaker 6: So I took a picture of the game sheet, like Versteeg, Bennett, Jager, right?
- 51:09Speaker 7: It was pretty neat. And me and him were both
- 51:13Speaker 7: hurt too, kind of at the same time. So we'd
- 51:15Speaker 7: be in the gym a.
- 51:16Speaker 6: Long time together and just having conversations, having my kids
- 51:19Speaker 6: come in and meet him. You know, really with Jarmer,
- 51:23Speaker 6: he was there a short time and I didn't get
- 51:26Speaker 6: to spend a ton of time with him, but it
- 51:28Speaker 6: was just a guy that had aura.
- 51:30Speaker 7: I don't know what else to say. He walked in
- 51:31Speaker 7: the room and it was like, you could see his energy.
- 51:33Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 51:34Speaker 7: You know, it's different.
- 51:36Speaker 6: It's almost like you're, you know, I played with tons
- 51:38Speaker 6: of hall of famers prior to that played with, you know,
- 51:42Speaker 6: so many guys, but when a guy that was your
- 51:44Speaker 6: idol walks in the room and he's still playing it,
- 51:48Speaker 6: it was almost like I was too scared to talk
- 51:50Speaker 6: to him. And I don't think I was ever scared
- 51:51Speaker 6: to talk to anyone. So, uh, it was just kind
- 51:54Speaker 6: of being in his presence, watching how he acted, how
- 51:56Speaker 6: he trained, how he wanted to go on the ice
- 51:58Speaker 6: to get better, especially at that stage of his career.
- 52:01Speaker 6: that was more what it was about for me. Just
- 52:03Speaker 6: trying to take it all in and, and have those memories.
- 52:06Speaker 3: I hope you didn't follow his training methods. Well, the
- 52:10Speaker 3: funny thing is.
- 52:12Speaker 7: He would sit on the leg press, right?
- 52:14Speaker 6: And he would do one leg press, like really heavy,
- 52:17Speaker 6: one leg. And then he would stop and he'd sit
- 52:19Speaker 6: there and he'd just go on his phone and then
- 52:22Speaker 6: he'd go do it again. It would take like an hour,
- 52:24Speaker 6: but he would do like 15 sets of leg press,
- 52:26Speaker 6: but he'd take like five.
- 52:28Speaker 7: Minute intervals, almost just waiting to do the next one.
- 52:31Speaker 2: Right.
- 52:31Speaker 6: So, leg press would take an hour, then chest would
- 52:34Speaker 6: take an hour, and then he'd go out and do
- 52:35Speaker 6: his stick handling.
- 52:36Speaker 7: It was unique.
- 52:38Speaker 3: Yeah, he was, I think in Jersey, they got the
- 52:41Speaker 3: tape of, like, him in the gym, you know, because
- 52:44Speaker 3: the coach came in and kept saying, like, you know,
- 52:46Speaker 3: look at Yach, he's in the gym all the time,
- 52:48Speaker 3: and the guys ended up getting, like, the tape of
- 52:49Speaker 3: the gym, and it was just him, like, on his phone.
- 52:52Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 52:53Speaker 3: But they were, like, three hours doing, like, a couple
- 52:55Speaker 3: reps here and there, and they're like, are you fucking
- 52:57Speaker 3: kidding me?
- 52:58Speaker 7: Yeah, that's what it was.
- 52:59Speaker 3: That's what it was kind of like. You mentioned playing
- 53:02Speaker 3: with Hall of Famers and performing with Hall of Famers,
- 53:05Speaker 3: and we got to see you perform with LMFAO and
- 53:10Speaker 3: Macklemore at Blackhawks Parade. You were a big singer. You
- 53:13Speaker 3: were a big showman, on the ice, off the ice.
- 53:17Speaker 3: I got to meet you at Devin Setaguchi's wedding, very
- 53:21Speaker 3: close friend of both of ours, and we ended up
- 53:25Speaker 3: orchestrating a dance the day of the wedding, but take
- 53:32Speaker 3: us through, you know, our experience and, and they're probably
- 53:36Speaker 3: going to roll a clip of this at the same
- 53:38Speaker 3: time you're talking, but how did the leotard dance to
- 53:42Speaker 3: Sia come to be?
- 53:43Speaker 6: Well, I remember I got to San Jose and, uh,
- 53:48Speaker 6: someone said you and Demers have to do something together,
- 53:51Speaker 6: like a funny skit or something. And then Brett Curio,
- 53:55Speaker 6: one of Devin's friends.
- 53:56Speaker 7: And who was the other, the other guy that did
- 53:58Speaker 7: it with us? I can't remember his name.
- 54:01Speaker 3: Oh geez it escaped uh I don't want to I
- 54:04Speaker 3: don't want to say a name and be wrong he
- 54:06Speaker 3: was a he was a boxing coach too.
- 54:08Speaker 6: Yeah he was oh Joe Joe Mills Joe Mills that's
- 54:11Speaker 6: it so we we.
- 54:12Speaker 7: All kind of got together and we're outside on the
- 54:14Speaker 7: street remember outside.
- 54:16Speaker 6: Of his house outside of his house and we're like
- 54:19Speaker 6: okay let's uh figure this out so we grabbed that
- 54:22Speaker 6: Sia song we.
- 54:23Speaker 7: Came up with a dance you had that Windmill idea.
- 54:27Speaker 6: Remember the windmill where we all start getting whipped around?
- 54:31Speaker 3: Which one we all... Put our hands... And you put
- 54:34Speaker 3: your hands on top of each other.
- 54:36Speaker 7: And guys are swinging. So we had to practice that
- 54:39Speaker 7: for quite a while.
- 54:42Speaker 3: We did lifts. People were like... People were floors.
- 54:46Speaker 4: I'm getting a visual just of you guys outside of
- 54:48Speaker 4: the house practicing.
- 54:50Speaker 7: No, people were coming out of their homes like, what's
- 54:52Speaker 7: going on in the street? And then... I don't know
- 54:55Speaker 7: whose idea it was.
- 54:56Speaker 6: It's like, let's go get some leotards and really take
- 54:59Speaker 6: this to the next level. And, and it ended up hitting,
- 55:02Speaker 6: I mean, it, it went, it was probably the first
- 55:03Speaker 6: viral video before viral was viral.
- 55:07Speaker 7: Right.
- 55:08Speaker 3: When I would say it was, well, it was in,
- 55:11Speaker 3: it was what in 2014, 14. It, I think on YouTube,
- 55:16Speaker 3: it hit like hundreds, hundreds of thousands of views. And like,
- 55:21Speaker 3: was the, was a huge thing.
- 55:23Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 55:24Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
- 55:26Speaker 7: So that's how that kind of came up.
- 55:27Speaker 6: But for my singing and all that, it was always
- 55:30Speaker 6: just joking around, having fun with the guys. I always
- 55:33Speaker 6: knew I was terrible at it. I was a shit singer,
- 55:36Speaker 6: but I could always remember lyrics. So it would always just,
- 55:38Speaker 6: you know, go to the parties with the.
- 55:39Speaker 7: Boys, sing, have a little fun.
- 55:41Speaker 6: And that's kind of when Sharpie called me up on
- 55:44Speaker 6: stage in 2010.
- 55:45Speaker 7: He's like, you got to sing something. I'm like, I
- 55:47Speaker 7: don't even know what I'm going to sing.
- 55:48Speaker 6: And so I ended up just kind of riffing off LMFAO.
- 55:51Speaker 6: And then The next one was Macklemore. They said, you
- 55:54Speaker 6: got to do it again.
- 55:55Speaker 7: I'm like, all right, I'll do it again. Let's figure
- 55:57Speaker 7: it out. And it was just the morning of. I'm like, okay, Nordstrom,
- 56:00Speaker 7: we're going to sing this together. So that's how it
- 56:02Speaker 7: comes about. It's not like it's planned.
- 56:04Speaker 3: I like it off the cuff. That's the way to be.
- 56:07Speaker 3: But now, you know, before we wrap up, you've got
- 56:11Speaker 3: a bunch going on. You mentioned Clever AI, your coaching platform.
- 56:16Speaker 3: Also mentioned the Blue Paint Network. It's another coaching program
- 56:19Speaker 3: you have for kids. But talk about how the inception
- 56:21Speaker 3: of that And give us a little blurb on those
- 56:24Speaker 3: companies and hopefully we can push it out for you.
- 56:27Speaker 6: Yeah, the Blue Paint Network advising, it's about building something
- 56:31Speaker 6: that goes beyond the traditional hockey advising. We bring the
- 56:35Speaker 6: advisory mentorship from former NHL players, video coaching and development.
- 56:40Speaker 7: The goal is actually to surround.
- 56:41Speaker 6: These players and families with people who've actually lived in
- 56:44Speaker 6: the game and can provide real guidance, development, support through
- 56:48Speaker 6: every stage of the hockey journey. Clever is a big
- 56:51Speaker 6: tool of that, especially on the video side.
- 56:53Speaker 3: For young players.
- 56:55Speaker 7: We use Clever with it, whether it's my hockey teams
- 56:58Speaker 7: or whatever. And then obviously through the Blue.
- 57:00Speaker 6: Paint Network Advisory, a lot of video coaching with the
- 57:04Speaker 6: kids and then advice and situational stuff that can hopefully
- 57:08Speaker 6: help them along their journey. So it's taking my technology
- 57:12Speaker 6: and trying to also use it for other pieces and
- 57:15Speaker 6: other facets of other things and you know, the clever.ai
- 57:20Speaker 6: has been around for five years. It's hard to push
- 57:22Speaker 6: people to get on it, but when they get on it,
- 57:24Speaker 6: they realize how easy it is, especially in the youth
- 57:26Speaker 6: market where technology generally is cumbersome and hard, but it's
- 57:30Speaker 6: streamlined quick and a lot of coaches using it and
- 57:33Speaker 6: I'm very fortunate that it's there because.
- 57:35Speaker 3: It helps me. That's beautiful. I love that. Helping kids
- 57:40Speaker 3: and Stuart, I think that's a huge gap missing in
- 57:44Speaker 3: the youth sports market and also just, you know, I mean,
- 57:48Speaker 3: you know how it was. You talked about it when
- 57:51Speaker 3: you mentioned just the food, talking to Phil Kessel about
- 57:55Speaker 3: deep fried food. You don't know your ass from your
- 57:57Speaker 3: elbow when you're an 18, 19, 20-year-old. You don't know anything.
- 58:00Speaker 3: You're away from home. You're trying to figure it out
- 58:03Speaker 3: as you go, and it's good to have that stewardship
- 58:05Speaker 3: in between and kind of fill that gap.
- 58:08Speaker 6: And it's nice because we got other pros there to
- 58:10Speaker 6: kind of help with the mentorship too. Like you said,
- 58:13Speaker 6: whether it's a defenseman or a forward or things like that,
- 58:16Speaker 6: try to give them advice. And this is, you know,
- 58:19Speaker 6: think about when we were young about even just training,
- 58:22Speaker 6: how to train properly. You know, there's so much information
- 58:24Speaker 6: out there. Sometimes too much information is bad, but how
- 58:27Speaker 6: do you get them the right information for them and
- 58:30Speaker 6: stuff like that? And yeah, it's always going to be
- 58:33Speaker 6: a gap and just trying to help parents that don't understand.
- 58:37Speaker 6: where maybe what the right road is and try to
- 58:40Speaker 6: give them that guidance.
- 58:42Speaker 3: Well, thanks so much for your time, buddy. Um, we
- 58:44Speaker 3: appreciate it and good luck with all your future endeavors
- 58:47Speaker 3: and cat, the cat sneakers.
- 58:49Speaker 7: Thanks.
- 58:50Speaker 6: I was going to say that cat's a more famous
- 58:53Speaker 6: in Toronto than I am.
- 58:57Speaker 3: Phil goes sneakers, Phil. Yeah. And then Steger.
- 59:01Speaker 4: All right.
- 59:01Speaker 3: Thanks buddy. Have a great one. Yeah.
- 59:03Speaker 7: Take care guys.
- 59:12Speaker 2: Time now for Cinefile in 60. I don't have one. Tal,
- 59:15Speaker 2: I'm giving my time to you. I've been watching the U.S.
- 59:17Speaker 3: Open.
- 59:17Speaker 2: I'm locked into the tennis. I haven't had a chance
- 59:19Speaker 2: for a movie. I already gave you my backroom's review.
- 59:21Speaker 2: Is there anything you or J.D. would like to discuss
- 59:22Speaker 2: movie-wise here as we go into fall movie season?
- 59:25Speaker 1: Go ahead, J.D.
- 59:26Speaker 3: It's a TV show, though.
- 59:28Speaker 1: That's fine. Go ahead.
- 59:29Speaker 2: Cinefile in 60 becomes TV show in 60.
- 59:31Speaker 1: Go ahead. Well, it is.
- 59:34Speaker 3: We recently went to finish the last season of, because
- 59:39Speaker 3: I never finished it ever, of Succession.
- 59:41Speaker 1: Oh, there you go. I love Succession.
- 59:43Speaker 3: Oh, dude. Is there anything better than you got to
- 59:45Speaker 3: break a few... To make a tomlet, you got to
- 59:49Speaker 3: break a few Greggs.
- 59:50Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
- 59:51Speaker 3: You sent that email 67 times. Dude, that show has
- 59:55Speaker 3: so many funny lines in it. But, yeah, we've been
- 59:58Speaker 3: watching Succession and Lanterns. I bet.
- 1:00:02Speaker 2: I met Matthew McFadden, who played Tom years ago at
- 1:00:04Speaker 2: the Crick's Choice Awards, and I said, man, some of
- 1:00:05Speaker 2: those lines were incredible. He said, yeah, and I said,
- 1:00:07Speaker 2: the one that I never laughed harder is when you said,
- 1:00:09Speaker 2: if this doesn't work out, I'll be sucking off ogres
- 1:00:11Speaker 2: for phone cards.
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: And he gave a legit, like, one of those laughs.
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: He's a British accent.
- 1:00:18Speaker 2: He's like, you know, one of these guys you expected
- 1:00:20Speaker 2: a pride and prejudice when you meet him in real life.
- 1:00:21Speaker 2: He goes, oh, I had a tough time saying some
- 1:00:23Speaker 2: of those lines, I must tell you.
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, he was so great as Tom.
- 1:00:26Speaker 2: I mean, every character, Jeremy Strong obviously is great, and
- 1:00:29Speaker 2: obviously Brian Cox is incredible, but I thought Matthew McFadden
- 1:00:32Speaker 2: as Tom was.
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: Because he's so unlike the guy.
- 1:00:35Speaker 3: Oh, you read Mein Kampf twice? Yeah. Didn't get it
- 1:00:39Speaker 3: the first time? No, I just like... I like that
- 1:00:43Speaker 3: period of history. What about that period of history do
- 1:00:47Speaker 3: you like? The decimation of Europe. You know, what is that?
- 1:00:53Speaker 3: Like a million Poles, a bunch of Russians. He's like,
- 1:00:56Speaker 3: I feel like you're missing a couple million.
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: Incredibly well-written show. Machiavellian, very timely. This is a great episode.
- 1:01:07Speaker 2: You know what really started to kick off for me
- 1:01:08Speaker 2: was like episode five, season one, when they're talking about potentially,
- 1:01:13Speaker 2: you know, Kendall's on the street, he's getting late to
- 1:01:15Speaker 2: the meeting, and Kieran Culkin puts his hand up, and
- 1:01:19Speaker 2: Brian Cox says, you best be sniffing your fucking armpit.
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: It was so funny.
- 1:01:24Speaker 3: He's so good, Brian Cox, when he goes, you fucking dopes.
- 1:01:30Speaker 1: But I thought he had one of the best lines.
- 1:01:31Speaker 2: I think with this often, he goes, you know, to
- 1:01:33Speaker 2: talk about his kids in general, he described his children
- 1:01:35Speaker 2: well in one sentence.
- 1:01:36Speaker 1: You're not serious people.
- 1:01:37Speaker 7: It was a great line.
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: That's a great line, Judy.
- 1:01:40Speaker 3: That's his last episode that he's around. And then he
- 1:01:43Speaker 3: ends up, he dies in the next episode, which is
- 1:01:47Speaker 3: crazy because that line is so good when he just
- 1:01:49Speaker 3: stares at him. He's like, you finally gave them an
- 1:01:51Speaker 3: olive branch and they didn't want it. And he's like,
- 1:01:53Speaker 3: you're just not serious people. Oh, that would hurt.
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: That's a great line. Tal, what do you got? Succession?
- 1:02:01Speaker 5: I was just going to say, if you like Succession,
- 1:02:03Speaker 5: I texted you about this ad now. There's some real-life
- 1:02:07Speaker 5: Succession figures that are going to be portrayed in a
- 1:02:10Speaker 5: number of films by some of the best filmmakers we have.
- 1:02:13Speaker 5: We have Danny Boyle making a film coming out soon
- 1:02:15Speaker 5: on Netflix about Rupert Murdoch. We have Luca Guadagnino making
- 1:02:20Speaker 5: a film about Sam Altman. We have an Alex Gibney
- 1:02:22Speaker 5: doc about Elon Musk. I love Gibney. And then we
- 1:02:26Speaker 5: have Aaron Sorkin doing his social network sequel.
- 1:02:30Speaker 3: About Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, do you like that one?
- 1:02:32Speaker 5: I don't know if that one looks very good, but it's...
- 1:02:34Speaker 5: And then my personal favorite, Nathan Fielder... Yes, three-hour doc,
- 1:02:38Speaker 5: Elizabeth Holmes. has this documentary with Elizabeth Holmes. I love
- 1:02:40Speaker 5: Nathan Fielder. I'm in on anything he does.
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: Canadian. Canadian, good point.
- 1:02:44Speaker 5: And he somehow went into this federal penitentiary and interviewed
- 1:02:49Speaker 5: one of the most high-profile inmates in the country without
- 1:02:53Speaker 5: anyone saying anything. I mean, I'm amazed that they kept
- 1:02:55Speaker 5: this under wraps.
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: It's a three-hour quasi-documentary. But that's going to be fascinating.
- 1:02:59Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 1:03:00Speaker 5: It was a secret screening at the Telluride Film Festival,
- 1:03:03Speaker 5: and everyone apparently lost their mind when they saw it
- 1:03:05Speaker 5: at the festival.
- 1:03:06Speaker 3: So that'll be a fun one, too. Well, because she's
- 1:03:08Speaker 3: so incredibly delusional, right?
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: She's unbelievable.
- 1:03:11Speaker 3: She's like female Zuckerberg. She even looks like Mark Zuckerberg
- 1:03:14Speaker 3: a little bit.
- 1:03:15Speaker 2: But that whole story, if you explain to somebody Theranos
- 1:03:17Speaker 2: and what she did, I'm like, she just bilked people
- 1:03:19Speaker 2: out of millions.
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: It's crazy. I just said delusional.
- 1:03:23Speaker 3: Yeah. Wow. Well, it'll be a good time.
- 1:03:26Speaker 2: This movie's coming up, and definitely check out Succession if
- 1:03:28Speaker 2: you haven't before. A couple other topics to hit on
- 1:03:31Speaker 2: before we say goodbye. Greenberg out. Greenberg, of course, the
- 1:03:34Speaker 2: film's starring Ben Stiller. That's not what we're talking about, though.
- 1:03:36Speaker 2: The Red Wings opening their season in three weeks. As
- 1:03:39Speaker 2: of this moment, they don't have a GM.
- 1:03:41Speaker 1: Steve Eisman, he transitioned out after seven years in the job.
- 1:03:45Speaker 1: Now coming word that Jeff Greenberg, the.
- 1:03:47Speaker 2: General manager of the Detroit Tigers, who, like the Wings,
- 1:03:50Speaker 2: are owned by the Illich family, he's withdrawn his name
- 1:03:52Speaker 2: from consideration.
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: You know what? I'm just going to stick to baseball.
- 1:03:55Speaker 3: Okay.
- 1:03:56Speaker 1: Tough look for the Wings.
- 1:03:58Speaker 2: Still having to deal with Dylan Larkin, who's traded him in,
- 1:04:00Speaker 2: and an early favorite to finish at the bottom of
- 1:04:02Speaker 2: the Atlantic.
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: They could look outside the organization.
- 1:04:04Speaker 2: You know, they have some talk about VP of Hockey Operations,
- 1:04:07Speaker 2: Nick Lidstrom, like Eisenman, franchise legend, assistant GM Sean Horkoff,
- 1:04:12Speaker 2: Chris Draper.
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: What do you think here, J.D.? The Wings got to
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: get going.
- 1:04:16Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I just saw there's, I was just
- 1:04:19Speaker 3: reading a quick article about, you know, they're closing in
- 1:04:23Speaker 3: on somebody. I guess if Jeff Greenberg kind of took
- 1:04:26Speaker 3: his name out, they must have somebody that's close. I
- 1:04:29Speaker 3: can't imagine they've, they're going to botch this one, but
- 1:04:34Speaker 3: you know, I would, I would probably say Sean Horkoff's
- 1:04:36Speaker 3: one that stands out to me. He shadowed, he shadowed
- 1:04:40Speaker 3: Iserman for a while. I had works as a teammate. Uh,
- 1:04:43Speaker 3: he was a great veteran, great leader, smart as a whip.
- 1:04:47Speaker 3: And I've seen him around. He's, he's really, uh, uh,
- 1:04:51Speaker 3: freak for hockey and loves it. I see him on
- 1:04:54Speaker 3: the road all the time when I was calling games
- 1:04:56Speaker 3: for the Sharks with the Red Wings. We'd see him
- 1:04:58Speaker 3: at Joe Lewis. Not Joe Lewis, Jesus Christ. Little Caesars.
- 1:05:02Speaker 3: I can't keep all the rink names together.
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: I like the old names better anyways.
- 1:05:09Speaker 3: I do think he's definitely a possibility for me, but
- 1:05:12Speaker 3: I could assume it's going to be Iserman's going to
- 1:05:14Speaker 3: bring maybe somebody from the old guard. I can't imagine
- 1:05:17Speaker 3: it's going to be outside. Maybe somebody to re spark,
- 1:05:22Speaker 3: reignite the old culture of, and that's probably the safest
- 1:05:27Speaker 3: bet for wings fans that are probably gritting their teeth
- 1:05:29Speaker 3: being like, what is going on right now with this franchise?
- 1:05:32Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 1:05:32Speaker 2: The eyes are playing continues with missing the playoffs. This
- 1:05:35Speaker 2: story from the hockey world stunned in March course, sudden
- 1:05:37Speaker 2: death of NHL.com contributor, Jesse Pierce. She covered the wild
- 1:05:40Speaker 2: for NHL.com for a decade, tragically passed away in a
- 1:05:43Speaker 2: house fire along with her three children. Now the Minnesota
- 1:05:47Speaker 2: hockey community has officially banded together to pay tribute to
- 1:05:49Speaker 2: Pierce and her family with the Jesse Pierce Community Cup,
- 1:05:52Speaker 2: which will be held in December and feature eight teams
- 1:05:55Speaker 2: to raise funds for the Jesse Pierce Legacy Scholarship Fund.
- 1:05:58Speaker 2: Great cause to remember a great member of the Minnesota
- 1:06:00Speaker 2: hockey community. That's one thing we've talked about before, J.D.
- 1:06:03Speaker 2: The hockey community really does rally around with moments like this,
- 1:06:06Speaker 2: and I know you as well as I was still
- 1:06:08Speaker 2: blown away by that story.
- 1:06:10Speaker 3: Yeah, amazing stuff by the town rallying around her. That's awesome.
- 1:06:13Speaker 7: Incredible.
- 1:06:14Speaker 2: And last story, training camp around the corner. The Maple
- 1:06:16Speaker 2: Leafs have answered the most pressing question of the summer.
- 1:06:19Speaker 2: Where is Gavin McKenna going to stay? Where is he
- 1:06:21Speaker 2: playing PlayStation? The Leafs rookie will be living this season
- 1:06:24Speaker 2: at the home of Leafs forward and former captain John Tavares.
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: Sensible choice.
- 1:06:29Speaker 2: Didn't want him with big Willie Stiles knee lander. And
- 1:06:32Speaker 2: Tavares knows all about living with a rookie. He did
- 1:06:34Speaker 2: that with the great Doug Waite. Waite even shared a
- 1:06:37Speaker 2: 2003 interview that Tavares crashed his Range Rover into a tree.
- 1:06:42Speaker 2: How big a decision is this for a team? Macklin celebrate,
- 1:06:45Speaker 2: hit it off with Joe Thornton. You know that shark
- 1:06:46Speaker 2: situation well. Matthew Schaefer, part of the family living with
- 1:06:49Speaker 2: Matt Martin. Do you like the idea of a kid
- 1:06:51Speaker 2: coming in saying, staying with a veteran, I'll teach you
- 1:06:53Speaker 2: the ropes?
- 1:06:54Speaker 1: Always.
- 1:06:55Speaker 3: I think that's what should be done by most every
- 1:06:58Speaker 3: team that is in the NHL with their number one
- 1:07:03Speaker 3: picks or young guys that make the team. You need to,
- 1:07:07Speaker 3: people forget that These guys are kids. Like, you're 19.
- 1:07:11Speaker 3: You don't know your ass from your elbow. You don't know...
- 1:07:14Speaker 3: Most of these kids don't know how to wash their
- 1:07:15Speaker 3: own clothes, cook their own meals. You end up... You know,
- 1:07:18Speaker 3: my first year, I lived in a hotel the whole
- 1:07:21Speaker 3: year I was in San Jose. And then the second year,
- 1:07:24Speaker 3: I lived with Tori Mitchell and Devin Setaguchi, who were
- 1:07:28Speaker 3: both 23, 24. Like, we were... It was like a
- 1:07:30Speaker 3: frat party in there every night. And, like, we probably...
- 1:07:34Speaker 3: You know, it was fun for the sense of, like,
- 1:07:37Speaker 3: the way we lived was... insane we had three lazy
- 1:07:40Speaker 3: boys in a living room with a big screen tv
- 1:07:43Speaker 3: and and three beds that's it in like a 6
- 1:07:46Speaker 3: 000 square foot townhouse that's all we had we didn't
- 1:07:49Speaker 3: cook any meals that year other than tory mitchell's wife
- 1:07:52Speaker 3: would come over and cook us something and other than
- 1:07:55Speaker 3: that it would be we would steam white rice and
- 1:07:57Speaker 3: maybe some cereal and order takeout and then drink a
- 1:08:00Speaker 3: ton of wine drink a ton of beer play beer
- 1:08:03Speaker 3: pong it was an absolute frat house playing in the
- 1:08:06Speaker 3: nhl and if people knew what that house looked like
- 1:08:09Speaker 3: in the NHL. And like nowadays, like if, you know,
- 1:08:11Speaker 3: back then it, social media wasn't as big. So, but
- 1:08:15Speaker 3: nowadays and shit, it would have been insane. So I
- 1:08:19Speaker 3: do think you need that. I wish I had a,
- 1:08:23Speaker 3: an older guy bring me in and that had kids
- 1:08:25Speaker 3: and I was able to kind of just, you know,
- 1:08:27Speaker 3: be part of the family and, and have home cooked
- 1:08:30Speaker 3: meals and, you know, as a seventh rounder, I was
- 1:08:34Speaker 3: never sure if I was going to go up or down.
- 1:08:35Speaker 3: So I never really felt like I got comfortable, but
- 1:08:38Speaker 3: a guy like this is going to be given a
- 1:08:39Speaker 3: long leash. It's like, you gotta, you gotta bring them in.
- 1:08:42Speaker 3: And I think it's great for the team. It's great
- 1:08:44Speaker 3: for also, sometimes it's great for that player that brings
- 1:08:47Speaker 3: them in because it's, it's kind of relaxing and you
- 1:08:51Speaker 3: think less about your own game because you're taking care
- 1:08:54Speaker 3: of this kid and you're showing him the ropes and,
- 1:08:57Speaker 3: You know, you get to kind of be with this teammate,
- 1:08:59Speaker 3: this young kid, and watch his zest for the game
- 1:09:02Speaker 3: and his love for the game and his excitement. and
- 1:09:04Speaker 3: almost like gives you a little bit of that that
- 1:09:07Speaker 3: dose of youth that you need so this could be
- 1:09:09Speaker 3: good for John Tavares just as as much as it's
- 1:09:12Speaker 3: going to be great for Gavin McKenna so I think
- 1:09:14Speaker 3: it's great I think every team should have guys that
- 1:09:16Speaker 3: take kids in and and I I brought in Barrett
- 1:09:19Speaker 3: Hayton when I was in Arizona for, um, parts of
- 1:09:22Speaker 3: a year. And then we got stuck in COVID the
- 1:09:24Speaker 3: COVID year together in the house. And that was probably
- 1:09:27Speaker 3: the worst thing for both of us. Cause he, I
- 1:09:29Speaker 3: wanted to kill him and he probably wanted to kill me.
- 1:09:32Speaker 3: It's just two different generations living in one house during COVID. Um,
- 1:09:37Speaker 3: but it was, you know, it was something I wanted
- 1:09:39Speaker 3: to do and hopefully he learned what not to do
- 1:09:43Speaker 3: for me and took like maybe one or two things, but.
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: What was it that was irking you about him?
- 1:09:52Speaker 3: Just the way I realized in that moment that I
- 1:09:54Speaker 3: hated having people in my shit. And I'm particular about
- 1:09:57Speaker 3: my routine. And I didn't realize it until I had
- 1:10:00Speaker 3: somebody else live with me, a roommate. And then also,
- 1:10:03Speaker 3: you know, I'm 30. I don't have kids at the time.
- 1:10:05Speaker 1: And you get an 18-year-old.
- 1:10:14Speaker 3: In your house and you don't realize that like, Oh wow,
- 1:10:16Speaker 3: this is like a young kid. Like this is the teenager.
- 1:10:18Speaker 3: So you're dealing with that. Um, you want to kill him,
- 1:10:21Speaker 3: but I also loved him. I loved having him in
- 1:10:23Speaker 3: the house. I loved being able to talk about the game,
- 1:10:27Speaker 3: you know, help him out if he needed it. He
- 1:10:29Speaker 3: was a very independent kid anyways. He was on his
- 1:10:31Speaker 3: own routine, which was good, but just being like, Hey,
- 1:10:33Speaker 3: if anything you need, I'm here. Um, and then you
- 1:10:36Speaker 3: also just root for those guys. You get to know them,
- 1:10:38Speaker 3: get to know their families and, Yeah, I think it's
- 1:10:41Speaker 3: important for all teams to do that, and I think
- 1:10:44Speaker 3: especially with not only the top guys, but any young
- 1:10:47Speaker 3: kid that makes the team and makes a name for
- 1:10:51Speaker 3: himself on the team, he should have a place to
- 1:10:52Speaker 3: stay and kind of learn from an older veteran, a
- 1:10:56Speaker 3: grizzled veteran.
- 1:10:58Speaker 2: I remember back in the day, Crosby staying with Lemieux,
- 1:11:00Speaker 2: and you go, this is unbelievable. If you're Sidney Crosby,
- 1:11:02Speaker 2: you're literally studying in the tutelage of Mario Lemieux. That
- 1:11:06Speaker 2: kind of gift and those life lessons, you can't replicate those.
- 1:11:09Speaker 2: Thanks for checking out NHL Unscripted, episode number 97. Thanks
- 1:11:12Speaker 2: to Christopher Stieg, two-time Stanley Cup champion. We're here every week.
- 1:11:16Speaker 2: Training camp's open next week. Let's get it here on Unscripted.
- 1:11:19Speaker 3: Yay, yay.
- 1:11:36Speaker 1: NHL Unscripted is a production of the NHL and iHeart Podcast.
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.