Bob Bassen – Former NHL Athlete & Director of Alumni for Dallas Stars

Former NHL player and now Director of Alumni for the Dallas Stars, Bob Bassen sits down with Luds to talk shop on the old days and provide his valued insight on players today.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
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name. Thank you again, HermanMarshall Whiskey. Well, welcome into another
episode of SuDS with ludsh Today.I have a little ball of hate uh
as my guest today Bob Basson,director of the Alumni Association, and he

(00:49):
was a little a little devil toplay against bass Thanks for coming uh yeah,
and I know in your you hadto drive had by the way,
So how often do you actually getcome down to American Airlines? Only on
game days? Pace your office isand Fresco where the stars right game?
You don't come down here for anyother events? Stars stars games to you?
Correct? Yeah? Do you comedown here for any events and things

(01:11):
like that? Off? You knowwhat I mean? You guys do so
many events around town. But yeah, once in a while we come downtown.
We do different events, sometimes atthe American Airlines Center, but very
often I live up in Frisco.Yeah, I'm about ten minutes from work,
and I love it up there.How long did it take you to
get here today? Not bad atthe middle of the day, right,
no traffic wise. So saying that, everybody's somewhat complaining about the eight thirty

(01:36):
starts, and I'm loving the eightthirty starts because I can leave my house
at like seven thirty and I'm hereat eight o'clock. Yeah, and uh,
And the ones that are complaining arethe ones that have the kids and
stuff like that, and they actuallyhave it. What time do you have
to be in the office every dayat a certain time or are you kind
of on your Yeah, sure youokay, So I get in about nine

(01:57):
thirty every day. The late gameslike this, Well, so the first
game that went into double overtime,yeah, I got home about let me
see, it was two thirty,about two two thirty, got to bed
at three, got in the officeabout ten o'clock, and I almost fell
asleep in my office. And theneverybody was like that in our office because

(02:23):
everybody went to the game, andI instantly thought, well, what do
the players feel like because they justplayed, you know, five periods And
then it just it reminded me whatit what it takes to play the game
at a high level, and thenin the playoffs at a higher level,
and then you probably don't sleep.I remember many nights I didn't sleep all

(02:44):
night because you think about the game. And here I'm complaining that I I'm
tired in the office. So butwe were a little bit more well conditioned
probably and then than we are now. We could use our sleep, which
I get none. Okay, Sotoday we're going to go through a few
things. I mean, you've Iwant obviously, I'm going to talk about

(03:07):
your career, how you got started. I'm starting out in medicine. Hat
we'll talk about the alumni association.I want to talk about your son,
Riley. He's playing in the USAHLnow it's first year there. Came through
the program here in Dallas. We'lltalk about the youth hockey here, which
I'd love to get your opinion onsome of them things, because you know,
I'm very opinion on it, opinionatedon it. But since you brought

(03:28):
up the playoffs. Let's start there. As we record this today it's Monday.
The Dallas Stars yesterday game four,won that game three to two in
Minnesota. It's now the best ofthree in a series. I think we
kind of expected it to go thisway, but the playoffs have been the

(03:51):
games have been incredible. Only twoseries I think right now the Boston Florida
series is three games to one forBoston, and then the Carolina Islander series
is three games to one. Butbesides that, they're either two to one
game four tonight or they're tied.Dallas being tied two to two. Great

(04:13):
hockey. You get up today,whether you watch the news or you're listening
to the radio, everything is aboutofficiating. And let's talk about the Dallas
game last night. Good news isDallas one? Okay? Your opinion?
Did you get a chance? Didyou watch all the games? Like you

(04:34):
know, I'm talking now during playoffs? Do you stay up and watch all
the games? Every single game?You mean? Yeah, yeah, no,
I watch. For example, Iwatched LA and Edmonton. It was
three nothing after one, and Ididn't think Edmonton had a sniff, And
I went to bed and I wokeup and they won in overtime, and
I was like, because the atmospherethere in the first period, I didn't

(04:58):
think Edmonton had a chance, youknow, But when you have good players
like that, obviously they came through. So I missed two periods and wished
I would have stayed up for that. I watch some of the games.
I watched all the Stars game andsome of the other games. Yeah,
so I gotta it's hard. Imean, fans complained, especially if they're

(05:19):
on the East coast and talk aboutgames on the West coast, you know.
So but yeah, that game,actually, when it was three to
nothing, I watched LA in theirown zone and I'm like, man,
they're just They're just trying to keepthem on the perimeter. They didn't force
anything, and I'm thinking, thisis kind of a matter of time.
You're just letting them. And Edmontonwas all over corpors goaltender for La was

(05:42):
playing great, and then all ofa sudden, the first one, then
the second one, then the thirdone, and you could just feel it
tilt. And that game also wasa controversial call puts Edmonton on the power
play at the end there powerplay goal. So Dallas game and we'll talk about

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and I'll just I'm staying right downthe middle on this thing, Felino.
First off, Minnesota Billy Garren hadcome out, their general manager come out
to a couple of weeks before theplayoffs started and talked about the identity of
their team. They're a team that'shard to play against. We were at
we were up in the suite gameone when Joe Pavelski got hit by Matt

(06:26):
Dumba. And it's funny because ifthere would be I believe if there were
would have been some younger people upthere that played hockey, they maybe would
have have a different opinion of theopinion that you had the opinion that I
had. Stephen John's, former DallasStars player, was up there. Even
when they went to review on thathit, Stephen looked over and just said,

(06:47):
they're calling this back. That's nota bad hit. So and there's
a lot of people that And againI'm trying to talk about as if we're
not a Dallas Starars fan or Minnesotafan. So that happens in that series.
Out today, after yesterday's game,the game four, UM Marcus Folino
gets called for a hit on Hockand Paw that Hock and paw has the

(07:11):
puck in his feet and he getscalled for I believe it was interference,
which I don't know what that actuallymeans when you have the puck. And
then the one kind of towards theend of the game they called him for
tripping. They called they called thatone was for tripping on Marchmont and he
ended up and and I don't blameMarchmont for what he did, got a

(07:31):
stick up. No, it wasn'ton himself, right, it was on
Felino. Felino got I know Folinodid, but Marchman gets his stick up,
and then Mark and then Felino getscut on the nose and he gets
one on the head, and theycalled that tripping. Yeah, so in
your eyes, just if you're downright down the middle of the fairway,
are those penalties in your mind?Or how do you see it? Now?

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I know you got to go backto the office. How do you
see it? Well, let meput it this way. I love um
watching skill, but I love stilllove the physicality of the game. It's
it's it's what it's what the playoffsare known for. And I think it's
the reason that there's a lot ofpeople around sports and not just in hockey.

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They will say that it's the hardesttrophy to win. I mean,
because you're playing the same team everyother night for fourteen days, and then
you got to do it again,do it again, and do it again,
and and so it becomes a battle. And then it becomes the war
of words in between the games,you know, like there's a lot of

(08:35):
comments out there, and and it'llcome from both sides. And even in
the Toronto the Toronto you know serieswith Tampa Bay that there was a huge
hit put on, you know,one of their best players at the point,
and that started a big fight.And then Keith from the Leaf says
one thing, and Cooper says something, you know, and so it becomes
that and that and and everything isunder the microscope in the playoffs, right

(08:58):
and it becomes what we used tocall bolton board material. And you look
and you try to get your playersto just shut up, you know,
let's get ready for the next game. Don't give him any, ammo,
don't put any don't give him anythingto work off of it. And so
I want to I want to readthis to you. And this is Pete
Dubor now setting this up. Iwill say that. So Billy Garren,

(09:22):
my opinion, has and Billy Garrant'swon three Stanley Cups, hard nosed player
when he played the game. Anotherone of those guys you want on your
team, don't want to play against. General manager of Minnesota while well,
he's come out and said, thisis who we are, this is our
identity. They've got an identity.They're hard to play against the question that
they are hard to play again,and all those players live up to that

(09:45):
identity. So does Dean Evanson andyou know Dino and he's a fiery kind
of coach. Right. So here'swhat coach Pete Dubor said after the games.
The special teams were a big part. And we're a good special teams
team. We have been all yearlong. I've said this before. They
take penalties and then they do,and when they do, we're gonna make

(10:09):
them pay. I believe. Whatdo you what do you hear out of
that? Is he saying anything outof that or or is he just being
straight up? That's who we arebasically there. We know they're a team
that takes penalties. We have goodspecial teams and that's what we do and
we're going to make them pay.Well, I think there's a lot of

(10:30):
truth in that. But the waythey came out they played, they played
pretty physical. The Stars they playedreally physical. I go back to the
there was about a month left inthe season and Colorado came in here and
we just ran them and they beathim seven three. I think so they
have the ability and have some playersthat can play physical. I think he's

(10:52):
just saying, you know, wehave to be the more disciplined team,
and if you're if you're gonna takepenalties against this, we're gonna make you
pay. They have a great powerplay, so you know what, let's
suitor. I I watched them likea whole year, and sometimes I love
him. Sometimes I don't like he'slike all of us were. It's later

(11:13):
in our career. But let metell you who love him right now because
he's he's seasoned. He he's makingthem pay. We've all seen it.
But he doesn't take penalties. Theycome after him and he just skates away
like which which he is even morefrustrating, isn't it, Oh my gosh?

(11:35):
And so like you can't buy thatseason veteran um and all those young
defensemen and players they're probably looking atthat, going, man, look at
look at this guy, like he'sa big part of our team. So
it's who he's hard on the most. So he's playing with Merrill most of
it, most of the time.Yeah, and I was I was like

(11:56):
you also, I'm like, man, I don't know. And and so
suits when he in his prime,he led the league in minutes played every
year he would play. I meanhis average was right around thirty minute playing
half the game. Well he's thirtyeight now, thirty seven, thirty eight
years old, So yeah, you'reright. There's times you know, he
does this and does that. Buthe's smart because now he's playing with Marna

(12:18):
going oh boy, so now he'sgoing to be on the ice half the
game. He picks up the endof the power plays at times. But
to me, they're matched up againsttheir top line. Yeah, and it's
Corrill Capriso, their best player.That's who he's the hardest on. He
gives them the cross checks in theback and they're kind of sneaky ones.
We see them because they're on TV, you know, thirty five cameras in

(12:39):
the building. Referees don't get tosee that all the time. And I
think he's really good being sneaky andKG so that's important in that But the
reason I ask you about that comment, what I read in that comment is
the part about we have really goodspecial teams and will make them pay.
Is he trying to put plant aseed in the Minnesota while that you guys

(13:05):
want to keep taking dumb penalties.We're gonna keep on scoring on you and
their their power play is like fiftyfive fifty six percent right now, which
is lights out every other time theyscore. Is he trying to get him
change your game? Does he wanthim to pull back a little bit?
And because and that leads me toa guy like Jason Robertson. We haven't
seen a lot of Robot right AndI look at Robot and we know he's

(13:28):
a great player. We know wecan score goals. But like you talk
about Suitor, Suitor is being hardon their best player. Now, I'm
not saying that Robertson is the bestplayer. I mean to me, Hints
is incredible. I mean, andhe's plowing through. He's got to plow
through. We're missing Joe, butwe need We're gonna need Robertson. Okay,
And I look So he's played twohundred and ten games in the NHL.

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I think he has one hundred andfour goals, so basically he scores
every other game. He's got twohundred and thirty four points, so he's
over a point per game. Butin the playoffs, he's played eleven games
and he's got two goals. Doesn'treally mean anything. It's early in his
career. But Robo has to domore. He's got to get dirtier.
And there are times that it lookslike he's got his head on a swivel.

(14:15):
And so are they making sure thathe's looking over his shoulder all the
time, making sure that he's notpart of their success. You know what
I'm saying is Pete Dbor trying,you know, playing this game, you
know, trying to maybe get themto back off. Hey, you guys
want to take penalties, We're gonnascore on you. Which they're doing that.
Do you think there's a message betweenany of that from Dubor? Yeah,

(14:37):
there could be leads, but Idon't see them backing off like I
think like a guy like Felin wasgonna he's probably gonna have He's gonna hit
guys hard and think about not takinga penalty, which sometimes you walk that
line, and you know as wellas anybody if you walk that line and
you happen to get a penalty.So I think he might be sending that

(15:00):
message, but I don't see themback and off. Yeah, I don't
even I agree with you. Yeah, I Jason. You know, I
thought about this the other day atthe home game, and you and I
played similar and I never really thoughtof it from a Mike McDonald's standpoint,
or the best players on the otherteam, like the I played when I

(15:22):
the prime of my career, Iplayed against the best players like Mole,
and I just tormented Mo, youknow, like and in the playoffs,
we would just run just like Felina. We'd run them as hard as we
every time. You get Yeah,And to me, that's that's who I
was, That's who you were.That's in this league. Right. It

(15:43):
didn't it didn't come very hard,you know, like, That's that's how
we made it. That's how westill do it in alumni, Jesus.
That's and I usually play on differentteams. I don't know why, because
you set up the teams, butI get a stick in my ribs and
I get a chop behind the legand well, that's not election, that's
true, that's after I chop you. But I thought I was thinking up

(16:04):
in the stands, like these topplayers they play all year now and don't
really get run very hard, andthen all of a sudden, you know,
like they got Felino coming at himat the bench and just running them
over. Like that's that's a hardadjustment. Yeah, And as much as
we live in the moment, becauseyou got to win four games to get

(16:26):
onto the next series or that nightyou gotta win, it's a big adjustment
for a kid like Robo, whonow he's not gonna adjust and go start
running guys. But like, howlong did it take more to actually like
get to the point where when guyswere running them, he still played his

(16:48):
game and he was in the middleof everything. It took a while.
And you know who sent that messageand more we'll talk about it. And
we had him on you We hadhim on here last week, and it
was Bob. It was Bob Gaining, you know. And I will remember
a specific time and it was inMinnesota, so Moe had only been in
the NHL, you know, probablytwo three years maybe about that time we

(17:10):
were in a game and Dave Supernotwho was up in the suite by the
way, the other night when wewatched PAVs get hit, there was a
play and more when more would gethit, like I think a lot of
players do, he might lay therea little bit and they may embellish a
little bit. And and we andas players, there were times with Mike
we'd be going, get up,Mole. He didn't get hit that hard,

(17:30):
Get up, you know what Imean. And because we were used
to that style that you and Iare talking about, well, there was
a time he got hit and Moewent down and Soup went to As a
matter of fact, I was sittingon the bench and I don't know who
was sitting next to me. Soupput his left arm on my right shoulder
his right arm and whoever was sittingnext to me the next guy and had

(17:51):
his foot up on the boards,And just as he went to get onto
the ice, I saw this handcome back, come from the back and
grab Soup right by the belt buckleand pull them back. And what was
said I won't say exactly, butit was basically leave him there. And
that was to send a message.And you could see Mike at the time
kind of land there and guys,we're seeing if he's okay, but he's

(18:12):
kind of looking up like where mytrainer is he coming out here or not?
And I think that that was aturning point and that part of the
game is along with other things fromMike. And then Mike played right through
it after that. You know,he knew that he was that guy and
he found ways to get around it. But it's that message that was sent
and that's why I'm just wondering whereall this stuff goes now brings up the

(18:32):
officiating, so and this isn't justthis one series. It's happening in all
the series. Things that are bringingabout. I'm just curious about your opinion
because I have no idea where Iland. And let's go. I want
to go back to what you talkedabout. Should there be part of that
m O sprinkled in your team foreighty two games, because when you get

(18:52):
to the twenty eight games that arethe most important games of the season,
which are the playoff games. Becauseand I'll just say we did this in
Montreal. The style that we playedin Montreal was the same we were gonna
play that way all year long.I mean about tightening games up, playing
well in your own end, youknow, all this kind of stuff,
because where teams will they'll get tothe last twenty games with the regular season
something, Okay, now we're gonnastart tightening up. You know, playoffs

(19:15):
are coming, gust are playing well. Why wouldn't you want to play that
way the whole year? So now, when Colorado went through and won the
Cup last year, I didn't lookat them as a physical team, but
there weren't teams that could catch them, to hit them, you know what
I mean. And they're paying theirprice a little bit now for guys being
injured. But should there be morephysical play in the Dallas Stars. Should

(19:36):
there be a little bit more ofan element of that? Do you think
or do you think that this gameis evolved where ultimately it's going to be
more of a skilled, high flyingteam. Because when you look at the
Boston Bruins, who had sixty fivewins this year, they play with an
edge. They got guys that havean edge, They play an all around
game. New York Rangers, theygot a couple of guys there they brought
in some elements on into that.And I believe that these teams are going

(20:00):
this is what we need in theplayoffs. Well, I think it's good
preparation for the playoffs. But youknow, like I keep bringing up Fellino
because he's been the center of thetension in our series. Right, imagine
if he played eighty two games likethat, he would be demolished. Yeah,

(20:22):
right, So, but he's aveteran, right, and you,
as a veteran, I played thatway. You knew how to get through
the regular season, right, ButI think even you know, we talked
about Robertson, that would be goodpreparation too for him leading into the playoffs.
You know, like if you're ingames like that, now you get
a taste of that. Let's let'ssay you let's say you work with the

(20:44):
team or downstairs there, Yeah,what kind of conversation would you have?
Would you have a conversation with him? With Robertson? And I'm sure they
are it's not like they're taught,they're all talking, But I mean,
would you have any advice for him? Or would you try to or maybe
you got to start during your regularseason or you know what I'm saying,
like, would you knowing what youknow from the previous playoffs and what you

(21:07):
see up to now. Well,I saw him in game three here,
no game two here, he reversedhit a guy over by. I forget
who it was. I was like, that's what you gotta do. And
you got to get into that areawhere you know, like you know you're
gonna get a hit and you justreverse. I don't. I would never
like I would talk to him ifI played with him, or if I

(21:30):
worked for the Stars, I wouldwouldn't tell him to go run a guy.
But maybe every once in a whileyou go run a guy and then
they know that you're not going toback right. It's it's it's good for
your teammates to see that, butit's all as more important. It's good
for the other team to see this. I agree that he'll fight back like
and again I go, I goback to Caprice Huff like somebody chops him.

(21:52):
He chops him right back and heBut he's a he's a ball,
you know. I don't think froma from a stature outlook, Rubble is
not built like that kid, youknow what I mean? Blood. I
watched him in game I think itwas Game three, and I really didn't
like I watched him very rarely.He was running guys after he got hit,

(22:15):
and I'm thinking to myself, like, you can't do that kid for
the rest of the game, becauseyou know, like you gotta you gotta
produce offensively. Yeah, but hejust like I just had more respect for
him, and I'm guessing his teammateshad more respect for him, and I
guess the stars. I'm guessing thestars had more respect too, because he
you can tell he's he's going tocompete. Yeah he's no, right,

(22:37):
yeah, No. Good news ishe hasn't done much from from from a
point standpoint, But be careful talkingabout guys like that. But man,
he makes play like, yes,he could have a bunch of points.
You notice him every ship and youtalk about being physical. It reminds me
of a young Alex Ovechkin. Imean, he ran people over and I
think he's learned as he's gotten olderthat you know, I can't do this
as much anymore. And he justcontinues to score goals. So okay,

(23:02):
let's not beat up on Robo anymorebecause we know he's a good player and
it's at some point he's going tobreak through that I believe he's going to,
Um, just don't look to geton the power play and do it,
do it five on five. Thatthat's the important part. Um Otter
is right now, he's got tobe the best goaltender in the playoffs.
I mean, I just I justthink that the calmness that he has in

(23:26):
his game and watching him as anopponent sitting there playing against him, going,
this guy doesn't get rattled by anything. You know, how do we
I remember playing against you know,some of those goaltenders that we played against
in in the playoffs and stuff likethat, and at the time, it
was about got to bump him,you know, you got to accidentally fall
down on top of him. AndI don't know if there's if that's going

(23:48):
to happen because that may get called. But um, it's an incredible job
that that Ottinger has been for thisteams. Oh my gosh, Like he
like he takes his mask off inbetween on whistles and his hair and he
s water. I mean, he'sso calm, he's so relaxed, like,

(24:08):
which is probably a huge strength forany goaltender to not let anything really
rattle you. You watch him aftera goal scored against him, he has
the same demeanor as when he makesthree ten bell saves. Yeah, he
just seems so grounded. And youknow as well as anybody lads, when
you when you have a goalie inyour team, that's calm. It calms

(24:30):
everybody down because then you know,like I might make a mistake and you
know he's covering me up. Sohe just calms the whole team down.
And it doesn't matter if you're amite, if you're six years old,
or you're in the NHL in theStanley Cup playoffs, you need a goalie
to play for you. And it'sit's playoffs are goaltending and special teams.

(24:52):
I mean, that's especially what comesdown because the five on five stuff usually
stays pretty pretty even, and sothey give you a chance. Yeah,
yeah, they give you a goodchance. So the officials last thing on
these officials, and this is overall, not just playoffs. What are your
thoughts. And there's a lot oftalk about eye in the sky. You
know, there's there's goalie coaches thatare up here, and there's concussion spotters

(25:17):
and so they sit up there andthey watch when there's a hit and the
guy gets up and he's a littlewoozy. They called down and they take
him out for that fifteen minute timeout, send him the room and if
he's okay, he comes back.What is your opinion if they took an
official and put him up there,that would be able to communicate with the
officials on the ice now, justto be able to relay get his view.

(25:38):
Like you know how during the playoffsthey're always taking like Dave Jackson as
one of the officials, and youknow they'll go to him at breaks and
stuff like that and get their opinionsand stuff like that. Because there is
that there is conversation about should youhave a third eye or an eye in
the sky as an official up therethat just is sitting up there watching the
game and every playoff building and hassome way to communicate. I don't know

(26:00):
if they're talking about in the courseof the game, which I highly doubt
because they don't. I don't believethey have microphones, or when they go
over the box, would that betheir first call instead of calling back to
Toronto or a sort of calling onyou think that's good or batter? Is
that? Just because from a statthat I heard was these officials getting ninety
nine point five percent of the calls. Right, that's just how good they

(26:22):
are. Do you just leave italone and just chucked us up to because
there are a lot of things rightnow that are being called wrong or not
being called at all. I thinkit's actually my initial thought is it's a
good idea. Yeah, especially ifit's a veteran guy that's retired and he
knows exactly what they're going through.They you know, they have a lot
of pressure on them too, youknow, their resks do, and they,

(26:45):
like you said, they get itright most of the time. I
think they they're humans and they getinfluenced by what's happened. You think they're
not influenced by Pavolski getting knocked out, Like they don't want anybody hurt either.
And you know game I guess itwas game two here we were up

(27:07):
and they started calling ten minute misconductsat the end of the game. Yeah,
they don't want anybody hurt. Well, they were just taking controls,
the shipping it out of hand.Just go yeah, go yeah. And
if the if they're gonna start sendingout these kind of guys at these part
of the game, easy just taketen You're gone. Yeah, I you
know they they've got instant replaying.Now they have they can go to the

(27:32):
penalty box and review, like thepenalty on Hawking back. Is that how
you say it? Yeah, yeah, he didn't even touch the guy like
so like that to me, thatwas a really critical part of the game.
We as the Stars didn't get scoredon Game four. Yeah, he
actually he hit him on this sideof the leg or something like that and

(27:55):
called a trip and call right,so like either I in the sky or
even a review when it's maybe thelast even the last five minutes of the
game. Yeah, like they wouldhave reviewed that and goal that's not a
penalty, right, Yeah, theyprobably would have reviewed, um uh,
the Flins penalty too. So twoof them, both of them, right

(28:18):
right, I mean they'd have calledboth of them, call them back.
That's what I mean. They havea tough job, though. I think
you gotta be careful because again Ithink I think that the whole thing,
and I think that's the reason Baseballhas gone to the clock and stuff with
the pitches. They want to getthe fans. Yeah, you know,
they don't want to have to spendthe whole night there. So yeah,
you'd you'd be sitting there a lotwatch and I think if yeah, but
yeah, but maybe if it's thelast two to five minutes, it might

(28:41):
be. It's so critical. Yeah, no, I agree, it's especially
with a couple of teams like thisbecause I think you expect this to be
one goal game all the time.Exception I think, well, I mean
they're the goaltending, the other kidsplaying well for them too, So,
um, well, what's your opinion? Tomorrow night, Tuesday night in Dallas,
game five? What do you see? What do you feel? Well,
D's is as you know, it'sthe most important game at the series

(29:06):
because it's best to three and ifthe Stars don't win tomorrow night, yesterday's
game was the biggest of the series. But that's the way the playoffs are.
Yeah, but you're a home.Um, you know, the other
team, the Wild just got beatand they want to you know, like
the momentum as you know, youdig in even more to win that next

(29:29):
game. Is there pressure? Doyou think there's pressure because you're at home?
I would think there is all.I mean, we know, Jesus,
it sounds like we never played before, but but we don't. You
don't want to go into their buildingknowing that that's an elimination game, no
way, especially the I mean theyhave a lively building. Yeah, yeah,
they Yeah, that's it's important toas much as and you know this,

(29:52):
as much as you think about wejust won our last game. I
gotta dig in harder it for somereason. It's not that easy. And
in the line, right, yeah, and the other team naturally is coming
off a loss and they're they're cominghard. So yeah, well, okay,
it's the most important game of theseries. Let's talk a little bit

(30:15):
about Bob bassan so never drafted,played over seven hundred, seven hundred and
sixty five games in the NHL.You kind of talked a little bit about
your styles. I mean, ifyou haven't had a chance to watch bass
player, you out to YouTube,and instead of YouTube being all the highlights,
some of these young kids that thatthat's our biggest battle as YouTube by

(30:36):
the way, you know, likeyou try to get them to play the
right game. These young guys,you know, the fifty of the sixteen,
the eighteens, and have you everwatched someone so will play. That's
the kind of player you're gonna be, Like, who do you watch?
Oh? Watch YouTube? I said, Yeah, YouTube is the highlight reels
of the best players in the gamethat you're probably not gonna be like that.
We're not trying to, you know, throw three in a shitter,

(30:56):
but you know this is where you'regonna be. But anyway, um bash,
you you started in medicine. HatI want to talk about your last
two years. You played about threeyears in medicine Hattan Juniors and out west
right, Well, I played,um, you played in the Age of
AJ. Yeah, Alberta Junior HockeyLeague. So I made the Medicine at

(31:17):
Tigers when I was seventeen and Iwas about one hundred and forty pounds and
my dad, you know, mydad played the NHL. He's a goalie,
and he said, you're gonna goback. You know, he appreciated
that I made the team, buthe said, you're going to come back
to Calgary and played for the CalgarySpurs in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

(31:37):
And I, you're so mad.Yeah, I think I cried on the
way home because as you know,like you know, like that's a hard
that's a hard league to make,first of all. And so um,
I'm so grateful for my parents becausethey knew I would have got destroyed playing
for medicine hat at seventeen. There'sseventeen year olds now they're two hundred pounds.

(32:00):
Yeah, they can play the Iwasn't one of them. I was
a late What did you play?What was your your weight? Well?
I went to the Islanders as alike. I made it as a twenty
year old, but I was onlylike maybe one. I wasn't even one
sixty, I don't think. Andsee that's when that was when it was
a big boy league, right,it's like to be one sixty in today's

(32:22):
game. So my my very firsttraining camp, I'm playing with all the
guys that I admired, right,I mean they just won four cups.
Kelly Rudy was the backup goalie,right, and um, they give you
grays, gray T shirt, grayshorts, and the the the shorts came

(32:46):
down to like way down below myknees and the shirt came down Kelly Rudy,
Kelly Rudy, just having a timewith you. I got my Grays
on and Kelly Rudy thought I wasa stickball and asked him to go ask
me to go get tape for him. I'm like, Kelly I'm I'm trying
out for this team. I'll neverforget that. But um, thank goodness

(33:09):
for a dryer that a shrink wasgone. But so I was. Um,
yeah, I went back and playedAlberta Junior Hockey League. Thank you
for my parents that I probably wouldhave quit hockey or would have got destroyed
as a seventeen year old. Iplayed there, and then I um,
I made the team the next yearin medicine hat as an eighteen year old.

(33:29):
Yeah, but as grow up growingup before you before then? Yeah,
where you played? Were you goalscorer? Oh? Yeah? Wait?
But were you? Were you shipdisturbed two or was it more you
were into the goal thing? Thereason I ask you that is because your
first year or your first flour year, I I called you, asked you,
you had thirty goals ninety three pims. And then you're next year you

(33:49):
had thirty two goals and one hundredand forty three Yeah. So was it
more goal scoring or it was justa combination of both. I grew up
like just like you. I wasnot to brag. I was one of
them. Scored twenty three goals inmy since Yeah, I still haven't scored
twenty three goals in a year.So your d man. Yeah, but

(34:10):
I was like most guys that playedin the NHL, I was one of
the best players. Not to braggrowing up, but I hit hard.
Yeah, it like you, it'sjust ingrained. That's how I think.
It's our personality, plus how wegrew up who we played against, and
so, um, I hit alot I had. When I became a

(34:32):
parent and had Riley playing hitting guys, I then knew what my parents went
through. There were a few nightswatching Rider. No, there's a few
nights when I watched Riley I wantedto hide under a chair because like every
parent, every parent was mad atme, you know, like and my

(34:52):
wife. Um, but yeah,that's what was your question. No,
you're you're answer. Yeah, that'sgood. Yea. But I mean you're
not drafted. You play a certainway. I'm wondering when you go from
there, from medicine hat to theNew York Islanders. First off, how
did you get there? How didit? How are you contact name or

(35:16):
not drafted? So you have anagent that says, hey, you got
to try out, or who comesup to you, and and and when
you go New York Islanders, likedidn't they just get done winning four Stanley
Cups in a row, right kindof team. So what happened was I
played a year in Calgary, AlbertaJunior Hockey League for the Spurs. The
next year, I had a prettygood year, and then playoffs came and

(35:39):
I had a great playoff, right, And everybody said I was gonna get
drafted. Didn't get drafted. Youknow, like I'm reading the paper the
next day and like looking for yourname. Yeah. Almost. I had
thoughts of Quentin, like I thought, I'm going to go back and play
for the University of Calgary degree.And then Ed Chanouth, who was the

(36:02):
president of the Western Hockey League atthe time, had ties with the um
with the Islanders, and he musthave like like, you know, there's
lots of people that influenced your careerand he was one of them. My
parents, I had Jim Hunter,who was a downhill skier on the Canadian

(36:25):
Olympic team, taught me how totrain. But Ed Chanouth, you know,
like was one of the key guysthat helped me because without open that
door, yeah, without that likeyou just maybe that's it, like you
got one opportunity and yeah, butagain you're going into you have a certain
style, right, Yeah, yourgoals are this, but your physical play

(36:45):
is part of your identity. Imean you're going into a into an organization
that has guys like Clark Gillies,you know. I mean you talk about
some of the guys that they hadsome and that was that makeup of hot
Why and how they one Stanley Cups? Are you playing that way? In
training camp? Sold I was.I went in, I got a tryout,

(37:06):
okay, and um, I wasn'tvery big and like you said,
they had just won four Cups andClark Gillies, Bobby Nice Drum, these
were tough guys, right, Ohmy gosh. So like I knew that,
but as a young kid who wantsto make it and probably doesn't even
know any better. I remember Iwent to training camp and I was like

(37:30):
running Clark Gillies and Bobby Nye andthey were like they didn't know if they
should kill me. I was small, and they probably like, man,
I better not beat up this littlekid. But I opened up in someone's
eyes in like they were like,holy, who is this guy? Right?
And they and then they kind oftake you under their wing and they

(37:51):
get a fondness to you. Well, I don't think they liked me running
them, but I mean I'm talkingabout management. I opened up their eyes
right and they're like, well,who is this kid? And they signed.
They gave me five thousand dollars tosign. They gave me a contract.
Actually it happened. We're in Philadelphiaexhibition game driving back to the island,

(38:13):
and um the GM which was what'shis name? Uh? Anyways,
he calls me the front of thebus and I'm thinking, it's where all
the junior It's the time when allthe junior players are going back to you
know, back to junior. I'mlike, I'm done. I sit up
the front of the bus. Onthe way back, he goes, Bob,

(38:34):
we like what we see. We'regoing to sign you to a contract.
So they gave me five grand tosign, and I think I made
I was making forty five thousand inthe NHL, and it gave me my
start, you know. So that'show it started. And then then I
went back. I played junior onemore year and I I got a trial

(38:59):
for the Canadian junior team for theWorld Juniors. So what you guys want?
Did you want a gold medal?We want a gold medal. And
then they they resigned me for somemore money because now they thought they had
something. And so your first yearwhen they say did you get did you
play any games? No? Iwent back to junior. Okay, so
you go back to junior. Yeah, then you come back. Yeah.

(39:20):
Then I so all the guys knowwho you are. Yeah, but I
but I um, I went backto junior and I made the world junior
team. So I was an undraftedguy with nineteen guys that were like almost
first rounders, right, and sothe Islanders are like found a diamond and
the rough Yeah yeah Bill to BillTori was our GM at the time.

(39:42):
So yeah, then and as thiswhere you run into our old buddy Mick
Vacorta. Yeah, he ended upliving was thirdn't yet yeah, yeah,
it was my It wasn't until mylet's see, I was. I was
part of three or four years withthe Islanders. My last year I lived

(40:06):
with Mick. Sure nice seven himas your friend? Yeah, oh my
gosh, yeah, well big daddy. Yeah. Well, you know it's
funny like Mick and I became verygood friends, and he actually came to
Wisconsin, laid my bike down onemorning and stuff like that. When I
told him not to ride because henever rode before. I bought my kids
a gold card, like one ofthe nicest guys on the planet. It's
funny, like I was when Idid the podcast with Mick we're talking about

(40:30):
I was talking about you and Icalled you this. I said, Jesus,
he's this little Tasmanian devil. Wewere talking about Bobby Baston. I
said, this little Tasmanian devil onthe ex run around and stuff like that.
I get done with the podcast withMick and I went Tasmanian devil.
I went, oh, no,Well, when I was in there New
York with him, I don't knowif I was him when this happened,

(40:52):
but I ended up at some tattooplace three o'clock in the morning and got
a tattoo and it's and I havea tattoo on me. It's a Tasmanian
devil with a beer beer mug inone hand and a baseball bat in the
other. And I told Mick andI said, jeesus, I'm walking around
with Bob bats. There's only oneproblem though, that you just got to

(41:13):
get rid of the beer, right, Yeah, I know, I know,
I put a glass of wine inthere, bloods. I gotta tell
you this story though. So,um, my very first year, like
played physical running around right against likeI mean, it was not the Broad
Street Bully era, but we caughtthe end of that. And so Clark

(41:36):
Gillies was on my I was center. Clarkey was my left wing. And
if all the people listening, hewas one of the toughest guys in the
league when they won four Cups,and so I could run around and you
know, guys would want to comeand grab me and tear me apart,
and then Clarkey would just skate intothe pile and everybody would back off.
And then Clarkey that he signed withBuffalo the next year, so so the

(42:01):
little Tasmanian devil had to fight him. I'll tell you about Clerky. So
it was my second I don't know, second year. I don't know what
year it was anywhere. I thinkit was on the island, and I
was, you know, yeah,I'm running around and stuff like that,
and it comes to a face offand um, he's supposed to be on

(42:21):
that wing, but he lines upover here and he lines up next to
me, and he just kind ofnudges me a little bit, and he
looked at me and he goes,hey, kid, I want to get
your feet wet. And I justlooked up. But I don't like,
no, I'm good. It goesstop running around. Then I said,
okay, that was like, I'mnot running around anymore. No. Big
Man passed away what a year ortwo ago, just superhuman being and they

(42:46):
missed a good one. They're oneof the best teammates. Yeah, him
and Bobby Born, Bobby n I. I mean you had some Mike Bossy
was there when you play? Yeah? You know? Um Again, I
go through where'd you go after Chicagofor a little pit stop? Yeah,
but but I looked at some ofthe teams, So you go from where

(43:07):
Chicago Saint Louis? Right, Iwent from Chicago. I wanted to go
to Quebec. I know where youwent. Jesus back now, I went
to St. Louis, I wentto Saint then I went to Quebec.
Yeah, but you know, likeI want to bring up Bobby um Born
and Clark Gillies, and I like, okay, well, Barney, we
have a common thing there. Youcoach with did you coach with Barney.

(43:29):
Yeah, yeah, because I wascoaching Kalauma Zoo and then we went to
Salt Lake City and I was withBarney and so you coach with him too,
and with the Star Wars minor leagueteam. Yeah. But as a
young guy, and you know thisas well as anybody like you, you're
getting your feet wet and you're justtrying to survive, right, and you're
young, and it's like when youget a guy like Clark Gillies or any

(43:52):
veteran on a team and they comeand beside you and help you, it's
invaluable. Like every young like Iknow Pavolski with Johnson. Johnson lives with
them like those are Larry Robinson.Yes, so yeah, they're so important.
And then you become a veteran andyou don't really you don't soon forget

(44:15):
that well for young guys. Butsee, that's the thing is in Montreal.
I've told this card before, theyhave a logo and at the time
it was only in French, andI believe now it's in French and English,
but it was from a poem flandersField. I think it was what
the poem was lying out of there, but it basically a short version is
from these failing hands, we passedhis torch yours to be held high,

(44:37):
blah blah blah. And I musthave looked at the thing for three years,
didn't know what the hell will end. But then and then I look
back and I'm like, that's whatLarry was doing. Like Larry was helping
me get through these moments and thesegames and what you do before on game
days, after game days, andyou know that was in the day when
there were twenty two guys going outafter every game. It wasn't just pick
and choose and so and then youlearned how to play guilty and all these

(45:00):
other things, and and that's that'swhat. But then that then you learn
that now because I've heard sid saya couple of things about me and I
because when when Darryl Siddar was here, and what a great move that was
to get to sit I think wegot him out of LA. But I
mean, dude, slow down,like you're hyper, like just chill,
you know, And he brings thatup and I'm like, well, that
was just more of you're not runningme over in a game much. Let's

(45:22):
just settle down. But those arethe things that we do. Is we
get older, you stick around longenough. You played fifty fifteen years in
the NHL. Yeah, so youknow, as time goes on, you're
like, yeah, you remember thethings that Morney said to you or Clark
he said yeah, and then youthat's part of what you do. So
now you're in Saint Louis, andI want to because you went from there,

(45:43):
and I think after Saint Louis yougo to que back for a couple
of years. It's hardy went tothe Nordics. But did when you got
to Saint Louis, because everybody talksabout that goes through Saint Louis and plays
in Saint Louis. Doug Armstrong,obviously, you know, was part of
the Dallas Stars organization. I thinkhe's one of the best, if not
the best, general manager or inthe NHL. But um, was that
kind of your home? Like everybodyyou ask you. I asked this to

(46:06):
Eddie, I've asked this to alot of guys. You played for two
or three or four different teams.There's one of those teams that feels like
it's home. I would understand ifyou said this is home now, right
because but because you're here. Butif you look at all the stops that
you played in, because you werehere in Dallas for what three three years
or so? Yeah, when youlook at when you look at New York

(46:28):
Islanders now Chicago, Like I said, that was kind of a pits stop
for you, right, and thenyou end up in Saint Louis for four
or five years. I was theretwice. I was there at the end
of my career too. You youfinished your career there? Yeah, do
you kind of because I asked guys, well, like when if you want
to put a jersey on and wearit out there, what jersey you going
to wear? Like if Eddie Eddiewill tell you want to you want to
cup here for Dallas, but heput to Chicago Blackhawk jersey and then nothing

(46:51):
wrong with that. What would wouldit be Dallas or would it be Saint
Louis or yeah, it would beSaint Louis. I had my best um
playing years there were the team whereI was the biggest part of the team.
Yeah, and uh, Dallas wouldprobably be yes second um. I
I wish I had been a littlehealthier when I was in Dallas. I

(47:14):
blew my knee out my first year. Doesn't help, but um, yeah,
Saint Louis. I so Brian,Brian Sutter was our coach there,
and like he's one of my favoriteanybody asked me my favorite coach, it
was him, Like was he hewasn't? Did he not? He coached
in Chicago too, did he hecoached some point in his career? Were
you? Was he there when youwere? Now? Okay, all right,

(47:35):
yeah, Darryl? Yeah, Darylh I actually had half a year
in Indianapolis when I was in Chicagoand Daryl was my coach there, Darryl
Cutter, and so I think heput a good word in to Brian because
I had to clear waivers after myyear in Indianapolis and Saint Louis picked me
up. But I just loved playingfor Brian. You know, like,

(47:59):
can you how you compare him toDarryl? Darryl gets a rap, right,
Darryl has a rap. Yeah,they're pretty similar. Yeah, really
yeah, I think they're Yeah,they're pretty similar. Brian. So if
you played good the night before andBrian walked by, you, punch you.
If you didn't get a punch,you better get going, Okay,

(48:20):
Yeah, I mean it's just like, yeah, well, like the reason
I guess I ask you that isDarryl Sutter. You know now he's in
Calgary and um, you know,they made a couple moves last year and
brought in a you know, Hydeand Huberdo comes over there from Florida.
But anyway, Huberdo didn't have agood year this year, so a lot
of talk the general manager Roger Livingleft the team, and some because he

(48:42):
didn't want to fire Darryl. Butanyway, my question is can those kind
of hard noose coaches succeed in today'sgame with this brand of player because they
I and that's why I always giveHitch credit because Hitch was that kind of
guy for a period and then wewould talk and then he would ask how
he was and what he needed todo because he wanted to change to this

(49:06):
type of player. The Darryl Sutter, Torts, Tortorella and Philly. Not
a lot of those guys around right. They have a I think they have
a short, a real small shelflife. But do they have to learn
to adopt or are they just gonnago away and never get a job again
because of this generational player. It'sa good question, leads. I think

(49:29):
it's something that we talked about atthe beginning of the show, we only
ask good questions on her. Ithink you got to figure out how to
motivate your skilled guys and you guysthat are your Felinos or your you know,
your Hawk and Pocks or you haveto figure that out. And I
think maybe to Brian's fault, hehe didn't know how to figure out the

(49:54):
cliff Runnings of the world. Youknow that we're on our team to the
best of their ability. D butI loved him. I think if you
can figure that out, I thinkyou especially in the playoffs. I think
if your total skill, I thinkyou can get by maybe in the regular
season, but I don't think youcan get by in the in the playoffs,

(50:16):
so especially in the first round.You know, like like we talked
about Colorado, they're um, they'recaptain. UM. I mean in the
yeah, they miss him, theydefinitely miss him. So UM. I
think if you again, if youif you can figure out a combination,

(50:38):
I think you you'll have I think, you know, Boston, Boston is
that kind of team. I thinkthey're they're rugged too. They got some
skill, they got a lot ofskill, but they're rugged, and I
think I think the reason that Monty, Jimmy Montgomery is having such a good
or a big part of that isbecause he recognizes that now Monty played in

(50:59):
the different and so he knows.But and the other thing about Monty,
which I think is important in today'sday from a coaching standpoint, is he
was a college coach. And whenyou coaching college, you played two games
a week, but you're on dutyseven game days a week because you have
to know where your players are.It's a college environment. You, I

(51:21):
mean, we know, I know, I know, I was in college.
I don't really study in college,but I was there, and there's
a lot of distractions, and Ithink you learn how to relate better to
those players when you're coaching. AndI'm sure maybe juniors is the same way.
I don't know, but I justknow colleges. You're on a college
campus and a lot of times you'rethe big dog on that campus. You

(51:44):
can get away with a lot ofstuff, and you have to have tabs
on these guys twenty four to seven, and you learn how to relate to
him, talk to him, blahblah blah. And I think now when
Monty comes into the NHL, becausehe's kind of, you know, a
player, and then he's handled someof those kids, so he's learned how
to relate to them, and nowhe's got younger players here. But then
what Monny recognizes I think in Bostonis the team that he has leading with

(52:07):
their captain berg Run, and youknow they he understands that that guy right
there has a handle on his team, meaning the captain. And I've heard
that there was a couple of things. There were some breaks in there once
in a while, three four orfive day break. We're on a good
role here. Let's make sure andit was well, you don't have to

(52:30):
worry about that. This ain't goingto happen. That doesn't happen here.
And it was immediately like, ah, so he's got and he understands that.
So I haven't talked to Monny,send him a couple text message at
one time, but I think he'slike, just layl, just stand back.
Our captains have it. And that'snot just burg Run. You know,

(52:52):
they got Marshant. They have thatcore group of guys. And I
think it's because again, at thestart of the year, we watched i
think what's four or five coaches switchedteams like Pete Dubor was what in San
Jose, and you got Monty wasin Saint Louis. Cassidy was in Boston,

(53:16):
got fired in Boston, goes toVegas. Rick Bonus, whether you
call it steps away from the gameor is released, goes to Winnipeg and
the first half a year, allthese coaches have those new teams in first
place, but they all got letgo from the team that they were with.
So it just shows that, youknow, voices get old sometimes,

(53:40):
you know. But John Cooper's onethat's got it figured out in Tampa Bay.
I mean, he's probably the best. I would say he's the best
coach going right now. He's beenthere for eleven twelve years and a couple
of Stanley Cups, and the playerslove him and he knows how to handle
him. So it's about how youhandle all those players, right. You
know. Jimmy Montgomery, so hewas part of the Saint Louis organization.

(54:01):
He came up after we called himup. So he played in a in
a rough era to like a toughera. But he's a skilled mind.
He was a skilled player, soI think that him anytime you play,
you you have a better understanding whatthose guys are going through. But if
you go through that era, youhave a Yeah, so I think he

(54:24):
knows how to He didn't he didn'tgrow up in a total skilled era.
Oh yeah, yeah, I gota story about Jenny Montgomery time. There's
a few stories around here in Dallasabout money. Unfortunately, it's not that
it's not a story in Dallas though. So uh. When I played in

(54:45):
Saint Louis, like I said,it was my best playing years and it
was Jimmy not Jimmy Montgomery, DaveLowry, Ritchie Center and myself were the
Green Bray line. That's what wecalled ourselves. We checked the best lines,
We checked mole, you know,and one day I had a one
game, I had a really badgame, and we had a you know,
like in practice, we had greenjersey all the time, like Holly

(55:07):
had a white jersey all the time, which if people don't know, yeah,
that when you're on this line allthe time and things aren't going really
well and sometimes you walk in andyou're like, oh, yeah, I
got that that yellow jersey, whichyou're you're not playing the next game or
something like that. Jerseys are abig the first thing you were coming around
that room. And then on agame day skate, it's morning skate.

(55:29):
First thing you do is look atthat white board up there. Yeah,
my name, am I on thetop four lines or the top six defenseman?
Am I out here? Yeah?Yeah, yeah, you know exactly.
So we had green jersey to thethree of us. And so I
came in and I had, likeyou said, a yellow jersey, and
who was had my green jersey?Jimmy Montgomery. And I mean I almost

(55:52):
killed the guy in practice. Idid everything. I almost too, like
I'm almost embarrassed way, but Islashed him and hacked him and wanted to
fight him, and and Hully.Hully came up to me, Red Hall
and he's like, what are youdoing. I go, I'm getting my
green jersey back. And I hadmy green jersey back. But I mean,

(56:16):
I I'll say this about Jimmy,like, I don't think there's there's
a correlation between him leaving Saint Louisand them not doing as well this year.
I really think that he added alot in Saint Louis. Oh yeah,
yeah, I think they well,I think probably miss him. That's

(56:36):
what I mean is I think somecoulches know. They understand that they don't
have to have the hammer all thetime. They understand their group. And
we did it with our our eighteenteam last year, not this year,
the year before. And I toldAddie, a guy a coach with,
I said, you know, thisgoes against the green of everything I believe
in, but we are going tolet these guys open it up, you

(56:59):
know, and we're gonna get scoredon, but we can score goals,
you know. And that was thefirst I mean, I'm not that guy
either, And I'm like, andI gotta I don't think I had a
bottom lip left after you know,three months biting it off with some of
the mistakes and loose covers and thingslike that. But we have the kind
of team that, all right,we're down to goal, but don't worry
about It's also I was gonna gothrough gonna score goals. So and I

(57:20):
think that's where Monty is. Ithink he understands what it is and he
probably is smart enough to know.And we just run seven in a row
right here. Let's let's kick himin the butt a little bit in practice
here, you know, like,what do you because I remember them time
it's you mean, like like withHitch, some of them times some of
the hardest practices after we won fouror five games, you know, and
gaining and say, hey, hey, it's easy when you're winning, you
know what I mean. And sometimesit's easy when you're losing too, because

(57:42):
you can. If I have ateam that can self motivate themselves, sometimes
that's better. You know, I'lljust take it easy because I know my
guys, you know. But othertimes, like you may have a group
of guys you win three, fouror five games and you're like, you
know, I know what they're gonnabe doing tonight. I know where they're
going. We're gonna have two shittygames coming up, and I'm not gonna
let that happen. Yeah, Soyou know, it's about getting know you.
I I'm not saying I think Bruby'sa great coach, I really do.

(58:05):
But you need there's a lot ofpieces to make a team, right.
That's why I don't think it's Idon't him going to Boston and doing
so well. I think there's acorrelation that him leaving the Blues and them
struggling. I think he was abig part of that piece. I think
I think some of the they don'tget the billing, they don't get the

(58:30):
biggest contract. But I think themost in a key ingredient or one of
the key ingredients is your assistant coach. Oh my god, your assistant coach
is the buffer between the players andthe head coach, you know. And
that and I think when a headcoach recognizes that, he knows, he
can be hired because he knows.And I always bring up Rick Wilson,
Aaron Dallas. He was with Hitchfor a long time, and Hitch could

(58:52):
be that guy. But we'll beright there right after p Hey, Camara,
here's what he's trying to say.Well, you ain't doing a very
good job. I know, buthere's what he's trying to you know.
Those that's why Monty's been the headcoach in college and he's been an assistant
coach. Yeah, and he's thehead coach and now he's got a team
that head. I just think theawareness of Montgomery as a head coach in
NHL's with it, you know.And again, Bergeron retires, Crazie retires,

(59:16):
he may be different, you knowwhat I mean. Now he gets
a couple new guys, but well, on that topic, Bass, let's
talk a little bit about right,let's talk about the kids. Your son
is playing in the USHL and SeetaRapp. Have they started playoffs yet?
They start tonight? They start tonight. Yeah. They play in Plymouth.
They played the seventeens the National DevelopmentProble. That's right. Yeah, so

(59:37):
they he's playing against Nathan Toby whohe played with UM two years ago.
Yeah. Yeah, two years agowe played with Nathan, a Dallas kid.
So they the development team finished third. We finished six. So listen
to this, three place six,four place five. So the we play

(59:59):
all three game James, best ofthree in their building Monday Tuesday, Wednesday.
The winner plays either Chicago or Youngstownwho finished first and second get a
bye on Friday Saturday Sunday. SoMonday, Tuesday, Wednesday, they travel,
they play, wouldn't I say FridaySaturday Sunday? Yeah? Yeah,

(01:00:22):
oh thanks for coming. Well,so what's what's Riley's And this is where
I get into the whole youth thingabout you know, this kind of stuff
and what do they need to learn? And they watch YouTube and they see
highlights and we're trying to tell playersif you're going to make it to the
next level. This is who youare. Trust us, we kind of

(01:00:42):
know, but they want to stillgo out there and score goals. And
I knew from when Riley was skatingwith us and stuff like that he's got
hand He's probably got better hands thanyou do. Oh yeah right, I
mean, and I noticed that whenyou guys do play together, you don't
pass to each other. I mean, you don't pass to anybody else on
the team except each other. That'sall right. I play with Trevor on
Tuesdays and Thursday day nights, andso I don't pass to anybody else but
Trevor. But I know better.I'll be like Zubie, Like give Jubie

(01:01:05):
the park I give Trevor. Trevordoesn't give it back to me either though.
But anyway, UM, I getnow with with the kids and the
messages that you try to sound,UM, Riley is probably a different one
because I you know, he's hehas the hockey sense and a lot of
that comes from you and playing inall that kind of stuff. But trying

(01:01:25):
do you ever did you ever havea hard time with Riley getting him to
understand who the kind of player thathe was gonna need to be to keep
moving on or does he instinct likeover time being with you enough and coaching
you know, with him and beingthere and talking to him after every practice
that you just feel comfortable that Iknow you love the coach and seiter rapids
too, right, Yeah, yeah, he's got an old school coach.

(01:01:51):
He's learning though, like he's he'slearning the defensive zone through this coach.
Yeah. Um, which we havea hard time with getting the kids to
buy into that. Just be presentin that zone. Right. Do you
find the same thing then? Yeah? I think the the the offensive lure
like when you watch McDavid and Kinnantube, everybody, yeah, everybody just wants

(01:02:15):
to go um, but um,yeah, you've got to learn the defensive
zone. Um, how to fightfor pox, how to you know,
be strong position position? Yeah.Yeah, he's he's cutting his teeth right
now. Yeah, but I wouldsay that Riley is going to be the
same time. And this is whatI try to tell players, like,

(01:02:36):
you can be a great offensive playerand you can score goals. But I
think that and this is part ofmost thing too. This is what happened
to Mike, And you know whereyou're going to be out there, in
the last minute of the game,if you know, if we're down a
goal, but you want to beout there too when we're up a goal
to show that you can defend andyou know, play at that end of
the ice, you know. Andand for Mike what he what he It

(01:02:58):
took him a little bit, buthe unders did it was that Jesus,
I played this way. I've gotthe puck a lot more. You know,
when you played defensively and you gotthe puck and you're in the right
spot and you're always not waiting toget it from you know, let somebody
else get But I'll just go getit and then then I have it more
so to get him to buy intothat as we call it, that two
hundred foot game. Yeah, wellso Mark Carl since his coach. He's

(01:03:20):
been there twenty three years in CedarRapids, since the beginning the team got
there in Cedar Rapids. But um, I so Riley, like probably a
lot of kids, they grow upand the consequences, like for turning the
puck over, maybe not as beingas strong defensively, there's not as much

(01:03:43):
consequence as because there just isn't right. But he's there and like if he
turns the puck over, he's notstrong on the pucky, he doesn't play,
and it's hard for dad and momto watch that, but it's good
for him because they learn then that, you know, if you turn the
puck over at center ice or atthe far blue line. So would you
say that? Would you say that? It would have been nice if he

(01:04:06):
didn't have to learn it at thatlevel. He had learned it a couple
levels earlier. Well, I thinkthey they taught him that, but um,
he didn't buy into it, No, he did. I think just
the consequences are different, right,because they don't suffer him at that last
level. I think if you playin Dallas, your depth of your team

(01:04:27):
is not as strong as if youwere in Minnesota or like, so you're
gonna be out there no matter what. I think there's some truth to that.
Yeah, And that's where that's whereI have the thing is like like
you your yes, you are,You're this. But they didn't suffer the
consequences. They didn't have to paythe price for the little turnovers and the
wrong errors of the ice. Andyou know, we just had the showcase

(01:04:48):
thing going on this weekend and andyou're watching these kids, like and they
they're so skilled and they skate sowell um butt, and they don't care
when they turn it over, youknow, because they didn't get scored on
it at the last level and theydidn't have something. Well that's part of
it, right, Yeah, it'sthe consequences on the ice too, Yeah,

(01:05:09):
right, yeah. You turn itover in the ushl and they're going
the other way and they have agood chance to score and yeah yeah,
that that to me is what we'vegot to you know, keep putting it
in their heads. And again,they're all not going to be thirty goal
scores at the next level, youknow what I mean. And if you
want to make it, we're tryingto tell you when we see a young
player and we're like, you canbe this player. This is the player

(01:05:30):
going to be. You're probably notgoing to be on the top line,
but you could be a third lineleft winger. You could be a third
line centiment that it's going to geta role that you're going to play for
ten years if you make it,you know, just because of those characteristics
and learn it now, because ifyou get there and go, what the
hell is this all about? Well, that's what we were trying to tie
it because we had a guy thatcame back to here and it's like,

(01:05:50):
should listen to you, should listento you? Yeah, I know,
but we tried telling you in tellingyou, and that's okay, And but
pass it on to the guys thatwe're trying to coach this year. You
know, as if you do ifyou play and do all the little things
right defensively, you know, allthose little things you it's the trust to

(01:06:10):
the coach here. Yeah. Yeah, your coach starts trusting you and then
you'll start getting put in different differentroles. And you know, Glenn Denning
is a good example. He wasone of the best players at Michigan,
right, look at the careers.Yeah yeah, yeah, so I just
I think he's one of the mostreliable players on this team. Yeah,
goes in, yeah for checks,is responsible in all airs, penalty killer,

(01:06:33):
He'll fight for his teammates if hehas to. He's not kind of
fool anybody and say he's some heavyweight. Yeah, but those are those are
glue guys. They're valuable. Yeah, boy, they're valuable. Yeah.
Let's talk a little alumni bassa DallasStars alumni director, how did you how
did you end up with that thing? You're what were you? Did you
have a house here when you wereplaying here and then you went back to
Saint Louis? Did you guys alwaysgo back and forth? Were you living

(01:06:55):
here? Then we kept our househere? Yeah? Yeah, okay yeah.
And then my wife's from here,Holly's from here. So this is
home. You know that. Youknow, Holly, what comes to wine
or budget? We'll talk about thebudget story unless you want to tell it.

(01:07:15):
No, I don't know if I'lltell that story. Okay, just
give me a chance. It's agreat story. But yeah, she um,
you know, she grew up inWeatherford, So this is home and
we love it here. Yeah,you know, it's just it's just so
great here. Um. But II I coached three years when I retired
in Salt Lake after you, andthen, um, coaching wasn't you know,

(01:07:40):
like it wasn't for me, eventhough I loved it. And and
then so I took about four yearsoff and I was fishing like five times
a week. I got a boat, and then uh, Holly, my
wife she's like, you gotta dosomething, you know, like and so,
um, I asked Joe Joe Noondikewas the gem of the time from
the Stars, I said, Joe, I want to get back in the

(01:08:01):
game, and it's hard to getback in the game if you've been out
three or four years. So wesaid I Joe came from the Flames and
saw how well their alumni is runand how big it is, and he
said, why don't you start ouralumni And I thought, okay. I
volunteered for two years and yeah,then they gave me a job and I

(01:08:23):
love it. I've been there.I've been there about twelve years now.
And talk about some of the someof the games that we do and the
things like the charity game and yeah, all that stuff. Well, we
play an annual charity game downtown followingUS Stars afternoon game, and we have
a different beneficiary every year. Itstarted our very first year. We had

(01:08:46):
a family. They were local hockeyfamily. They were on route to Colorado.
Yeah, and they got into caraccident and the one twin. So
there's two twins that played on theteam. The one died and yeah I
got twins. Yeah, and Igot two of them. Oh yes you
do, yeah, okay, yeah, So the parents died and the twin

(01:09:12):
died and the the sister and theone kid that played on the team survived
and we had our first annual charitygame downtown for them and we had Saggy
came out and Ben came out andplayed with you. You remember right after
the game, and uh, itwas I'll never forget it. Mo was

(01:09:32):
there, knew he was there,You were there. I'll never forget that
game. And we raised some moneyfor it. We we gave them like
a scholarship or some money towards theirscholarship, those those two kids. And
so that was our first game.I think we were in our ninth or
tenth year. Um. Last yearwe brought in the Rangers alumni. So

(01:09:56):
it's been the Rangers, Detroit,Chicago, Saint Louis came St. Louis.
Yeah, and then sometimes we've playedthe Police. Yes, we've played
different organizations. Last year we playedfor Supmobile. They were a beneficiary they
feed the homeless in Dallas and hisname is Supman. Oh yeah, they

(01:10:19):
just loved it. We so that'sthat's what we do. And then uh
yeah, so the other big eventwe put on is it's it's called the
Dallas Stars Celebrity Bigheart Challenge and Essentially, we bring in sixteen Last year we
had sixteen teams. We brought insixteen former NHL alumni and there's a draft

(01:10:45):
night, which would be again thisyear at the end of September. It's
a Thursday night, sixteen teams thathave raised money for a beneficiary draft sixteen
alumni, and we play a funlittle tournament next day. Three games and
yeah, those are painful games.They're short, though, luods, they

(01:11:06):
don't seem short. Our Draft nightthis well. And this year Wayne Gretzky,
you know, makes an appearance.We have Ray, Wayne Gretzky,
Ray Bork, Jeremy Roenick. Youknow. So you've had some some big
NHL guys that have come here.Yeah, we started with eight teams.
I think we're we've had four yearsnow and we had fifteen teams. We're

(01:11:30):
looking for three more for this year. It was really neat to have Wayne
here. But um, these guys, you know, like the the teams
that raise money, the sixteen adultteams that want to play with you know,
guys like Craig Ludwick and Jeremy theywant to drink with him, yes
they do. They want to seethey want to see that's why we need
to do one of these fantasy campswhere you come and you got six seven

(01:11:55):
NHL guys and you spend three dayswith them. Yeah, and we'll show
you how we use to play.And like, wait a minute, we're
getting up at seven o'clock and oh, yeah, we got a morning skate,
we got yeah, we'll see.So so Wayne was awesome. Man.
Wayne came to our draft party andyou know, he the money that
we offered him, he turned aroundand gave it to the NHL Alumni Association

(01:12:18):
for m guys in need like formerEnergy and so he was awesome and that
was the big hive and he wasjust awesome. But the like the feedback
we get from the sixteen teams andthe players is we want to like play
with Craig Ludwick and we want tohear stories, war stories, and I

(01:12:41):
want to hang out with him fortwo years. And that's what our guys
do. Like we bring in aguy like Commodore and guys just love him
because well he's got a huge personalityand he hangs out with him. This
is not to take anything away fromWayne. Wayne was fantastic. But Umy
went first overall in the draft.Yes he did, and it was twenty

(01:13:03):
some thousand dollars. Somebody bit onhim, Is it to Ruby? I
don't know who it was. Wasit Jared probably was. Here's the other
thing Wayne did, and you knowthis, he um he offered two foursomes
to the golf course, Michael Jordan'sgolf course. Is it called twenty three?

(01:13:23):
Something like what's it called? Thatwould be that would make sense.
I don't know, but yeah,and so he um two foursomes paid I
think about twenty thousand dollars each,thirty thousand dollars each. And Marty and
I went with the two foursomes andplayed with Wayne. Well, naturally he
paid. Wayne paid for everything.He's just shouldn't should the alumni be going
on that trip the rest of us? First I'm hearing about this. Yeah,

(01:13:47):
the girl twenty three, that's thecourse. It's in Florida. But
like I just I can't say enoughabout Wayne and all our alumni because as
you know, Lad's like I'll saythis, when we played the game,
we almost like in the playoffs,we almost killed each other right opposition,
Like we played so hard. Butthen when you retire after so many years

(01:14:13):
it's almost like we're one family.It was like we actually were teammates.
Yeah, and you hated each othergosh yeah yeah and so um, I
say that about all the alumni,and Wayne's no different. Like we went
there, we played at his course, he paid for everything. Um,
just classy. I don't there's notthat many all the man you know.

(01:14:39):
Yeah, yeah, there's a reasonWayne Gretzky is Wayne Gretzky, not just
for what do you do on theice. Yeah. Hey, I will
say this leads So our Big Heartis going to be the last Thursday and
Friday in September, and we're lookingfor three or four more teams. So
if you if you're in Canada oryou're in another state and you want to

(01:15:00):
bring a team of about fifteen players, you'll play with an alumni and you'll
hang out with a guy like CraigLudwig. You can. My email is
b basson so b b a ssN at Dallas Stars dot com. So
if you want to come, it'sworth coming. Yeah, if you want
to bring a team and you wantto drink with luds and hang out,

(01:15:20):
and you may just make sure whatyour flight is changeable. Yeah, Well,
Bobby I I really appreciate you stoppingby, and I know the ton
of work in time that you haveto put into the alumni Association. And
we do have a beautiful alumni room. Um, you know, so we'll

(01:15:40):
hopefully we're in the we're in thefinals here with our Dallas Stars and maybe
we'll have a uh some kind ofa watching party for a Dallas Stars game
in there. We do need todo that. Yeah, well, well
we'll do that and we can makea podcast out of that too. We'll
do a little show in there.We can. It's it's a room we
want to show off. It's sucha beautiful room. And we've got our
own little are in there, anddid he's got his sauna on the showers,

(01:16:02):
and we got our locker room inthere. And we're fortunate aren't trainers.
Now we got a trainer. Nowwe got Andrew who does the guy's
skates. So you've guy's done ahell of a job. We should mention
Gerald Diddick because he's been a bigpart of helping you all of everything that
you do. Yeah, he's fantastic. He Um, he doesn't skate fast,
but he's yeah, but he's justlike, um, he's giving guy,

(01:16:26):
you know, like he's given histime, yeah, to help us
get going. And you know,like you talk about the dressing room,
it's one of the things we missas players. I'll tell this, aren't
you got time? Yeah? Soyour show. So we started our alumni
association this as I said, Joewanted to get an alumni presence here.

(01:16:46):
And one of the first things wedid was we skated on a Friday up
in Frisco and I kept asking CraigLudwick. I said, like, why
aren't you coming out to our skateand he goes, well, if you
get us a dressing room, builda dressing room and and a bar,
yep, yep, and a bar, then I'll come out the skates.
So we um Jason Ferris, whowas our CFO CFO at the time,

(01:17:11):
with the Stars, we went upand visited Saint Louis who had a nice
alumni dressing room, and um,you know, between the Stars and Jason,
like, we made it happen.And guess who who started coming and
coming to our skates was Craig Ludwickbecause we had addressed. Now I'm complaining
because there's not enough of them.We don't skate enough. Oh yeah,
yeah, I bet we have theother nights. But I will say this

(01:17:31):
about Luds, like whenever I askedLuds to do something for our alumni,
he's there. Yeah, we're alllike that here though, I think,
yeah, I think you're like,you know, yeah, you're one of
the best for that. So good. Our guys are good. I like
getting out I like getting out onabout boss. All right, Bobby bassin
uh, I appreciate you hopping onSluds with Luds today, And it is

(01:17:54):
time. I've been sitting here foran hour and a half now watching four
bottles of Herman Marshall spin around ina circle, and I haven't even I
got the Herman Marshall jug here.Now my ice is basically water. So
it's time for me to have acocktail. So thank you Bass for coming
here, and thanks for everybody forlistening. We will be back again next
week and go stars to Morrow nightsTuesday Night, Big Game five. Let's

(01:18:15):
slods appreciate it. Thank you toHerman Marshall Whiskey for sponsoring another episode of
SuDS with bloods Herman Marshall produce asmall batch, handcrafted and award winning whiskey
patiently aged in new white oak barrels. Whether it's their Texas Bourbon, Texas
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(01:18:41):
from the grain up, just likegood whiskey should be. Make sure you
ask for it by name. Thankyou again, Herman Marshall Whiskey