3 & Out - Mike Commodore joins the podcast - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (02:13):
What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecock three and out podcast,
How's everyone doing? Go on a little curveball today. I
heard this guy years ago on a podcast and it
was just incredible. He is a He's Mike Commodore, played
in the NHL for years one a Stanley Cup and

(02:34):
you just get a microphone in front of him and
he will let it fly. So he's he's a beauty.
He really is. I'm not the biggest hockey guy, and
I could listen to this guy talk all day long
and we'll just kind of talk some big picture stuff
and he's got some stories from playing in Russia, his
feud with Stanley Cup champion coach Mike Babcock hates him

(02:57):
and he will not shy away from telling you that.
So we'll talk to Commodore Comy as everyone in the
NHL calls him, for a little while. And uh yeah,
I had a fun time recording this a week ago
because I love this guy. But other than that, Yeah,
you guys know the Drill breen Out podcast. Make sure

(03:19):
you subscribe YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe. Uh if
the mail bag, we'll get back to that at John
Middlecoffin is the Instagram fire in the mail bag. The
British Open is only a couple weeks away, so I'll
probably while I'm on vacation, I'll bring my stuff and
record a Little Go Lo podcast for sure. So at
Golo Pod and any golf questions, will you know I'm

(03:42):
hot right now? So you get hit a bet like
that in the US Open. We got to hit it
again for the British Open. I think I'm gonna lean Scottie.
But other than that, yeah, let's uh, let's let it rip.
And speaking before we get into mic, I've been to
one hockey game in my life and it was at
this little arena where the club team in Arizona State place,

(04:02):
and it was an incredible experience, partly because you're watching.
It was the Arizona doesn't have a team anymore, but
the Coyotes against the Capitals and now Ovechkin and we
got right up against the glass and it was like, God,
I should have gone to more hockey games when I
lived in the Bay Area and the Sharks were good.
It's one thing I regret. And if you have a

(04:23):
chance to go to a hockey game, I would highly
recommend it because TV, unless it's the playoffs, just probably
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because my friends, my partners, and the official ticketing app
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is guaranteed. Okay, Please to have on a guy that

(05:09):
I listened to on Colt Nose and Drew Slees' podcast
years ago, and I swear I pissed my pants laughing
in the car, and ever since I followed him and
watch everything he does because Mike Commodore, who's a Stanley
Cup champion by the way, No big deal, Scottsdale resident Commy,

(05:30):
what's going on? Bro?

Speaker 4 (05:31):
What's going on? Thanks for having me? I mentioned a
little bit earlier, but it's my first football podcast. I've
ever done one of these before, so losing my football
virginity here. But no good to see a good chat. Yeah,
just hanging out in the heat here trying not to
me and my red hair and fair skin try not
to melt.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Who do you think is tough for football guys you've
met a lot, probably playing golf with him, or you guys,
the hockey guys you plan, you plan ice, so.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
Yeah, but I think there's more as far as tougher.
I mean, there's more, like you know, super like facial
injuries and stuff that hockey players play with, and you know,
the playoffs just then those guys are beat up. But
I think like football that I think there's way more
injuries in football. Like I think, like you know, with

(06:22):
those guys running into each other every play, and it's
like a little mini car crash, and like, I never
played it down in football in my life, so I
can't comment it from a personal We didn't really play
football where I'm from. It was one of those things.
There was a high school team and dude, like they
were begging for anybody to play. Nobody played football there.
Hence why not too many Canadians from Edmonton, Alberta end up.
There's one right now in the league, but that was

(06:44):
he's a sprinter. But I would put it it's pretty close.
I could call it a tie.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Well, I'll be honest, I watched more hockey this playoffs.
Part of that was gambling, and it was just the playoffs.
It was remarkable. I mean, that was a high level playoffs.
Would you agree with that? Just the drama, the intensity.
It probably always is because people always say hockey playoffs
are the best. I consumed a lot and it was
like this badass. But you guys, there are big hits,

(07:11):
but they don't happen as much as you would think,
like in the video games, as they do in a
real game, where like you said, in football, someone is
legitimately getting tackled every single play, and some of them
are much more vicious than others. But it's every play.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah, like football, like you said, I mean, the only
way that's how plays end, every one of them is
somebody gets tackled right of something and I'm sure some
are worse than others. Wearing hockey now, it does you know,
the physical contact year round used to be more, you know,
fifteen twenty years ago. There's a little the game has changed,
especially in the last ten years, where it's more speed

(07:43):
and skill and that is kind of more now. Don't
get me wrong, there's still body checks, but it's definitely
a little bit less. I also think a big difference that,
like I said, I never played it down in football,
but you know, when you get tackled in football, you're
wearing cleats and you're on the turf or in the
grass where you're kind of planted. You know, unless you're
like you get hitting the wrong angle and your foot's

(08:04):
anchored to the ground, you're in trouble. Wearing hockey, like
you can see a guy get smoked, and it's usually
not too too bad. And I think part of the
reason is, you know, is that you're on ice, so
your feet. You know, every once in a while your
feet will be planted, you get your you know you're
foot in a bad spot up against the boards or
you know, you can't put yourself in dangerous spots. But

(08:25):
a lot of times those big hits actually aren't too
too bad. And I think a lot of it just
because you just straight up get run over, so your
feet go off the ice and you land on your back,
and that's not really a big deal.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah. One major difference is the fighting. And I was
just i YouTube today some of your fights. I kind
of tried to google it. I couldn't do you know
career how many fights? I do not know how many.
No high number though high, Right, It depends.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
On who you're comparing it to. Like a lot of
a lot of people down here in Arizona at the
golf club, like they think, I'm.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Like, you know then Mike Tyson, Right, They're like.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
Calling me an enforcer, and I'm like, I wasn't really
that like if I I think being an enforcer in
the NHL, know those you know, they're not many of
them anymore, if any, but back then when I turned pro,
there were, and you know what, for me in the
game of hockey, I think being an enforcer, a guy
that's there to fight is the hardest job in the

(09:23):
world in hockey because, I mean, you're not playing that
much usually, and when you get on the ice, you're
basically expected to fight something. Well, you're expected to basically
fight the other team's toughest guy. I found that incredibly
hard to do if you're not playing. So if you're
to look up my fights whatever it is, I'd say
I was about fifty to fifty half of them I
got my ass kicked in and the other half I did, Okay,

(09:46):
every single one of them that I got my ass
kicked in, whereas when I was fighting, where I like
kind of felt like I had to and the ones
that I won were the ones that I was fighting
because I was I was pissed off. I was playing
and I was pissed off. So that was actually in
the beginning of my career. That was actually a big
motivator for me when I was in the minors to
get better because I'm like, hey, I'm like, I don't

(10:06):
want to be the guy, you know, just because of
my size. I was six four two thirty, which is
pretty big for hockey. Like, because of my size fighting
and I was a defensive defenseman, fighting was expected. But
I'm like, hey, look, I got no problems fighting, but
you know, in my opinion, I thought I could play
it as well. So that was a big thing, like
a really big thing for me. And like, Okay, I
got to become a better skater, I got to make
better plays with the puck. I just want to become

(10:28):
a better player overall. So like I'm viewed as somebody
that needs to play as well, and thankfully I got there.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
One of the fights on YouTube was Tim Jackman. I
think it was a little later in your Oh oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
you have to smile on your face. And one of
the things I want to ask you because, like you said,
like I want to prove I'm a player, I can help,
but like your role, like when it does come down,
like it's not like Sydney Crosby and McDavid are scrapping.
So it is what you have to do. But there

(10:55):
has to be days where like I don't want to fight,
or I like this guy we drink beers and play
gold together. How oft does that shit happen?

Speaker 4 (11:01):
Oh, that would happen like all the time. Like the
Jackman fight. I didn't know him, and that one kind
of happened because I hit him before, and you know
that one, I was kind of you know what he
actually you were smiling, smiling, yeah, because look, I got
nothing against Tim Jackman. But I'm like, I was pretty
you know, I didn't think he could he could hurt
me unless I just run straight up let him smoke me.

(11:22):
But he got one when I watched it after, because
I'm bleeding at the end of the fight. And at
the end of the fight, I'm like, man, I'm bleeding
over my right eye or left eye.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Think it was.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
I'm like, I don't even think he hit me, but
at the beginning, he like he kind of like grazed
me with something and I think a piece of his
elbow pad or something like cut me open. Anyways, doesn't matter,
but no, that would happen, like especially with those like enforcers,
Like those guys, by and large, they all know each other,
like you know, and you know, it's a small world
these days, social media, and you know, you go to

(11:53):
camps and you work out in the summer, so like,
you know, there's a group of guys that train out
in Ontario, and like you're probably gonna know it like
a decent amount. And if you stick around long enough,
you know, in a league or stick around pro hockey
long enough, chances are you're gonna end up out at
a bar with the other team that you just played,
and you're like ninety nine percent of the time, those

(12:13):
guys that are tough, the guys that would fight, are
the best guys on the team. Like they're they're the
best to be around with. They take care like they
they're good people, like they don't if a random fan
were to walk up, you know, up to a superstar,
you know, you never know what you're gonna get. Most
of the time it's okay, but you're not sure you
walk up to one of those those enforcers are tight,
tougher guys, man, you're gonna end up sitting down and

(12:35):
having beers with them all night. So yeah, like I said,
I give those guys credit.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Who did it?

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Like you know, your Sean Thornton's of the world and
Brian mcgratten's and George Parrows and the list goes on
and on. I give those guys full mark because that
is not an easy job.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Well, to me, you brought up a good point, like
obviously half to fight or half the times you're pissed off,
Like it's like anything if you're gonna get into an
argument with your wife or your business partner, if you're
already mad, and it's actually easier. I feel like I'm
not in the mood to do this, right, But so
if you're not in the mood, but you're like, I
don't have a choice. Were those usually the ones you
lost or like, oh I just got to snap into this.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
Oh, those are the ones I lost? And when I
mean lost, like lost one hundred percent of the time
you kicked Oh, yeah, Like my last fight in the
NHL was long story short, I got traded out of Detroit,
thank god, and I knew the end was coming, and
I got traded to Tampa Bay. And the kind of
deal was Tampa Bay was out of the play one
of the worst teams in the league that year the
first half of the year, but the second half they

(13:32):
were like the third best. Anyways, we ended up missing
the playoffs by a couple points just because they were
so bad at being of the year. But when they
traded for him, they said, hey, look, Mike, like, you know,
we traded for a couple of young defensemen. But as
long as we're like, you know, realist. Steve Eiserman, who
I'm friends with, was like, as long as we're like
realistically in this, you're playing. But once we're out, like
I got to play these young guys, I go, Steve,

(13:53):
I've been lied to for the last two years. I go,
I appreciate your honesty. Thank you. That sounds like a
great program. So I get to Tampa. We end up
winning the first I think we won our first five
in a row. But like the third game was against
Boston in Tampa and Boston a good team and we're
up at the air. There's like a couple minutes ago
in the first period, we're up five nothing like just

(14:14):
games over. Yeah, like we're on fire. Game's over and
you know, face off in our end and who comes
out Sean Thornton. I had fought Sean Thornton in the miners.
Sean Thornton had an incredit for anybody who doesn't know
who he is. Had an incredible career, played like seven
hundred games in the miners before he even got a
chance in the NHL, which is insane. Most people don't
last that long in the miners, and he was there

(14:36):
like he was fighting, fighting, and then gets a chance,
wins a Cup his first year in Anaheim, ends up
staying the NHL, wins another Cup in Boston. He just
won another Cup two days ago with Florida. He's in
their front office. So had an incredible career, one of
the most impressive I've ever seen. He comes out and
he lines up beside me. He's like, hey, commy, I'm like, yes, Sean.

(14:57):
He goes, come on, man, I need one, I goes Sean.
It's nothing. He's like, come on, man, I need one.
I go Sean you really don't. He's like, come on,
I go fine, bucket. So I drop the gloves, bite
him and like it didn't It looks like I got
like murdered, Like it doesn't look good. But I actually

(15:17):
managed to slip all the punches, so he didn't. Like, well,
before we drop him, he says, this is I miss
one of the funnier parts of the story. He's like, hey,
we'll just make it look good. I'm like, all right,
let's go. Yeah, And I'm like, you know, I could
throw my rights pretty good on skates.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
I was.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
I didn't have great balance, so what lefts were harder.
I could throw both on my feet, but it was
a little harder for me on skates. This guy could
throw both hands, which is a big deal in hockey
fight and if you could switch up and throw both hands,
like the really good fighters could throw both hands equally
as well. He could, So he's talking about thinking making
it look good. So I think he's just whatever. We
kind of throw some punches, but he starts switching up.
He's throwing both hands at me. My jersey rips like horizontally.

(15:56):
Now it's over my head. I'm like in my head,
I'm like what the fuck. I'm like, look good. I'm
like you look good. I'm like I look like a
fucking asshole here. So go in, you know, because there
was like a minute left in the period, So go in.
I'm sitting cause that five minute each for fighting, so
I'm not going to play anymore in the in the
first period, and the guys whom I just met come in,
They're like looking at me, like like they think I
just got killed. And I'm like, hey, fellas, it's okay.

(16:19):
I'm fine. He missed me with all of them, believe
it or not. And so it went on. But yeah,
so that was when I wasn't mad. I was in trouble.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
You know, in football, the only fights that happened are
really in training camp because in the so you get tossed,
and really the fights in football everyone's wearing helmets. It
kind of it's kind of stupid. It is a legitimate
part of your sport, like besides just being a tough
guy naturally probably fighting as a kid or in hockey.
Once you got to the to the show, did you

(16:49):
do a little side training to Like I got to
make sure my right hooks, like Chuck late Ill.

Speaker 4 (16:52):
I did I did some you know what, And it's
one thing looking back, if I could do a couple
things differently when I turned pro or leading up at
any point I did do. When I was in high school,
I boxed so like I didn't wasn't like on an
amateur circuit or anything. And I wasn't doing it, like
I wasn't having boxing matches, but I was going into

(17:13):
Edmonton and training with a boxing coach. His name was Joey.
And when I was in North Dakota in the summers,
I used to there was a trainer there that used
to train Virgil Hill. So we would box in the
basement of a gas station in Grant Forks, North Dakota.
So I had like I had the basics down and
like how to throw a punch and I could make
my way around the ring a little bit, which definitely
helped me. Like that was very important. I fought a

(17:34):
lot in junior when I was like junior hockey, it's
you know, you can play from sixteen to twenty. So
I played one year when I was sixteen seventeen years
old in Alberta, and I had a lot of fights
that year. And you know, my dad knew he's like, hey,
we need to you know, you're going to be a target.
And when I get pissed off, I had a short fuse.
He's like, we need to you need to learn how
to box. So that's what I did. But looking back,

(17:57):
you know, I think it would have really helped me,
especially confidence wise with it. I wish I would, and
I still keep telling myself, I got to do it,
but it's I sweat so much, I'm kind of like
nervous to do it. I should have got into like
a jiu jitsu where you're grabbing and you're holding and like,
because just as important as throwing a punch is how
you grab and where you grab with that jersey is

(18:20):
very very important. And if you had a little bit
of skill on like how to grab and kind of
manipulate guys and manipulate their arms and hands and body
and could use your body weight a little bit on
your on the ice, that would be a massive advantage.
So I don't have a kid. If I didn't he
played hockey, he'd be boxing and be doing jiu jitsu.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
What's like those offensive and defensive linemen. Yeah, it work
a lot with that because a lot of it's hitting
hands off, ye, keeping them separated. You're tall, so your
length is safe to say, work to your advantage of
keeping them at kind of at a length where you
could control the fight. Yeah, like worst case scenario, like, yeah,
that was my great How many guys in the NHL
were taller than you couldn't It couldn't have been a

(19:00):
super long list, No, it wouldn't be a long list.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
Like I would say, I was usually you know, the
tallest or at least one of the couple tallest guys
on my team, and there wouldn't have been too many.
I mean, there was a handful of guys that were
my height or taller, but it wouldn't have been a
whole lot. So like, yeah, like my reach was like
that was my weapon if I could, if I could
hold people out where I was comfortable and then most

(19:25):
of the time, you know, they wouldn't be able to
get to me just straight up throwing punches, and if
I ever got in trouble, that was kind of what
I mean, just I could push off and kind of
stay away. But like I said, like, if you know,
if I would have been better, that would have been
a huge thing to It would have been a massive
skill and that's a good comparison with Lineman because you know,
obviously there'd be more. You know, it's not the hands

(19:45):
off thing in hockey. It'd be where you're grabbing, how
you're grabbing, how you're using your body to move them around.
That would have been very, very useful.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Is it like an unwritten rule? Because forever, I mean
just casually hockey, Sydney was the best player and it
was like no one fights him. And now with McDavid,
it's there was a big thing in the in the
in the playoffs this year, right the dude for Boston
Pasta got attacked by the dude and it was like,
you're not really supposed to do that, Is that true?

(20:16):
Like and if he's on your team, if you would
add to b line, can are you all out a
double team or is it all just one on one?
It's one on one.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
If it gets into a double team, somebody's definitely getting
kicked out of the game and probably suspended these days.
Back in the day, it was like before I say,
was it free for all? But yeah, there's like it's
like back in when Sidney Crosby started. You know, yeah,
you don't You're not gonna Like let's say if we
were playing the Pittsburgh Penguins when Sidney Crosby when he

(20:44):
turned pro was like I was my first year in
Carolina was like by sixty year pro. Like, let's say
I would have went after Sidney Crosby and like bottom
dropped my gloves and went after him. I would know
that from that point forward for the rest of the season.
And they had two or three guys on Pittsburgh that
were heavyweight tough, I would know that for the rest

(21:05):
of the season, every time I step out on the ice,
one of those guys is coming after me. That's kind
of the way that like players police the game. Now
it's a little bit different, but it's still there. Like
if somebody now the playoffs a little bit different. There
isn't really fighting. But like let's say next year, if
somewhere to go after Connor McDavid. You know a guy

(21:26):
that's tough that he didn't play the last couple of
games because I think he was hurt. But there's a
guy on Edmonton. His name's Evander Kaine. He boxes, he
can fight. You know, if you were to go after
Connor McDavid, he's coming after. There's gonna be more than
just him. Everybody's gonna come after you at first, but
whoever their toughest guy is definitely I mean, you better
be able to hand you handle yourself because there'll be
people coming.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
So basically, when I build the team as a GM
and I got Seeing or I got Connor Rue, whoever
just an elite goal scorer, I'm building people like you
on my squad of like to balance the thing off.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
I think even in today's game, I think if I
were building a team, and I think it is very
important to have at least one or two guys like
it's different now, I understand that, but they're still fighting.
Like fighting I think actually went up a little bit
the last couple of years, but it's not the same
as it used to be. But I do think it
is very very important to have at least a couple

(22:21):
Now in today's game, they have to be able to skate, like,
they have to be able to contribute, like you got
to be able to get around the ice. But I
think it's very very important to have a couple guys
minimum on your team that aren't that aren't scared, and
that know how to handle themselves. I would definitely do
that for sure, because otherwise I remember going up and
playing against other teams where it's like when they have
nobody and it's like, well, you know, I'm not going

(22:43):
to try and fight Sidney Crosby because he's not I mean,
that's not really what I want to do. But I mean,
I'm going to take free runs at this guy. I'm
going to play him harder defensively, and if I get
a chance to pop him, like with a body checker,
and maybe it's a little bit dirty, maybe it's a
little bit late, I'm gonna do it where you know,
if I know, you know I'm gonna I might think
twice be like okay, well you know I'm gonna hit him,

(23:05):
but I'm I know I'm gonna have to answer for it.
If it's just free reign, then I have no concerns.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
You know, one thing that's unique about your sport. I
was thinking about this might be you've never been asked
this question. I don't know, but I was watching the
San Jose Sharks just introduced I'm from Sacramento area, so
they introduced a young guy. I think he's the youngest
coach ever. But like a lot of coaches. He played
minor league low but he can skate right, the dude
for Edmonton now block he played at a low level. Yeah,

(23:39):
what happens? You know in football? Whether I'm fat or
skinny as a coach, it doesn't matter. I'm just standing there.
What happens if a coach can't skate?

Speaker 4 (23:47):
How do they?

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Does that ever happen practice? Yeah? It does.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
I had one and he's actually just got inducted into
a Hockey Hall of Fame last last fall.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
It very rarely happens. But Ken hit Scott, so he
can Does he wear shoes on the ice? No?

Speaker 4 (24:03):
So he could put skates on and he could go
on the ice and like stand there and like could
he like slowly go you know, a few feet or so. Yes,
I've never played for a guy that like literally had
never been on the ice. I don't think that exists.
Like every coach has been on the at least can
put skates on and can like go out on the

(24:26):
ice without falling. That's kind of a you have to
be able to do that. But Ken Hitchcock, like he
he couldn't skate. I mean, and if you see a
picture of Ken, Ken's a big dude, he's always been big,
battled his weight and stuff like that. Now Ken's in
the Hall of Fame. I mean he got, he was
he was an excellent coach. But yeah, like there's guys
that can't. Really he'd be kind of a rare one.
But everybody, everybody has been on the ice at some point.

(24:50):
Maybe they only played as a kid, But there wouldn't
be anybody that's coaching that like literally had never played
at all.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yes, some of these younger coaches probably skate fall and
just oh yractice, you wouldn't even notice. But a guy
like that, by the time you're playing for him, he's
winning and successful. Are you still making fun of him? Like,
is he still getting ripped it because he can't so
he basically just waddles to a spot and probably doesn't
move that much h in practice? Right, No, he.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
Wouldn't move at all. And I love Ken full disclosure,
I love Ken. He won a Stanley Cup with Dallas.
He's got Like I said, he's in the Hockey Hall
of Fame. I really like Ken. Ken would get all
over you. But Ken was one of those guys where
like you could give it back to him, you could
call Ken a fat fuck and he wouldn't. Hey, he
might get pissed off, but he never took anything personally,

(25:36):
and he would give it to you on the bench.
That was kind of one of the reasons why as
his career went on he would just wear thin with
guys because he was great, Like he knew hockey up
and down, and he could he would put a great
practice together. I think Ken Hitchcock I've said this a
couple of times when I've been asked about him, like
at events, if Ken Hitchcock didn't have to go behind
the bench during the games, if you could just leave

(25:56):
him in the dressing room, I think Ken Hitchcock would
still be coaching because he was excellent with practices, excellent
with game planning, excellent with managing people. People liked him.
But for whatever reason, the moment you put him behind
the bench during a fucking game, whether you were down
five nothing or winning eight nothing, whatever, he just couldn't

(26:17):
help himself. Where you know some one guy every game,
it would be somebody, at least one person would make
a little play and turn the puck over and play.
It isn't like even if it's not a score, nothing
comes of it. Whatsoever, and he just keep bitching it, bitching,
bitching at the guy, where like, you know, I didn't mind.
It didn't happen to me very often. I probably played
one hundred and twenty games for Ken. You know, he

(26:39):
came after me once and we were when I stood
up for a couple of guys because he was wearing
fin on some of the younger guys and some young
stars and so like I was one of the leaders
on the Blue Jackets. So a couple of times I
would turn around and be like, hey, Ken, and he
looked at me. I go, would you shut the fuck up?
I go, we're winning this game? Five nothing, there's six
minutes left in the game. The game is over. Shut
the fuck up. And he kind of looked at me

(27:00):
and then kind of looked down, and then he would
shot up for the rest of the game. But he
just can't help himself. But a great dude, there's no
doubt about it.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
You told a story recently. It might have been old,
but it was on a I watched on YouTube. I
forget the coach's name, but you guys were as a team,
like in a bar hanging out and he walked in
and you knew right away, like this is gonna be bad.
And listen, in the NFL, when guys get their shot,
some guys are as comfortable and natural and it just
can be themselves and other guys try to be something

(27:30):
they're not. We've seen it with the Belichick guys for
it and that always fails. Yeah, and coaching hockey, most
of these guys aren't exactly probably Wayne Gretzky and Sydney
Crosby with a playing resume, so they're you know, they're
trying to prove and it's a tough guy sport. Can
you sniff out? And obviously you have some famous stories
with Babcock, but just whether it's a it's a personal

(27:51):
like a guy could know hockey but just be terrible
with individuals. Does that happen a lot assistant coaches do. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
Assistant coaches are usually pretty good because they know, like
your job, one of part of your job description as
an assistant coach is to be a good guy. Like
your job is not to come down on very rarely
are you supposed to come down on players, Like You'll
have an assistant coach that runs the d you know,
maybe he runs the penalty kill or however, and like

(28:18):
your job is to encourage and to be a good dude.
So I don't remember any instances of like an assistant
coach like pissing people off. Really, you know that that
was kind of the head coach a little bit. But yeah,
like that exactly who was the coach?

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Who's the coach I'm referring to when he.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
Fucking name is Scott Arneil is his fucking name and
he just got the head job for the Winnipeg Jets,
Scott Arneil is a fucking scumbag, a bab Babbs is
a bad person. I can't call Babs a loser. You know,
Babs has won some things. I can't go down that road.
Scott O'Neil is a loser. This guy had a he

(28:54):
had a good, good hockey career. He played like a
bunch of games in the minors, he played forever, he
had to, played a bunch of games in the Marria
and Hockey League, played like six seven hundred games in
the NHL. Like, he had an excellent career. But in
it took me a while to figure this out. But
in his mind, you know, he didn't make the money
that he thought he should so when he got in,

(29:15):
when he got his chance, Columbus was his first opportunity
to be an NHL coach. He came in with the
mindset and we it's so just it's the most disappointing
year of my career for sure, because we had some
good pieces in Columbus and I really think we could
have been decent, and this motherfucker came in and his
only goal was to try and get even. So who's

(29:38):
the first fucking target in this guy? Me? The guy
that I'm the highest paid defenseman in the organization, making
almost four million bucks a year and I'm single with
no kids. I was like thirty years old. So he
took took one look at me, and I was fucked.
And when I first noticed, and I was actually excited
when he got hired because I'm like, okay, I'm like

(29:58):
one of his assistant coaches was the University of North Dakota. Guy,
that's where I went to school, So I'm like, you know,
when he got fired, I texted the assistant coach, I go,
can't wait to get this going, like looking forward to it,
get through training camp and yell, I'll never forget. We
were all sitting there in the bar, like we weren't
even maybe having a beer. Training camp was over and
we were about to go to Sweden because we were
opening up the game there, playing a couple of games

(30:18):
against the Sharks, and I remember him walking in and
the moment. He was like one o'clock in the afternoon
on a fucking Tuesday or something. There was nobody in there,
and he walks in, and I remember he took a look,
and there might have been a girl bartending or whatever,
and he puffed his chest out and his arms went out,
and I went on and I remember thinking in my head.
I didn't say anything at the time, but I remember

(30:39):
thinking in my head, I'm like, oh fuck, And sure
as shit this guy he was fucking arrogant and anyways
he's managed to know. That's one thing that you know.
I don't know if it's the same in I'm assuming
it is the same.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
It is it is.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
It's an all boys club. Once you're fucking in, they
just cycle you around. So Scott Arneil gets it chance
as a head coach in Columbus completely fucks it up.
He's fired in a year and a half. The general
managers can like when I got kicked off the team
based I had a meeting with the general manager Scott Housen,
who now runs the Scott House. Is a nice guy,
and I had a meeting with Scott. He's like, hey,

(31:17):
Arneil doesn't want you here. I go, well, no shit.
He's like, what do you want to do. I'm like, well,
I'm not going home. I'm like, just send me down
to the miners. At least I can practice. Maybe I'll
play a couple games or whatever. Like, I know you're
gonna buy me out. He's like yeah, he goes, yes,
you know it's too bad how this worked out. I go,
it is fucking too bad, Scott. And I go, I'll
tell you what.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
I go.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
You want to know who looks bad in this this
situation here? He's like, well, I go, I look bad
number one. I go, I'm the highest paid defense in
this organization. I can't get on the ice. I go,
you want to know who else looks bad?

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Scott?

Speaker 4 (31:45):
And he's like, oo, I go, you fucking do because
you signed me to this contract. I go, you hired
the wrong fucking coach. And mark my words, this guy's
coming after you too. This guy's fucking power hungry and
he's trying to get even I go, you mark my
fucking words, and sure, shit housing was fucking gone in
the year two.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, I mean that that happens all the time in
the NFL, And even with success. I mean these guys
behind the scenes turning on guys. Yeah, guys, they inherent
they don't like It's like any good coach, if a
guy can play and has had success, why wouldn't you
just figure it out? Isn't that their job? Big time?

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Like Yeah, with the arnial thing, it was like, hey,
if I was playing like shit and if I was bad,
I would be the first one to say but I
could still play then, and like we had another like
we had. That was my third year in Columbus, my
first year. I had my best year as a professional. Personally,
it was by far my best year. I was number
one two d men playing against the other team's top

(32:43):
lines for the first time in Columbus Blue jacket history.
We made the playoffs. That was a big deal. The
next year we had some I had some growin pro
I tried switched up my workouts to try and because
I wanted to feel better, I thought I was doing
the right thing. I wasn't spent a shitload of money
to do it. I had an off year, but I
tried to grind through it and growing problems. The whole
team had kind of an off year. Hitch gets fired,

(33:04):
everybody gets fired. They bring this guy in and like,
we had good pieces, and that's like my one if
like I could do one thing over, my one do
over would be like go back and do that third
year at Columbus over with like a guy that didn't
want to just come in and fucking blow everything up
and like legitimately, which like I don't understand either, because
it's like man like if we play well, like it

(33:27):
looks good on you too. Like he was fucking yelling
and screaming, like he's gone on record because I torched
him on Twitter. I don't want to get into the
whole babcock sit to another one of those fuck that
went on forever. I don't want to do that again.
But I did send one thing out and he went, oh,
you know, I had maybe a little bit too much
bark back then, like he's some fucking tough guy. I'm like, dude,

(33:47):
you had no fucking bark. You wouldn't meet with me.
I had to fucking force you to meet with me
by calling you a checking shit in front of everybody,
And I'm like, you had no bark. The only thing
you ever said was you guys are trying to take
money away from my wife and kids, Like he would
fucking say that, And I'm like anyways, Like, I'm like,
how do you not clue in where if we can
all make this work together? Like you're going to keep coaching,

(34:11):
You're going to get a fucking raise, like it looks
good on you too, Like I I don't get it.
I've never coached, so, but I would like to think
if I ever did, I wouldn't turn into a fucking asshole.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
You know, when I first heard you on with those guys,
I hadn't known about the whole babcock situation. You've got
into it a million times. But then if this would
have happened in the NFL, what happened to him, it
would have been the biggest sports story in years. The
cell phone thing, Yeah, the cell phone thing? Yeah? Can you?
I mean a lot of people listening probably maybe saw

(34:42):
a headline but don't quite know the details because I
remember when Biz Scott's sale guy put it out there.
Oh the organization pushed back right away. You everyone pushed,
but you you had probab I'm sure heard some things
sitting in the wings like oh, this bad boy is
about to he didn't even make it a training camp, correct, No,

(35:03):
I mean I would help to play out the story
a little bit.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
So basically this, you know Babs who Mike Babcock, who
was a successful coach in Detroit, want a Stanley Cup
Team Canada won a couple gold medals Olympics. Like, look,
you know, we could make the argument that you and
I could go coach Team Canada and we're medaling for sure,
even if we never coached before. We just be like, hey, fellas,
just keep going out there on the ice, roll through them,

(35:27):
Team Canada. There's other teams that are good too, don't
get me wrong, but Canada's got a really good team.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Anyways, gets fired or sorry, goes from Detroit, gets the
biggest job in hockey, would be like getting the Dallas
Cowboys job in football. Head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
He's there.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
I kind of fire some stuff out. I take a
lot of heat for it. He's the highest paid coach.
It's in Toronto. They got the most fans. Everybody loves
the Leaves. Blah blah blah. Are you playing at the
time that you I was retired. I was freshly retired.
And uh, anyways, he ends up getting you know, some
things come up out the Leaves don't do well. He
gets fired. Some things get out about how he treats people.

(36:04):
This guy's like one of the worst human being. I
wasn't even around him much, and like, you know, I've
been begging, well, this stuff was going on for like
somebody come and help me out. Like I barely played
for the fucking guy, and I'm the I'm spearheading this
effort to get this guy just roasted. But anyways, it
all worked out, so I'm happy to do it. He
gets fired in Toronto. He's you know, still getting paid. Anyways,

(36:25):
his contract expires right away, and I fucking knew it too.
I'm like, somebody is going to fall in love with
this guy's resume and give him a chance. And the
day his contract expires at the end of June, the
Columbus Blue Jackets hire this guy.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
So it goes.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
So this is July first, Now he's hired. Training camp
starts like fall itt September tenth, something like that. So
there's the draft at the end of June. This guy
gets hired July first, whatever it is. And after the
draft they usually have like a little prospects camp where
they have all the guys they drafted and maybe some
young guys that they drafted the year before, and you
have a little like, you know, you practice together. There's

(37:02):
a little like you learn about nutrition, just fucking shit
like that.

Speaker 5 (37:05):
It's like rookie Mini Caamp in the NFL. It's very basic, perfect,
very basic. Well, this guy, I find out in August.
I start hearing some things out of Columbus. Hey, Mike
Babcock's been going and I'm not gonna say who told me,
but from somebody that I'm like, okay, this guy's kind
of around and he's like, yeah, he's like going through

(37:26):
guy's cell phones. I'm like, what what do you mean
going through their cell phones? He said, yeah, he's having
guys in and he's telling them to unlock their cells.
And he either goes through like goes through their pictures,
tell us pull up your pictures. He either goes through
their photo album or he has them unlocked their phone.
Click airplay or whatever it is. So all their pictures
are up on the TV that's in his office. I'm like,

(37:49):
no shit, I go, you gotta be fucking kidding me.
This guy just got hired. They're like, yeah, man, did
you even.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Believe it when you first heard it? Because that sounds
insane when you say it out.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
Loud sounds and I didn't believe it at first, but
then I'm like it's babs, and I'm like this this
guy is like he thinks everybody comes to the rank
to watch him coach, Like, Hey, I'm the fucking head
coach of the Columbus Bluejacks. Oh you just got picked
thirdle or second overall. Hey, I'll tell you what I'm
in charge. I could totally see him pulling something like

(38:19):
that as like a power play. So anyways, I had
tweets loaded up at the beginning of August ready to fire,
and I was sitting there and I'm like, fuck, like
I'm getting sick of this babcock shit, and like, you know,
I was sick to my stomach when he got hired.
But I'm like, you know what if I fire this
shit out, Like anybody who doesn't know me thinks I'm

(38:41):
some fucking ranting and raving lunatic that just spends all
my time right that, I'm fucking bitter, and I walk
around the earth fucking with Babs living in my head.
Like they think I'm a fucking fanatic. I go, you
know what, I'm just gonna let this shit sit. And
if he's doing it now, he's probably gonna continue and
I'll just wait, maybe he'll do it some more and
there'll be a time down the road. Well not even

(39:02):
a month later, Biz came out with that tweet because
some guys had messaged him and he fired it out online.
And the moment I saw that, I was like, yes,
because bessing that and spitting chick let's they have the
biggest podcast. I mean, they got a platform. They have
the biggest podcast in hockey. Like when they say something,
people hear about it. So once that came out, I

(39:22):
was happy to pile on. I'm like, I'm messaging Biz,
I'm like I got this and retweeting everything and I'm
doing whatever I can. And yeah, it ended up being like,
like you said, like the immediate reaction is to push back.
So the NHL pushes back. The Columbus Blue Jackets release
a statement. The nhlpaight even pushes back, and then Biz

(39:44):
doubled down, tripled down, was like, no, like that's not true,
Like I have that's not true. This is what happened.
So they did an investigation and sure as shit, I
don't know whatever, Like I don't know all of it
by any stretch of the imagination. But I had heard
that the that the thing that broke his back, Babs
his back was they had just drafted a kid out

(40:06):
of Michigan second overall last year. He's a Canadian kid,
but very highly touted. His name's Adam Fantilly. They ended
up picking him third. He slipped the third, big deal.
He's an excellent player. And what I had heard is
that he was living in Columbus in the summer. Babs
invited him over for lunch over at wherever Babs was

(40:26):
living in Columbus. So this kid comes over to babs
his backyard for lunch. Babs doesn't say a word to him.
He says, give me your phone, open, unlock your phone,
give it to be Grabs his phone, scrolling through his
pictures for like five minutes. The kids were whatever it was.
The kid's just standing there, and then he gives him
back his phone. He goes, Okay, you're good to go.
No lunch, no nothing beat it. And I think that's

(40:47):
what as soon as that kind of came out and
they found out about that, because he was trying to
cover himself and be like hey, no, like you know,
and with some of the older guys, the veteran guys,
he was like, Hey, I'm doing a team collage. It's
good for team building, and you know, do you have pictures?
And can I get some pictures of your family? Like
if I wanted to make a collage, I'd be like, hey, John,
you know, do you have any pictures of your family

(41:08):
or your dog or you know whatever, you know, can
you send them to me. I'm to give me your
phone or put it up on airplay like like anyways,
but he was doing different things with different guys. It
was a straight up power play.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
But yeah, he's playing he's trying to play mental warfare
with these It's everything to him, is he doesn't care
if they got naked pictures or having say, it's not
even about that.

Speaker 4 (41:30):
No, I mean I went online and called him a pervert.
I will say that was probably you know, I don't
think Babs is a pervert. I just kind of said
it because I'm like, look, you could say that. I mean, yeah,
that could be. I don't think that was the case.
I think it was just him. It was just a
straight up power play. But like, honestly, I don't even
know how you would look it up. But I think
he's got to be the only NHL head coach to

(41:52):
ever get hired and not make it to training camp.
I mean, unless the coach got hired and passed away
in the summer, I don't know, but he's gonna be to.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Me that move. I don't care if you're an NHL
hockey player, if you're working at Will's Fargo. You can't
push around the dude that's thirty five or forty because
they'll push back. But the kid that's twenty two that
knows nothing and is just happy to be there at first,
they're pretty vulnerable. Help you do whatever they tell you
to do. I would have gotten naked if the guy
would have told me to get it. You know, you
just what are you gonna say?

Speaker 4 (42:20):
No, You're just this isn't your head coach. This guy,
in a lot of ways is in charge of how
your first years are you're this You're just got to
a control your future. Did like, hey, this is Mike Babcock.
This guy's wont to Stanley Cup. He's I mean, this
guy's in charge of how your career is going to
go in a lot of ways, at least at first.
And yeah, so it was a straight up power. What's

(42:41):
crazy to me is like, you know, he does no hockey.
It's like, hey, he's like like if he could have
just just don't be an idiot and just coach hockey,
he probably does decent there. You know, they weren't great,
but he, I mean, he knows hockey, so they're probably
to be honest. I put to bet five hundred bucks
on the Columbus Blue Jackets. I took the over on

(43:03):
their points for the year, and I hate the guy,
but I'm like, you know what, they're gonna get more
than seventy two points with this guy. I took the
over and he fucked me there too. Again lost that
bad as well.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
But Carva, you finally won the art. I mean, that
was validation for everything you've been saying for a games,
and that's you couldn't ever dreamed that would have been
that good.

Speaker 5 (43:23):
No.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
When he got hired, I was I was pissed off
because I'm like, man, this guy's gonna get another chance,
it's gonna get more wins. I mean, he's as far
as numbers wise, he's probably in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
But that move alone not only canned him out of
his job, ruin his career. I don't think he's getting
into the Hockey Hall of Fame. They're not gonna happen,
no chance. What thing you know you've told stories about overseas.

Speaker 5 (43:45):
And I do.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
On a serious note, the one thing that I respect,
and I think that's coolest part about hockey is I
guess if you're Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid, you're not
spending a lot of time in the minors. But neither
Bryce Harper or the great players. But most guys kind
of got to earn their You don't just get to
go to the show, right, I mean you got drafted
forty second? Is that the second round? Yeap? Second round? Yeah,

(44:07):
you don't just go right to the big club, right, No? No, no,
what's that? What's the minor league hockey experience?

Speaker 5 (44:13):
Like?

Speaker 4 (44:13):
You know what it's? If I was running a team.
One of the first things, and this is I was
drafted by New Jersey. So my coming up was with
Lou Lamarillos with the Islanders. And you know, if you
look at the let's say, the most successful team, I'll
just do the most successful teams in the last let's
call it twenty five years, like kind of overall. Now,
I guess the Red Wings have been down, but I'll

(44:35):
just do my time period. So from two thousand twenty fifteen,
the most successful teams were Detroit and New Jersey were
probably you know, I mean Chicago was getting going, La
was getting going, but those two teams.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
When I was a kid, the Devils were always good
in the lakes, I mean dominant.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
Dominant, and what was one of Lou Lamarillo's new when
he was there, Hey, unless you're playing in the miners,
doesn't matter that there was. I can think of two
people that went through the New Jersey organization that didn't
play in the miners, Scott Gomez and Scott Niedermeyer. Those
were the only two guys because they came to camp
and they were head and shoulders above everybody else. But

(45:14):
unless you're head and shoulders, which isn't going to happen
very often. You're going to the miners. That's just how
it is. Hey, you might be there for forty games,
you might be there for two three years. It all
depends on how it goes. I think the Miners is.
I think it's awesome. I think if I was running
a team, I would I would do the exact same thing. Like,
unless you are head and shoulders above, you are going

(45:36):
to the miners, and look, you can learn how to
be a pro there. I mean it's a it's a look.
You're not flying private, you're not eating flame mignolls. You
gotta Hey, you got to figure out how go rent
the place, go get yourself a car, figure out how
to get yourself to practice, figure out how to fill
your free time. Like you know college guys and you
know junior guys or whatever. You were in high school

(45:57):
or you're in college. Hey, now you got nothing to do.
You got to figure out how to fill your time
and not negatively and learn that stuff there. And obviously
there's the on ice stuff too where you improve. But yeah,
the Miners is good. I think I ended up playing
like two hundred and fifty games or so.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
There are you screwing around or is it pretty is
it pretty serious with New Jersey like the game, like
you can't be showing up the games hungover and stuff,
or do you just get weeded out of that organization
or is it Oh yeah, no you wouldn't, Yeah, you wouldn't.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
I mean, look, there's a Hey, if you show up hungover,
you better hide it. And if you're hungover, you better
you better play hard that you better do that. You
don't want to do that very often, so yeah, yeah,
I mean you definitely gotta got to take it seriously.
But I mean there's also something to be said every
once in a while, I'm playing well, the playing guilty,
that's all right, hey, but you better play hard.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
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hometown player every single time and then you can take

(47:14):
those patterns directly into the draft simulator and make your
mock draft feel like the real thing. When your real
draft comes around, you're gonna be ready and the draft
assistant will be there for you to give you live
pick by pick insights and expert recommendations of who to
draft and when to draft them. You can see all
of this and more at fantasypros dot com slash volume today.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Is it hard to play a game hungover in the
in the NHL?

Speaker 3 (47:42):
Hmmm?

Speaker 4 (47:43):
I didn't do it very often. I know I have
the in one thing and whatever, but nah, I didn't
do it very often. I did it for a stretch
of games in Columbus my second year after we were
out and things weren't going well, and I'm like, you know,
fuck it. Yeah, I would say it's not very much fun.
Your energy level is a little bit low until you
start sweating. It's kind of a struggle. But I mean,

(48:07):
I actually think there's a little value to it. Like
if you're in a little bit of a slump or
things aren't going real now, I wouldn't want to like
this to be your number one option, Like there's other
things you do, but hey, every once in a while
you go blow it out with the boys and everybody
shows up and you're all kind of in the same boat,
and you'll simplify your game, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
You went to Russia right at the toward the end
of your career, yeah, my last year. Yeah, yeah, I
know that was was that quite the experience over there?

Speaker 4 (48:34):
That was That was an experience. It was a overall
it was a very good experience. When I knew I
was done, you know, and going back to the to
the American Hockey League, the minor leagues for NHL Hockey.
It's a great league. But going back to the American
League when you're you know, thirty three, thirty four years old,
that ain't that much fun. So I'm like, I'm going

(48:56):
to try something different. And I'd been to Russia because
I played in the World Championpionships there once for Team Canada.
I had a good time. I mean, there were some
long days, but it was a three week tournament and
I don't know, I thought it was kind of cool.
So that was kind of the only place that I
was interested in playing.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
But yeah, it was.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
I played on an expansion team in Vladivostock, the only
reason why I got a contract. There was a team
in Belarus when I in that, so they would be
about end of July. I'm like, okay, I mentioned I
hire a Russian agent. He's like, Belarus, Minsk wants you.
I go, okay, perfect. So I sit around and wait
for a fucking contract. This is now, it's August. First,
we get into the September first, I'm like, hey, you

(49:33):
know it's coming. It's coming middle of September. Now, like
all the NHL training camps have started, Like I could
have got a tryout somewhere. Now it's too late, and
I'm like, all right, so I trained all summer. Minsk
isn't calling anymore.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
So I'm like, so.

Speaker 4 (49:45):
The assistant coach my first year with the New Jersey
Devils was a guy named Slava Fatiso, Hockey Hall of
Famer played like forever won Stanley Cups played for the
Red Army. Has a great documentary. You ever look for
something to watch, watch a docum mentually called Red Army.
It's fantastic. This guy is like, if there's one hockey player,
actually one person on Earth hockey player for sure that

(50:09):
I would like to like know, like what his bottom
line is like I'd like to go into his bank
account and be like, what is this guy worth? That
guy for me is Slavia fatisof because he is Putin's boy.
He went, he retired, he went back to Russia. He
was like Minister of sport. Then he was a politician.
And I would love to know what this guy's.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
What would you guess, well over hundreds of millions, I'm
thinking billions. Yeah, he's one of those dudes, the oliogarchs.
They were all trying to take their ship. That you know,
he's Ruin's boy.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
So like, like, you know, I know him as Slava,
the guy that would skate me after practice, Like I
know him from New Jersey. He would call me Nisha,
I'd call him Slava. He yell at me, I'd skate harder.
So I called him first time I talked to him
in like fifteen years and call him and I'm like, hey,
slab it, it's Mike Commodore. He's like, ah, mesha, Misha.
I go heah, I want to play in Russia. Can

(51:06):
you give me a contract? He's like, ah, Misha, you
good guy. Okay, just hangs up the phone. I'm like,
what the fuck next? Day contract offer vladim Ostok, so
I sign it, and you know, I had a general
idea of you know, Russia a little bit, and I'm
like a lot of Vostok, Like where the fuck is Vladivostok.
I pull it up on Google Maps and bladim Ostok

(51:26):
is like sixteen miles from North Korea on the Pacific Ocean.
So other than one other team, the rest of the
league is east. Yeah, way west, way west west yeah yeah,
going straight west. So like anyways, long story short, like
our road trips, we'd go on the road every eight days.
We'd play four games at home, four on the road,

(51:47):
four games at home, four on the road, which is crazy.
We should have went on the road for like six weeks.
So our like just to start the road trip was
a ten hour flight just to get it going nine
time zones. It was crazy, but we made.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Jump by it, didn't you get jump by the Russian
mob or something over there? I don't know if it
was the Russian mom, Can you tell can you tell
that story? Sure? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (52:06):
So this was like this was the year of the
Sochi Olympics, and we were we had seven games left
in the season. We had three there was a four
week break for the Olympics, and yeah, sorry, four week
break for the Olympics. We just got back from a
road trip. We got this break, and then we have
three games after the Olympics and we're like kind of
close to being in the playoffs. Anyways, long story short.

(52:27):
I get off the plane. I got this little department
in downtown Vladivostock. I had a driver there. You have
to have a driver there. If you don't have a driver,
you're going to kill yourself. Like there's no rules on
the road. You have to hire a driver. I go
North American guy, you're dead for sure, you're in an accident,
bare minimum. So I had to drive the driver. Full
time driver costs like five hundred American a month. It

(52:48):
was unbelievab Wow, full time driver like Texas guy whenever
waited on you. Yep, I texted ole eeg or didn't
speak any English, just text him copy paste through a
little app'd. He was reliable.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
He was great. He cried when I left. He loved you.
Should have brought him over to Scottsdale with you. He
might have been a little overwhelmed here. Yeah, so we
get back.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
I'm like, you know, I I get back to my
apartment after one of these trip flights back from Moscow,
so I'm jet lagged. It's like five o'clock at night,
but I'm like, I want to go to bed, but
I'm like, I know I can't. And so these couple
of Russians guys like, hey, let's go for dinner. Okay,
So go for dinner at this very nice restaurant in
downtown Vladivos, dot French place called the Brasserie on North

(53:32):
American standards. It's like a four or five star restaurant,
really nice, and it's packed. So the three of us
go in there. I don't end up eating a whole
lot of food. I pound a whole shitload of beers
and some shots of vodka, and you know, I definitely
got a good buzz on. Kind of the dinner finishes up,
I get the tab and I go to walk out
the door. One of the guys is in the bathroom

(53:52):
and there was like kind of a little brick hallway
to get out of the restaurant. Next thing I know,
I am getting like teed off on by two dudes,
like just straight up I get suckered and they're just
basically feeding me my lunch. One guy right in front
of me, one from the side. I sober up quick.
I'm like, what the fuck is going on? Like I
didn't say anything, I didn't do anything, Like what was

(54:12):
I going to say? Nobody there speaks English and I
don't speak Russian, Like nobody's gonna understand what I say anyways,
So I push one guy off, break the guy's nose
in front of me, and then I grab the guy
and we go flying back into the restaurant. Long story short,
it is a full blown brawl. People are getting up, screaming,
running out of the restaurant. I'm throwing chairs, there's cutlery

(54:34):
fucking flying, I'm throwing punches, I'm kicking fight probably goes
on for like, I don't know, probably like two three minutes,
Like it was a decent amount of time.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
So you're kind of winded, but you're just trying to survive.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
Oh yeah, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I'm
fighting for my life, Like I don't know what the
fuck you guys might knife me, I don't know. And
the end of the fight comes and I'm in a
headlog a guy. One guy's underneath me and he got
me in a headlock and chokehold or whatever, and I'm
like trying to reverse head bottom to try and catch
his nose or something, and his buddy's like booting me
in the side of the head and here's sirens. This

(55:10):
guy lets me go, I roll off. They're gone. They
bolt out the door. So I should have taken a picture.
It's one thing because now I'm totally sober, and I
like pick myself. I kind of tweaked my knee too.
I didn't tell him anything about that, but I picked
myself up off the ground, and I like look around
and like nothing, like the windows weren't broken or anything,
but like, this fucking restaurant is a disaster. There's nobody left.

(55:33):
It's like a movie scene. Oh, it's like a movie scene.
Staff's in the corner, scared shitless, plates, nives, fork all
over the fucking place. And I like, I'm like, what
the fuck. I should have taken a picture, like a
panoramic one. So I stumble out of the restaurant, thrown
in the back of the cop car and they took
me Like I guess what would be the equivalent of
like the drunk tank or whatever At the police station.

(55:54):
I was in there for a couple of hours. The
one other Russian guy who spoke English. He helped in
the fight as well, Illia Zubaf. He played a little
bit for Ottawa. He spoke English as well. He started
calling people, which was a mistake. He called the team,
but then he started calling like his which I'm assuming
is his like mob buddies. Anyways, to finish the story off,
I'm sitting in prison with like a bunch of Mongolian

(56:16):
looking motherfuckers in here because we're like on the other
side of Mongolia and China, yeah, China in the ocean.
I'm sitting there. I'm like, man, I got to get
the fuck out of here. And there was like this
dude in a leather jacket. I thought he was an
undercover cop. He was like kind of walking by and
looking at me, and I'm like I just figured he
was an undercover cop. He wasn't in uniform. And after
a couple of times, he just stopped in front of

(56:37):
the door jail door opened it up. He's like Misha,
and I'm like duh. Yeah, I'm like duh, and he
like waves me over. I go, so get up, follow him,
fall him right out the front doors of the police station,
right back to the bar.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
And did you ever play for the team? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (56:55):
No, we won our last three games. I got fined
a month's pay, which was like forty or fifty grand
and American. And the deal was they wanted to kick
me off the team before because all this shit. I'm like,
good luck, I go, you need you guys need to
win all three games. I go, good luck, kick me
off the team. I go, I'll go home right fucking now.
I go, that's fine with me. Good luck winning the

(57:16):
rest of the games. So one of the guys was
he was a gangster and prison tattoos over his hands,
didn't understand hockey, but loved it when i'd level somebody
once in a while. He's like in Russian, they're chatting, right,
because they don't speak any English. I'm getting interpreted through
one of the players. They're like, we're not kicking you
off the team. You're finding we're finding you a month's pay.
I'm like, all right, you guys owe me a month's pay.
But they're like, we need cash. There's one thing that

(57:37):
there's a couple of things with Russians. Two things they
care about rubles they care about money and don't ever
embarrass them in front of women. Those are the two
things that don't Those are the two most important things
to Russians. So anyways, I end up we need the money.
I'm like, well, you guys owe me. You know we
need cash. I go, okay, I'll bring it tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
So I go down.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
I run down to my bank and I get so
at the time it was like, I think it was
like nine hundred and fifty thousand rubles in cash. I'm
jamming them in my winter coat. I'm like, I'm gonna
get jumped for sure when I get more. When I'm
running out of this bank, I run as fast as
I had back to the bank. They're blowing my phone
up like we need the money now. I'm like, hey, dude,

(58:20):
I'm not calling my driver. We have practice tomorrow. So
I give them, give them the money. So the deal was,
I got I get fined a month's pay, but if
you make the playoffs, if we make the playoffs, I
get the money back. I'm like okay, but I'm like,
all right, I doubt that that's gonna happen, but fine,
I go deal. And so anyways, we win our last game,
places going crazy like they've never seen anything like this before.

(58:42):
Hockey and Vladivostok, like I said, it was an expansion team.
So we get back into the room. I'm just screaming
about rubles. I'm like rubles for my rubles, and you
know what, to their credit, the guy went and got
the rubles. He gave me everything back except for three
thousand dollars American equivalent rubles whatever that was. He kept
that because the police station wanted a new TV. You know,

(59:04):
it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
That's pretty cool, is like one you could make a
little decent coin over there, But like, where could you
have ever got that experience in your life if you
hadn't done that. Not even stock in the fight, but
just being in these towns in Russia, seeing this society
that doesn't have rules, a small percentage of people run everything.
It's like the cartel in Mexico or whatever. Right, there's
just it's it's nothing like Scottsdale or Vegas, for Miami

(59:29):
or dall It's not even imparable.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
No, it was a great experience. I'm glad I did it.
There were definitely some long days, but you're like us,
say what Russian people your average Russian is a good dude.
Like I like the Russians. I enjoyed the guys I
played with, Like they're good dudes. I like the people
around town. I got treated well babes, but it's yeah,

(59:52):
they don't age well. But yeah, all they do is
smoke and eat lettuce. But you know, once they get
into like the ones that are once they're in charge,
it's just like automatic that they just fuck you and
like the people just take it. And you know, I'm
just coming from the like the hockey team. We were
supposed to get paid on bonuses and they'd be laid

(01:00:13):
on payments and I'd be like, hey, you know, I'm
used to North America where it's like, hey, my fucking
paycheck should be there on you know, the fifteenth and
the last day of the month, and it'd be late
a month and.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
They're just like, ah, Russia. I'm like, all right, anything
goes okay, I get you out here on this. You
want a Stanley Cup? Yeah, you know, you get it
was game seven too, and went to Game seven right
that series.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
It was almost a carbon copy of what we just
watched against Florida, except we were up three to one,
not three. Nothing Againstadminton two, same situation.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
So that feeling when they come and storming back and
then you're in game seven, are you nervous as hell
that whole day? Does that day feel like forever? Get
into the game? I mean, are you terrified that you
don't want to be in the wrong part of history? Right?

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
You know what for for me, like, we were up
three to one with Game five at home? Yeah, playing
a lot, right, I was playing a lot. Yeah, I
was playing. You know, I was one of the one
or two top minute defensemen. I'm playing a lot. I
was a big part of it.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
Game five, we're in overtime on the power play. Our
power play was sick. I wasn't the power play. I
was on the penalty kill. I'm like, there's a thirty
percent chance that this is over. They score shorthand and
now we go back to Aadmonton. They kicked the shit
out of us in game six. Game six was over
in the first five minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
I'm like, is that place? Is that place nuts? I
mean on TV it seems like berserk, but.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
Yeah, so yes, it is like both they're now in
a new rink, which is way night. Yes, the short art.
They love hockey there. It is bananas. There's no doubt
about it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
And so we go back for Game seven, and I
will say, to answer your question, I wasn't. I wasn't nervous.
I was excited, and the hardest part was waiting to
get the game started. I was excited like I There
was no real nervous like obviously really wanted to win
and losing would have sucked. But I was confident in

(01:02:03):
our team. I didn't know for sure if we'd win
by any stretch of the imagination, but I was very
excited to like, hey, let's get this going. I can't wait.
And yeah, thankfully it worked out. It was a tight game.
I think it ended up being. We won three to
one with an empty netter, thankfully for us. We scored
a goal like three four minutes into the game, so
we were up one right away, and then we were

(01:02:24):
up to nothing, and then they scored a goal in
third period I believe it was, and then our goalie
had If you were to look it up, it's one
of the best saves in NHL history, play at Stanley
Cup history. Our goalie saved which would have tied it
up at two to two and then we scored an
empty net and that was the game was over. But yeah,
it was definitely a great experience. But like I said,

(01:02:45):
a lot of correlations to the series had just happened.
Instead of Florida, it was Carolina, and it was the
same situation against Edmonton. We were up three to one.
We didn't blow up three nothing lead.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
But what was that night?

Speaker 5 (01:02:59):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
You know what we I mean, it was awesome. It
was you know, we won.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
They actually changed some rules after because we won, and
I didn't have my parents there just because they wanted
to come. My dad came to Game five, but they
were going, all I'm from Edmonton, so they were going
all the games at Edmonton. So it worked out great
that way. But you know, if we would have lost
Game seven, I was like, hey, like, I'd love for
you guys to be here, but if it doesn't work out,

(01:03:27):
I go, I'm not going to want to see anybody.
And I go, look, I just want to do things
how I've done them, which is by myself. And my
parents were ass and they're like, perfect, good luck, have fun,
we'll be watching on TV. So after we win, I'm like, fuck,
kind of be nice to have my parents here. But anyways,
there was a ton of people on the ice. I mean,
obviously raising the cup. It was awesome, the kind of

(01:03:47):
funny story I have. So I'm standing on the ice
cups getting passed around.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
That was awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:03:51):
There was a flood of people on the ice, Like
I mean, there was obviously immediate family, but there was
like uncles. I'm like, who the fuck are half these people.
Everybody's like congratulating. I'm like thanks, thanks. So I'm standing
there just kind of taking it all in and I
got a tap on my shoulder behind me. Hey my congratulations,
And I turn around just figure it's like somebody's uncle
or something, and I'm like, yeah, thanks man. And I'm like,
oh shit, I'm like kid Rock. So Kid Rock was

(01:04:14):
on the ice. I love kid Rock. And he's like, oh,
call me Bob. I go, Bob.

Speaker 5 (01:04:18):
I go.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
He's like, hey, congratulations. I go, Hey, fuck that shit.
I go, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:22):
But I'm like, man, are you going out tonight? He's like, yeah,
you want to come. I'm like, yeah, I want to come.
He's like all right, You're in. So now I love
Kid Rock. We go into the dress room a bunch
of place was packed and then they kick everybody out
except for players and staff. And it was awesome. Like,
don't get me wrong, you know, guys are giving speeches.

(01:04:42):
We had some veterans on that team that had been
in the league for like fifteen years, that had never
won before, and so it was awesome. But the whole time,
I'm sitting there and I'm like, God, damn it, Kid
Rock ain't gonna wait for me forever?

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Here? Did he leave? I didn't shower ready to go.

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
I know, I'm like, hey, can we do this tomorrow?
I want to get the fuck out of here. And
it ended up the speech when too long, Kid Rock
left and so I just did. We all ended up
getting just wasted right at the rink. We had a
little thing for us up in the up in the arena.
It was a good time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
What'd you do with the cup the day you get it?

Speaker 5 (01:05:11):
Uh? We had.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
So there was another guy, Ray Whitney's his name. He
lives in Scottsdale as well. We're from the same little hometown.
So we kind of split three days. But my official
time with it, I got took it on a pub crawl.
My parents at the time lived right outside of Edmonton
and Edmonton. Calgary is a big rivalry, and I used
to play in Calgary before, and I i'd never really

(01:05:33):
I spend my time in Calgary, and I'm like, look,
you know, I had some buddies from home come over,
rented a party bus. I go, look, I go, we're
not going out in Edmonton. I go, you animals are
going to get By this time, I had already been
to like ten or twelve of these fucking cup parties,
so I knew how it worked. As soon as one
person puts one drop of booze in that thing, it's
on for everybody around. So I go, look, I got

(01:05:54):
some buddies from home that are total savages. I go, look,
I go, we're going to go out to the bar
here in Edmonton. Somebody can to say something to me.
One of you guys is going to get pissed off,
and it's going to end up in a fucking shit show.
I go, We're going to take a party bus and
we're going to Calgary. Nobody's going to bother us there.
We'll have a nice time.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
So I did that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:10):
We did a pub crawl in Calgary, and then a
couple days later, when I was in school the Dallas
Stars one in nineteen ninety nine and Ed Belford played
for the University of North Dakota and he brought the
cup backack and I was there at the time, and
I thought that was cool. So I remember thinking, like,
you know, I never thought it was actually going to happen,
but I'm like, you know, if I was ever lucky enough,
I'd like to do that. So on one of the days,

(01:06:31):
a couple days after my pub crawl, North Dakota has
a big flight school there, so they were like, hey,
I just said, hey, look, I'd like to bring the cup.
They're like, okay, great, but I'm like, hey, I'm not
flying commercial to fucking Grand Forks. It's not going to work.
It'll take forever. You got to send a plane. They're
like done. So guy came and picked me up, picked
my family, like my parents and stuff up. It was
really fun.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
On a serious note, obviously, everyone knows the Stanley Cup,
whether you fall hockey or not. A kid from Canada
play college jockey to one day be a Stanley Cup
and have that thing with you for a day with
your friends, I mean, was there ever a moment You're like,
I can't this is this feels like a dream? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
Yeah, it definitely was. Like there was a couple of moments,
like before Game seven when you know you're actually like
this is it. Like somebody's winning the fucking thing tonight.
That was a moment once it. You know, I remember
I was on the ice when we scored the empty netter.
We scored the empty netter with like a minute to
go to go up to That was another moment on

(01:07:30):
the ice, like raising the cup. I you know, it's
people asking I'm just like, man, I'm like, I don't
even know how to describe it. It's a great feeling.
You know, you always, you know, growing up where I
grew up, and you know, most people if you were
in athletics who played hockey, it's fucking freezing up there,
and you know, you always a lot of kids and
dreaming about winning the Stanley Cup. For it to actually happen,

(01:07:53):
it's hard to put into words. And then yeah, like
the Cup parties and stuff like that, they were a
lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
It was.

Speaker 4 (01:07:58):
It was nice to you know, my parents can enjoy it,
and you know, buddies and stuff and mine from home
and you know, people that helped me out along the way.
It was it was nice to put a little get
together there and people can have a good time, and
yeah it was. I mean, I wish it would have
happened more often, but at the end of the day,
I'm lucky it happened once.

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
You know, I've been following the Sharks got the number
one pick and the kid Celebrini whose dad is a
local trainer for the Warriors. Yeah, so it seems like
a cool story. But forever, Connor McDavid and Sydney Crosby
see this in the NBA a lot, all this hype
and then because you got to go to the minor
so it's hard. Yeah, like is that you know, Connor

(01:08:38):
and Sid are clearly the outliers. But do you know
anything about this guy? Because I'm pretty fired up. I
mean I kind of want to pay and just why
is it so difficult for this guy? All these guys,
all this talent and then they get there and then
random guys end up becoming stars in the NHL and
those guys never amount to shit. Yeah, it's you know,
kind of like football, right, I mean, guys in the
sixth seventh round, brock Perty Arizona guy all of a
sudden he's leading teams on hundred percent.

Speaker 4 (01:09:01):
I think a lot of it is, you know, at
the end of the day, it's like, you know, obviously
you're Connor McDavid's I mean, this celebrini kid from and
I didn't know until recently that he's actually from the
area there, which is really cool. That's awesome for San Jose.
You know, at the end of the day, I think
that's you know, you're drafting kids that are seventeen eighteen
years old, like you don't really like sure, there's some

(01:09:23):
of them you're pretty sure about. I get it, you know,
the first overall guy. Maybe there's a couple others in there.
I think there's a multitude of things that can go
into it on how it doesn't work, whether it's you know,
maybe maybe the guy's kind of might not be the
right spot for him, maybe he doesn't fucking you know, hey,
playing junior hockey, playing against boys and playing against men,

(01:09:45):
that's two different things. I mean, you there, that's a
that's a different world. I think there's there's there's a
lot that can go into it. I think for most guys,
like I mean for my draft, I was drafted nineteen
ninety nine. If you anybody who knows how you look
up that draft, that's the worst draft in fucking hockey history.
I mean I played half of the first round. I
was draft in the second round, half of the first round.

(01:10:07):
Didn't even play like that, like twenty games, like, so
that was a complete bust of a year. I mean,
it's not like I had the greatest career ever. I
played just under five hundred games. I stuck around for
a while and don't I won, like proud of what
I did. But it's not like I had a Hall
of Fame career. And if you were to redraft my draft,

(01:10:28):
I'm going top ten. In between ten and fifteen, for sure,
there was a point there where I might have been
putting Echine towards like top five. So it's there's a
lot that goes into it, a lot of luck and
like you got to get in a good situation. And
I think some of it too, like and we touched
on it earlier. Hey, look this Macklin Celebrini from when

(01:10:50):
everybody you know, I watched a game or two that
he played. He played for BU, but like I didn't
watch him nearly enough to have an opinion. But like,
you know, there's lots of these teams too that you
draft these guys and there's pressure, like you draft the
guy in the top five or always a high first
round pick, and fans are like, you know, to me,
it's kind of like a quarterback. You know, I don't
know shit about football, but it's like, now, I don't

(01:11:11):
get why you pick these quarterbacks. Let's say, and they
go high because it's a quarterback and it's the most
position important position on the team, I think, and it's like, well,
they need to play, they need to play that. Well,
what if the fucking guy isn't ready, Like, I don't
understand why you rush these guys in here, And chances
are if they got picked high, they're on a shitty
fucking team.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
The difference is in foot Like in hockey, your NHL
contract doesn't start until you get to the to the NHL, right.

Speaker 4 (01:11:37):
Your contract would start, well, it would start the moment
you sign it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
So if you sign a four or five year contract
as a rookie, if you're in the minors for five years,
you're getting paid whatever you're draft in the first round.
They don't have your rights once you get up there.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
Moving forward, if you're when you when you signed, when
you get drafted out of the NHL, when you sign
an entry level deal, it has to be a three
year deal. So to be a three year deal, and
they'll be two salaries, so they'll be like a million dollars.
It'll be a two way contract. It's called you're making
a million dollars if you're in the NHL and you're
making seventy five thousand dollars if you're in the minors

(01:12:12):
and let's say you're going up and down like they
have that broken down per day if that means.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
But if I'm Salabrini, I draft him one overall and
he spends three years in the minors. After that third year,
is he a free agent? Nope's see, in the NFL,
you know your contract. There's because there's no minor leagues.
It just starts, so there is a clock, right. It's
taking in the media and it's like you become a
true free agent or you gotta you know, extend. It's

(01:12:38):
a little it's not you guys think are closer to
baseball in the sense of some of that team or
whatever like that you can send back and forth. There's
none of that, so you are much more of a
time crunch. But like you said, I mean historically you
and I probably similar ages. When we were kids, guys
would spend multiple years on the bench. Brett Farve didn't
start right away. Young you back up, Aaron Rodgers backed up. Yeah,

(01:13:03):
how it works in college a lot of times again
makes the breath you red shirt. But in the NFL,
now the pressure.

Speaker 4 (01:13:09):
Yeah, it's clearly Mahomes as well. That was a year
or two on the bat. That a year, yeah, I
mean there's Jordan Love like he finished the year pretty good, right,
Hell yeah, you three years? Yeah, so I get the
time crunch thing. But god, it's like, man, you fire
it just seems like you fire some of these guys
in and they get fucking killed. I mean, you're not
playing everybody. I would assume you know, everybody that's out

(01:13:33):
there on that NFL field was one of the best
players on their team. In college. There's no one slow guys,
you know, out on the field in the NFL where
you know, and I don't care where you are in college,
there's gonna be some guys that you know, you could
probably abuse a little bit or run pass where you're
not you know, if you're a quarterback, you ain't running
past to everybody these guys. These guys are moving.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
What do you got on tap the rest of the summer.
You got golf trips? I know you're a big golfer.

Speaker 4 (01:13:58):
Yeah, I got a couple of little thing. I've got
to go to the Calgary Stampede next week. It's a
big thing in Calgary. It's a big rodeo, one of
the biggest rodeos in the world. But basically it's like
basically the entire time with Calgary's hammered for ten days.
So I gotta go ride a horse in that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
I knew one of my one of she's now my fiance,
her good friends was Dayton the Canadian last year. I
think went up to that and staid it was incredible.
It was just it was one of the best parties
she's ever been to.

Speaker 4 (01:14:25):
I'll tell you what it is. I'm not gonna sit
here and recommend a whole lot of things you should
go do in Canada. I'm not gonna sit there and
pump the tires like that. There's some nice spots in Canada,
don't get me wrong, but there's lots going down down
in the States. Too, But I would highly recommend going
to the even if you don't. I don't know shit
about rodeo. That doesn't matter. You can go to the

(01:14:46):
rodeo if you want. Every day is there's a rodeo.
There's like the Bulls, the Bronx, the barrel Race and
all that in the afternoon, and then they have the
Chuck Wagon races at night, and you can go to that.
It would be if you're gonna go up, I would say, yeah,
go there for Go there for an afternoon or an
evening just to check it out. But all day there's
the bars, there's tense, massive tents, there's all the big

(01:15:10):
country music shows are there. Basically the entire core of
downtown Calgary is getting after it for ten days.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
It's fun. That's awesome. Well, enjoy that, enjoy the golf.
And I'm going to Tahoe for about three weeks. But
when I get back, I gotta hit you. I owe
you some beers. I can't. You don't want me to
tell you how much we meet for beers. I want
to meet you for some beers so we can hear
some more of these rushing stories. Bro, you're the man,
Mike appreciate it. I appreciate it. Have a good uh,

(01:15:38):
have a good couple of weeks. Yep, we'll do. Thanks
for having me.

Speaker 4 (01:15:44):
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}3 & Out - Mike Commodore joins the podcast