Life of being a billet parent | The Game Sports Podcast

[00:00:05] Speaker A: Booyah. And it's time for the Game Sports podcast. Is your host, David McCaig Jr. Here on the Game Sports Podcast? We're powered by 91 Network, featured on Spaces, which is through Village Media, and of course, Sue. Today, we're kicking off the show with Top Shelf. We got three segments planned for you here tonight, and it's going to be action packed. As always, I am joined first by the one, the only, Alex Parr. Alex, saying hi to you first, my friends. How you doing? [00:00:33] Speaker B: I'm doing well, man. It's good to see you. It's good to see everybody on the other side of the camera as well. I'm ready to get into this. [00:00:37] Speaker A: Absolutely. It's always fun, Chad and hockey and also going to the GTA region with a nice fancy plasma behind him. If you're looking from the video perspective, Brandon McCarthy, I'm gonna start giving you a nickname. Let's start calling you the Cart. I don't know why I just thought of it top my head. It's probably Carthy Cart. I don't know. I just made up the cart. The Cart jokes. All right. How you just. [00:01:00] Speaker C: Just on the move, I guess. Go Kart. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Oh, I like that. Okay. [00:01:04] Speaker C: I don't know. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Now I'm thinking Mario Kart. Like, no, I don't want to get too off off topic and show my true side of getting distracted, but my friend, how you doing? [00:01:12] Speaker C: I'm doing absolutely fantastic, boys. What's your. What's your roll up the rim record right now? [00:01:18] Speaker A: Mine is 1 for 13 or something like that. Even on the digital. Yeah, I'm. I'm. I'm low. I'm batting a low average. [00:01:25] Speaker B: 0 for 1. That's it. [00:01:28] Speaker C: So here is the move. Quick little, quick little hack for the Canadians out there. Tried it today, and he was a little bit rattled, but ultimately didn't give it to me. But I think it could work in the future. Instead of getting a sleeve for your cup, say, can you. Do you mind just quickly just give me another cup, Double cup, Just because it's too hot. And if they're on the fly, on the move, they're like, yeah, whatever. Then you got two chances at it. Now, he did give me just a regular tims, so I think he was a little rattled, but I was like. [00:01:57] Speaker A: What, do you mind? [00:01:57] Speaker C: Just, you know, just. Almost had it, but I think it clipped for him. But I feel like if it's busy and on the fly, it's like, yeah, no problem. And it's like, oh, geez. I just Gave away a second count. [00:02:05] Speaker A: And if enough points, if you have points, you actually get digital roll ups too. Just so you know, if you have the man. [00:02:11] Speaker C: I'll never do that. [00:02:12] Speaker D: It's. [00:02:12] Speaker C: You got to have the OG like use the teeth. Use the, use the, the thumb and index finger Digital roll up the rim. Screw that. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Dave, you look like a guy with dainty hands. I'm sure if you asked they would buy it for sure. [00:02:25] Speaker A: So I'm sure they give you two a hundred percent. And I feel like if I just kind of guy I'd be like, hey, you know, help a guy out to sleeve. It's not enough. I need to keep my fingers protected here. You know, like it's just the delivery of that. Maybe a little words in Italian with using the hands. We'll see. Fellas, we got a segment for you. We got a segment to get into. So sorry. And of course if you're tuning into from a video audio perspective wherever you tune in, like follow, subscribe social media at the game Sports podcast, Tick Tock, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Amazon. I could sit here until the whole 20 minute mark and get through everything where we are and all the reaction, but not enough time for that to search us. You will find us. Now we're going to go into first kind of I'll call this like around the horn, you know, and that not calling it that because that is. But we're gonna go around the horn on this, on the segment and I'm going to start with trade deadline grades. Okay. I know it's a little bit past the deadline, but we obviously haven't had a segment together since the deadline has passed when it passed last week. And we've got to see a few of the acquisitions that were put into play. If you're a Leaf fan, you saw Lawton and Carlo. If you're a Florida fan, you saw Jones jump in. If you're an Ottawa fan, you saw Cousins play. So you saw a lot of movement at the deadline. Lots of, lots of good moves. Some surprising moves, especially if you're Pittsburgh acquiring Luke Shen and Novak and getting rid of Bunting. You know, obviously there's some trades that caught by surprise. So I'm going to put you guys on on kind of right on the spot at first. Alex kind of giving a random grade to 1 or 2 or 3. How many teams you want to give a grade to? I'm not going to follow. Let's go down the list. Give your reaction about the deadline that maybe stood out to you. [00:04:03] Speaker B: I think the Team that did the best for what they need. They're gonna get an A for me. A for Colorado Avalanche. [00:04:12] Speaker C: Oh, I had them two part I. [00:04:14] Speaker B: Think bolstering that center position for them in both Charlie Coyle and Brock Nelson's huge. I mean those I didn't know Coil was available but we all knew Nelson was a big talk going into trade deadline. So I think bolstering the center depth for of them is going to help a ton and I think a little underratedly bringing in Eric Johnson just for maybe that spark in the room. Sure he's your seventh defenseman, he probably won't play a ton but a guy that knows the organization, they know him, the fans like him. I'm pretty sure he was on that team when they won the cup as well. I think that's an underrated move for the locker room. So I'm going to give a big old stamp of approval to the Colorado Avalanche for their trade deadline moves. [00:04:55] Speaker A: Good. Now that's a good answer. Who do you think didn't do good? Then I'll give you a part. Who do you think didn't do good? Who didn't do a good job? [00:05:02] Speaker B: I don't know why the Ottawa Senators made the trades that they did. I don't know if I would give up future anything if I'm the Senators. Maybe like some low stuff just to bolster the roster a little bit just to say hey we noticed you guys have had a half decent season. Here's a couple moves but I don't know. Second round picks out the door, top prospects out the door, I don't know. And Norris I think is the best player in that trade with Dylan Cousins. Yeah I think he is the better player. He just can't stay healthy where Cousins has more games that he's able to play. I just, I just an Ottawa hater probably and that's just probably my Leafs bias but I don't know if if I'm them a team that's just teetering on making the playoffs with a roster that might not be able to repeat it next year if I'm going to be the guy giving up futures and high end futures just to give them a little push for maybe just one year. [00:06:04] Speaker A: Good answers Kart. I'll go to you I was almost. [00:06:08] Speaker C: Like sorry, who do we have another guy? I got to get used to that Davey. So I'll, I'll do my West. I did like Colorado. I mean Dallas there's such a threat in the playoffs adding Nico Ran and signing him for term is massive that they'll be a serious problem in the playoffs this year. And having Miko Rantman, who's just an absolute dog. We've seen what he's, what he's done in his past seasons with the Colorado Avalanche. So I would give them an A plus. And then in the East, I actually don't mind what the Sens did. Yes, as Par alluded to, like they did give up a lot. Dylan Cousins, though, like he was itching to get out of Buffalo. He seems elated to be in Ottawa, has a smile ear to ear every time I've seen him on camera since coming to the nation's capital and he just looks dog determined to be there. And yeah, I know they gave up Norris and Bernard Docker, but for the first time since what, 2017, the Sens can happily say, hey, we're buyers, we're a playoff team. So you've got to kind of make those decisions. And I'd also say that the Florida Panthers, I mean getting Brad March on Marchand, I mean they always had to go up against, they always had to go up against the rat. Now they got a rat with Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett. If you put all those guys on the line, good luck Eastern Conference. So I would say Florida A plus and, and Dallas A plus. They're going to be a problem in the playoffs. Quick note on the, on the buds. I think Carlo and Lawton are good. Not great. Initially I was like, if the Leafs are just going to settle for Scott Lawton, maybe like a B, B minus. But adding Brandon Carlo is huge, especially with Chris Tanve out of the mix right now. So the Leafs are probably getting like a B minus. But you know Trey living, he, he loves big bodied, mean defenseman and I think he was running out of time. [00:08:07] Speaker D: Right. [00:08:07] Speaker C: So it's like Scotland's available, I gotta go get him. I think there was an offer for Rentman, but it included Mitch Marner who didn't want to, maybe didn't want to waive his no move. So he was in the fight. He was in the fight. But at some point it's like Lawton's sitting there, I gotta go get him. [00:08:22] Speaker A: Yeah, like you said, probably those two offers that cow admitting in first then you had. [00:08:26] Speaker C: Right. [00:08:26] Speaker A: Marner was in there. Right. And like you're not making that trade unless you're locking up, ranting and, and honestly, the way Marner has bought has. I've been on the Marner side a little bit more given what he did with the Four nations how he played in that final game and he has been no more noticeable. But I can just feel that body attitude in Toronto. He's just like. I don't see that want to stay there like he says he does. I don't think I believe him, but I hope they don't lose him for nothing. But he has his right as a player to not waive his no movement clause. You signed him to that. That's his choice. Right. You can't can make that. And from my perspective, I couldn't agree more with the Florida Panthers being given an A plus, which pains me to say if you're in a team that you cheer for in the Atlantic Division and you're going against the Florida Panthers potentially in the second round, maybe even the first if the way the divisions line up, if Tampa gets first or whatever happens, that is a problem and a tough team to play. But also give it an asterisk because it's ltir with Tkachuk. There's the first where I'm not a fan. I've always said Kucheroff way. I've always said that I think the salary cap in the NHL going into the playoffs should be the same as the season. That's been a lot of pushback that maybe there should be a little bit of forgiveness. Right. But maybe not as much as there is. So I give it a little bit of an asterisk. But if you look at the retention with Marchant I'm sure they would make it work. But Florida gets an A plus. They did what they had to do to add to their team with Jones and with also Marchant. Great moves and they also brought in Sturm underrated bottom six guy that I feel is really effective. I'm gonna. Yeah, I'm not gonna touch on Toronto. I. I think they had a good deadline. Sure. I. I'm not just good. [00:10:00] Speaker E: Right. Good. [00:10:02] Speaker A: They did what they need to. I think I understand both. I have no grade for Ottawa now because the way you both gave me your rationale. But if I had to say I'm more on the positive side. As good as you can be in buyers. My losers of the deadline is maybe it's not a surprise but the Vancouver Canucks. I really feel that the Vancouver Canucks should have moved Brock Besser and they should move out guys that they're not keeping. This is obviously I'll use pars words. They've just showed their true colors and that last year was a fluke. Right. That is what I'm seeing this year. Given the performance on the Ice. And I think they could have capitalized by moving Besser or moving some. Someone to another team to maybe look at bringing in some prospects and kind of doing a little retool. Not a reset, but a little bit of a retool. And another loser of the deadline. I'm gonna go with the Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. I got a couple losers out there for the deadlines. More so Pittsburgh, because that bunting trade does not make sense to me. And there are more moves Pittsburgh should have made. You're not a playoff team. Time to move on from certain pieces. Fun stuff, fellas. The deadline is really shaped up how the playoffs go. The Atlantic Division looking great. Obviously. The division with obviously, Winnipeg, Dallas, Colorado. What? One of two of those teams are going to be out in the first. Or what am I saying? Wait. Two of those teams got to play each other. Sorry. In the first round. Right. That's what I mean to say. So one of those two teams that I'm referencing are going to be gone while the other team has to play someone else. And maybe gone. But you're looking at limiting a top dog right off the hop. And it's probably going to be Dallas and Colorado. It looks like that might be. Depends how the division falls, but it's going to be interesting. The deadline has really shaped out how the playoffs is going to look, and I'm excited. [00:11:39] Speaker C: Go back to 1v8, Bettman, please. Like 1v8? [00:11:45] Speaker A: Yes, yes. 1v8. Let's know what, next week we'll dive into that more along with the overtime format, because I know I promised we would dive into that. But other piece of news. Alex Ovechkin knocking on the door. I think you can hear the knock. Knocking on the door. We were talking at the beginning of the season. Is he gonna do it this year? Rewind the clip. I said yes, so I said no. I, I am pumped. I, I It's gonna happen this year. There's no chance. It doesn't. And when he hits that five and under, I am going to tune into every Washington Capital game to see that history. Piece of history. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be. I think it's great. Literally, no matter what happens to him in his career right now, something tragic happens. Sorry. He's the best goal scorer of all time. The best goal scorer of all time. He has that title. I don't care what happens. And he's not going to retire until he passes it. Let's get real, Gyobi. If he had an Injury. He'd come back at 43 just to try to break that record. Okay. He's not going anywhere. He would yarmur Yogur it until he's able to get that record. I don't know. Any thoughts on Ovechkin before we go to the next point, Fellas? You. Do you. Do you have a prediction? Are you still sticking par? Do you. Give you a chance to switch your. Switch your pick if you want. [00:12:53] Speaker B: There's no doubt that he's going to do it now. There's no doubt. [00:12:58] Speaker C: They're just going to feed him, like, empty net opportunities. [00:13:01] Speaker B: That's what he's doing is just beat him. [00:13:05] Speaker C: Do you guys remember that goal he scored in 0506 his rookie season against the Coyotes? Of course, when he, like, curled it around some, like, scrub defenseman. And it is one of the most outrageous goals, like, of all time in. In all of sports. [00:13:20] Speaker A: It is. [00:13:22] Speaker C: You never get tired of watching that. [00:13:23] Speaker A: And Matthew. [00:13:26] Speaker C: He was there, right? Matthews, Maybe we can include that. [00:13:29] Speaker A: Oh, they know that he was the coach. [00:13:32] Speaker C: Gretzky was the coach. [00:13:33] Speaker E: He was the guy. Yeah. [00:13:34] Speaker A: Geez. Yeah, Geez. Yeah. Yeah, geez. [00:13:35] Speaker C: And you can just see his reaction on the bench. He's just looking up. He's like, oh, boy. I think it was like that meet at like 5:1 Washington or something. Brutal. [00:13:43] Speaker A: With the Eagle or that classic jersey. The classic jersey in Washington. [00:13:47] Speaker C: Maybe we. We could include it. That this is going on social. [00:13:50] Speaker D: David. [00:13:50] Speaker C: We can include it as B roll if people need a little fresh reminder of that. [00:13:54] Speaker A: Goal. Unbelievable goal. Unbelievable goal. Last thing I'll touch on with the kind of the round the horn type discussion. Substance abuse and player assistance program. Obviously act blad the substance abuse. Not going to dive into it too much. But I will say the NHL is being hard on this. Inconsistent. It seems like I'm still kind of getting over the consistency of games for certain ones and sometimes it's my understanding. But it's good that that's being looked into. And obviously ecblight has had a lot of injuries. I'm sure there's a little bit of factor in that player assistance program. I love that the NHL does it. I love that it's more broadcasted now. I'm a big advocate of that as we are on the show, so it's great to see that all that's in play. Just a little brief little point on that, fellas. We're going to dive right into the other two points that we have, and it's definitely the interactive piece that we've been missing here on the show for the past few weeks. 1999 NHL redraft from five to one or one to five, whatever you'd like to do. Park going to you first. [00:14:46] Speaker B: Five to one. This is easy. At five I got Craig Anderson. At four I got Ryan Miller and then I got a triple header of Swedes. Henrik Zetterberg, Henrik Sedin and then Daniel Sedin. Just because goals I think are a little bit more important. So even though Henrik has more points overall, I'm going Daniel number one. [00:15:06] Speaker A: Love that. [00:15:07] Speaker C: Brennan, five to one. I'll go Martin Havelat, 26 overall originally four I'll go Ryan Miller originally taking the fifth round. Henrik Zetterberger number three originally in the seventh round. And then I'll go Daniel Sedine, Henrik City. So I'm just flipping them. [00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Remember the twins? I love that. [00:15:30] Speaker C: Remember who went first overall that year. One of the biggest busts ever. [00:15:34] Speaker A: Patrick Stefan, big one of the biggest busts in a brutal empty net or miss against the Oilers. And I will never forget Marty Turco told me about that in person and it was a gasp when like he wasn't chirping. It's just that it's icon. It's embedded into the brain for Dallas fans. Going with my usual way. New York Islanders are proud to select with a 5th overall pick, Radom Verbata. With the 4th overall pick. The New York Rangers are proud to select Ryan Miller. That would have been wild to have Lundquist and Miller on the same team. Vancouver Canucks are proud to select the third overall pick, Daniel Sedin, second overall pick. The Vancouver Canucks are proud to select Henrik Sedin. And with the first overall pick, the Atlanta Thrashers go with another Swede, first overall Henrik Zetterberg. And it was really hard keeping Craig Anderson off that list. Part I originally had the same list as you until we started recording. That would have been the second time, but it didn't happen. And I had a quick, quick little mess about Patrick Stefan. Thanks for saying that, Brennan. That's could not be more in agreement to that. One of the biggest busts along with brutal Alexander Dake is who's the bigger. Maybe that's another conversation. We'll tease that. Three questions for us, fellows. We're going to try to get into this the next few minutes here we have three questions we do kind of a blind ranking or kind of a quiz question that we're going to ask each other. It's going to be freedom here from whatever way we want to ask it. So par I'm going to Go back to you first. What's you first a couple times here because you didn't share what your question is and I'm eager to know what it is. So me and Brennan are going to go back and forth. Well, not back and forth, but we're going to choose a ranking or choose the answer, unless you have it between one of us, whatever your situation is. And then we'll go to Brandon, then me last. So kick us off with these interactive questions that you have. [00:17:13] Speaker B: Feel free to work together on this one or give your own answers. Doesn't matter either way. I want to know, out of all the teams outside of the wild card, but in a playoff spot, do you think is the biggest fraud We've got the Panthers, the Leafs, the Lightning, the Hurricanes, the Devils, the Capitals, the. The Jets. Stars. Avalanche, Oilers, Kings, Golden Knights. [00:17:37] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay, let's go with east, east and West. Brian, let's choose one from the east and the West. [00:17:42] Speaker C: Okay. Frauds. The Carolina Hurricanes. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, that's the East. You know what? Yeah, I'm siding with you on that. I'll say Carolina. I say Carolina. Western Conference, Western Conference. Brennan, what do you got for the Western Conference? [00:17:57] Speaker C: Western Conference. [00:17:58] Speaker B: You want me to run through the teams again? [00:18:01] Speaker C: Sure. [00:18:02] Speaker B: Jetstars, Avalanche, Oilers, Kings, Golden Knights. [00:18:09] Speaker C: The west is so loaded, Davey. It's hard to pick. [00:18:12] Speaker A: I kind of want to see the Kings. I really feel. I'm not sold on the Kings, especially Annette. I'm not sold on. [00:18:18] Speaker C: I don't know if they're frogs, though. Like, they always draw the Oilers every freaking year. And it's just, like, true. It's tough, man. They actually play them well. [00:18:25] Speaker A: Jets are sick. The Stars are sick. The Avalanche are sick. I think Minnesota is good. I'm a. I think they got a good squad. Go. Yeah, they are. Golden Knights are who they are, but. And the Oilers are they. Hey, they made the cup final last year, so it's hard to pick anyone else because the Kings haven't gone past the first round. But the jets also are having any playoff success, so. But I've complimented them all year, so I feel like it's hard to go against them. [00:18:52] Speaker C: I'll let you pick this one because I picked the East. [00:18:55] Speaker A: I'll say the Kings. I'm going Kings. [00:18:57] Speaker C: Okay. [00:18:58] Speaker A: All right. All right, Brian, you're up yours. Like, what do you got? Like, for your question. [00:19:07] Speaker C: Oh, for my question. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You already were on the spot. I'm gonna make you pick. [00:19:13] Speaker C: I was like. I was just gonna agree with Kings just to just to wrap it up. Okay, we'll say Kings because the west is so low. Even though, like, I enjoy watching the playoffs, I think they're the. Probably the worst out of that bunch, right? [00:19:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's why I went with that. [00:19:27] Speaker C: Okay. All right, we'll go with that. My question for you guys, which team would you rather see the least play in the first round, Tampa or Ottawa? [00:19:38] Speaker A: I'll go first. [00:19:39] Speaker D: Easy. [00:19:40] Speaker B: Why are we going to Galaxy brain this? Are we for real? [00:19:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:44] Speaker B: Are we actually so for real? [00:19:45] Speaker A: I think. See, think about it. It's tough. [00:19:48] Speaker D: Senators. [00:19:49] Speaker B: No, it's not even close. Like, the Senators haven't been to the playoffs since 2017. I don't care what the regular season shows. I don't care. [00:19:59] Speaker A: Pesky sands, dude. Pesky sense. I'm a. I'm more scared about the Sens than the Lightning because Toronto beat. [00:20:06] Speaker B: Guys. You guys have been hurt by this franchise and I don't blame you. That's all this team has ever done to us. But if you're actually at the point where you would rather face this the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have won two cups and have Andre Vasilevsky in net than the Ottawa Senators, who may have spanked you a few times in the regular season, but back when the Leafs were making the playoffs all the time, all they would do is kick ass against the Senators in the early thousands. You guys are Galaxy braining this too much. [00:20:34] Speaker A: Go. [00:20:34] Speaker C: Here's. Here's the one thing. No part. 2022. They took the Lightning to seven. [00:20:40] Speaker A: Okay. [00:20:40] Speaker C: Coin flip. They lost 2023. They beat them in six. So they're familiar with them. They have sold Basilevsky. Keith went toe to toe in terms of coaching tactics against Cooper. Now they have a winning coach in Berubai, right? So there's familiarity there. And if you lose again in the first round, does it suck? Does the laughingstock that jokers continue? Yes, but. But it's against Tampa. It's like, Jesus. Then the small little footnote is we got to change this playoff format because the Leafs just get the best teams every year. If they draw Ottawa in the first round and lose, that is 2021 vibes written all over it when they blew a 31 series. So it's almost like if they drop, like, I just think they would be a little bit more shaken in their boots if they played the Senators, they'd be in their heads. Tampa, it's like, let's go to work, boys. We've got a tough team. Let's go to work. Ottawa would be like we have to win, right? We have to win, right? Oh, we're down. We're down in the series and they crap their pants. But like, spicy take maybe, but something to think about. [00:21:42] Speaker B: I get what you're saying, but the fact that you're saying that, like, it would be even more catastrophic if they lost to the Senators. That means they're not as good of a team. So there's your answer right there. I would rather play. [00:21:53] Speaker C: It'd be embarrassing. It'd be more embarrassing to lose no matter what. [00:21:59] Speaker B: It would be embarrassing if literally the second coming of Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, and whoever you wanted was on a team and beat the Leafs in the first round. You're not avoiding that conversation whatsoever, dude. [00:22:09] Speaker A: I'm not. [00:22:09] Speaker C: I'm telling you, if they. If they draw the Senators, I would put money on the centers to win the series. [00:22:12] Speaker A: Dude, not going to lie. The Leafs don't get past the second round this year. That's a failure, let alone the first round. This team needs to succeed this year or they're done. The Window's going to. Just saying. The Window. I don't care how long Matthews is signed for. Nylander. Just saying like that. We'll go back to this maybe. Boys, third and final question over. A little above, but I. I like. I want this question. Six iconic moments without knowing what's coming next. [00:22:37] Speaker C: Thanks. [00:22:38] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, I'm going with an odd number. Probably should have went with mine first given the time. Yeah. Sorry I said odd number. Yeah, it's great. It is. It is Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen, Day of recording. All right, I'm gonna name them, you rank them, work together. Number one, Miracle on Ice. [00:22:55] Speaker B: That like five. They didn't even win the gold medal. [00:23:00] Speaker A: Okay, you agree, Brandon? [00:23:03] Speaker C: Okay, I'll put it there, too. [00:23:05] Speaker A: Wayne Gretzky's record for breaking the 50 goal streak in 39 games. [00:23:12] Speaker C: 3. 3. [00:23:19] Speaker A: Sidney Crosby's golden goal. [00:23:23] Speaker C: Uno. [00:23:25] Speaker A: Mario Lemieux return after cancer. [00:23:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll go to Got two. [00:23:34] Speaker A: You know he know he played when he returned. Yeah. Fun fact. You know who he played against? The Leafs. Then he scored on his game back. I remember that. Number five for Bobby Orr's Stanley cup winning goal. [00:23:49] Speaker C: Oh, God, that can't be four. Can we do a trade? [00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:23:54] Speaker C: The overtime goal, 1970. Oh, I know about that. [00:24:12] Speaker E: Okay. [00:24:13] Speaker A: Six or four? [00:24:16] Speaker C: Four. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Four. So this is what you're putting six. Because this is not an actual moment. This is why I did six. And that's why I said odd from the start. Oetkin passing Wayne Gretzky and goals. Cuz that is happening. But that is happening. So you guys. You guys are going to have it six. That's fine. But I had. [00:24:36] Speaker C: I think we put two at four by accident, though, so something has to come out. I think we put something else. [00:24:42] Speaker A: You got some part. [00:24:45] Speaker C: IOS.iOS knows it's my birthday coming up in a couple weeks. [00:24:48] Speaker A: Oh, early. You know what? I had it as an odd question. We can just call it as a five if that's fine. Okay, that works. So number one, you have the golden goal. Number two, you had return from Mario Lemieux return from cancer. [00:25:06] Speaker C: Okay. [00:25:07] Speaker A: Number three is where you had. Where you've decided to put Bobby Orr. It seems correct. Is that where you. [00:25:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:13] Speaker A: Decided to put Bobby. Or. [00:25:15] Speaker C: It's all jumbled now, but yes. [00:25:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Where you put Bobby Orr. Four was Wayne Gretzky on his. On his streak. Five was the miracle on ice. And six. [00:25:23] Speaker C: Oh, God. [00:25:24] Speaker A: And six would be Ovetin passing Gretzky because it has not yet happened. But it will happen. It will happen. [00:25:31] Speaker C: Okay, we'll come back and rejuggle them. [00:25:33] Speaker A: Love that. That's. That was my loop for the day, fellas. But that is the top shelf segment for today. And we hope everyone enjoyed all the clips that we're going to have for this and that we're going to be posting. Follow us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok at the game sports podcast. Make sure you follow us on 91Network as well. But fellas. Alex, thank you, my friend. As always, Brandon the Cart. [00:25:55] Speaker C: Thank you, sir. I'm gonna keep on, keep on keeping. [00:25:58] Speaker A: On, keep on keeping on. And big games this week, especially the NHL for some standings movement, especially Toronto against Florida. Going to be certainly very, very interesting and I'm liking what's going to come down the final stretch in the NHL season. Season. [00:26:10] Speaker C: I bet you the Leafs will lose the sens on Saturday. We're recording this March 11th. [00:26:15] Speaker A: 12Th. [00:26:16] Speaker C: 12Th. Pardon me. Wednesday, March 12th. Yeah, I think they'll lose this Saturday against the Sense. [00:26:20] Speaker D: Sorry. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Win the division. If you're a Leaf fan, you want to win that division somehow, that's what you want. You want it. But then you get Ottawa in the first round, you get Ottawa. Who cares? Who cares? Finish, finish. Try to cross over to the other division. Then whatever happens. Wait, Carolina in the first round? Yikes. [00:26:45] Speaker C: Oh, geez. [00:26:46] Speaker A: All right, fellas. Thank you. We're gonna be right back. We come back, we got Chuck a Puck. Special edition of Chuckle Puck here today. Don't go anywhere. Welcome Back to the game sports podcast host David McCaig continuing to host you this evening. We're on segment two, the Chuck A. Puck segment. And I'm not gonna get up and grab the Chuck A. Puck because Trude knows I can't throw it down to my floor for a lot of reasons now because I no longer really own the house that I am in right now. So I'm going to keep the floor in immaculate shape. But we are in the Chuck A. Puck segment where we touch on here on the game sports podcast, local hockey from the Sault Ste. Marie Optic and of course, dive into the OHL and the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. But we got kind of more of a variety here today. Expanding Chuck A. Puck. It's a bigger puck, if you will. And I'm going to introduce our first guest host. But he's also no stranger to the show because Dustin is one of the original hosts with yours truly from the in the Pocket segment, but also a variety, but mainly on in the Pocket when he was a part of the team from 2016 to 2018. And we have a running joke where now he's a casual and I add a zero to his check each week. And this is the first time he's been on the show and I looked since the beginning of 2018. Look where we are now. It's been a while. And just like we talked about when he was. When we were off air, his picture is probably still up somewhere with me, one of the random restaurants. I know it's up in my dad's garage, but G. Dustin Grandin, my friend. Glad to have you on. [00:28:06] Speaker E: Yeah, thanks for having me, Dave. I know this is the first time since 2018 when you gave me a time that you were actually on time. I used to just be. I used to be sitting in a bar at SportsCenter waiting for you to show up. And you know, by the time you got there, I was already burnt out, so to speak. [00:28:23] Speaker A: Couple wings and some beverages into. And I'll put this on video so people know if. If you know. I think Dustin knows what I'm talking about. This used to be microphone. [00:28:32] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:28:32] Speaker A: Okay. This used to be the microphone that we used to use. Now look at what we got going on here. Okay. We've upgraded a little bit. [00:28:39] Speaker E: Yeah, we definitely, definitely like caveman around the horn, pass the cell phone on the cup. [00:28:44] Speaker A: And we're also have an archived episode that was three and a half hours long. We'll never talk about. Remember that in the Pocket segment where we did a Three and a half hour episode. [00:28:52] Speaker E: What did the other guys say after you were done? [00:28:55] Speaker A: Oh, love it. You still got the chirps. That's good. G. We're going to be talking about lots here on Chocolate but let's go to the co host who joins yours truly on a weekly bas. You're gonna see a lot more of G on this which is very exciting. But TR my friend. Good to see you. New specs too buddy. New specs. Looking sharp. Looking just. You're looking good my man. You're looking good. How's it going? [00:29:13] Speaker F: Thanks. You guys too. Of course. I always remember the Iceman days and the baseball days. [00:29:19] Speaker E: Gr. [00:29:20] Speaker F: You played a few games for us. [00:29:21] Speaker E: I think I played one. I played one and okay, one. I went to slide at Strathclair thinking that it was like soft sand like the pros. And I slid about 4ft to a grinding halt about 16ft short of plate. And I just cherried up my whole beer belly and that was the last game I played because I'm just not an athlete man. I'm just not an athlete. I don't got it in me. [00:29:46] Speaker A: I pitched that game. Dustin was there too. I think. I think I pitched that game. [00:29:50] Speaker E: That sounds. [00:29:53] Speaker A: I think Call up night. Kegger's on the mound. Call up night. Gotta put Ker on the mound. You know you have call ups when you got ker pitching 4 strong. Fun time though. Iceman. I'm glad you brought that up. That's actually it. I remember Dustin messaged me when I signed with the Iceman all the way to the championship. You know how many championships we won after we stacked our team? Look at 000 we had a stack team. Ryan Vendorman if you're from the sue you know Ryan Venderman. Oh look at this. He's bringing. He's. Look at this. Look at this picture here. Classic picture here. On the Top Shelf segment. If you're on video you gotta look at this picture that Dustin has here going on. Okay. But look. We didn't win trs not one championship. But we had five championship appearances and we lost. I think it's four or five and we lost each time. I'm a curse because I've never won a finals at all. My career outside of midget hockey. It was called midget at the time. Just so everybody knows midget hockey. [00:30:50] Speaker E: To be fair you were on our Jumpstart team just now that won the Jumpstart. [00:30:54] Speaker A: That's my first tournament win in almost a decade. That is unbelievable. I've lost in the finals across the river now. I haven't won 3 on 3 since I was 25. [00:31:03] Speaker E: 5. [00:31:03] Speaker A: Nope. All the losses. LL I am a curse. [00:31:07] Speaker E: All we needed here was a still sharp Blake Spears. [00:31:10] Speaker A: He helps Blake Spears on the roster. Former hound, very helpful to have on the team and he's very competitive. Blake Spears as well, a very competitive lad. But fellas, we got chuck a puck. Let's dive into it. Sue Greyhounds. Look, playoff pushes are now here upon us right near the end of the season. There's lots to touch on with the Hounds. Trudes, I'm going to go over to you first, kind of tee up what's going on for the Hounds this week and we'll go from there. [00:31:34] Speaker F: Yeah, thanks, Dave. Yeah. Really, really solid weekend of hockey for them this past weekend. They managed to salvage a point against a very good oshawa team who's third in the Eastern Conference. And they outshot Barry 45 19. Unfortunately gave up powerplay goal late, leading to a regulation loss. But like two really strong performances against some top teams in the East. Not sure if we can ask for much more than that. So I can imagine that they're excited to get going on this road trip where they take on Windsor, Sarnia and Flint this weekend. I'll be in attendance tomorrow night in Windsor, so I'm pretty excited about that. Going to visit Strikeout co host Connor Henderson. So we're gonna, we're gonna catch the boys in Windsor and hopefully can steal a point there and then four points. Looking good in Sarnia and Flint. I imagine they're, they're expecting four points out of Sarnia and Flint this weekend. So it's gonna be a. It's biggest weekend of the year weekend. [00:32:30] Speaker A: Hey, Dustin, I'll go to you for. To spin off on that huge weekend for the, for the boys in red. [00:32:36] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, I think, I think, you know, going further back to the last two games and you know, I see troops there all the time and obviously I'm there every game supporting the boys. But what a shame the loss to Barry was. You know, a late goal sunk them. But I mean if you were in attendance, you saw a Greyhound team that was structured, hungry, winning every battle against a very, very good team. It's unfortunate, fortunate that they, they let a power play goal in because they had cleaned up last time they played. Barry. Bo Jellsma does this thing where he shoots into the bumper and he finds that soft ice and it's oftentimes on puck side and they like to work it up the sideboard and into Bo Jaelsma for a one tee in the, in the bumper slot. And it got them when they were in Barry the last time, which they played very, very well. And they let BOJ Elzma score that one. They don't let Boj elzma score that one this time, but they let up a power play goal. And that's just a sign of a good Berry team too, adapting, right. Like good teams can play a. A B minus game and still find a way to win. And that's kind of what Barry did. But I mean you couldn't walk out of the rink thinking that the Greyhounds sold it. The Greyhounds did everything they could through the entire repertoire in the kitchen sink at, at Barry. And I was extremely proud of the boys. I don't even know if I could say that. I guess they're not my boys. But a lot of them come back. A lot of them come back home after and you know, I think they knew they played enough to win by more than a goal and lost by a goal. And then on the flip side, I think Oshawa was a bit of a tougher night. Oshawa obviously loaded Andrew Gibson obviously patrol of the blue and they've got some other feisty guys on their team and they got Richie and Seneca and you know, they did a good job shutting the big dogs down for a long time and in keeping that game tight. I mean, obviously rumor mill swirl, the no. 1 Griffin scored a nice, you know, shootout goal and I think maybe he was one of their targets and a nice young player. But again we, we did enough to pull a point out and when you get down to the last little bit here, that point's gonna be huge, I think massive. Because for people who are in the fan page, I've been a little bit more vocal lately. And one of my, one of my hot takes, which I don't think is a hot take is I think the Hounds will finish seven. [00:34:45] Speaker F: I, I come. I agree with you. If they play like they can play. Funny you mentioned them cleaning up their penalty. I think there's been a lot of talk recently about like just on the fan page especially like next year in general, like coaching change, management change, player trading certain players. So like that's an example there of like a coaching adjustment and a player adjustment. [00:35:11] Speaker E: Well, one happened and then the other happened, right? It's punch counterpunch. And that's just two guys playing a, a high paced chess match in terms of two coaches and then in terms of five and Four players and we have a good penalty kill because we, we should score shorthanded goals. Like people forget about that. We lead the league in shorthanded goals. So we're aggressive on our penalty kill and some go in. But there have been games where our penalty kill has changed the momentum and won us the game. And there was one just recently where we scored two shorthanded goals right here at home. Right. And games are not part and parcel. There's a bigger, bigger picture and people have to stay positive and not lose sight of all the good. Among some of the tougher breaks. [00:35:53] Speaker F: Yeah, I think that's huge. Just that's, that's a positive example. It's a good example of what this team's like trying to do and how they're growing because ever since the start of February, this team has kind of like, you've seen that penalty kill like just go so much more aggressive. Like so it's, it's confidence and they're actually finally getting there. We had a good chat the other night. How many players on this team is it their first year major junior hockey? And the players that did return didn't see a lot of ice time last year. So that's, that development has taken time now it's like, and it's going, it's still like taking. [00:36:30] Speaker E: It's. [00:36:30] Speaker F: It was supposed to take a lot of time, so that's huge. Barry, they obviously, like you said, played a B minus game and it was mentioned Peter Ricci's article. Like they're so good of a team that just three simple tiny miscues end up in the back of your net. And that's just a sign of playing a good team. But yeah, two amazing games on the weekend. Like, I think too, like I'm with you. I think they're, they're gonna finish seventh. [00:36:54] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:36:54] Speaker F: They continue. [00:36:55] Speaker E: So looking forward, this is obviously public knowledge, so I'll just read you off Sue's remaining games and Sarnia's remaining games. Right. We're hunting Sarnia. Right. So we have Windsor, Sarnia, Flint, Sudbury, sag, Sarnia. So there's, you know, an eight point swing in two games between us and Sarnia. Just right off the bat, you know, I feel like we have Flint's number. I think we play Flint well. I think they're a tough team, but we've managed to get points in Flint games and I think they're a comfortable team for us to play. Let's be quite honest, Windsor is heavy, heavy, heavy team. Hard to play against. You know, the Boys are going to go out and play hard. And Windsor's had a bit of a. I believe they've played some heavy hitters recently too. I think, you know, the London was on the docket recently, so it's like you never know what you're going to get. We're on the road, they're at home. If we can steal one out of Windsor, that'd be amazing. But you know, in the Flint, Sudbury Saginaw there, those teams are not, you know, they're good teams, but we're not having to play the London Knights. We're not having to play the Oshawa Generals. We're not having to, you know, I think those teams, it's. They're beatable. They're beatable for the Sioux. If we show up with, you know, the energy level and the compete level that we've been playing with for the last, you know, I don't know how many games, But I'd say 15, you know, the last post, post Christmas break, we've really turned a page and started to, to see the incline in the development of some of these guys who are just finding their footing in the OHL. Right? They could be 17, they could be 18 year olds, but they have 35 games played in the OHL. Like that's the measurement, right? It's not junior A. Right. It's not gthl, it's the ohl. This is the best development league in the world and they're playing against high, high end talent. And there is a major adjustment period. And I think, you know, taking one kid as an example, but someone like Jordan Sharon who came here from the GTHL and the kids got incredibly gifted raw goods and you're seeing his game really develop. Same with his two line mates, Brady Smith and Brady Smith. Right. So it's just a matter of allowing them to have that growth and allowing them to have that time without having unrealistic expectations and allowing them to learn the structure, play free, make some mistakes, try to nip them in the butt so they don't happen again. But most importantly, so they don't happen next year. And then obviously all our fan hopeful 2027s, right, that's what, that's what we're licking our chops about. But you know, Sarnia has Erie after that big fight, who knows what Erie's got left. I mean, there are a lot of distractions in Erie. Head coach is suspended now, but then they have Sue, Barry Windsor, Flint Sue. You know, you don't really want Erie Berry Windsor coming Down the stretch. So we got to win both Sarnias and we got to steal another one of those games. And here we are knocking on. Knocking on seventh Store. [00:39:39] Speaker A: And I think, and I've talked about this on a lot, the playoffs is so pivotal to the development of the youth on this team. And no matter how many games you get, if it is 4, if it's 6, 5, 6, 7 or more, if you have a Cinderella story and you go on, that's even more, much more cooler of a story, but just getting games no matter who you play. And of course I think it's better that you finish in that seventh area because of who you'd be playing in the first round if you finish in that eighth. Right. Which is quite challenging despite how cool it would seem to maybe see these London guys come here and play some games though. You want to see the team get as many playoff games as they can. To be frank, they're not a. They're not. We don't see them winning this year. Okay. You don't see that happening if there's a. There are Cinderella stories. Right. But let's be realistic here. And that game that's going to be happening against Windsor, the first game, the game that you and Connor are going through, truths, I think that's a great way to start a road trip, to be honest with you. And I, I can. I'm not taking it just from experience or from a direction, just from overall knowing. Starting a road trip against a team that's tough off the hop sets the tone for that road trip. Can set the pace for that for the weekend going into. And when you start off against Sarnia, you're right off the momentum of the other game, win or lose and playing at that pace, I think that's a good momentum center win or lose, going into the rest of the games for the weekend against Sarnia and also against Flint. The game that of course that I'm highlighting is that final game Sunday, March 23rd. Right. I think that's going to be a massive game. Right. You're gonna. The last game at home, you know the GFL is going to be rocking. You know that Friday game against Saginaw, you got graduation nights is something to look forward to there on the 21st. A little bit of little promotion for you there to the ohl hop to the, to the Hounds there. But that last game is going to be great and I think that's going to be getting in for that. You're going to see the team the win or lose. I Think that's where you're going to see, okay, this is who's finishing seventh and who's playing eight. And you know, like I said, the setting the tone for the weekend. That game against Windsor, I think is great. Opposed to having to play them at the end of the weekend, I'd rather them play them first going into the weekend. People may have a different take on that, but just from experience. But again, this is a team that getting that playoff experience is pivotal and there are some tough games in the schedule. We talk about Windsor, talk about Saginaw, be a little bit tough. They've had some tough challenges. You know, overall you got when it comes to Sudbury, middle of the pack team, you know, some tough tests in there, but games that are winnable and they prove that they can skate with the big dogs. The game against Barry, exciting, right? The Oshawa game, a lot of guns on that team. Seneca was one guy you mentioned Gibson, former Hounds, of course, who's a world junior standout and the best defenseman in my opinion on Oshawa after they brought him in. So this is. They were games that were exciting that they weren't technically out of. They were in these games. So overall, I think this weekend is a big test, but also good. Set the tone for the. For the playoffs. The playoffs start not just after the 23rd playoffs start started. Maybe arguably last week, if you think about it, trying to get into and try to stay in a playoff spot and move up. But I'd almost like to say that the playoffs, the mentality has to be that it starts now. This is you're playing playoff hockey now. Your mentality is must win games, get into the playoffs, go in the playoffs with momentum and a bit of belief that you're going to be. Maybe you could be that underdog story against. Maybe if it's against Windsor, obviously finishing eighth against London, the belief is a little bit less, but anything can happen. Good points though. G. With bringing up good teams find ways to win. We see that. Unless you're trying to Maple Leaf fan, you see the other way around or they shoot yourself in the foot. But the teams find good. Good teams find ways to win. And that's what happened this past weekend to the circumstances with the Hounds. [00:43:04] Speaker E: Yeah. And you know, there's the other half of that too is you have to learn, you know, you have to learn how to win too. Right. So that's part of the process. I could tell you from experience this year coaching the core team. Tough losses and unexpected losses and you know, ADVERSITIES that are thrown your way. It's healthy. It's healthy because for us, and obviously I think this is going to be a later story, but we had. We had, I think, disappointed ourselves in a lot of ways in North Bay and Niagara and Burlington. In our tournaments, we played pretty good hockey in the. In Niagara and Burlington, but we didn't have the ability to finish the game on the winning side. Right. We were either ties or won goal losses. And all of that, obviously, I think came to a head in the playoffs and at NASA when we were finally able to break that mold based on kind of the lessons that we had learned along the way. And I think in the ohl, with the talent level and different kids coming in, or young men, I should say, you do have to take it on the chin. You have to learn that you hate losing. You have to know how to respond to adversity. You have to be in the pressure cooker because the pressure cooker only gets hotter the more successful you are and the deeper runs you want to make. So you have to learn how to come out on the winning side of these. And so I think there's value in some of these tough losses, too. And I think that that's the only way you can really look at it when you're dealing with young, competitive men or women or women. This isn't a gender thing. Young competitive people. Right. You got to just teach them that there are lessons to be learned in victory, but in defeat as well. Right. And it's just to keep going like that. [00:44:38] Speaker A: Trude, before we go to Dustin for the last two topics, we're going to talk about billeting. Very excited about that different piece of content that we haven't touched on the show. I know we're going a little overtime, but, you know, it's fine. You got a special guest, you get a freebie. We'll just borrow from Justin. Justin doesn't mind going a little bit quicker than longer with me. Oh, and also we're going to touch on the high school points that Dustin already touched on. So Trude's. Any final points going into the playoff plush or based on any response back from what Dustin said? [00:45:04] Speaker F: You know, I think too the one thing that we maybe have forgotten about because it feels like January, February was so long, I think just being because it's winter. But this team wasn't even healthy until 45 games into the season. Like, we're looking at a team that, like, was missing two, three veteran players up until the 40, 45 game mark. So this team isn't like how they're performing right now. All healthy is probably closer to how the team would have performed all year had they did not go through the injuries that they, that they did. Remember, we mentioned that a lot in the fall. Like the injury bug hitting the team like one, two a night, just going down to injuries so well. [00:45:52] Speaker E: And I, like, I think if you write down the names too, right? Shirts, if you, if you think about guys, that. And whether people know or not, and I'm not trying to spill beans, but, you know, Bow and a Large played very few games. Kaden Carlisle has been dinged up all year, right? Whether it's different things he's playing through, getting pucks to the face, you know, going through that kind of stuff. You know, Spencer Evans, Spencer Evans. I mean, that guy has just taken an absolute beating this year. Extremely unlucky, and we're relying on him. McConnell Barker was hurt at the beginning of the year. Brownies had some injuries, right? So. And then, you know, Gibson was away for world juniors and there was a lot of, you know, there was a lot of. There was a bit of a cloud above the Gibson head because everyone kind of knew we were saying goodbye to him and we love him, you know, so there was that weight. Brady got hurt, right? Rolled his ankle and he was banged up. I mean, the kid comes back because he's like just an absolute animal. He comes back way too early. If you see him before the game or after the game, you wonder how he's going to put a skate on his foot. But you watch him during the game and you would never know that, you know, he's dinged up. But he was, you know, playing through a black and blue ankle for a long time. It would have taken a lot of guys out of the game for weeks. And it just takes him a couple days to bounce back. And, you know, you're talking significant. Nord hyper extended his knee, right? And it's just like, yeah, they get healthy, but when they start playing again, dude, they're not healthy. Like, don't kid yourself. They're not. They're not full pop. It takes them a couple weeks to get back going, and we just juggled however many names I just told you. And they're guys who are meant to play important pieces and then everything's not gelling. Then we get Sharon, which was great. Like, then we had to get people to come and we've ended up with some really unbelievably talented kids in George Sherron and Chase Reed, right? So like, silver linings here. But yeah, man, like, we were hurt, hurt, hurt. [00:47:48] Speaker F: And then, like, that's the thing, too. You miss a couple weeks, it's not like just hopping back on a bike. Like, hockey shape is like, unbelievable. Like, you have to be in great, great. Like, and these kids are like, these young men are. But like, missing two, three week month of, like, game shape of game, game reaction, game speed. Like that take. That's huge. Like, that. That's a bad, long period of time to be out. So, yeah, like this, I think they're. They're about 500 in their last 10, 15 games. And with, like, a few more bounces, they could be above. [00:48:22] Speaker E: So the proof's on the film and proofs on the film. Watch it shift to shift. That's all I gotta say. It's. It's. I've watched every shift. I've watched every shift this year, right? So it's like, don't check your phone at the end of the night and be upset. Go back and watch the shifts. And if you. If you leave their games upset about the effort, you just got to reconsider, man. You got to reconsider what you think is. Is effort because those boys put it out there. Since Christmas, those kids have. Those. Those young men have been putting it all on the ice. [00:48:51] Speaker A: Good points, fellas. Two points we'll get to at the greyhounds big games this weekend. Make sure you tune in and support, even from afar. Definitely. And positive interactions all around about these young men. Now, Dustin, I want to dive into billing. Yeah, it's a different piece. And you know what? It's something you don't hear on podcasts. Okay. And that's why we're buying more time with this segment, because of the two points I want to touch on. One, the billing. And two, I want to talk about the high school piece because they deserve to get more love than they get for recognition. But the billeting piece, different piece of content. You and I chatted off air saying, let's bring a different piece. And you know, people can be involved in billeting. You do bill it. So I want to give you the floor about how you want to go forward with this topic, about the experience and kind of the importance of it and the effect of it, what it does for the player and yourself, whatever you'd like to dive into for the next handful of minutes or so regarding ability. And I think it's a wonderful topic to bring up and share with our viewers and listeners. [00:49:44] Speaker E: Okay, Trude, you got any questions or yeah, yeah. Where do you want me to start? Here. [00:49:50] Speaker A: I just went a whole different direction there, so. True. You know what? Yeah, go first. [00:49:55] Speaker F: This kind of really works out. And we didn't even really plan this, but my parents actually just submitted a billing application the other day. So they're look like they're, they're looking forward to hopefully hearing some positive news in the near future. So I guess what is, what is maybe like a week to week routine look like for these young men? Like what do they have to go through on a daily, weekly basis because they do travel every second week. So what are some things that maybe they have to do to prepare and you help them to do? [00:50:28] Speaker E: Well, I mean, first and foremost truths. How was your childhood? [00:50:33] Speaker F: It's amazing. [00:50:35] Speaker E: Your parents will be great ballots, buddy. And they're hockey fans to boot. You know what, taking in, taking in a player is like adding another child to your family, right? If you don't look at it that way, you shouldn't do it. You know, that's just the brass tax of it. Week to week he gets up and puts his socks on just like me, sometimes wears pants. So that's good. But you know, we, they're out the door. You know, the way the greyhounds operate their schedule, they're more like a pro day and they change this. I want to say in, in the second year that I did it because this is my third year billeting and they have, they have a more pro style day. So they're out the door at like 8:00 or 8:30 and at the rink early. And they do the bulk of their on ice and rink work in the morning and then there'll be optional skates in the afternoon. And sometimes they do specials groups or certain guys doing indie work or goalie work. So you know, breakfast isn't, isn't a big thing here. They have breakfast at the rink, you know, you know, it's taking it a step, a step back. I don't know how every organization works, but I know the Greyhounds and Tim Lukenda, the ownership group and Tracy and Jerry Liscom and the people who do the day to day for, for the boys at the rink are incredible. There's no expense spared. When they get to the rink, they have nutritious food for breakfast. They oftentimes have snacks there for them, you know, so as a billet, they make my life extremely easy. Travy eats breakfast with our family. I say Trav, but Trav Brady Chase, he breakfast with my family. Oftentimes it's a ritual on Sunday mornings when they have the afternoon game when they're getting ready. Right. They go to the rink about four hours early to do all their preparations, stretch, get warmed up, look at film, just do their. Their prep stuff. So, you know, breakfast is only once in a while, but. And you. You really don't really see them at lunch. They tend to hang out with one another, and I think that's amazing. And then, you know, you. You have dinner ready just like every other day and sit down with your family and. And your kids, and they're one of them. And, you know, if you have one, you typically have three, and it's great, man. I. I wouldn't trade Trav for the world and a very special experience. [00:52:47] Speaker A: So I guess what I'd like to kind of go on, and I think, and you can agree with this or not, G, is that I think the biggest challenge of building is taking that step to do it. I think that might be the biggest challenge. And I don't mean that in any way. I think it's just people, they wonder, what is this going to change in my life? What is this going to affect? How is this going to help me grow? So that's the first point that you can react on. The second point that I'll bring up is how has billing help grow you as connection to the greyhounds or the community or the fans? Two parts there for you that I'll elaborate. That'll get you to elaborate on. [00:53:22] Speaker E: Yeah, I think getting started, and I think this has changed. And I'm not throwing shade at anybody. I feel like hockey players when we were that age were a lot dumber and reckless. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Sorry. You know what? We're good segment. That's so true. That's it. We're good. [00:53:36] Speaker E: Yeah. And, you know, there are still. I know every. Every hound on the team. I've had every one of them at my restaurant. I've had every one of them at my house. I've had every one of them interact with my kids. I've left them here alone. I've never had a single issue. They're all extremely polite. I think a lot of the, you know, character references when they're doing their scouting and making their picks, I think I feel like the hounds draft or trade for a certain kind of human being. And so I think the biggest thing people worry about is like, I'm gonna have this, you know, crazy young man hockey guy who's reckless and he'll ruin my house and he'll be disrespectful. And it couldn't be anything further than that. That. That is not even close. You know, the worst these guys do is come over and, you know, my kids bear paws. They're just snack fiends and drink all my kids yogurt drinks. And that's mostly Kluche. But they're wonderful. They're wonderful young men. And I think it's a privilege to be able to bill it. I really do. I think that once you do it, it's hard to, especially once you spend a little bit of time with, with the kid, the young man, when he moves in or older. You know, a good example is a friend of mine from Cora took in Jacob Frasca last year and, and they're still in touch. And Jacob Frasco is a wonderful young man, just unbelievable young man. And same with Jack Beck. Outstanding character, both of them. And, you know, our family bill it. So Lisa, my wife's sister has brown, and my wife's brother had dentino for all those years, and that's kind of how it started. And yeah, so I think, I think once you start, and I think if you're fortunate enough that Jerry thinks that you can take care of one of these boys adequately and not to say that people who aren't successful can't. You know, I think they do. I spent enough time with all the billet families at, at the dinners that we go to. And, and they're all wonderful people. And Trudeau, obviously, I think your parents would be a great addition, but they're all wonderful people. And I think there's a special bond that you create between a billet, you know, a billet and, and a billet parent or a billet family. So once you, once you get started, these guys are not reckless. They're not going to ruin your stuff. They are a family ad not a family. Subtract. [00:55:54] Speaker A: Love that. [00:55:54] Speaker E: And good points. Yeah. [00:55:56] Speaker F: Well, thank. Thanks. Thanks, Dustin. I mean, yeah, like I said before, my childhood was awesome and it was surrounded by sports. So, yeah, my parents, their mo. Their goal is to. They would love to welcome a player to the community and give them somewhere comfortable and just like give them a safe place somewhere comfortable for them to live and to be able to go and go into work every day and come home and do. Do the. Do the things that all young 16 to 20 year olds do to do to relax when they come home. Video games, whatever they need. And they want to be there for that young man. So thanks for the insight. Those are some things that not a lot of just general Maybe common hockey fans wouldn't even think about. [00:56:50] Speaker A: And it helped you grow. G. It helped. You touched on it briefly a little bit, saying how you met, extended your family and all that, but as a person, like. And response, like, you've always been a responsible guy, jokes aside. [00:57:00] Speaker E: Yeah. Lying to the camera. [00:57:03] Speaker A: But, like, it does help you grow. It's a different experience. And I think experiences such as this and such as anything in life is a positive, especially being positive helps you grow in the right direction. Always. We're always growing as human. Human beings, we're growing. It's human nature, and it's good to take that step, to do that. And it's obviously grown. Helped you grow as a person even further and expand your wings in the hockey world. [00:57:23] Speaker E: Well, and they all come with their different. Different personalities. You know, historically speaking, I had Harrison Ballard, and then I had Julian Fantino, and then I had Travis Hayes. And there's a lot of difference between the three of them. And I love all three like my own children. I still talk to all three, I hope. I talked to Trav, obviously, but. And you. You have to wear a lot of hats and you have to be ready to. And what I mean by that is, you know, Harrison was. Was fighting for a spot in the lineup every night. He was an amazing kid and so good to my. To my kids. You know, we. We'd sit on the couch and talk a lot about hockey, watch a lot of hockey, watch TV shows. You know, my job as a billet parent, him being, you know, away from his parents and his support, was to make sure that I just kept encouraging to go and continue to work hard and to earn minutes and try climb the ladder no matter what. And, you know, that was. And he was such a nice young man and a good player, and it didn't work out for him. And he went to the queue and then decided to move on with schooling. And then when he moved on to the queue, you know, it was very hard for me. I'm not going to lie to you. You know, I was pretty upset saying goodbye to him. It was very, very hard. You know, not. Not that many hours passed. And Jerry called me and said, you know, hey, we. We just traded for a guy and. And, you know, we're wondering if he'll take another kicks. I think at that point, you know, living on the golf course and you have a restaurant to go eat at at your disposal, and I'm not bad to hang out with. I don't think on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm about a 4, which is better than, you know, other people, but most. But, you know, I think maybe I. I had earned a call back, and Jerry gave it to me, and he just goes, we just traded for this kid from Owen Sound. Will you take him for the rest of the year? Okay, like, my heart still hurts. And let me talk to Christina. And so I talked to Christina. I said, well, it's only a couple of months. Let's give it a shot. So I called Jerry back, and I go, yeah, you know what, Jerry? We'll do it. When's he coming? Oh, it'll land at midnight. Okay, so here comes Julian Fantino. And if. If you've ever had the pleasure of meeting Julian Fantino, he's a. He's a weapon. He's a beauty. We're just two dummy peas in a pod. And that was a totally different relationship. We became almost like best friends overnight. You know, he gets out of his vehicle, looks at me, goes, sup, bro? And I'm like, different. Very different. Just fine, Harrison. But, hey, right on, man. And I got to know Julian, and. And we went down, and his. His mother came up a couple times and spent the week at our house and got to take in the games because she could work remote. So we. We housed him and his mom and formed a really special bond with them. They're wonderful people. And his dad came up for a week one time, and then summer rolled around, and here the Fantinos opening their doors for us, and we spent, I think, four or five days with them down in Vaughan. They live a hop, skip, and a jump from wonderland. So, you know, they hosted us, and we spent some time together. And then, yeah, I mean, saying goodbye to Julian was. Was very, very difficult. But, you know, I still had Julian. And Jerry comes down in the preseason and says, dust, we got this kid, you know, kind of a. Kind of a hockey lineage with this family at the. The Hayes Avery, obviously. Tremendous success in the O, and now having tremendous success in the A. And is a wonderful young man. And Gavin, as all Hounds fans know, not bad. Got a little bit of my scoring touch. I thought of everything. He knows. Not really. Snipe show and another wonderful young man. And they said, oh, we got the third brother. There's a third brother. There's actually four, but. And the youngest one's a stud, too. But talking about that, we got this kid, and we don't necessarily know where we're gonna put him. Can he live with you for a month? I'm like, God, I got Julian who never shuts up. And now I'm gonna add another one. Hello, Joke. Anyways, so I talked to Christina, and it's like, oh, it's only a month. You know, that's great. We'll do it. So it's year two, you know, and. And so we're eating around the table, and a month is up, and, you know, Julian's like, oh, can't imagine where you're gonna go live after you just lived on the golf course. Like, you know, just being Jules, it just bugging Travis. Quiet. Especially last year. He's. He's a lot more of an open book now. But, you know, Travis just kind of mumbles out of his food, you know, I kind of hope I get to stay here, and the rest is history. And now I'm in year two of the Hays experiment, and, you know, I'm really hopeful that I get a double haze experiment next year with. [01:01:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there it is. [01:01:55] Speaker E: The fingers are. The fingers and toes are crossed, and the Hazes are a wonderful family, and when they come up here, we have a blast together. You know, those are the types of bonds. And so with Julian, I spent a lot of time talking to him about the future in terms of. You know, part of. Part of my job, too, with Julian, when he's an older player, is to. To talk about hockey, but to talk about maybe options after hockey. Right? And it's the only responsible thing to do is just to not. Not deter him from the fact that you can't make a paycheck playing hockey. But those days end, and you have to have alternative plans whether you make a pro or not, right? They all do something else or they all have a backup. Right? And so, you know, part of my job with Julian was to be a little bit of a parental guide in terms of professional choices and keeping options open and maybe trying to figure out what he was good at. And he went to tmu, and. And now Julian is taking an internship with a big insurance company, which is perfect for him, because if you ever talk to him, he's got the gift of gab. Much better than Kagger. I know. I knew it was coming. And then, you know, and then with Trav, I think you. You know, you have a really special opportunity to have a. A first team. All rookie. Mitchell. All rookie last year. Tremendous ability, wonderful kid. And he moved in on Friday, and he was 15 years old, and his 16th birthday was on the Sunday, and you're celebrating a kid's sweet 16 with them, you know, and he's five hours away from home. And you have to be really well, really ready to love them. You have to love them so that. [01:03:36] Speaker A: This is like getting this piece of insight to understand the experience is great. And honestly hopefully it helps urge people to not only to supply like Trudeau's parents have, but to also consider it. I know I always thought maybe it's something I do but obviously got a little baby on the way. We're moving into a new house. There's definitely a lot going on at the McCaig house right now for. For sure. But it's always something that you know would be something that would help me still live the dream through their eyes. [01:04:02] Speaker E: Listen, when you're. When your little boy's JJ's age, do it. Don't even hesitate. They're fantastic. Make sure you have a mini stick room and make sure you don't care about the drywall in there or I'll. [01:04:14] Speaker A: Just break it or the Anything. Anything. I know a guy. I know a guy that can maybe put a rink at a golf course. You know, go for those. I know a guy he might be. It might be a good idea to talk to him about that but we'll. [01:04:29] Speaker E: Talk about that at a later date. [01:04:31] Speaker A: That is that that message was brought to you by Root River Golf Course. I'm just kidding. They don't have. They don't have a nice there yet but. But that aside last I know we went a little bit over fellas so gee I don't want to take obviously just for sake of time I want to dive into more with high school but I still want to touch on it because you guys obviously had a big NASA win. High school hockey has grown. Cass is back in the league. I think it would be good to talk give it a little brief get into the highlights of this season and what has happened and then as we progress into the summer and next season dive into more of it of course but going to give you the floor with high school hockey here in Sault Ste. Marie the seeing cast back in the league. Thumbs up and to be transparent last year I assisted did coaching with Kora. This year I didn't take part in into doing that and obviously see we have not mechanic partners. You win. So it's better results better. The writing's on the wall but g give it give us a little background about the high school hockey here in the Sioux and kind of how the progression has been. So we'll transition from the OHL obviously ability to give a little local love for high school before we wrap up The Chuk a Puck segment today. [01:05:39] Speaker E: Sure. I don't know if it's really news to anybody, but high school hockey has transformed in the last decade. [01:05:46] Speaker A: I'd say decade. [01:05:47] Speaker E: It has been. It's been a long, steady movement. And I think that there's a lot of factors that go into it, but, you know, there's a lot of success stories this year. And I know he kept saying, cass is back in the league, but White Pines is back in the league. [01:06:03] Speaker A: Sorry, sorry, White Pines. [01:06:05] Speaker E: No. And, you know, Rob Zago and Matt Carria and Sandy Carlucci, you know, really stepped up and got that program going and did a tremendous job with those guys. We went to Niagara together, and it's an extremely difficult tournament, and those guys left it all out there and had an absolute blast. And. And we got to spend some time together, and that was really fun. I think all the coaches. I think a really important part is that the coaching staff support each other, so it's. It's a respectful kind of safe place to. To play. And we try to put the best example that we can forward for the boys because we're beyond hockey. We're shaping young men. And so I think everyone keeps that in the forefront of their mind. But, you know, back when we played, it was double A, double B, double C. There was double A selects, there was AAA's. [01:06:52] Speaker D: There was. [01:06:53] Speaker E: I mean, there were so many options. And whether there's, you know, there must be less. Less participants. But, you know, high school hockey used to be seen as, like, thug or goon or like, this is your last hurrah. And there are a lot of guys that went through high school hockey that really changed the scope of that. The. The Kaden Dundas is of the world. And Colin Miller did it to the extreme. [01:07:13] Speaker A: And, you know, good example donors too. Don't we gotta, like, go give love to Michael Doan. [01:07:18] Speaker E: Of course. [01:07:19] Speaker A: No longer with us, of course, but obviously a teammate of mine for. And played against a lot. Hated playing against him. [01:07:25] Speaker E: Unbelievable. [01:07:26] Speaker A: That's for sure. Yeah. Arguably one of the best in Sioux Savory to put on the pads. I know there's Turk. There's a lot of good goalies and players in the suit, but Doan was definitely a special talent. Right. So high school hockey has been shaped and it's not. That's the way it was. Gee, that's a great example. When I was in high school and I ended up getting cut from aaa, I'll never forget Remy Jean Tez coming up to me in the hallway of the Sir James Dunn hallway and saying, hey, you know, Dave, can you play with us? Instead of going the Double A route. And obviously I had people in my ear as a young kid thinking I was going somewhere even at the age of 16. And you, you know, once you still play Junior and Blind river at the age of 20, you know, the, at my time, given how hockey was, that you come to the realization of what your life's going to be. To be. To be honest, for me, at that point, things have changed now for opportunities, but I thought Double A was the best route to go. And I honestly, it was. I went to Double A with Donnie Gagne. We had Michael Doan, Brett Finley, probably one of the best Double A teams of all time. And we took everything. One of the last things I've ever won in hockey, to be honest with you. So it was a decision that I don't regret, of course. But high school, at that point, you're thinking, this might not be best for my development or my exposure. Right. That's what was embedded up here. But that's not the case. Even then it wasn't the case. It's not. But now especially, it's been highlighted. I'm happy that high school has had that time and its spotlight because it is a great, It's a new, it's a, it's the avenue that's developed very well. [01:08:48] Speaker E: Yeah. And one thing I want to make sure we're all clear on, right, is the messaging from high school isn't, you're not going anywhere, come play high school. It's just a different path to develop. And there are quality coaches and quality players and quality tournaments. And when we travel, you know, into the States or to Niagara or Burlington or any Southern Ontario team, they have AAA players. I, I never, I never, ever, ever try to recruit a player by saying, where are you going? Right. That's not the message. It's, you know, a lot of times we're, we've worked really hard at core and we're very lucky with where we're at as a program to have a lot of high quality players come and approach us. And my messaging is simple to them. Play where you'll be happy, player, you'll be happy. Right? Where we compete with aaa. It's, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a secret anymore. Right. There's kids that are deciding between AAA and high school hockey. Right. We land somewhere between AAA and Double A, you know, overall in the league. And, you know, the first thing is it's it's play where you want to be happy. And, and what does happy mean? Some kids don't want to go and play every weekend on the road and live that lifestyle, right? Some of them want to have a part time job. Some of them, you know, girlfriends are a big thing if you're realistic, right? Like you don't want to always be away and go to school Monday to Friday and travel Saturday, Sunday to Capiscacing or Sudbury or wherever your next, your next game is, right? Lean towards it because maybe we get a different fan in the stands, right? We have our student body that come out to support in February. Our attendance was 2,000 people in February for our playoffs which is, I mean if you saw the city final between us and Cass, it was three, four people deep all the way around the boards, packed and what a scene. What a memory. What a memory for all involved and you know, have rep guys there and you see the Thunderbirds still in half their gear. They walked over from their practice to come and see what's going on, right? And it's like there's a certain sense of pride putting that jersey on for your school. And I know that's crazy because you get to wear the Hound Hound logo with a lot of pride too. But it's just different, right? Part of it might be the realization about the future of hockey with, with each individual, but I don't believe any of that comes from a single coach in our league. I think it's more self directed. I mean kids are linked to social media and they almost know where they stand, right? And so they have to make a decision to either continue in the elite programs like the double, the AAA Double A Hounds or to come, I would say do a highly competitive program like high school and don your school jersey and play with the guys you see in the hallways, the guys you eat lunch with, the people sitting across from you in the classrooms, with the teachers who coach you. And it's a great feeling, man. I won cities with Cora as a player. I've now finally done it as a coach. Unbelievable feeling. One of the greatest, you know, memories to date in my lifetime. I've loved every second of coaching the core Colts, but it's beyond the core Colts. The Greco is Jamie Greco, Tom Herndon, Bobby Gilbreth, Blast from the past. He's on the other side, a whole core teammate of mine. They do a wonderful job with Spear Heights and Josh Dunn and Duraz and Boots did a wonderful job with St. Mary's and Spencer Lawrence and the boys did an unbelievable job with Cass getting that group to buy in to come out. That was a group of 50/50 who decided they were going to come back and, and try to do something special. And they were special. They were an unbelievable group. Extremely classy, very respectful, talented dogs. And I have a lot of wonderful things to say about every team in that league and the group of young men and coaches that made them up, really. So I think it's a great place to play. [01:12:38] Speaker A: Well said Truz. I'll give you the final word on it. There's always something that Angel Bombaco said that said to me that I will always remember. Especially know. Dave Tory kind of mentioned it to knows at the Hound camp back in the early, early days, let's call it. It says if you're a good hockey player, we will find you anywhere. And there's also the fact that he also said on top of that, in the same breath essentially that we'll find a new hockey player, especially in this region, every five. Five miles. He said five miles, but I'll say five kilometers. Just a reference. Canadian. So Angelo Bambaco legend, obviously well known when it comes to Sue Greyhound side of things, which segues nice into this Chuck puck segment. But Trude, I'll give you the final thoughts about, you know, the overall exposure. You've been in the background, worked in the background with the Hounds. We won't dive into everything that you did there because you're obviously a big part of the team, but you've seen the team grow and kind of what they do and in the community. It's a hard working town, a hockey town. And I've said on this podcast multiple times that I don't think hockey is the same as it used to be. But I don't mean it that a negative way at all. I'm just saying that there's often opportunity to get back to where it was and it's getting to that point and that guys like Dustin and individuals like your parents, yourself, the passion. And you know what, despite the fan fan page saying what it does, even at times, the passion is there in Sault Ste. Marie and it's great to see what we have available to us here in the heart of the Great Lakes. [01:13:57] Speaker F: Well, yeah, I think the, the passion is evident no matter what. Like no matter what point of view you have on that fan page. And, and it says something about our community, right? As if, okay, the team's lower in the standings, you know, the passion of the people is gonna come out. So that's that's huge. And that's one reason why I don't think this junior team's going anywhere anytime soon. But as for me, like, I never played high school hockey, but I remember when I was in my final years, it really, really started kind of take off. Like a lot of players jumped over. So I don't know if that's more of like a, like a, like a interval thing or if, if it was around 2014, 2015 that it really took off. And I know the coach of cast, Jack McLeod and he was always excited to, to come to the Sioux and I caught a couple games this year. It was, it was great hockey and the exposure was great for the kids. It's, it's an, it's quite the atmosphere. My cousin played, he was a net for, for Dustin a couple years ago and just the atmosphere that he went through being a goalie for Cora playing against St. Mary's was he went through. [01:15:09] Speaker E: The juggernauts standing for us. [01:15:13] Speaker F: And if you know him like, like my cousin Matthew, he's the number, like your number one stereotypical goalie. He was just like, yeah, whatever. Like they're all chant, they're all taunting my name. Yeah, whatever. [01:15:24] Speaker A: It's just weird breeds. [01:15:26] Speaker E: So like, I mean, awesome young man. [01:15:29] Speaker F: So a lot of the, he is an awesome young man. So a lot of those, A lot of the kids that you coach or a lot of kids that play, sure they may not be going to major junior into the NHL, but like being able, like growing up, I can't imagine my life without sports. Like I learned so many lessons playing sports, playing competitive baseball and like semi competitive hockey. So it's, it's just, it's, it's a, it's a great way to spend your time as a young athlete and you learn the lessons you learn, you will take the rest through with you through the rest of your life. So whether you're playing high school hockey, junior A, major junior junior C men's league, hey, it's all, it's all relevant. Have fun, stay safe and exciting time of year for everyone we got coming up here, so let's get out. [01:16:16] Speaker A: Well said. Dustin extended overtime here, but we're gonna call this. We never do that nowadays, believe it or not. We have extended a couple times on this segment, but you know what? This was expected for me. I wouldn't expect anything less than to have us three talking about to say, Marie the Hounds high school hockey billing the content that we went into today. I think everyone has a lot of interactive pieces that they can get into and be a part of that. I hope they were able to enjoy hearing this piece from us. But, Dustin, I want to say thank you to my friend as we wrap up Chuck A Puck for taking the time to talk hounds, talk billeting, talk high school, talk your thoughts about the community and contributing and just showing your face back on this podcast where the last time you were here it was called the Game Sports Show. Okay. It's now had the Game Sports podcast. We were on live radio before. Now we're just, we're uploading on the other side. There's been change and I add a zero to your check every week, as I said. But you're an original host on this show where we used to record in the Pocket in your kitchen when you lived on Devon Road. Okay. The first ever in the Pocket segment, which was a name that was done by Dan Phantom. I took that name from him because he was supposed to join our show. Didn't. So I kept the name. Told him I was going to do that. [01:17:25] Speaker E: He's a fan. [01:17:26] Speaker A: We haven't looked. Yeah, we haven't looked back. But it's great to see you come back on and have you on more as we can and when appropriate. But I appreciate everything that you did for today's segment, man. It was awesome. [01:17:36] Speaker E: Yeah, no problem. I appreciate that. You know, to Jude's point too, because I, I feel like, you know, if any listeners are in that, that Greyhound fan page, I think, you know, we. The light that we may have. Have broadcasted it in, I didn't want it to come off as negative. I like the fan page, which people are incredibly passionate, you know, to True's point, I think their passion is reflected in how well we've done historically and how successful the greyhounds have been historically. Right. And if, if you're a dud of a team all the time, nobody's going to be passionate about you. I think their passion speaks to how. How well we've done over the last 20 years. Right. In terms of how much success we've had. We haven't won the big one. Not yet, but our time's coming. [01:18:20] Speaker A: Love that. G. Thanks again. And G was in my wedding party at my wedding. It was a great wedding. That's a year ago. [01:18:25] Speaker E: I remember. [01:18:26] Speaker A: That's. We're close. Yeah, that's. It was a great night. And Trudes, I want to say thank you to you, my friend. As always, extra time today, but fun and great. And I gave you a treat today with a surprise guest that you didn't know was happening. You can attest they didn't know that was happening. But as always every week, man, I appreciate your time and your chats. [01:18:46] Speaker F: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I mean I'm biased but the Greyhounds have the best fan base in the, in the league and in the world. Right. Like so I mean we hold, we hold everybody accountable. Like you know, so that's why that's about, that's a big thing like, like Dustin saying if, if your team not doing well, they might move to Brantford or they might move back to Brampton. So we're so fortunate. Definitely like we won't be going anywhere anytime soon. The red and white stays. So go home to go as always. That's my sign off. [01:19:16] Speaker A: Love it. G. Thanks again, Trudes again. And to leave the listeners with a fun fact. The London Knights hold the unfortunate distinction. Let's call the OHL team with the most losses of all time. Fun fact, the London Knights record setting streak was 31 games. Yes, I pulled that off of online but I wanted to share an interesting fact because the show has been full of good, good points. London Knights have the or the OHLT with the most losses of all time. Just throwing that out there, you think of a successful organization. Fight length, they still hold the most losses. So they hold something in a category that's a little less fortunate. Little light to share for the here for the Chuck A. Puck segment again it's been Chuck Puck. Thank you again to Dustin and to Jordan Trudeau. We are going to take a quick breather. When we come back it's going to be more of a round team about a bonus in the pocket segment with Justin Heikle joining yours truly. Talk about the NFL free agency and we also might dive into some MLB but maybe some WWE as well. Some fire coming out of the WWE that we talked about last week. But Justin's going to share his points a lot more coming here on the Game Sports Podcast. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to the Game Sports Podcast. Dave McKay continuing to host you this evening. This is the third segment of the Game Sports Podcast who tonight the last segment was a doozy. It was very long but it was very good. Okay, that's, that's the best way that I could put it in the simplest way that I could put it. And welcome back. Dustin Grandit coming back with absolute fire. Yes, it's on a still casual special occasion basis but it was great to have mom. But I hope you've been enjoying the show thus far with Top shelf And chuck a puck here on the third segment, we're going to be diving into a majority of the content is. I'm going to be transparent with you in the pocket bonus in the pocket segment, which is sponsored by SportsCenter Bar & Grill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, just to remind you. But before we dive into the in the pocket segment, which of course, a lot of movement in the National Football League. So that is why we're going to be diving into that for sure. But Justin and I haven't been on a show together for a few weeks. You know, Justin is a big Maple Leaf fan, just like yours truly. We've talked a lot of hockey on this show already. So you know what? We won't go into that. But Justin, I'm gonna get. Put him back in for some playoff hockey when that comes around the corner. Okay? So definitely keep that. I got Justin's favorite hockey player on the back. If you know, you know. But I want to say something to you about wwe. Okay, Justin, look, Par and I were on last week, and he was at the elimination chamber. I didn't go. Absolute stupidity. I had tickets right beside him. I could have got. Didn't go. I thought about, who can I ask to go? And I'm not gonna lie, I thought of you. But then I realized you have a child, so. So that didn't happen. [01:21:53] Speaker D: Funny story. My buddy lives down south, Josh Bakken. Everybody knows, you know, you know him. He lives in one of the B suburbs of Toronto. It's not Ramladesh. It's one of the other ones. He sends me a message this Saturday morning, and he goes, look, there's like, good tickets. They're like 200 bucks. And it was like. [01:22:11] Speaker A: And the weather was here, though, right? [01:22:13] Speaker D: It was terrible. But, like, I thought about it. I thought about it a lot. And, like, completely random. Other story, one of our drivers at work, guys, like 60, probably, maybe late 50s, but 60 for sure. Friday morning, he tells us. Yeah, so I'm going to Toronto this weekend at an event. Oh, yeah? [01:22:33] Speaker A: What are you. [01:22:33] Speaker D: What are you going to do? Go to that elimination chamber. [01:22:36] Speaker A: That elimination chamber. [01:22:37] Speaker D: What? Yeah, you know, I just got into it a little. A little while ago when it was on Netflix. And so I'm gonna go check it out. [01:22:44] Speaker A: Lucky guy. Lucky guy. [01:22:46] Speaker D: Just. Yeah, you know, I'm just gonna go check it out, see what. [01:22:49] Speaker A: And you know what? You know what broke the Internet? Yeah, like, you know what broke the Internet? John Cena broke the Internet. Okay. And the rock. I was so mad because two Weeks prior to the event. Alex Parr. Everyone knows Alex, especially if you follow the show. If you don't, then I don't know what to tell you. But there's two tickets. He said, dave, do you want to go? And I couldn't think of anybody. What the hell could have thought of you? My friend Andre Nathan, Inch Intercontinental Inch. Everybody knows that character on here. And I didn't ask them until Thursday before the event. And they're like, dude, we got kids. We. We got lives. You got to tell us in advance, right? And then I was looking at my. I was looking at my wife. I was like, pregnant wife, dude, let's go to Toronto. And she's like, no, not really. Like, I don't feel like spending a thousand dollars on going to see Elimination Chamber, which credit to her, because I wouldn't blame her. I. She would have just been there just for me, and that's how great she is. But, like, she's. [01:23:42] Speaker D: That's not fair to her. [01:23:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it isn't. It is. If you want to spend a thousand bucks. When Eminem goes on tour, I'll be the first one to do that. But that's something that we're excited about. But besides the point W. Elimination Chamber, that event was wild. Wish we could have been there. Justin, you're a WWE fan. Attitude era. Look, we've seen it, been through it all. It was terrific. While despite what you watch on Netflix with Vince McMahon, what's going on right now, Triple H is writing great cinema. Yeah, it's fake, people. It is fake. We know it's fake. Fake. But it's like when you watch a TV show, if you watch Love is Blind. I'm not saying Love is blind. Fake, isn't it? Prove it isn't. But the point is, you're watching a reality show. It's also not the same thing. It's not a reality event. It's still fake. But again, it is a show that you watch to enjoy. That is my example. And this has been pierced. [01:24:27] Speaker D: Cinema still requires some athletic ability, like some. You know what I mean? I'm not. I mean, I could probably do my best Otis out there, but that's about it. [01:24:36] Speaker C: It. [01:24:37] Speaker A: Good example. I love that. [01:24:38] Speaker D: That's. [01:24:38] Speaker A: That's all I know I can do. Who I can do that sound and look up, like, Roman Reigns. I don't know if I can spear someone like he can, but, oh, my. [01:24:47] Speaker D: No one's putting their ones up for you, Dave. [01:24:49] Speaker A: No, the tribe. I'm not gonna lie. I don't mean this in a. Whatever way people want to take it. I asked Hannah if she could acknowledge her tribal chief while we're just cooking in the. While we were cooking dinner, just to see. As a random thing. And she actually went and I. I almost fell to the floor in proudness because she. Well, I'm there just cooking up, prepping steaks, prepping dinner. And she does this and I'm prepping steak. She does the acknowledgment. And I have never been more proud that. That's great. But you, Justin, can write this stuff. It's been great. We're in for one hell of a year. I'm almost tempted to buy tickets to go to Vegas, but we know that's not. [01:25:24] Speaker D: Yeah, that's. That's a lot. There's a lot. I mean, WrestleMania is coming to Indianapolis, I think. Not next year, but the year after. [01:25:32] Speaker A: So maybe, maybe we can plan an event in advance. [01:25:36] Speaker D: Just saying, see where we're at. We'll see where we're at in the. [01:25:40] Speaker A: State of the planet and state of the podcast. Never know where that's going to be as well. Would be a fun event to take part. [01:25:47] Speaker D: It's going to be guys with kids complaining about sports live with the Rock. [01:25:51] Speaker A: In front beside us. Love it. But you know what, Justin, you got to give credit to the wwe. It has been terrific stuff. I'm good. [01:25:57] Speaker D: That's good storytelling. And Honestly, it's been WrestleMania season is the time. If you're gonna. Casual fan looking to get into it, WrestleMania season's time to do it. [01:26:07] Speaker A: Bold prediction. Oh, what do you got? Do you have any. Or a prediction? Do you have something that's gonna happen at WrestleMania or from now till then or after? What are we expecting this year? Any. Anything you want. [01:26:18] Speaker D: I mean, it's not really a production, but I think it's been going around out there that Stone Cold said he'd be willing to help out Cody Rhodes if he needs it. It. [01:26:26] Speaker A: So if I hear that glass break, I'm gonna run through a wall for that guy. [01:26:30] Speaker D: I'll. My pants. That's 100. [01:26:33] Speaker A: Bold prediction. J USO wins against Gunther is 1. [01:26:38] Speaker D: I hope so. [01:26:38] Speaker A: And 2, why not? It's so predictable. But John Cena might be. I don't know if they're gonna take that story from Cody yet, but I. I don't think so, truly. But something in here is telling me that all these title changes and things that are just changing, maybe they do that. [01:26:54] Speaker D: If it forces the Cody Rhodes heel turn, then that's worth it. That makes must see TV through the summer because as a rule summertime the stories get a little iffy. If it's SummerSlam, then SummerSlam sets everybody up for the fall again. [01:27:08] Speaker A: But eight minutes of WWE bonus content for you. Leave us your predictions below about wwe. Justin, I will talk about that more. [01:27:14] Speaker D: And Alex, yeah, we could touch base again on that. [01:27:17] Speaker E: I love it. [01:27:18] Speaker A: We got time. [01:27:19] Speaker D: 38 days, I think till WrestleMania. [01:27:21] Speaker A: WrestleMania preview show. We're going to do that for the the first time on this podcast this year that is happening. We are going to be invested and I hope to have a belt by then that I can show during the show. All right. We made a promise to ourselves about time then we ate up a little bit. [01:27:33] Speaker D: Yeah, we already blew that. So in. [01:27:36] Speaker A: In the Pocket segment officially starts now. Just kidding. It's been a segment the whole time. But bonus in the Pocket content is what I should say is going to kick off right now for you. Free agency season has begun. We are invested into all the moves, everything that's happening. Justin, give us some highlights and some takeaways that's happened in the past, never mind 24 hours the past week it feels like. But everything that's happened that the listeners want to be caught up with. [01:28:01] Speaker D: All right, well, let's. We're just gonna do some rapid fire here through the big ones. We'll start with the Bills. I mean, Josh Allen, big new deal. $330 million. That's a pretty juicy one. Bill's added a few receivers while Josh Palmer resigned. Shakir. The other big one is Joey Bosa signing with the Bill. That's they ditch Von Miller and add Joey Bosa on a pretty friendly contract. Very Miami Dolphins, nothing crazy on that front. They signed Zach Wilson, so watch out for the the moms in Miami. Zach Wilson's in town. Patriots. Yeah, hide your wives, kids, whatever. Just hide your wives. Patriots bringing in backup quarterback Josh Dobbs. The. The Pasternaut. Other than that, Mac Hollins at wide receiver and Austin Hooper at tight end. So getting a few weapons out there on offense, but nothing crazy. Still building it up there in New England. Justin Fields signing a two year with the Jets. So the latest victim to play quarterback for the New York Jets. I was kind of hoping we'd end up with Fields in Indianapolis, but we got a gift instead. We'll hit there, get there shortly. [01:29:04] Speaker A: 15 million signing bonus, 30 million guaranteed. For Fields. The jets are investing into the promise that he showed with the Steelers this past season. [01:29:13] Speaker D: I mean, he's, he's not a bad Player. [01:29:15] Speaker A: No Steelers helped. I think Tomlin, the Tomlin effect really helped them played in that system and I think that helped get his confidence back. I think he'll fit well in New York, but I don't see a playoff push by any means. [01:29:24] Speaker D: No, they'll just. I think they're going to be more competitive than they have in previous years. Nothing against Aaron Rodgers. It's just tearing your Achilles. And then playing for the jets is a bad combo. Moving, moving along. DeAndre Hopkins signed with the Ravens. That's. That's a pretty interesting one. [01:29:41] Speaker A: They're sick. They're. They're sick. [01:29:43] Speaker D: D Hop's getting a little older in the teeth, but you know, I think he's still got it. Lamar Jackson, they got Zay Flowers there. I mean D Hop is if anything it's someone for the young guys to learn from just how to be professionals. And it gives. Gives them a nice bailout option to be honest. As a third wide receiver. [01:30:01] Speaker A: Yep. [01:30:02] Speaker D: Cincinnati Bengals just resigning a lot of their own players. T. Higgins non exclusive franchise tag. And then just a lot of. A lot of re signs. There's Cleveland Browns trading for Kenny Pickett. Steeler legend super bowl winning quarterback Kenny Pickett. So Cleveland Browns got their quarterback in the future. The other big one, Miles Garrett, resigning. [01:30:22] Speaker A: Thought he was gonna go. I thought he was getting traded. I thought for sure. But I think you were right. [01:30:28] Speaker D: I won't sign even if they offered me $159 million. So they offered him 160 and he's like all right, cool, I'll take it on. And I'm sure EJ would have have some better opinions on that. The Kenny Pickett one I think is interesting. [01:30:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And Russell Wilson is in the running apparently for his rumored he's visiting Cleveland tomorrow. [01:30:48] Speaker D: Apparently to what a weird quarterback room that would be very. [01:30:52] Speaker A: You got a two former Steelers up in the Tomlins system. Russ Wilson a Super bowl winning quarterback. Kenny Pickett's a Super bowl winning quarterback technically. [01:30:59] Speaker D: And then DeSean Watson making more money than the rest of the team and not playing wild. [01:31:04] Speaker A: Continued joke in Cleveland. I'm sorry. Continued joke. [01:31:07] Speaker D: Steelers making a big move. DK Metcalf. [01:31:11] Speaker A: Love that. [01:31:11] Speaker D: Wide receivers. Interesting getting a wide receiver with no quarterback. But we'll see Kenneth Gainwell signing with the Steelers as well after nausea beast. [01:31:21] Speaker A: Out decided to go with the Chargers little running back depth. And Jalen Warren was tender to contract as well. So they're probably looking to gain well and a Warren Tatum to end up. Sorry. Which kind of looks I like Harris, it's. I think that's a loss. He obviously was very a standout at college. [01:31:35] Speaker D: But he never popped off. [01:31:37] Speaker A: Nope. He had the one decent year in his first year. [01:31:40] Speaker D: Just average. [01:31:41] Speaker A: Yep. DK Metcalf. I'm gonna see how that goes with Pickens. I'm interested to see how that, how that double goes. But they definitely need a quarterback to throw them the football. [01:31:50] Speaker D: Gonna be fighting guys all the way down the field. [01:31:53] Speaker A: And he's absolutely shredded. Signed a four year extension, $132 million. They gave him up a second round pick for him and a late pick swap as well. I think that's a good value for someone like Metcalf who's going to allow you're going to have two receivers that can catch the football but now you just need to have somebody who can trust run the ball. I'm not, I'm. I'm thinking from a Steeler perspective. If you're fan like I am, the running game is kind of a question mark. But you need to be able to throw the football and there's no one to do that yet. [01:32:18] Speaker D: Well, I mean you might be looking at the draft for running back. You never know. [01:32:21] Speaker A: Darius Slay as well signs in Pittsburgh too, which was a very good signing for corner. I think that is, that adds a little depth. The corner pieces for Pittsburgh. So I think there's good moves. It's just interesting to see who they bring in for qb. [01:32:34] Speaker D: Big put, big play. Sleigh, that's, that's a good one. [01:32:38] Speaker E: Yep. [01:32:39] Speaker D: Moving on. We got the Houston Texans doing a lot of, a lot of shuffling. Traded for Christian Kirk with the Jags also bringing in some wide receiver help after they're losing what's his name, Stefan Diggs there to free agency after his injury this year. And I don't think Tank Dell is going to be back either after that. That injury, I mean that we all saw, that was a rough one. And then they also traded Laramie Tunsil to Washington. So moving on from a pretty big name offensive lineman. Interesting. But they're in my division so I'm good with it. Trade your entire offensive line, I'd be fine with that. Indianapolis, there you go. [01:33:13] Speaker A: Right in your backyard, Justin. [01:33:16] Speaker D: I mean I might be a little biased, but we probably signed the two best secondary free agents, Charvarius Ward and Cam Bynum. Camp Bynum brings some sweet dance moves to the backfield and apparently a very good locker room guy, Khalil Herbert at running back from Chicago. But the piece that everyone's waiting for me to talk about Danny Dimes, 14 million dollar contract. This guy just gets paid to exist. Like how much? The Giants paid him like $60 million last year and they told him to go away. [01:33:48] Speaker A: Paid him away. [01:33:49] Speaker D: They had him playing corner in practice. Then he goes on backs up in Minnesota. You know, coaching staff there spoke highly of Daniel Jones's time there, which was like four weeks. So I don't really know. I mean you're probably not going to talk a guy if you don't really know him. But I. This is. We're supposed to be going to do a quarterback competition with Anthony Richardson here. And we got the guys with the two worst pasta ratings in the NFL last year. Anthony Richardson having the worst passer rating in the history of the NFL actually. [01:34:18] Speaker A: Let's hope that he has that. Being Anthony Richardson can bounce back to be the quarterback that you expect him to be. I think the window's starting to close on that. But this year needs to be the year if that's going to be changed and a healthy year, you hope for a healthier. [01:34:31] Speaker D: I mean if we get like 2023 or 2022. 3. Daniel Jones, he was like a poor man's Josh Allen. That's not a bad player. [01:34:39] Speaker A: No problem. [01:34:40] Speaker D: But it gets tough. I work with a couple Giants fans. Got offered a few jerseys this week. Everyone. They're blue. They're blue and white. It's basically the same drink. It's not. I don't want it. But moving on. I spent a little too much time there getting out some stuff that I had to air needed. I couldn't carry that with me much longer. Jags signing Nick Mullins, formerly of San Francisco fame, but I think he was in between somewhere else. Nothing else really crazy there. Hunter Long at tight end after losing Evan Ingram. But I think that's more of a downgrade. Some offensive line help and we'll see if that helps this year. Tennessee Van Jefferson at wide receiver, Johnny Hecker at punter. You know, your free agency moves have been kind of dull when I'm picking out a punter. Moving on to the Broncos. Broncos made some moves. Evan Ingram at tight end. I think that's. That's a pretty good move move bringing in Jared Stidham, resigning him for backup. A lot of help with the. The linebacking core and the secondary. So that's just some Broncos. The improvements there I think are going to help them kind of chip away at that division because the Chiefs are only going to be. Only going to be the king of the castle for so Long. Speaking of the Chiefs, Elijah Mitchell from San Fran. Just resigning a lot of their own players. [01:35:57] Speaker A: Nick Bolton's a good resigning, obviously. That's a big. [01:35:59] Speaker D: I mean, it's big. [01:36:00] Speaker A: The guys return for them. [01:36:02] Speaker D: The guys have worked out for them. They made it to the Super Bowl. How many? What three in the last four years. So why not resign? Your guys make it again. See if you can do it again. The Raiders. Raiders, a lot of action there. Trading for Gino Smith. So quarterback of the future there and almost said Oakland, but Las Vegas, some moves on offensive line, which I think is honestly going to help them out. I mean, they already have brought Bowers. Your running game is okay. Gino Bowers, you know, maybe some wide receiver help through the draft, but you might be all right there. Max Crosby signed a big extension. $106 million. Michigan guy, I believe as well. Or went to college in Michigan. So there's that some corner help. Eric Stokes, Jeremy Chin. But nothing. Nothing too crazy in Oakland. The Geno Smith being the big one. I kind of figured that maybe DK would have got traded there as well, but I guess maybe Tyler Lockett's still a free agent, so maybe a little reunion there. That's their wide receiver help. [01:37:01] Speaker A: Maybe Diggs. If Diggs doesn't go to the Jets. [01:37:03] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. You're not wrong there. Chargers. Your boy Naja Harris signing an okay deal there with the Escalators. Could be almost 10 million bucks he makes next year. [01:37:14] Speaker A: Signing bonus base, max value and incentives. Yeah, definitely big. Definitely good. Cleo Mack is my. Is my favorite signing for them. [01:37:22] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:37:22] Speaker A: Signing, resigning. [01:37:24] Speaker D: Well, I mean, you. They had to. You can't just cut Boza and not resign. You have to. You had to keep one of them. The Bosa trade, though. I. Well, Bosa. The cutting them is that blows me out of the water still. But I mean, the Colts cut Peyton Manning, so whatever. [01:37:38] Speaker A: Yep. That goes and wins the super bowl in Denver. [01:37:41] Speaker D: Yeah, I wasn't talking about that. I just left that. Left that part out, conveniently. [01:37:46] Speaker A: Sorry. [01:37:47] Speaker D: Cowboys big move. Javante Williams. But historically, the Cowboys aren't big spenders in free agency and their record speaks for it most of the time. [01:37:57] Speaker A: Yep. They mostly resign and trade. Yeah. [01:38:00] Speaker D: New York Giants resigned. Tommy Pastrami. [01:38:03] Speaker A: Wait, doesn't do that. That's Menzel. What is Tommy do. Just something. [01:38:06] Speaker D: Tommy DeVito. [01:38:07] Speaker A: Yeah. What does he do with his. [01:38:09] Speaker D: Does the. [01:38:10] Speaker A: I know. This is Menzel. I'm doing the money hands of men lines. [01:38:13] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:38:13] Speaker A: Sorry. Yeah, that's. That's it. There we go. [01:38:15] Speaker D: You're the Italian. [01:38:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:16] Speaker D: Jesus, I can't do that. I crossed some lines there. I have to get permission to do that. [01:38:22] Speaker A: You have. You have permission. [01:38:23] Speaker D: All right. Okay. You can sign that hall pass there. [01:38:28] Speaker A: Darius Slayton. Good. Good. [01:38:30] Speaker D: Yeah, good receipt. Some offensive line help, which I'm sure Daniel Jones could attest to, would be in a great addition there. And the. The nightmare continues if that. Them not having Saquon on their team for some reason because he resigned. A two year extension with the Philadelphia Eagles getting paid $36 million guaranteed and a Super bowl and the hell off the Giants. What a time to be alive for Saquon Barkley. Eagles kind of just stay in the course though. Not doing much else and don't need to. Why would you don't need to. Commander's loading up a bit though. [01:39:02] Speaker A: I love the Mario. I'm a big fan of Marcus. Everyone knows why I love Marcus. Marcus Mariota. He's the reason why I started loving college football for the most, most biggest reason being Oregon legend. But again, love, love that move there and there. They got depth of quarterback Debo Samuel. Sorry I took your fire here. Fifth round pick. I almost think he should have got a sick. I think you get a second for Debo Samuel if you got a second for Metcalf, to be honest with you. Jeremy Nichols. Good sign there. Reese or resigning there. You still have have a bunch of pieces coming back like earths and baits. You got some depth everywhere in pieces. That's going to give Daniels the tools and loving it. The Washington commanders, man, I'm telling you. [01:39:45] Speaker D: They could, they could be a wagon. That's it. [01:39:47] Speaker A: Could be an absolute wagon. [01:39:49] Speaker D: NFC north, goggle Bears, a lot of offensive line help. I mean like established offensive line help. Like they got some Pro bowl players. So I think they're. They're pretty serious about protecting the QB and, and see what he's got in year two. I think they've kind of given him all the tools they can give him to make that offense work. New coach Ben Johnson, the offensive guru. So we'll see what, what they have going on there. Lions just resigning. A lot of guys, defensive players, I think they're kind of cap screwed. I'm not 100% on that, but same thing with the Packers. Packers are also kind of cap screwed. [01:40:24] Speaker A: Yeah, Vikings spent money. A lot of have. [01:40:27] Speaker D: Yeah. The Aaron Jones re signing kind of surprised me. I thought, you know, two years, 20 million bucks seemed like a lot of money. But you know what if they, if it's working for Them keep, keep on, keeping on. They also signed half of the Colts offensive line to a lot of money. Ryan Kelly, great center, very durable guy. I a little upset to see him go. Will Fry's got a ton of money and he was hurt most of last year, so I really don't, I don't know on that one. We had a five game sample size. Really? $88 million million dollars is a pretty big pill. So you know what? Make your money, man. Good on you. Some secondary help, Isaiah Rogers signing there onto the Atlanta Falcons, nothing crazy. Jake Matthews, some offensive line help, and Leonard Floyd on the edge. But again, I think they're kind of toast with the cap. With their 17 quarterbacks all making a ton of money. Carolina Panthers just slow and steady. They were chipping away. The end of the season there started to get really interesting to watch. Also resigned andy Dalton, another two years, some stability at backup QB for, for Bryce Young. And then where is it? JC Horn re signed him for a big, big deal. 100 million bucks, four year extension. [01:41:32] Speaker A: Big signing. [01:41:33] Speaker D: One of the best young corners in the league. Good on you. Carolina have another good draft this year and you know what? That division is wide open. Yep, the Saints are in cap hell. They resigned Chase Young and I think they're still like $50 million over the cap. Hello. So they've got some restructuring for guys there to attend to, to put a team on the field. And I don't, I don't know, I'm not sold on Derek Carr at quarterback. Whatever. Tampa Bay resigning. Chris Godwin resigning. Levante David bringing in Hassan Redick. So that only adds to a defense that's pretty, pretty solid. And I mean, the offense was great all year. So just keep rolling. Let Baker do his thing. [01:42:13] Speaker A: Cooking there in Tampa. [01:42:15] Speaker D: Cooking. Cardinals bringing in Jacoby Brissette at backup a little bit. Offensive line help. A lot of help on the defense. Josh Sweat, that's pretty good. Pretty big move. And he's getting paid there. 76.4 million, 41 guaranteed. So not only Arizona in the desert, you get 41 million bucks guaranteed in your bank account to do it. Good on you. Josh Sweat for getting paid. Erica, hold on. [01:42:40] Speaker A: See if you can hear this in the background. A little bit of a clapping. No, we can't hear it. We can't hear it. I just, I just, I just, I just. Yeah, I psyched everybody out, but here it is. I'll do this. [01:42:48] Speaker D: All right, There you go. The Rams. Jimmy Garoppolo resigning. Matt Stafford resigning. Tutu Atwell resigning. Big move. Cutting Cooper cup and replacing him with Devonte Adams. I'll let you guys be the judge in the comments whether that's a upgrade downgrade. No grade. [01:43:07] Speaker A: A no grade. It's a no grade. But you cut royalty, you cut loyalty. Someone who's been been part of that team. Big part of their super bowl win, obviously wanting change. So not. I don't think that was the right move. [01:43:19] Speaker D: But no talking about cutting players. San Fran just letting everybody go. Not really any notable signings. They're just notable leavings. Leavings. Ayuk gone, Debo gone. You know, same same thing with Seattle. Like Gino Tyler Lockett, dk like that's the Seattle Seahawks everyone pretty well knew. [01:43:38] Speaker A: And Sam Darnold getting paid. Yeah. [01:43:42] Speaker D: 100 million bucks three years. [01:43:44] Speaker A: 55 million. It's guaranteed. Okay. 37 and a half million in year one in this deal. 55 million guaranteed. 100 million dollar guy is Sam Darnold. This was a guy that was drafted by the jets, went to Carolina, started getting some stuff together, went to Minnesota this year was an unsung, underrated, whatever player for the Vikings, had a very good season. And now he's cashing in, warning Seattle fans don't expect that again, especially with the tools that they have for him right now. Marquez Valdez Scantling's not going to be the guy. [01:44:19] Speaker D: That's Justin Jefferson. [01:44:20] Speaker A: It's not. No, it's not overpayment. Probably the most biggest signing that I think is going to be a bust. [01:44:28] Speaker D: I just don't get it, boss, that's all. I mean they have a running game, but they got rid of all their wide receivers and they got rid of. [01:44:36] Speaker A: Literally the guy who's the most shredded wide receiver in the NFL. Thank you. As a Steeler fan. And you lose like it's been no that signing. We're going to be talking about it by week six. Week six. Try to remember this conversation. We're like, why did they sign Sam Darnold to that money? You're gonna be one for four by week six. Whatever. One for five, whatever they're gonna. That's gonna be their record. Bull prediction. If I'm wrong, I don't mind it. But if I'm right, I sound smart. So either way it's a, it's a win for me since there's no loss to that if I goods on Sam Darnold proving me wrong. [01:45:08] Speaker C: But nope. [01:45:09] Speaker A: 1. 1 and 4, 1 and 5 start for Seattle. Telling you right now, like, I mean. [01:45:13] Speaker D: That pretty well wraps up our notable sightings. But like One of my observations through all this is like $25 million in the NFL is like, like $4 million in the NHL. Like just the numbers you're seeing to me are like asinine for some of these players. [01:45:27] Speaker A: Good example. That is the comparison in terms of a contract. Like when I think of Sam Darnold, if you want to reference a forward, people may call me, you may disagree with me. I don't know. But if I look at a Sam Darnold, I'm thinking of a Charlie Coyle. [01:45:42] Speaker D: Well, I mean like Josh Allen for $330 million or Auston Matthews for what, what? 13 different times, different play price. [01:45:50] Speaker A: It's stupid. [01:45:52] Speaker D: I mean it's two different sports where it's not really even comparable in terms of the market and the money that they make. But it's just like it's, it's just such a swing. [01:46:01] Speaker A: Very much the NBA. NBA is the same. Baseball. [01:46:06] Speaker D: Gee, base. Yeah, Baseball's Austin. [01:46:08] Speaker A: That has been pure in the pocket. Recap of all the signings and trades and all the fun stuff that's happened in the NFL the past handful of days, including, well, particular today that we can give you an update for. What's your reactions below. Let us know, let us know what you think. Who won? Quick thing before we sign off, Justin. Winner and loser. Free agency. To this point, I'm going to say in terms of a, you know, for, for a winner. I, I, you know, I really, I think actually you know what, I'll go the loser route first. I, I think that I got a, that put the Seahawks up there. I don't think what they've done and the 49ers people think that's crazy because of Darnold. I could be wrong. I think that was a massive overpay. But that's a going rate for people. It seems like I'm gonna give winners to the free agency that's gonna become maybe come off as a surprise, but winners to the Raiders. I, I like what the Raiders did. I think they made some good moves, improved the team, bringing back Crosby and resigned up to a hefty deal. I think there's still some more that could be, be, could be done to make that team better. And I don't think they are done. They want to have a better season. Do I think they're a playoff team? No, I don't, I don't know. But I think they're going to be more competitive. I think what they did was a step in the right direction. So thumbs up to the Raiders I think they had a good free agency to this point. [01:47:18] Speaker D: If, if you hear purring in the background, my cat is literally sitting directly beside the microphone. [01:47:23] Speaker A: So love it. [01:47:24] Speaker D: That's. That's who I've been wrestling on the side of the screen here, honestly. I mean the cliche answer would be the winners are the players getting paid all this cash. But I think the Bills, I mean, and not like a ton of crazy moves, just re signing some guys that are clutch. I mean obviously the quarterback. But Joey Bosa, that's a huge move for a Bills team that's already pretty good. You know, I like that. [01:47:47] Speaker A: Good example. [01:47:48] Speaker D: I think they could use some wide receiver help. They do have to re sign Cook still. There has to some. Something has to happen there before it gets to hold out territory because that's a thing that guys do now. But I, I honestly think that the Bills, they, they subtracted Von Miller and added Joey Bosa. And I think it's this. You get the same kind of impact player but younger, cheaper and a bit more impactful. [01:48:09] Speaker A: I think more hungry. Exactly. [01:48:11] Speaker D: He doesn't have a Super Bowl. A lot of hard years on the Chargers. I mean he was drafted by the San Diego Chargers, had to move to la. [01:48:18] Speaker A: Yep. [01:48:19] Speaker D: So. And the team cuts them. So there's got to be a bit of a chip on the shoulder there. So good on the Bills for getting a guy like that. And it's, it's. I feel like the Bills is a great environment to go into. So good on them all. [01:48:30] Speaker A: Agree. Any losers? [01:48:32] Speaker D: I want to say Minnesota a little bit for losing that quarterback stability but I think they're. They got the quarterback of the future there and they're, they're just going to. He's healthy now. Let's roll and see what happens. I mean he's got all the weapons there. We saw it work last year for Sam Darnold and got him paid 100 million bucks. [01:48:51] Speaker A: So I'm sure he's just licking his chops right now. If he can do with HA do a 3/4 of what Sam Darnold did to get that paycheck, he won't have to work again of his life even if his NFL career doesn't work. [01:49:02] Speaker D: But if it doesn't work, I mean Minnesota looks silly. They go from playoff team to bust. Yeah. [01:49:07] Speaker A: Interesting to see what happens in the NFL this season. Justin. It's been great talking football with you, man. WWE for 10 minutes. NFL freedoms for 25ish minutes. Little recap, little connection for us. Full scale recap from Top to bottom with all the teams giving you our reaction and updates to what have happened. Let us know what you think below. Justin, What a time to be alive. You know, we're talking in the pocket a little bit earlier than usual. Usually we wait to do a draft and frenzy recap at that point, but you know what? NFL season, it's been hot. We need to talk about it. It. And you know, it just feels like yesterday watching Kendrick Lamar do his halftime show, which I still see tick tocks about it. [01:49:47] Speaker D: Yeah, that's. That's gonna be. [01:49:48] Speaker A: You know what I'm talking about. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. It is. It is. Justin, I want to say thank you, my friend, for taking the time. We'll be seeing you back again soon. You know we're going to be having NHL playoffs around the corner. Have you involved in that? Gonna jump on to more NFL News, WWE News WrestleMania Preview show, both. Lots. Lots to talk about. Definitely. And very excited for that. So thank you, my friend, for taking the time here tonight. [01:50:12] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, always. No problem. Love talking football. Love talking sports. You know that. Oh, yeah. We'll have to touch base on one of the hockey shows because I got a weird theory that Auston Matthews back is. So we'll dabble in that before the playoffs. [01:50:24] Speaker A: Is it because he's trying to carry the team? Is that what we're saying? [01:50:27] Speaker D: No, I'm just. Just watch tomorrow night. His breakout speed is he's hammering Freshkas on the bench. Bench. [01:50:34] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:50:34] Speaker A: Frescas. I was like, what the hell is he drinking? [01:50:36] Speaker D: That's gross. They're not good. Not a fan. I mean, might be an unpopular opinion with the crowd here, but it's gross. [01:50:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Not a fan. Not a fan. Again, thank you to Justin. Lots of things to come up here on the Game Sports podcast. A lot of coverage, a lot of content. It's been an extra. It's been an extended version for you today. You've been treated to an extended cut for all the segments, mostly the final two, but you've had the extended cut of the show. Make sure you comment below. All these episodes take time, efforts. And not only that, we love doing it. We've been doing it here on the Game Sports podcast since 2016. The Game Sports show started 2015, so it bled over to Sault Ste. Marie and SUE mission of 2016. Now it's obviously stationed just within Sioux, Ontario. So we've been doing it since the beginning of 2016, essentially. So we've been around for a long time. We're hitting almost our decade, which is very exciting. We'll have to do something for that. The Game Sports Podcast been around a long time. That and for all those who have been involved in part of this journey, we're excited to have you along further and everyone who's new, make sure you like, follow and subscribe on YouTube, that's 91 Network, the game sports Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, if you're on Spotify, Apple, wherever you are. Just that simple. Like that heart that thumbs up, five stars subscription tune in the future or not that whatever way you want to do it. We'll bring you wholesome and real content. But overall we appreciate your support. So don't hesitate to do that and comment below on what you think of and I want to say thanks to Brandon McCarthy, to Alex Parr for Top Shelf segment today. Jordan Trudeau and Dustin Grandin Special this special special guest host tonight on on Chuck A Puck segment. And of course to Justin for In the Pocket. Feels good to say Dustin Gron and it's been a long time since 2018 been able to say that on the show. We hope you enjoy tonight's episode. [01:52:18] Speaker D: Vintage. [01:52:19] Speaker A: It literally feels like a reunion show that we just had. We're just missing a few pieces. Especially for in the Pocket, we're missing a couple, couple pieces of the Vintage edition. Matt Primo and Jamie Antonello, just to name a couple. Again, thank you, Justin, for the time. Hopefully everyone's enjoyed their March break and we'll be back here next week for another edition of the Game Sports Podcast. So make sure you keep tabs and an eye on that. I'm here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice, ring your bats, catch touchdowns, drain your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.