Hat Tricks Galore - Game Notes ft. Shane Vansaghi - 01.28.26

What this episode is about

The content discusses a lively performance review and commentary featuring Shane Vansaghi, highlighting recent adventures and experiences from a hockey road trip, while promoting Body Armor Flash IV, a zero-sugar hydration drink with caffeine. The conversation emphasizes the importance of staying hydrated during travel and the fun moments that come with the sport, capturing a blend of enthusiasm and camaraderie among the hosts.

Key takeaways

• Body Armor: the hydration revolution promising zero sugar and a caffeine kick for road warriors everywhere.
• In a world full of fancy cocktails, Dovetail stands out—no name, just vibes. Cool meets mysterious.
• Travel tip: bumping into an NHL player while waiting for a local drink? Pure serendipity, or is it Vancouver magic?
• Posasha: not just a friend, but your personal connection to every bar's GM. Networking goals achieved!
• When beer league calls, who needs restful nights? The real MVPs thrive on caffeine and camaraderie.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Matthew Merley (Host) · 1 h 10 min speaking
• Armen (Arm Dog) (Host) · 46 min speaking
• Shane Vansaghi (Guest) · 6 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Vancouver, Michigan State, Shane Vansagi, Body Armor Flash IV Zero Sugar
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Vancouver, Ottawa
3. 20:00 – 30:00: Colorado, Ottawa, Vancouver
4. 30:00 – 40:00: Michigan State, Penn State, Shane Vansagi
5. 40:00 – 50:00: Michigan State
6. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Michigan State, Penn State
7. 1:00:00 – 1:10:00: Penn State, Michigan State
8. 1:10:00 – 1:20:00: Michigan State, Penn State, Vancouver, Buffalo Sabres
9. 1:20:00 – 1:30:00: New England Patriots, Dr. Ken Barry, Vancouver, Buffalo Sabres
10. 1:30:00 – 1:40:00: Penn State, Vancouver
11. 1:40:00 – 1:50:00: Ottawa, Colorado, Vancouver, Buffalo Sabres
12. 1:50:00 – 1:55:57: Penn State

Notable quotes from "Hat Tricks Galore - Game Notes ft. Shane Vansaghi - 01.28.26"

• Point because you're just always on the road. But first, Army, I got to tell you about Body Armor. This episode is brought to you by the new Body Armor Flash IV Zero Sugar. You…

  about Body Armor Flash IV Zero Sugar · at 0:35

• I got to hang out with Posasha while I was in Vancouver. We were there a few days. It was great. Loved it. Got to mix it up with him in his neighborhood. He kept dragging me over to his.

  about Vancouver · at 1:42

• There's like some good energy. And I'm sitting there, I text, I look up, there's Tyson Barry like sitting right inside the door. He just got off the Conucks broadcast. He's sitting inside the thing. I walk in. I'm Ty,.

  about Dr. Ken Barry · at 2:49

• Shane Vansagi. I'm told it's it's pronounced. We'll check on that when he gets on here. But he's a Michigan State Spartan. So, we're going to talk about the big games this weekend down at Penn.

  about Shane Vansagi · at 5:56

• To all those tournaments. Our parents had us going everywhere up there. Ottawa 67s tournaments, Ottawa Capitals tournaments, Cornwall. Cornwall was the first tournament I ever…

  about Ottawa · at 11:29

• Yeah. It didn't really change till Patrick Wah was the first one when he was in Colorado. He started belligerently pulling the goalie and then somebody figured out the…

  about Colorado · at 22:00

• That I get thrown at me during the games. But no, like it's we're we're playing well here at Michigan State. like we're I think we're we're you know we continue to try and just…

  about Michigan State · at 33:12

• I'm going to go next because mine's a positive story here. mine's about Taige Thompson and the Buffalo Sabres, assistant coach Seth Aert. My brother's team, you see, you see my…

  about Buffalo Sabres · at 1:19:26

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Shane Vansagi — Person · Main guest · 2 mentions · first at 5:56
  Interview subject: Michigan State forward and Philadelphia Flyers prospect, discussing outdoor game prep, his line, development, and Michigan State program culture.
• Dr. Ken Barry — Person · Referenced NHL player / broadcaster encountered by hosts · 2 mentions · first at 2:53
  Discussed as a friendly, high-energy figure Armen ran into at a Vancouver lounge after a Canucks broadcast; used to illustrate the hosts’ NHL/media network and travel anecdotes.

Companies & orgs

• Buffalo Sabres — Company · Referenced team · 3 mentions · first at 1:19:31
  Mentioned in passing as part of broader NHL discussion.
• New England Patriots — Company · Referenced team · 2 mentions · first at 1:22:45
  Mentioned in passing as part of broader sports discussion.
  So, I will say America's worst nightmare is back, baby. the New England Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl. And I know Merles just hates to hear that as a Buffalo Bills fan. And it's just so crazy to me because the Patriots, they.

Places & events

• Michigan State — Place · Setting · 22 mentions · first at 6:02
  Central to the discussion as the team of the main guest, Shane Vansagi.
• Penn State — Place · Setting · 13 mentions · first at 6:05
  Key location for upcoming events discussed in the episode, including an outdoor hockey game.
  To check the game notes. I think we're going to have the show of the year here.
• Vancouver — Place · Setting · 10 mentions · first at 1:42
  Mentioned as a location where the host had recent experiences and interactions.
• Ottawa — Place · Referenced location · 6 mentions · first at 11:33
  Mentioned in the context of NHL and personal anecdotes.
• Colorado — Place · Referenced location · 4 mentions · first at 22:03
  Mentioned in the context of NHL team discussions.

Sponsors

• Body Armor Flash IV Zero Sugar — Product · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 0:42
  Primary sponsor of the episode, actively promoted with a detailed ad read.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 to check the game notes. I think we're going to have the show of the year here. We're almost having magical moments here. Show Mindsy's time. Army show start us off. What an opportunity. Another idea by me.

0:18 Everything's bro's idea. Summer. Welcome. Welcome. It's time to check the game note. You see the arm dog over there? And I vow, I say I'm not going to do it each week, but Arm Dog, he's on the road again. On the road again. It's not even worth talking about at this point because you're just always on the road. But first, Army, I got to tell you about Body Armor. This episode is brought to you by the new Body Armor Flash IV Zero Sugar. You see it right here. I've been living off these things since they sent them to me in the morning before beer league. It's the best. If you're dragging, but also dehydrated, this is the move. It's hydration with a caffeine boost and zero sugar. We're all trying to cut out the sugar. You get the caffeine, zero sugar.

1:03 Keep one around for the long days in the early mornings. Work hard and hydrate hard. Body Armor Flash IV. Grab it at 7-Eleven today. I'm telling you guys, it's delicious and it just gives you that little kick to keep the things rolling here. Young kids, late night hockey practice, late night beer league. I'm living on these things, aren't you?

1:22 Yeah. Like first of all, I I got to start butt chugging those just because of the travel I'm doing. You know, you get dehydrated when you're traveling. Mo, but what where was I last show? I was in Calgary, I think, right? Was I in Calgary?

1:34 I was on that Penguin. Was I in Edmonton or Calgary? I'm like, where was I? But anyways, Penguin swept the entire road trip. It was a great trip. It was fun.

1:42 Um, I got to hang out with Posasha while I was in Vancouver. We were there a few days. It was great. Loved it. Got to mix it up with him in his neighborhood. He kept he kept dragging me over to his neighborhood. He's like, "Hey, why don't you come over here? We'll meet for a cocktail before you got to go for dinner. I have a little get together with some uh friends later. Let's meet here." Or, "Hey, come over to this place. It's near my neighborhood." But it turns out it's pretty deadly neighborhood. It's awesome. I went to his little local spot he goes to. I met a couple of his buddies. Man, I go there to meet

2:11 What's his local place? Like a martini lounge. Yeah, it's kind of like fancy Vancouver stuff like that. Yeah, 100%. But it's so funny. I go to this place. I think I'm at the right place. It's one of those places that doesn't have like a name. It's called a doveetail.

2:26 It doesn't have a name. It has like a picture of a dove, like a silhouette of a dove. So, I wasn't totally sure that that that was his place. So, I'm like standing, there's like a outdoor sidewalk. It's in um I think it's called Yale Town in Vancouver. Cool, trendy, hip, cool area. And I'm standing there though and I'm waiting for Posasha to show up and I'm texting. I'm like, "Hey, I'm here. Where are you?" before I like wheel in. It's pretty pretty active. There's like some good energy. And I I'm sitting there, I text, I look up, there's Tyson Barry like sitting right inside the door. He just got off the Conucks broadcast. He's sitting inside the thing. I walk in. I'm like, "Ty, what's up?" He's like, "Sit down, bud."

3:02 He's like, "What's going on?" He's such a good dude. And then Posasha came. We sat down. Then then Ty, Barry, and his friend get up to go meet some other friends. And me and Pasha just stayed at his seat.

3:13 It wasn't Ty the best. Oh, he's such a good such a beauty, man. [ __ ] great guy. I mean, I haven't seen him in a while and and his smile, like his energy, just a great guy. He's doing really good, too. And um yeah, it was it was awesome just randomly running into him, but it was awesome setting up some times with you, Pasha.

3:31 Great to have you in. It was great to have you in town, Armen. Yeah, it was good.

3:35 Did what you what you show them, Pasha? Like, what do you what do you show them when they come to your neighborhood?

3:39 It was coming off the Devils game that they that they I believe they won late. Yes, I came and met you after the Devils game, so I was in a pretty chipper mood. Devils snuck out a 5-4 win against the Canucks.

3:50 Um, but I mean, he already said it. First stop is Dovetail. Anyone comes to town, they want to know where to go, what the recommendation is. Dovetail is home base. You bring him.

3:59 Shout out to your buddy there, too. Was his name Alex? Alex. Alex there. Yeah. Guy's a beauty. Just such such a friendly good dude. Me and Posh end up talking to these three donkey Australian dudes sitting next to us that were traveling. It was great. I I will say one thing Pasha is great for is like he always like knows a manager or a GM like like I'm a brand new bar just opened in Boston. Posasha connects me with the GM and like now I'm now I'm dialed in there. It's like Posh is very good at like dialing in the boys for like

4:30 the only GM I don't have a direct line to is Tom Fitzgerald and that's the one I need the most.

4:37 Yeah. Thank god actually. Thank god you don't. Thank god you don't. So 8day road trip. Yeah, cherry on top. Got to really spend some good time with Posasha a few days. Fit me into his busy schedule and his normal life. That was awesome, Pasha. Thanks a lot. So nice and chill hanging out with him.

4:53 Um um what else was I going to say? I was going to say something else about uh what was going Oh. Oh. Oh. To bring it back to you, Merles.

5:01 Well, I want to go back to I going to save it for all of Vancouver talk. I think you talked a little bit about

5:08 No, that was it. I want to ask you about your beer league stuff. Like I I I've been chatting with you, text messaging. You're like, "Oh, I don't know if we can uh I don't know if I can do this. I got beer league tonight." I'm like, "Oh, here." You have beer league like every night right now.

5:23 I'm trying to get in shape. You got me you got me roped into the Penguins alumni skate up in Ontario in Brockville, Ontario in a few weeks.

5:31 Yeah. So, you're going to go to that and you're you're in fear that you're not going to be ready to go. Like you got the diaper ass and the heavy boots going. You can't you can't wheel. So, you're trying to slim down.

5:40 Yeah. You see the roster that this guy's got together here. Who did he have come in? Cuz it what what's the what's the theme, Merles? It's Penguins alumni against technically against Flyers alumni, right?

5:51 Flyers alumni. And that's actually a little segue we can give it. We have a Flyers prospect coming on a little bit here.

5:56 Shane Vansagi. I I I'm told it's it's pronounced. We'll check on that when he gets on here. But he's a Michigan State Spartan. So, we're going to talk about the big games this weekend down at Penn State that we will be at, but yeah, this game is Flyers versus Penguins alumni. Here's the list in no specific order. Jeremy Ronic, Sean Donovan, Randy Robbitai, he could play in either team,

6:20 PJ Stock, Andre Wah, our old teammate, George's Lorac, Darien Hatcher, Ken Lindman, Alexander Dag, the original of Check the Game Notes,

6:31 Matt Merly, and Andrew Ference, guy I fought my very first scrimmage at training camp to set the tone. He tossed me around a little bit. So maybe maybe I'll I'll get to shake his hand and and say sorry for that cuz he he taught me a lesson. That's a big game coming up and in in uh when is that February?

6:49 That's a couple weeks, right? 13th. Yeah. So that's why I'm skating trying to skate twice a week get in shape.

6:55 Yeah. You're gonna you're gonna you can't you're not going to get in a dust up. You're going to play D or forward when you're at one of these things. Have you thought about the how you're going to work this?

7:02 Yeah, I always play D, but the other night I had to play forward just we had too many numbers and I was gassed. It's so much harder.

7:09 So much harder. I know. These D have no idea. They're like, "D so hard?" I'm like, "D so easy. You can literally take a two and a half minute shift floating dishing passes. See the whole game, couple bursts, maybe have a run, then just stay back. You could stand. You're resting almost the whole time. It's It's crazy. Good luck to you up there, Mr. Have you ever seen Have you been to one of these things before?"

7:31 No. No. This will be my first love going to these. I love going to these. You just meet such good people. um usually fund raise for something incredible either locally or whatever they they're going to do. I forget what that one was. What what are they doing for it? It's like youth hockey thing. They're raising money.

7:48 No, it's like Brockville Winter Classic and you know raising money for funds for local minor hockey.

7:55 There's a band and then he wants me to go up on stage do some like Merl's Minutes up there do a little little stuff like that little game notes plugs you know.

8:04 Good for you buddy. I said I'm up for anything. I go, just give me some Harveys. I already heard there's a Harvey's in town, so I'll be on the poutine diet. Another reason I need to skate all the time.

8:14 So, you haven't seen some of these guys? I'll tell you what, I went to one a few years ago, like Jeremy, like JR, Hall of Famer Jr., I I although, you know, these guys are getting older, so are we. JR is [ __ ] butter out there, man.

8:29 If he wants to keep the puck on a string the entire time, it's on a string. like his skating, his ability to like spin, his edge work, his skating is is is unreal. Like he's really great on his skates. So some of these guys you'll be like, "Oh [ __ ] these guys are pretty good still. Still got it." A lot of these guys are pretty good. Like Pier Tjon, when I go skate with him at a couple of these things, this guy could this guy literally could still play. He He could keep the puck whenever he wants. He's so smart. Such a good skater.

8:58 With the sounds of this. No, like you'll be good, buddy. You'll be good. Cuz I I I hang out. I've been to a few of these and I I enjoy them, but like you'll you'll get by okay. I get by all right, too. Get get one tuck here and there, you know, get one tuck, just let them know.

9:11 You always got to get one just to remind them, but then the rest of the time you're just setting up guys, just setting up beauty beer leaguers. There's always kind of a tryhard guy maybe on one of the teams, maybe he'll be on your team that you have to be like, "Hey buddy, [ __ ] settle down. Like, [ __ ] it's for charity. It's for charity, bud. Like, what are we doing here?" But that's good that you're doing that. Are you having any uh any noticeable um any noticeable weight loss from skating?

9:35 I haven't checked it. I have not checked. I've also been going to the gym and hitting the sauna. And then of course

9:41 of course bud my most active activity is still setting up this house and unpacking everything. And I got a couple couple surprises today to show you for my my voyages around the globe.

9:53 Okay, first one here is this little bottle of booze here. This this was Medus Chuck Zagreb. So, what is that? That's a KHL.

10:02 This was the KHL and when we had a team in Croatia, which is the greatest place ever, but this is their there was their homemade booze. It was It was brutal. It was crazy.

10:10 It looks like a Crown Royal bottle that they put their own sticker on. Yeah. Put our own team logo on there. And then my next one up. Found this. I didn't even know I had one of these, but this was the the beer mug from the actual October Fest.

10:23 Wow. Those are huge. How heavy is that? Heavy. I don't know why why would I carry this back in my suitcase. But I got that pack here from my year in Nerburgg, Germany. That was fun. And then this one right here.

10:35 Look at this trophy arm dog right here. Look at this. And this is why I'm going back to Brockville right here. OA player of the year nominee. Metro Junior A 9798. Matthew Merley Syracuse Crunch.

10:49 So do you did you play against some like in that area where Brockville is? It's like north of you in in kind of that corridor of Canadian, American, northern uh New York teams. Did you do you have any interactions of like playing

11:02 a lot of youth hockey there in Brockville and as a Canada and all those ones up there? In that league in particular, it was Quinty, Pickering. I think those are the furthest east teams in our league. And then we had all the other ones around Toronto and everything.

11:16 Um, so you did play up and around those areas. I wonder if there'll be people at this thing like from the area they'll be like I remember watching you back in 95,

11:25 you know, one of those things. Yeah, you never know. Yeah, Brockville. I remember going to Brockville. We went to all those tournaments. Our parents had us going everywhere up there. Uh Ottawa 67s tournaments, Ottawa Capitals tournaments, Cornwall. Cornwall was the first tournament I ever went to in Canada. Yeah, my buddy Yorkie, the old York Chop, does some broadcasting for Roger Sports Net as a podcast

11:48 in Ottawa with the Senators, but I think he used to own is it the Brockville or is it Kempville? Brockville 64s or something like that. Maybe the Chatt'll know. I think he used to own it like a junior like a junior B team there. Are you familiar with that at all? I don't know.

12:03 Yeah. No, not that one. I'm looking this up. Oh, yeah. Like Ognensburg. It's right across the river from Ognensburg. How far of a drive is it for? You driving up?

12:11 I think it's going to be four hours. Four, five hours. So, it's what I just crippled yesterday.

12:18 Did I tell you about my travel yesterday, buddy? The North Country. There's not good highways. I'm just hoping there's no weather. It'd be brutal.

12:24 Paul Nasty 2.0 Army. We're buzzing in the chat today, buddy. Shout out to the chat. Yep. Shout out Kempville, bud. He says Kempville. So, I was wrong.

12:34 I was wrong. Another guy, Ferdafern, says Kempville. Shout out to the chat. I see you guys. Of course I do. You don't think I do? You don't think I have [ __ ] gecko eye going on the chat and one eye going on myrrh? You don't think I got gecko eyes going? Let's go. Um, so yesterday I'm I I I land on Monday from Vancouver on this road trip. We have a travel day on Monday. Get back, get home. Mel's got dinner ready. Beauty. Absolute weapon. Beauty. Then her and the kids the next day are going to fly to Florida because Cruz has a hockey tournament down there this weekend which they went to last year and I got to go to it last year. It was great. Right now the weather's not so hot. So whatever. I got to work. I'm going to miss it. I got to work tonight. I got to do Penn's game tomorrow and then we've got obviously the weekend coming up with the outdoor game at at Hockey Valley Big Mr. So, I'm

13:24 drive I I drive them to the airport, get them all settled in early morning, get home, shovel, get the old snowblower going, dominate the whole thing. I dominate. It's all cleaned up, ready to roll. Get all ready, get packed up, going to go catch my flight. I got a later flight.

13:39 Driving to the flight, I get a notification. Bing. Flight's delayed. Flight's delayed. Delayed. So, I I look, I'm like, "No, I'm not ready for this mentally to like think I'm going to do this." So, I call the wife. I'm like, "Hey." I'm like freelance change of plans. What do they call that in football? Audible. Audible. Audible. Merles. I'm I'm I'm I'm like [ __ ] this. I'm I'm not dealing with any of this [ __ ] I'm not dealing with rental car. I'm driving to Toronto. I just on a whim. I'm just done. Crank the car around cuz I got to go south from where I live to go to the airport. I crank it around on 79. Bing up 79. Almost to Eerie. I hit like can't see in front of you. Blizzard conditions.

14:20 [ __ ] Buddy, I'm going sasky right through the thing. I don't care. I'm [ __ ] passing people. Like,

14:26 how fast you think you're going? Well, I'm going like 35, 40. Like, like you can't see [ __ ] Like, and and it's coming right in. You know, when your brights are on, it's like worse.

14:36 So, I'm like I'm like, I should probably shut my lights off almost so I could see. It's so bad. But I I make it through this like 3540 minute window of like insanity. I get to the other side now. I'm cutting across the Buffalo, pass the border, get up. I get into the hotel last night like when I was supposed to land in Toronto. Just unbelievable weapon driver. Just a grinder. People, you guys have no clue. I'm a grinder. Absolute grinder. I I did that exact drive opposite way though. I think I've told it before to you from Buffalo to Pittsburgh for the Super Bowl and I had Migs and Connley in my back seat.

15:15 Yeah. They they sat in the back with a 30 pack of beer and I had to drive through a blizzard like that and there was cars everywhere. Same thing. I was going 30 miles per hour. Couldn't see anything, but we had to get there because it was a Super Bowl. That Super Bowl wasn't waiting for us and we didn't want to watch it in Erie. So, we just kept trucking. We made it to Pittsburgh.

15:32 Buddy, that area, that stretch of road right there, I don't know what their other ones are like, like over in Ohio or over by Toledo if they get any of that [ __ ] that Buffalo to Eerie area is uh is you never know like that's like if if if Christopher Columbus like or some of these settler like if they came through that area on their boats or something you get a snow squall or you get some of that [ __ ] that's why that's how people go down. That's how boats go down. But that's that's not that's no joke. That's like 10 feet of snow on your car out of nowhere. Like it just came in. It just got you. You're done.

16:08 White out. Full-blown white out. So, pretty wild uh turn of events for me last night, but got in, had a great sleep last night. Got up, little brekie, little coffee. Here we go, my big show tonight.

16:19 What a life. What a life. And I mean, you're doing all this to cover the NHL. So, let's move on. Let's start talking about the NHL the last few days. Even just the last month, it's gone crazy. You know, the the social media started posting about it and you're starting to see some tweets about it. And then it just got even crazier with the amount of hat-ticks that been going on. It's defenseman getting hatticks. It's It's guy's first time getting hat-ticks. It's completely out of control. 28 h 28 had in January already. Ties the NHL record for most had in a month going back to 1985 December. Just insane. Is that 28? It like I updated it last night, but then I started getting all [ __ ] up. I think that's a record. I took a I took a tweet from uh Jazz, our boy Jazz. He might be in the chat. I think it ties an NHL record 28 tuck uh hadties in a month. December, would you say December 1985?

17:15 But what it doesn't say in that stat is that Gretzky probably had 15 of them and Mario probably had the other 10.

17:23 Jazz says 29 is the record in the chat. So, it's not 28. So, he lied in his tweet. Way to go, Jazz. You're fired, Jazz. You're fired. You're fired from game notes now, too, buddy. No, Jazz is the best. Mac got robbed. Yeah, we got in our chat last night. I think it was memesy tweeted like Macan just got another bad and he's like never mind called back for high staking. So, we almost had the tying one. But it's crazy. Um B and gets six points plus a Hattie. Then then the next game for the Oilers, Eholm, who's not known for his goal scoring, rips a Hattie. That's an NHL record um for Dmen back-to-back hadies like that. And then last night against the Leafs, Dene gets five points and a Hattie to add on top of it. It's just unbelievable what has been going on here. Darren Radish has a Hattie. Nemits has a Hattie. Five of like this month has just been on steroids. Um really for hat-ticks. I can't believe that's not a

18:23 record too. Like that's pretty wild. But if you're competing with the 80s, that's pretty

18:28 Yeah, that's pretty dominant. Merles, when when's the last time When did you have a Hattie in pro hockey, Merl?

18:34 Yeah, I had a I had a Hattie. I The one time was in AHL. I remember in Providence. I had a Hattie in Providence one time. Um

18:41 with who? With the Pens with us. Wilsberry, Scrant, and Penguins. Penguins Penguins.

18:49 I believe it was the lockout. It was a lockout year because I was like, "Oh, of course I have this big game when nobody can get called up or anything." So that's that was typical.

18:59 I actually maybe it was with San Antonio. We played there once too. I got to research that.

19:05 Yeah. I had one professional hat-tick. I used to score like you and you know this when we were kids like I get like six goals, you know, like double hatty.

19:14 Get the hat-tick patch on your jacket. Did you get that? I didn't have. Yeah, we used to have You didn't have those up in Canada? No. Get a patch. Playmaker.

19:21 Patches. Merl. We had the playmaker. MVP of the game. Hat trick. It was unbelievable. Shut out. Get one for a shutout.

19:30 Put it on your little corduroy jacket. Your mom would sew it on your little corduroy jacket. The hattick patch.

19:34 We used to get the little like I think it was called like esesso medals or something like they were the medals you got for player of the game. They they handed those out like candy. I used to have a million of those. But uh I digress. I had one pro hat though. I was I think I told I was sick in in I didn't know if I was going to play. I think we were in Breenus in Sweden. I was with Veco and I got a Hattie in the game.

20:00 Really? Yeah. I didn't think I was going to be able to play and I and I ended up playing the last goal. I think Welchy Noah Welch, shout out our buddy Welchy.

20:09 I know Welchy. He I was standing like on the by the net in the mixer. Your sweet spot there. Of course, I got a nose for the net, baby. Just look at this thing. And I was standing there and Welchie just came in. You know how guys are scoring all these goals now? They just like build a wall off by the side of the net. He just came in and Welchie had a pretty good shot. He like welded it off me. Hit off my shin pad and went right in. That was my Hattie.

20:32 Only pro hadtie I ever had in Sweden. SHL. I don't even know if I kept the puck. I think I had such a bad attitude at that time. I think I just said, "Fuck it. Doesn't even count. I'm the Sweden." I didn't count it because I was in Sweden, but I will here for today.

20:48 Hey bud, I can't remember ever getting one in pro. I had a bunch in college. I had that one for Wilsberry, but

20:53 I had a lot of two goal games. Could have been San Antonio, too. Did I ever tell you my NHL hat-tick story that I never got a chance to get?

21:02 No. So, we're playing in Ottawa with the Thrashers. In one shift, within like [ __ ] 40 seconds, I g up two twice. One I score, the other one, same thing. back door. Puck comes through, hits the goalie, hits my shinnies, lands right on my blade. Bing, rebound, goal. Two goals. We're up by a goal with like a minute 15 seconds left. I'm sitting there. Pull the goalie. Put me out there. John Anderson. Nope. Doesn't put me out there. Puts out local Ottawa kid and and player Todd White. He like wins the face off. They get it. He shoots it 200 feet. Like literally down in the corner. He goes back down. He gets it.

21:38 Hail Maryries it all the way down. Scores empty netter. They put their goalie back in and I don't get a chance to go out there to get that the hattie. Didn't even didn't even think.

21:46 That's back when they didn't pull the goalie until there was a minute left. They definitely didn't pull him when they were down two goals because they want don't want it to look too bad.

21:54 When is this? This was like Yeah, like 200 n or something maybe. Yeah. It didn't really change till Patrick Wah Patrick Wah was the first one when he was in Colorado. He started belligerently pulling the goalie and then somebody figured out the analytics on it. probably Pasha and uh yeah, it's been something ever since. And then and then that's what they pull him now even with two two 4-2 with a minute left. Screw it. Let's pull him again. They go for it. It's it's good practice. I notice Tampa doing it. They'll be down 52 or 62. Coupe doesn't care. Pull the goalie. Let's work on that. Who cares what this final score is?

22:29 Yeah. And you know you have good enough players that you can control play and set it up. Like some of these teams, man, some of these teams like who did the Penguins played like Seattle on this road trip. He played like Calgary. Like those teams have to work so hard for a goal, you know, even though Macan almost got one. But like some of these teams have have that with them. And some of the good teams, right, Mr. is is Tampa, some of these other teams that can that can just score. They can just score. It's easier for them to get a goal. They have better personnel to just score. So it's it's worth it. It's worth it, buddy. What do you got there? And this is not this is not a shameless RPI plug going through the stuff. I just found this the other day right there as and we're talking about hatticks.

23:11 Oh, you got a hattie. A literal hat. Yeah. Every time somebody would get a hat-tick, there was a fan that would make these for us. So there it is. Hat-trick RPI4 Dartmouth 2 February 2nd, 2001. Matt Merly RPI. So

23:25 I got a shout out here on the I was I'll give a shout out to Alish Forfar. She's a radio host, ex-women's hockey player. She does radio now here in Toronto. I was driving and I heard um a little thing that she's doing with her mother. I I don't know the entire story, so I apologize if I don't know like the background on it. Her and her mother are are sewing um hats that you would wear or like those knitted caps you would wear when you're when you have cancer. and she said at the start of the month and that she might be the trigger for this. I'll give her a shout out for it is they're making a hat for every hattrick and donating it um uh for women with cancer so that they can wear these these hats. So she got her and her mom got a lot of sewing to do.

24:11 They're work they're going to have to work overtime. They didn't see this coming.

24:13 This is awesome. So they're they're hand making all these hats. So 28 hats this month that she's going to have to donate. But congrats on that. I'll give her a shout out. I heard it on the um on the on the radio last night when I was driving. Listen to Leaf's Buffalo game. Uh great initiative. Pretty cool. And they're piling up the hat-ticks, buddy.

24:31 Piling them up. Yeah. If you're looking to make some money, look at those hat-tick props on DraftKings right now. And uh somebody that's got to make some money, make some extra money because he just gave away $5,000 to the Where does that money go? The NHL charity fund,

24:46 recovery fund or something. There it is. is William Knander five grand for flipping the bird from the press box the other night.

24:53 What do you What do you think of this, Mr.? Is that enough or too much or overreaction? Like where are you landing with this?

24:59 I What exactly was it? Was it on the actual TV? Yeah, it was on TV. I guess it was on TV cuz I thought it was just like a random fan got a picture, a still shot of it,

25:10 but it's like the real camera. I guess it went live to air since it's the real camera and it went live to air. Yeah, you got to do something. But I thought the whole time it was just a random picture. Uh yeah, it's funny. 5,000, but like we always say with these guys, it's 5,000 these days to these guys is is uh pocket money. You know, you're just you're carrying that around and and throwing around wherever they want the amount of money they make. Back when guys made 400,000, that hurt a little bit more.

25:36 Yeah. And I think that's is that the maximum fine, right? Is five grand, I believe. So, like you could see a guy that does that, he gets five grand. And then a guy that's accidentally accidentally slashes a guy in the face that doesn't get a penalty, he'll get like a $2,500 fine.

25:52 Yeah. But sometimes the hits are only like five grand, too. And it's like some of them. Yeah.

25:56 Guy don't care. Like the thing I look at it is is like I I think he was trying to I think he was like probably a little frustrated, but I also think he's cocky and I also think that he was thinking he was funny.

26:10 Yeah. And I think anytime you mix those kind of together and maybe if you're not that funny or your timing's off with it or it doesn't hit and m he obviously doesn't know that's the camera that's going live to air at the time as well um that it's going to go but he got burned and I like I don't know like this guy's you know this guy's like a big dog. He's a core four guy of of the Leafs. He's wearing like you know a tank top in the press box. We've seen like like he's got this swagger to him, but it's like and then I do you see his apology?

26:43 Yeah, that that might be worth 5,000 more. The apology was insane from Willie. He was kind of like laughing as he apologized. And I get it too like like the internet has changed a lot of things like um you know what you can say social media like a lot of people that are probably complaining about him giving the middle finger or have have like a a ghost account on social media and terrorize people's lives on the backside but on their real account they're like I'm offended about it. Uh that's the internet. That's the internet. the internet has changed like a a lot of our uh feelings about the way like probably normal TV is done now because the internet anything can happen. It's crazy. So I think a little bit of overreaction like who cares but I also think there is a there there when you're like a leader on the Leafs and you're representing the team and blah blah blah, right? Like I still think that

27:37 goes with it. So yeah. All right. Five grand [ __ ] big deal. Big deal. Uh, a big deal is Malinsky out in Colorado. He ressigned four times 4.75.

27:48 Well, you've been raving about this guy for years. Been on this guy for years. Cornell guy. I remember when he first got called up, he looked like Mar. I was like, "Wow, I think they're trying to breed these guys down in the miners." And now he's here full-time. I think that's a nice deal for the team. I think if if if

28:05 Oh, that's unreal. If he could have got to another team, they're giving him seven, eight million.

28:10 I think that's unreal. I think that's unreal for him. And and and this is the thing that we're seeing now, Merles. What's the trend? It's like guys want to stay where they're winning. Guys want to stay on these good teams and and they'll like finangle their prices in to like try to just stay in there. like could he go on you know we've seen Bow and Byum you know he got traded away on you know casualty and but like guys would generally I think what we're seeing in Florida's doing it and all these guys are just fitting the pieces in and to me that's like a fitin type of thing right

28:45 you look at his age too you look at the money it's like okay you're getting you're getting good money you get to stay in this culture and winning environment you get to stay with the this core that is like from another planet really when you look at what they're able to do with the Mar McKinnon uh naked nas um and others through their lineup. So I think smart on his part as well to to stay there like grass ain't always greener on the other side Merles. That's a great saying, isn't it?

29:12 Exactly. I I remember telling Timmy Connley that when a couple of times he was thinking of going other places. I'm like, "Dude, you do good in Buffalo. You know what the deal is there. You got your house. Maybe you lose 500 grand each year, but it it's going to pay back when when you're comfortable. you know what you're playing. You got all your buddies there. So, I get that completely. Uh wrap up the the rest of the NHL because we got our guest ready to go. Uh Deco is getting surgery. He's out for the year and also in Vancouver.

29:40 Russ got a suspension for three games for his hit on Besser. You were at that game arm dog. What were your thoughts on the hit? And uh

29:48 at the time I didn't really notice it. Besser did miss last game and is out with concussion. Um, yeah. So, it was it was like a like a hard play. They're up by a goal. They're fighting to get back in the game. Russ drops down from the point from his position and kind of blasts through this area. Raquel comes in and hits Besser from behind two. It looked like it might have been his elbow, but then he tucked it last minute. I think just kind of grazed. And there's definitely head contact there. I don't even know if I don't think Russ has ever been suspended. And he just got three games for that. So, I don't know.

30:17 It's kind of a crazy around the net type play. last seconds of the game and yeah, you got three games for it. Penguins coach Dan Muse wasn't thrilled. He thinks it's too much. Understands the situation, but yeah, I thought three games was too much. I like first time suspension. I could be wrong. Maybe he's been suspended before, but I think

30:36 two seems like a lot for that. And I mean, you are now you are the self-proclaimed Bob Staer of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So, you do have to be biased for the Penguins,

30:45 buddy. I got all my [ __ ] like my text messages were blowing up that like you're the Bob Staer of the Penguins. I said that to Whit when I told him he asked me some questions about the pen and some of their guys and you know I I pro self-proclaimed to him that I'm the Bob Staer of the Penguins now. Great seeing St in Edmonton too by the way. What a beauty. He went into that kid that we we were talking about before we bring on our guest. He went in on that um uh Verhoff right when I saw him. I'm like what's up? I got a picture with him. I'll send it to Pasha too. And uh I got a great picture with him and he uh he's like oh Verhoff he remember cuz he came on our pod and he said he got in kind of we we kind of got him going when he went on uh chicklets about the greatest defensive prospect ever in Western Canada and he just went in on on Verhof again about how sick he is, how well he's playing and all the [ __ ] Just

31:34 awesome stuff from St. Typical St. dialed in. Lives and dies and breathes it. Just a beauty.

31:41 Yeah, he's beauty. And um that's brings on our guest. I hear he's a beauty. Shane Vansogi from Michigan State. He's a Philadelphia Flyers prospect. We got all sorts of tips saying this is the guy we need because we want to preview this. Yeah, we got Penn State gear on, but we're getting paid to wear this stuff by G. You know, he gives us a little pdeium when we get to Penn State. But we got to hear from Michigan State before this game. And we heard you're the best to do it. You must be fired up.

32:07 Yeah. No, thanks for uh having me on here. This is uh exciting. But this is um going to be my second outdoor game. So um

32:15 it's yeah, it's uh I was lucky enough to play last year at Wrigley Field um against Wisconsin with Michigan State and then

32:23 this will be my second one. Um but we're all looking forward to this game. this is uh something that we heard about going into the season and um you know I think it's like it's been quite the wait to to get there. But now that's finally, you know, approaching, we're all we're all real looking forward to it and um ready to get out there and get going.

32:41 Buddy, you're going to have to get Vaseline on those eyebrows. You're going to have frostbite hanging all over them. The mustache. Look at the head of hair on this kid. 62.

32:49 What a hairline. Look at that hair. That guy is unbelievable. Look at this guy. He's just a Greek god, too. I heard you're ripped up like a bad report card. Like everything's going your way right now.

32:58 Um Flyers pick too. Flyers, big body Flyers guy as well. Holy [ __ ] J. Yeah, I know. I can't tell you how many times I got chirped for my eyebrows being big. But

33:11 that's probably the most common thing that I get thrown at me during the games. But uh no, like it's uh we're we're playing well here at Michigan State. like we're I think we're we're you know we we continue to to try and just show up every game and every day at practice and just try and get better and I think this will be a good test for us this weekend. Like Penn State, they're a really good hockey team and you know we uh we played them at our place a couple months ago and beat them twice and I think they're going to be hungry to to you know host us at Pig Pigula and um hopefully try and uh beat us again. But I think it'll be a good series. I think it'll be uh two two fun games and I think that out there game will be pretty sick.

33:50 Wow. Yeah, that you guys are 195 and0 this year. I wanted to ask you that as the coach talked about it. How are you going to focus on Friday night's game when there's that big of an event waiting for you Saturday because the points are so important, the rankings are so important. Uh has he has he talked to you about that?

34:07 And the Big 10 is so tight right now, too. It's so tight. Yeah, it's tough cuz the the message for us is like you can't like look over a game like every game in the big every game in college hockey matters and I think you can't skip past or or look look past an opponent because anybody can beat anybody especially this time of year like playoffs are coming up, the Big 10 playoffs are are approaching and know we only got 10 more games left before we you know the Big 10 playoffs start. So, it's tight and uh it's going to be hard to to, you know, keep our focus on Friday night, but I think I think that's just kind of the way we do things here at Michigan State is our message is always let's just focus on today. You know, tomorrow we're just going to worry about itself. Focus on today and and do everything we can to, you know, get get better at practice today and then, you know, on on Friday

34:56 night like there's three points on the line. We're going to go there and try and try and win a hockey game and then Saturday will take care of itself. I I do want to focus on Saturday for a bit because Penn State just dropped their new jerseys. I haven't seen anything from you guys yet. I'm sure Michigan State has you guys dialed in on some awesome custom outdoor jerseys. Can you give us a little hint at what you guys are working with? I saw some of the uh Penn State guys are using like custom uh CCM sticks that look like old like wood sticks. What do you guys have planned from an equipment standpoint if you can tell us? Yeah. I mean, I don't think there's anything too special. I think we're we're going to go there and

35:34 Oh, I like this trip. No, we're going to try and keep it pretty uh keep keep it normal, you know? We don't want to uh do anything too crazy. We're just going to go there and play a hockey game and and try to focus on the hockey part of it and not not let any of the outside noise or any of the uh I guess the antics get to us.

35:54 That's a team with one thing on their mind, boys. They're just thinking about Vegas. They're thinking about getting a national championship.

36:01 It can be. It can be it can be a spectacle a little bit with these outdoor games. No question you're speaking of the king of the Winter Classic right here. Fastest goal ever. NHL record. Uh Shane, I don't know if you know that. I'll I'll get I'll rub some luck off on you when I come there. When you see me, I pretty spectacular. 21 seconds. Not a big deal. It might be might be less if they have better technology back. Might actually be 19 seconds. I'm hearing some say 20. I want to ask you about your linemates, too.

36:27 You're on a you're on a pretty great line of nice pieces. You're a big part of that. Like kind of that big power forward type guy with Neielson and Lee. What is Lee? Nashville firstrounder.

36:38 Yeah. And then is what's what's the an Neielson's Anaheim I believe. So a nice mix. You guys got a [ __ ] team.

36:46 Tell me for a [ __ ] highlight reel goal. Oh, it's unbelievable. No, he's like he's probably the most skilled player I've ever played with. Like playing like I always say like playing with those guys like it's almost like easy. Like you kind of just let them do their thing. Like for me it's like I just try and like you know win win win the win the battles, go to the hard areas and I just let those guys work. And sometimes I'll be standing in front of the net and I'm just like I got a front row seat to like Reich's doing his like spin around like top shelf part down goal and I don't know it's like it's fun to play with. Like those guys are so skilled.

37:22 They're so smart and like I I think the line works well together. I think we all we all three like work really hard and I think that's what kind of makes it work. But playing with that skill, playing with those guys who are so creative, like it's a little bit different. Like something that, you know, I wasn't really used to before this year. But as I started to play with these guys, I I I love it. I love playing with them and and you know, watching them watching them do stuff in practice too is just like crazy. Some of the stuff they do is I can't even believe like I don't even know how they think of it. But

37:51 have you had to adjust like your hockey sense and and like your kind of thinking when you're playing with players like that? And who would you compare yourself to as I guess like what are you 6'2 2

38:02 25 210 220 you're big kid Christ you're a big big body power forward like were you 6'2 170

38:12 170 yeah just yeah just one of the players like I'd compare myself to I always say Josh Henderson in Montreal um

38:25 obviously like I'm St. Louis kid. That's so I always say like I always try and play like the the Kachchucks like Brady Kachchuck. I I always watching him. So I actually uh I actually train at the same gym they do in the summer. So they've kind of been like a a good like role model. Like the whole family's been just good role models for me. Like people that I can look up to and kind of watch and um kind of keep track of and follow them. But, uh, really anybody who like plays a hard heavy game and and kind of just goes to the hard areas and, um, plays that just power forward game.

38:58 Typical Flyers. And then they got a bluecollar Blues guy, too. Like born and raised in St. Louis. What was We hear lots of stuff about St. Louis minor hockey, too. You grew up playing there. What's What was that like? Did you have NHL coaches like ex players like like the Kachchucks kind of had coming up or was it different at your time? Yeah, I didn't have any uh like ex NHL players or guys that played for the Blues, any alumni, but they were always around. Like they're always at the rink. Sometimes they'd like pop over at my practice or whatever and just like help out. So

39:31 sick. I think the the hockey community in St. Louis is like very tight. And I think that's what kind of makes it special is like we don't have like the numbers like Toronto or like even like Detroit or Chicago, but I think

39:43 the numbers that we do have like everyone's tight. everyone kind of like knows each other and like everyone like pulls for each other. Like if if you see a St. Louis guy like out playing juniors like you're going to go talk to them after the game even if you don't really know him or you know I think it's just like everyone from St. Louis is kind of like proud to be from St. Louis and it's you know I for me it's like I'm proud to be from St. Louis and um I I do think the the comm the hockey community there is growing um from from what it started to to what it is now. I think probably a lot more kids are playing hockey and getting into the game.

40:16 Yeah. Yeah. I want to stay on youth hockey for another second because we had Lane Hudson on before and we asked him if there was some special training he did for his kids as me and Army are both crazy hockey dads now. He was skating without laces in his skates. Is there anything that you guys were doing in St. Louis or a specific coach you had something different that we can steal from you?

40:38 Show our kids. They want the cheat code to get their kids. No, like not necessarily. Like we we didn't have any like crazy

40:45 things that we did or crazy practices for me. Like growing up, I was always playing like my youth teams were always like just huge. Like I was like average size on the team. So I think like when I grew up like it was just like we like all my teams would just play like big and physical and like we were kind of like intimidation factor a little bit. But we didn't do like we didn't know we don't have any like crazy drills. We're not like you know trying to reinvent the wheel. I think we just keep it pretty simple and just you know do the the typical stuff that you'd see probably everywhere.

41:19 We were uh we were talking about your teammates before and I I want to go back to one of them which is Trey Augustine. I mean I think this kid was my Hobie Baker pick before the season. I was shocked that he even came back to Michigan State. I'm sure they had a nice NIL deal for him, but talk about just going in night in and night out with that kid. Like, how confident are you guys knowing that you guys got the best goalie in the country back in you?

41:42 So confident. Like he's he's honestly like the backbone of our team. Like he's the foundation. He's our, you know, he's the guy that like when like because like we're gonna make mistakes in in a game and especially playing in college hockey like every team like every team in the Big 10 has skill. So they're eventually going to get their break. They're going to get their twoon-one. They're going to get their breakaway and like Trey just comes up big for us almost every time. It's unbelievable. I always like in in practice it's it's it's ridiculous. Like

42:13 when he's on like you have no it's almost like impossible to score. Yeah, I remember Red Savage telling me that. He was like, I don't think I've scored a goal on this kid in practice all season.

42:24 Oh, when you score on him in practice, like you got to hit a little bit of a s like you have to celebrate a little bit. That doesn't happen a lot. So,

42:32 I love that. He's so good. Like, he he gives us so much confidence like to play. But, um I know he's a great teammate, too. Like he he's uh just fun guy to be around. Good guy. always uh working hard and um you know he he he honestly like in practice like going against a goalie like that it makes you so much better cuz you're playing against the best goalie you know arguably in the in college hockey. So um it's good to have

42:58 I felt like that shooting on Carrie Price in practice you'd come down and it would just be like you you'd shoot he would just casually save like your best shot like a twoon one across and he would just like bing and you're just like am I in pee-wee right now? like, wow, how can he handled my shot so effortlessly? So, yeah, I know what that's like when you got a guy that's that that good uh in his position. That's cool.

43:21 I I wanted to ask about how you ended up at Michigan State. I was doing some uh digging and I was told in your recruiting visit that no parent has taken more pictures in the history of a recruiting visit than your mom took at Michigan State. So, talk about the recruiting visit and talk about how you ended up at uh Michigan State. Yeah. Well, I think my mom's Yeah, my mom's got the record for pictures taken. Uh, she's got about 20,000 pictures of the Michigan State rank and whatever else there was. But yeah, so like it kind of goes back to when I was in the process of like trying out for the the development program. And actually 90 was supposed to be my coach at the program because I played two years at the program and then came to Michigan State.

44:07 and uh Nidi like the the summer I was supposed to go into the program, Knight was supposed to be my coach and he got the job here at Michigan State. So, he kind of like helped recruit or kind of like pick the team for the national team, like the U7 team that year. And uh so he's kind of familiar with me. He kind of knew me and I guess that was our like way of the the first contact, I guess. And then it kind of just spiraled from there. Like I think I was a late birthday, so I had to wait till like the the following year. uh in January 1, I think, to contact me. But I think that first day like

44:40 I think D Mike uh the assistant coach here like texted me. Yeah, we just like set up uh like a little unofficial unofficial visit. And I remember coming out here and like the first time I came out here was just like me, DM Mike, and Townsy. And uh like I was just a quick tour of the rank and I just remember like feeling so comfortable like talking to these guys and like these guys are you know like you're thinking like when you're on the recruiting visit like well these guys are going to be my assistant coaches like I'm going to see these guys every day. I'm going to deal with them every day. And I think just like talking with them like it was almost like they were like my buddies. Like it didn't seem like I was like I wasn't like nervous to talk to them. I was kind of just like just like having a chat around a campfire with my boys at night and it was just like they made it so comfortable. And then

45:28 I ended up coming back I think it was like before my 18's year uh at the national program. I I came back for like my official visit with my mom and that's when she got out the camera and started taking pictures. I think she took a picture of every moment that happened.

45:42 Shane. Shane, get by the Sparty statue. Yeah. Oh, it was unbelievable. every time she'd see a Spartan head, I'd have to go over there and pose. And like Mike and Townsy were just egging her on. Like they they were loving it. They were eating it up. So they they were kind of like making her take more pictures because I think Dike knew that I was getting under my skin a little bit. So they were kind of messing with me. But

46:04 so two years at the program and two year and now this is your second year at Michigan State, right? Yeah.

46:10 Yeah. And did Will Morlock did Will Morlock have anything to do with coming over? Because I a lot of guys have told me like he was at the development program before. He's head of strength and conditioning at for the Michigan State Spartans. I remember Isaac Howard spoke so highly of him. Basically that's why he transferred from Duth. Red Savage saying that's why he came back for a year just because of how much of an emphasis Morlock puts on developing the players. Talk about Will and and how much did he mean to you coming to Michigan State.

46:37 Oh, I heard you're a freak in the gym too, G to that point. I heard I heard you are like [ __ ] Tom Brady. Discipline, stretching, working out, your routine.

46:47 Loves the cold tubs. I heard the recovery animal and the normex. Yeah, I love it all. Well, we have it all here. We're kind of spoiled here with all the all the gadgets and I don't know, even with Will, like Will is he played a huge part in in me coming here. like I didn't know him before I came here and then I uh I think I met him on my visit and even like after my visit like I remember before I came in like the week before I I came for like our summer training program before my freshman year like he called me and was just making sure like the body is feeling good and make sure I'm ready to go for like the start of like our like summer camp training phase. And I think like when he made that phone call to me and he's like you can kind of tell like how dialed this guy is and how much this guy cares. And I think

47:30 the biggest thing with Will is he just cares so much. And I think that's what makes him good. And that's what it makes like going in the gym every day like enjoyable cuz he's going to he asks you how you feel every time you walk in the gym. And it's like it's honestly okay. Like you can say, you know, you're not feeling great. Like you're a little tired and he'll try and help you like he'll try and help get you get that tiredness out of you or if you're feeling a little sore, maybe he'll like give you something else to do or like some extra stretching. But he just cares so much. She's so smart. Like I think he's he's always at the rink.

48:02 Like the guy never leaves. He's always on his computer like just looking at the numbers from the heart rate sensors that we wear in practice. And uh he he he plays a huge role in you know the development here at Michigan State. And even just like he's just like somebody that you can go and talk to like he's a good guy. Like the the boys love him. Like we all love talking to him and just hanging out in the gym and and he I don't know. It just makes the gym so much more enjoyable. Yeah, I wanted to ask you and be careful here because the last college guy we interviewed and I asked this question to Sasha Bmidian from BEu, he left out this classes part. So, I want to know what the normal schedule is like at Michigan State. What time you're waking up? What time's breakfast? Are you actually going to classes, practice, gym, all that good stuff.

48:49 They get so spoiled, man, with the meals and everything. It's basket weaving 101 for those big old hands of Shane's just weaving a B. Come on. Like what are we doing?

49:00 Well, no. I I'll start off by saying depends who you are. It depends what your major is.

49:06 For me personally, like a lot of my classes are online. Normally, like I'll have one inerson class a semester and then like I'll take like four to five like classes online. And so like this semester our practice time moved up. So we practice at 10:00. So normally we'll have like a like a skill skate like skills at whatever 9:15. So we get breakfast at the rink at 8 and then you hop on the ice for skills at 9:15 and then team practice starts at 10. Practice for like an hour. After practice we're in the gym. Uh Monday, Tuesday we're lifting. Wednesday like today we're we're doing like a recovery day. So, it's a lot of like stretching, like move the body around, feel good stuff. And then, um, after practice, a lot of guys or after lift, a lot of guys go to class.

49:58 If you don't have class, you sit in the hot tub or cold tub for about an hour. And then we get lunch after. So, like there's there's uh there's always food down there that you can eat and just a lot of guys either go to class or you're just hanging out at the rink like hitting the steam room or sauna. Um, honestly just doing whatever. Like we we have such a good setup. It's like it's you can just go to the rink and just chill.

50:22 It's like a mix between hockey like college and a vacation kind of a spa. I mean money cuz they have the kitchen too and it like it all flows so perfectly there. They have the kitchen with their own private chefs and it flows right into the hot tub and cold tubs where there's flat screen TVs everywhere you look. It's like [ __ ] I didn't want to leave there. What are you majoring in, Shane?

50:46 My uh major is advertising. Nice. Oh, sweet. You can Are you going to steal any tips from us from being on our show? Like you

50:55 Yeah. Did you hear my body armor IV advertising part of the show? Can you get a credit like a little little Can you submit this as a credit for advertising yourself?

51:06 I don't know. Hopefully. I wonder if this would be like a count as like an internship or something. How long study? Two credits.

51:16 We'll give you three credits there. It's an interest. Yeah, that's perfect. I'll take it.

51:20 Yeah, that sounds amazing. Sounds like you guys already in pro hockey there. And it's that's why you you are getting all the NHL prospects. I just quickly looked at the roster was 15 16 guys drafted. The guys not drafted are probably even more recruited because they they can go wherever they want now and and they're going to be good, too. And it's just it's something something to watch there. The last Michigan State guy we had on this show one day later won the Hobie Baker. So it's it's good vibes when you come on the game notes for the Michigan State guys.

51:50 Oh yeah, that's right. The Iceman we had him on. That's right, man. Hell yeah. I got to ask you about Porter Mone, too. A Flyer draft pick and uh you know, you played World Juniors with them and played, you know, with Michigan State with him. Um, how much has it been like are you like kind of like big brother to him sometimes and like are you are you like getting him in the gym and everything and teaching him the way from your experience from last year now into this year being a

52:14 college. Keep in mind keep in mind his brother is like director of player development for the Flyers. So anything you say to him right now, he's calling up his Riley Armstrong right after this and he's going to say Van Sagi ain't working out. Like he's got you.

52:28 Yeah. No, like Marty's been uh he's been awesome. Like yeah, like there's a little bit of like I kind of like help him with with certain things. Like it's a like coming from you know the OHL and coming coming here it's a little bit of an adjustment. So, I thought I was just early on I was just trying to help him like just help him to understand like that it this is new like you're going to it's going to go through you're going to go through a little bit of a learning curve and I was just trying to get them to get a little bit more comfortable with like how we do things here and kind of just like show him the way a little bit. But I think he's done a good job like at fitting in. Like he's, you know, one of our best players every single night and every practice he shows up and he's ready to go and and playing hard and um he's he's awesome. Like I think we've gotten super close. I think the

53:16 first time I met him was at the combine in Buffalo over the summer and uh just like a super great guy and he he's one of those guys that you can just always be around him and like you're always going to like be smiling like he's he's just always like in a good mood, always happy, always like joking around and um just a beauty. Love being with him and

53:36 like I think you guys have a lot of good prospects, right, with the Flyers like you, Martone, uh who what's name in Notre Dame too? You got uh

53:45 Yeah, noobs. Like you guys got a good like crew of guys that are kind of coming up. How exciting is that for you

53:51 as well being flyers? Oh, it's awesome. Like every time I think about I get a little excited. Yeah, I get a little excited. But

54:00 like when I went to dev camp over the summer, like just seeing all these guys, all these like good players like all over the place. And I don't know, it's just exciting to see like what the future could could look like potentially for the Flyers. And hopefully one day, you know, me and Marty can throw on that Flyer jersey and play in front of those Philly fans. And um, you know, I think it's also uh it's also like I I just feel like we all have a pretty tight group there in Philly. Like at dev camp, I thought we all got pretty close. And

54:30 yeah, um, just like really good guys all around. And how much are you staying in touch with the Flyers throughout the year? How much are they talking to Will Morlock? Like, you know, they they see one thing like, "Hey, we want him to add some weight. We want him to lose some weight. Are they working with the team or is it kind of like they trust Michigan State? They trust what you guys are doing there. They kind of let you do your thing.

54:50 Uh maybe a little bit of both. Probably more so like kind of just trust Michigan State and let Michigan State do their thing. I think one of the things with the Flyers when they draft me is they were happy that I was playing at Michigan State. they they they trusted the, you know, the program here to to help me develop and and get to where I want to be and and grow my game as and just kind of like mature as a person, mature as a player, and um so I think that was kind of like uh they were happy about that.

55:19 Yeah. What's the plans going forward, bud? What do you got? What's after Have you thought about it or you just banging away?

55:26 Yeah, I don't know. It's uh honestly, I haven't even thought about it. It's uh good, though. That's good.

55:31 I think the thing like this year like we have such a good team at Michigan State and we know the group that we have and we know what we can be and how good we can be. And I think like I don't no one's looking past like what's you know right in front of us right now. Like no one's looking past the Penn State weekend and you know Friday night's game and then the outdoor game. Like

55:51 I think you know we're we're going to try and you know win as many games as possible and go as far as we can but I think kind of just staying day by day, staying in the moment. I think that's

56:01 He's lost in the sauce, boys. He's lost in the sauce. In a good way. In a good way. That's awesome, buddy.

56:06 Enjoy the college. I I love it. Thank you for your time. And And before we let you go though, we wanted to send our condolences to you and your team for uh the loss of your assistant coach, Dan Sturgis.

56:17 And um we just wanted you to maybe say a few words about him and and just let us know what kind of guy he was. It sounds like he was a special guy.

56:24 Oh, yeah. It was hard. like it was a hard week and it's still I think it's still hitting us a little bit but uh Sturgey was uh he was unbelievable. Like I was telling somebody the other day like he's like the like if there was a definition of like a glue guy in the dictionary like I think his name would be on there. Like I he he was like the he brought us together. He brought the energy. Like when it was Monday morning and everyone's a little tired from the travel like on on Saturday night like he's the guy yelling. He's the guy banging his stick on the ice, like getting the boys fired up. So, it we miss him here. Like, it's uh it was it was hard. It's a hard loss for us, but he was such a good guy. Had such a good family and um you know, it's just sad.

57:10 It's just tough. Like, you just It's unexpected, right? So, it's like it kind of hits you a little bit harder when you don't know what's coming and something like that happens. But, um I think here at Michigan State, we're trying to do everything we can to help out the family. and he's got two boys and um a wife at home. So, we're trying to do everything we can to help them and and just kind of help them get through this uh this process.

57:35 Yeah. So, I just pulled up the GoFundMe here. We're going to tweet it out from the uh Gameotes Instagram, Twitter, and stuff right now. But if you can donate, anyone in the chat right now, go donate because uh like like he said, two kids at home sucks.

57:48 Awful. Yep. Thoughts and prayers. No question. Um, uh, Shane, I got to say, man, awesome. I I I saw someone in the chat said that your hair grew got bigger and bigger as the interview went on. Like, it's still grow.

58:01 Yeah, we got to let him go. He's got to go cut it every 20 minutes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got to go slick it back again.

58:09 I look forward to seeing you this weekend. Good luck, uh, with the rest the rest of the way until we see you. But, uh, awesome guest. Uh, amazing insight onto the program. Yourself personally, Flyers fans should be super excited as well. on the flip side of that uh with a really good prospect him and Porter Marone there playing

58:26 these guys go buckets off for warm-ups for the outdoor game is all I'm saying like

58:30 you got to wear that too be freezing it'll be freezing is it supposed to be like it is here today

58:37 freezing there you see the video they're shoveling the stadium out looks like I saw that last night yeah

58:42 it's going to be cold crazy well excited for you buddy yeah thanks for having me guys this is sweet

58:48 awesome back again. Have a run. Have a run, buddy. We'll get them back again. If they uh they have a little run here, maybe we'll see them at Frozen 4. Hey, boys. Vegas.

58:57 Oh, we'll see them in Vegas. We might see them in Albany first. I got I'm going to go to the Albany right regional. We're going to get one of those teams. We're going to get somebody good. We're going to get one of the top four teams will be here.

59:07 Merles, you're going to be getting content at those things. Yeah, Merles is a machine.

59:12 So, I heard I like hockey season. Football's over. The Bills lost. It's hockey season. So, this Van Sagi guy, he's got he's a weapon. Hey, I heard he's got like shredded like I heard it shot his grip strength like he's just a monster.

59:25 Uh I talked to my brother was telling me about him. He's like, "This kid played at the Quebec peewee tournament." He's like, "Man, you should have seen pictures of this guy there." He was like, like those pictures we see of that giant Russian kid that's like 15 years old that's playing. He was like that. I guess he was just huge.

59:39 Yeah. Robert Robert at my peeweee tournament was a man. We don't know how old he was.

59:45 Yeah. He only played like five years prior, but he's like, "Wow, why did he break down so early?" Well, he's he's 40 years old.

59:50 Yeah, that'll happen. I wrote down he looks like being from St. Louis, he looks like a giant version of Clayton Keller. He looks like exactly.

1:00:01 That is an unbelievable call, Army. That's unbelievable. I was like, who's this guy look like to me? Like, he looks

1:00:06 He's Jack Keller. He's Jack Keller. Jacked Keller on our show here. Yeah, that's awesome. That's incredible. What a good guest. Great like awesome interview. Mature kid, deadly.

1:00:20 Shout out Riyles. Yeah, shout out Flyers and shout out Riyles. Yeah, I felt a little bad wearing all the Penn State gear. Yeah, but on a Michigan State interview, but we got to we got to pump the merch. You see my hat there, sweatshirt here, arm dog sweatshirt. All the merch is live in the bar stool store. Look good, feel good for the weekend. We will be there. Um, but I'm just getting told now. I'm getting told in the side chat that G has some breaking news for us.

1:00:44 We do. We do have some breaking news here. So, this is big, boys. This is big. I told you guys early this morning, this is big. And I I'd be talking about it today. So, the streets are talking.

1:00:56 The streets are talking. And I want to be very, very clear. This is just what I'm being told. What I'm being told right now is that the Oklahoma State University Cowboys are planning to add a division one NCAA hockey team by the year two 2030.

1:01:13 They have plans for a $200 million arena plans, mind you. They have plans for a $200 million arena. They have plans for an outdoor game at T-Bones Picking Stadium. They have donor money. They have state money. They all signs are pointing to OSU being the next division one hockey program. Now, a little background on the OSU club hockey program right now. They're a wagon. Absolute wagon. One of the best teams in the country. They're just dominating night in and night out. They've they started their program in 2021. Here's the thing. They got former D1 hockey players on their team. They're getting guys from the OHL. They're flying in recruits, boys, on private jets.

1:01:56 It's insane. I'm getting pictures of these. I'll send you guys the pictures off the air. They're they're they're recruiting guys on private jets. Oklahoma State Cowboys club hockey team is playing at Beaver Stadium tomorrow. They're flying there on a ch a private charter.

1:02:13 They're flying the the the kids parents in this they're going to spend so much money on this team and it's a credit to the to the university to the state. Um and here's the kicker. uh they don't they don't want to just be a division one hockey team. They want to go all in. I'm told when they when and if the team comes to be in 2030, they want to be they want to have the highest spending roster in college hockey. So they're going to go out there. They're giving the Cruz Armstrong's high NIL deals. That's what they're going to be throwing money around. So

1:02:48 you have a pipeline obviously pulling his commitments back. Oh, he's got a lot on the table. G G's handling it. guys stay out of it. I mean, this is how it's operated. You just let the advisor run everything. And uh good to know you have these guys in your back pockets. I I saw the tweets coming out. I saw you kind of uh tease it yesterday. Then I saw like some old Oklahoma State guy that just came out like I think I retweeted it too. I don't I was from the game notes account found someone just said we got hockey. So this is pretty cool that this is pretty sounding official

1:03:21 and pretty big time. And how bad do we need some more big name, big school, um big college hockey? Yeah,

1:03:31 I think we what we've seen so far with the Big 10 is that uh football money, you have that football money, you have that basketball money. It's going to open up a ton more opportunities. You watched the other night, Big 10 Network broadcasted two games back toback. I believe it was Michigan State, Minnesota, then it was uh uh Wisconsin versus Penn State. The broadcast was incredible. And like that's that's what having money does. When you're at one of these big schools and you have money like that, I know Merles hates to hear this right now with with him being an RPI guy, but when you have this type of money, it it opens everything up. And with Arizona State joining the NCAC, the NCAC, that that opens up the possib Like travel's not going to be that bad if I don't know the plans of of what division they'll join, where they'll be playing, who they'll be playing against, but the NCH seems like a perfect option. And now

1:04:21 college hockey is moving down south, boys. This is massive for college hockey. This is massive for the sport of hockey. And this is just massive for college sports in general. Oklahoma Oklahoma State Cowboys are coming to college hockey.

1:04:35 I mean, this is something I've never thought about. I just looked it up. It's in Still Water, Oklahoma. Just because we never think of hockey when it comes to these situations or schools or opportunities, I don't even know where that is. But I just know them as like football, right? Like you just think of anything down there. So, this is massive headway into those areas for hockey, college hockey. Think about the trickle up effect of those southern states of what this will do for hockey in the region as far as NHL, as far as uh interest in the game in certain areas and how that just keeps building from almost grassroots. Then you get kids playing. It just starts to up the Annie and up the game so much more. So, it's more important than just getting college hockey. It is a massive piece of the chunk of the pie of hockey in general.

1:05:20 And here's the thing, Army, they got a render guy. They already got their render guy. Oh, I'm I'm seeing the renderings of the arenas. It is This arena is going to be unbelievable. It's going to be a spectacle. So, I am so excited for Oklahoma State. I'm so excited for uh the the the state of Oklahoma. I think all these club hockey kids, they deserve it. They [ __ ] put in their hours. They love hockey just as much as all of us. So, it's uh it's awesome to see.

1:05:49 Yeah, I was going to say that. I I believe in these renderings more than I ever did in the Arizona Coyotes renderings that we had to put up with for a few years.

1:05:57 The rendering guy hasn't been put out by AI yet. That's that's amazing. This guy got his rendering in before AI took him over. That's good.

1:06:04 Hockey has been in Oklahoma. They had Oklahoma City was the Oilers AHL team there for a few years. I'm not sure how they ended up doing on on crowds. I don't know. Did Whit ever get sent down there? Well, I was told Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma are gonna play a game in in Tulsa this year. And there's expected to be 15,000 people at the game. So,

1:06:24 people in Oklahoma, it sounds like they love hockey. It sounds like they're fired up to get an NCAA Division One team. And uh we should all be fired up, boys.

1:06:33 What's the game tomorrow? They're going to play Penn State's club. What time? So, Penn State has an amazing club team. They're just they're so dialed. So, they they're playing at 8:20 tomorrow at Beaver Stadium. I'll be there.

1:06:43 And like I said, the team's flying over on a ch a private charter. Like this is a club hockey team we're talking about, boys. Flying on a p and they're flying in their families as well. Like the money flowing in to the Oklahoma State hockey program right now is out of this world. And I couldn't be happier for the people of Oklahoma.

1:07:00 Yeah, it's incredible. I just have so many things I'm picturing in my head. I'm picturing like

1:07:05 I'm picturing like these rich ass cowboys like some kind of like I'm oil money.

1:07:11 Yeah. oil kind of like that kind of scene of these cowboys. Yeah. And they get off their private jets and they jump in their MercedesBenz vans and takes them to the game and like it just so high-end. Not even a big deal. Sticks coming out their asses everywhere. Doesn't matter. White skates and [ __ ] everything's just sick. Welcome. Welcome to hockey. Unbelievable. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Sorry. Well, it sounds like they'll be in the top 10 uh within a few years of that program starting when it does get off the ground. But let's take a look at our our game notes top 10 for this week.

1:07:45 Little shuffling around. A lot of things going on. We got Michigan number one, Michigan State number two, North Dakota three, and Penn State four.

1:07:54 Yeah. I mean, what a weekend for Penn State, huh? Going into going into Wisconsin and sweeping the the Badgers. I mean, that's a that is

1:08:02 Is it McKenna? [ __ ] I forgot to ask Van Sagi about McKenna and playing him and how he's been pretty How many points does he have right now since World Juniors, hasn't he? Didn't he crank it up this weekend, too? Yeah, he's lighting it up now. He's got a big push going.

1:08:15 Hat-trick the day the t-shirt dropped. That's right. That's right. But one team I wanted to point out, and I said it last week, I think, is Providence. Like, they're putting together an sneak No one is talking about Providence right now. They sweeped BEu this past weekend. I think they sweeped BC the weekend before. I think they sweeped Maine the weekend before that.

1:08:35 Say Maine. Like Nate's on fire. Nate Leman is just as consistent as consistent gets. This guy's unbelievable. I'm shocked he hasn't left for an NHL job yet. But a lot of sweeps this weekend.

1:08:47 Roger McQueen did I've seen all these teams put out their um what's it called? Their their list for who's up for the Hobie Baker.

1:08:54 Yes. Yes, I think I seen Roger McQueen's up there for their team and and it's having a pretty good, you know, what do they call it? Freshman rookie year

1:09:03 for for them in Providence as well. So, that's uh pretty interesting. Keep an eye on a lot of these prospects. It's it's incredible. Uh in college,

1:09:10 North Dakota though, uh Merles, North Dakota, this is a team keeps climbing like

1:09:15 every time. I remember when you put them in way back two, three months ago. I was chirping you because I was like, "Oh, you just like them cuz you went up there and got t-shirts made with Chicklets logos and you did Chicklets. You I think they've won every game since I chirped you about that."

1:09:30 Yeah. Yeah. They've been [ __ ] nasty. I mean, will any honorable mentions, boys?

1:09:34 Uh, we had to remove RPI from honorable mention this year. We We took We had just a devastating loss in the Mayor's Cup.

1:09:42 I mean, St. Thomas keeps winning. I shut out St. Thomas every week, but they swept Lake Superior State again this weekend, so got to give them a shout out. I put Yukon in at 10. Uh Yukon won the CT Ice tournament. The worst [ __ ] name for a tournament I've ever heard. CT Ice. Like that sounds like a a squirt tournament over in Hartford. Like, can we like the Constitution Cup would be great. Like anything. And uh but shout out to Yukon as well.

1:10:09 Yeah, Yukon. Yukon's going to always be there, too. Yeah. Gonna be very interesting coming down here. that Hockey East tournament. I I feel like any team could win that.

1:10:18 Agree. You just get in that and you could see the the what do they have 10 teams? The 10 seed could win that the way it's gone. Teams win, then they're losing, they're winning, they're losing. Never count out Maine, though. We won't count out Benny. I could see Beu making a run at that cuz they haven't had a great season, but they're young by the time the tournament rolls around. Like, like a guy like Cole Hudson can turn it the [ __ ] around. Uh, Yeigor, Michael, like Big Mike, the goalie. Like, he's nasty. Like, he could get hot right before the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if BU goes on a run.

1:10:50 Yeah, BU's got they got they all those teams got the Bean Pot coming up. Starts Monday, I think.

1:10:55 Yep. First two Mondays in February. So, I'll be over there. It'll be a blast. Just I'm just looking at some of the odds on draft picks to win the NCAA title. Oh,

1:11:04 what are they? What are they? We got I first one I see Wisconsin 13 to1. I like

1:11:10 BU 18 to1. Um Providence, your Providence team 25 to1. Some nice money there. Yukon 50 to1. So obviously Michigan, Michigan State are the two favorites. 400 450.

1:11:22 What's NODAK? NODAK 11 to1. I like that. I like 11 to1. And then Western Michigan repeat 12 to1. Denver 13 to1.

1:11:33 They're not in the top 10 right now, but they'll be at the Frozen Four somehow.

1:11:36 Yep. You know they will. So yeah, uh, exciting times in college hockey. Armdog, what's going on north of the border?

1:11:45 We got some movement in the top 10 in the CHL, boys. We got some movement. Here we go. Shinigan, they bounce down into third now. Everett up into second. That's crazy. And out of nowhere, Prince Albert has pushed their way in. Of course, some big trades at the trade deadline. Prince Albert, man, I'm telling you, Northern Saskatchewan, middle of nowhere, cold as [ __ ] They don't give a [ __ ] Hammer the bus. These guys are now right there as your favorite in the country. Um heading into what the final pushing to get to playoffs. They'll be there, but uh before the road to the Memorial Cup begins in Colona, British Columbia. It's a beautiful British col uh Colona, BC is beautiful. Just unbelievable. Lake country, wineries, everything. Prince Albert leading the way though. We see I think what is there five Western Hockey League teams in this top 10. Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Pentictton, you look

1:12:38 through there, Everett and Prince Albert, the top two teams, otherwise fairly balanced. Some of these teams, Brford just kind of hanging around in the top four. I don't think they've been below that all year long. Um, and so there it is. Barry Barry up in the top 10. Nice to see. So some OHL QX uh as well with a pretty guy. I like

1:12:59 heavy domination. Yeah, Monton Wildcats. They're good. McDougall is the coach, too. Like that guy just [ __ ] wins. He looks like he should be the head coach of the Oklahoma State hockey team with that duster.

1:13:09 Put him in a cowboy hat. Yose Sam, full-blown hockey coach. Let's go. They might have to steal him down there with all that NIL money and get him going as the head coach. He'd be probably a perfect guy to get actually.

1:13:22 Yeah, he would. That's actually a great idea. Like outside he could look like me and I think he's a great coach for them.

1:13:29 Hell yeah. So there's our uh week 18 CHL power rankings. Congratulations to Prince Albert popping up there. Pretty good hockey club.

1:13:37 Yeah, it's it's our rankings and a little geography lesson for us up up in Canada at the same time. I love when you tell us where all these places are and what they're like. And yeah, that guy, he would look like the the father, not the father in uh Land Man, but the grandfather, you know, that old cowboy. His skin is all wretched. He wears the hat. He's got the big duster. You guys watching Land Man?

1:13:57 I'm just starting. I'm just starting. Well, it's on I I I I mention it because it is on Prime and you know what else is on Prime? Prime Monday Night Hockey Army. I don't know if you watched the game last Monday. Oilers verse Ducks. I told you it was going to be a goalc scoring fest. I told you they were going to get two points each. McDavid and Didle. It went crazy. Ekhome had three goals. McDavid got the empty netter to get the two points. It was just an awesome game. Um this Thursday, tomorrow night, they got their coast to coast.

1:14:28 Looking forward to all the commentary on that. And then of course next Monday night Army this game, this game might be more exciting than the Oilers Ducks game. It's Montreal at Minnesota. You got Hudson, you got Demadov, you got these young studs, but then you got Caulfield. And who's the guy you got in the game notes draft?

1:14:49 Suzuki, your guy all against Minnesota. Quinn Hudson, Capriovv, who's your slbuster that got the hat-tick, Felino, we got all these guys. It's It's going to be an awesome game.

1:15:02 Yeah. Studs, electricity, offensive ability, um excitement. I think when you look at those these two, is Montreal not one of the most exciting teams in the league to watch right now?

1:15:13 I they they got to be the most exciting team. And if you want to see them play Prime Hockey Monday night, stream NHL action on Monday nights. Prime Monday hockey is available for free to prime members in Canada. Start your free trial at ww.primevideo.com. For the full Prime Monday night schedule, visit primevideo.comsalpnhl. Prime Monday Night Hockey Army. I'm fired up for that game. I'll be tuning in. I'll probably be looking at the over in that game. A lot of goals again up there.

1:15:45 We'll be licking our wounds after a Penn State weekend at the outdoor game, buddy. So, it'll be perfect. settle in on the couch and watch that baby.

1:15:52 I hear you. I hear you. And uh you know, I'm traveling in the minesies out there because there's no easy way to get there. So, I'm grabbing the car. I'm driving down there. And

1:16:02 you know, I'm going to be going I'm driving right through Wilsberry, our old place in the Minesies. So, I think it's the perfect time to to do it. Show Minesies.

1:16:17 There it is. Great graphic, Pasha. Great graphic. Haven't heard much from you today, but we're going to This is This is your part of the show now. Now, it's time to talk some NHL, some other rumblings of some trades and some other stuff. But, uh, why don't we start with you, Army? The show.

1:16:33 The show. Okay. I got to I've got to send um it's kind of a combined effort, but mostly Ben Kindle, but the whole thing about the Ben Kindle slump buster uh is to the show. He went into Calgary that night, didn't score. back to back Thursday night against Edmonton after our last show. Um didn't score and then went into his hometown of Vancouver. Well, just from outside Vancouver he's from, but hometown game. He had 190 92 people there. um 180 plus whatever it was to watch him a big booth rented out and Ben Kindle breaks his slump on Sunday afternoon in Vancouver with not one off a great pass from Ryan Sheay at the netfront but two off a great pass from Brazo one-timer breaks the camera inside the net and his box was just going crazy

1:17:23 that looks like our box at the at the NHL finals we all cram into one an empty net guys show up and our other buddies from Florida show up. It's amazing.

1:17:34 That was awesome. 19 games I think he ran without a goal. So, uh, pretty good slump buster for the 18-year-old kid. Anytime you're in there and we do it not only for the players, Merles, uh, I do it because, you know, we've all had a slump like Ben Kindle gets his first big NHL slump, he gets out of it. Okay, now he's now he's free. But um someone with the Penguins organization, a lovely uh lady named Michelle Kiolo. She handles a lot of the um media stuff. Penn's inside scoop is her handle on on social media, but she handles like the personal touch stories and you know she was in the box partying with them kind of like in and about it getting getting video and interviews and capturing content of the Kindle family when all hell broke loose and he bust his slump. And I guess Kindle's mom was like, "Make sure you tell Army, thanks so much for slump busting Ben." And so this is why we do it for the Kindles. Um, mom and dad,

1:18:27 Steve, I believe his dad I met on the dad's trip. Um, great guy. They're both ex-pro soccer players as well. So he comes from a sporting family. Um, we do it for the families, the brothers and sisters, the people that they talk to every day that are in the [ __ ] the wives, the the the kids when it's not going so hot for the player. doesn't usually go so hot for everyone around them because it just brings about grumpiness and so we bust guys out of their slump. Congrats to Ben Kindle though. That's a great moment. Two goals in his hometown. 190 plus people there and uh everyone left happy because of the old slump dog, baby. The old slump dog. We got another one. But what a great moment. That is the show. That's the show. Scoring two goals in your hometown. All that many people there playing for free. God know how much was that he played for free. But it was worth it. It was worth it to get the

1:19:14 slump dog on your side, too. Everything was working in his favor. That show right there. Congratulations to the whole Kindle family and Ben.

1:19:23 Yeah, that was definitely the show. That was awesome. I'm going to stay with it. I'm going to go next because mine's a positive story here. Um, mine's about Taige Thompson and the Buffalo Sabres, assistant coach Seth Aert. My brother's team, you see, you see my nephew down there, Trent in the front. Um, Eric Kavosi there, he's in the RBI red hat. I played RBI with him. And then the other coach, Pa in the back, my brother's behind them. They were all down in Long Island for a game and uh Kavosi called Appert, set them up to come down and meet meet just Apper, you know, just to say hi to the coach. All of a sudden, he gets Tage Thompson to come out. Did a little uh question and answer I think for 10 15 minutes with all the guys. So just they had the time of their lives.

1:20:03 Sabres are big up here and and I mean that's that's the best player. I think he's the best American right now going into the Olympics. So hell of a hell of a job by both of them, Seth and Ta doing that and then they got rewarded. They win the next next game in Toronto and [ __ ] scores a goal. So that show when these NHLers are taking that much time to touch talk to a bunch of kids they don't even know just doing it out of that kindness of their heart and and building the game.

1:20:29 Yeah, that's awesome. That's kids. That's that's huge for kids when a guy when a guy that big takes time to do that and just kind of rub elbows with these kids and stuff like it's like you can't even probably believe it, you know, especially being through like Troy or some of these smaller towns like you might get to Buffalo maybe to get a game or might be one of those oneoff trips where your like family is in New York or something and you can go to like, you know, one of those games or something. But that's just so huge for those kids just to even see those guys up in real life up up personal in real life. Pretty cool.

1:21:03 Yeah, awesome job there. Um, moving on. Posasha show. Uh, my show for the first time in a few weeks, there is actually a positive show. I was kind of on a show strike.

1:21:14 Okay, that's what I had to go. I wasn't sure where we were headed. Uh, no. Uh, not a lot of bright spots for the Devils, but one bright spot I want to bring up to the show is this kid, uh, Lemi Lenny Hamo. He's a 21-year-old finish kid and uh I saw him score his first goal in the NHL in Vancouver the other night. Added an assist, had another goal last night. He is uh he has breathed some life into the bottom six that the Devils needed big time. Uh you know, he very impressive winning a lot of battles, kind of just throwing the body around. Um had the chance to meet him when he was here in Vancouver. Nice nice quiet kid. So, love to see him succeeding early on. So, uh Lenny Hamo, that's a mouthful.

1:21:52 That's a great name. Yeah, I know. I keep seeing his name pop up every time I checks the box score. It's pretty impressive.

1:21:58 Get used to it. Get used to it. Yeah. I'm surprised they let they are they're letting bar stool employees around the devil still.

1:22:06 No comment. No comment. Well, they didn't know. They didn't know Pasha was sniffing jocks creeping around. No way. He just showed up. Hey guys. Hey. You guys are here too.

1:22:20 Yeah. That's why he lives in that neighborhood. There's always NHL around. Tyson Barry's there. He knows where they all are.

1:22:26 He's got all the managers and they call him and they say like, "Oh, the Devils are here. Devils are here. Get down here."

1:22:34 All right, Pasha. Let's bring on G for his show. Well, I know there's been in the in the outline document uh some tampering here and and someone keeps deleting my show. So, I will say America's worst nightmare is back, baby. the New England Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl. And I know Merles just hates to hear that as a Buffalo Bills fan. And it's just so crazy to me because the Patriots, they they won a Super Bowl. They won multiple Super Bowls. They broke it down, rebuild it, and now they're back in the Super Bowl all before the Buffalo Bills even made it won an AFC Championship game.

1:23:12 So, it's it's just a little confusing to me what's going on in Buffalo. But, I'm calling the Patriots to the show cuz they're back. America's Worst Nightmare is back. Mike Vrabel is unbelievable. Drake May, I'd kiss him on the lips if I saw him. I'd kiss him on the lips right in front of my fiance's father. That's how much I love Drake May. This team is unbelievable. This defense is unbelievable. Shout out to all the Pats fans heading out to Santa Clara. Uh going to be an awesome time. Gonna be an awesome time. So, I'll be wearing the Lucky jersey. It's covered in puke. It's covered in blood. I'm ready to go. I love I just love that America's Worst Nightmare.

1:23:48 Lucky jersey is hilarious. Congrats, G. That's awesome. Yeah, it was tough. I was on the treadmill this morning at the at the gym and there's these old people talking. They don't I don't know how they don't know who's in the Super Bowl, but I hear them like, "Oh, who's in the Super Bowl?" "Oh, I don't know. Seattle." And I'm like, "Yeah, New England. I know New England again." The guy's like, "No way they're in it again." I'm like, "Yeah." I was I'm miserable that I had to be the one to tell them. And like anyone ripping on the Pats for their schedule, like what the [ __ ] do you want them to do? And mind you, mind you, no team in NFL history has ever had to play three top five defenses in the playoffs on their path to the Super Bowl. The Patriots did just that. So, shut the [ __ ] up.

1:24:29 Well, just stay on board here. Don't lose yourself. You might as well just keep with the theme here, G, and just take us to the mindsies, right?

1:24:36 Good. I'm fired up. Let's The chat is ready for it. The chat's going going, "Let me guess."

1:24:42 That [ __ ] crybaby [ __ ] loser Bill Polon from the Indianapolis Colts getting everybody every all of his [ __ ] cronies as the Hall of Fame voters who are the biggest [ __ ] bunch of nerds in the world. Therefor Bill Bichc is not a first ballot hall of famer. If there's ever been more of a layup, there's never been more of a layup in in any voting process history than Bill Bich being a first ballot hall of famer. It makes no sense. The outcry across sports media is warranted. I want all these guys names public. This is absolute [ __ ] that they can vote anonymously. They can hide they can hide their faces. And you and you see the videos of when they're voting. They're getting served fillets. They're getting served this, they're getting served that. But the dummies can't think to put Bill Bichc, the greatest football coach ever. Not just the greatest NFL co, the greatest football coach ever. Tom Brady

1:25:41 said it in our interview. He's the best coach to ever coach the game. And it's a absolute shame. It's a mockery. It's a disgrace to Hall of Fames across the world. I love what Portoy said. Port Noi said he's going to buy an old strip club down in El Isa Marada, Florida down the Florida Keys. him, Jimmy Johnson, and Gruden are gonna start their own Hall of Fame. I love it. This is a [ __ ] joke. [ __ ] the Hall of Fame committee. This is [ __ ]

1:26:06 I I have to agree with you as a as a Bills fan. I think it's it's it's crazy he's not

1:26:13 six Super Bowls. He won two as an assistant too. They're making him sweat as a year for some of the, you know,

1:26:19 some of the What would you call those? Um what would you call those controversies? Controversies. I don't even know what you're saying cuz I can't

1:26:30 flakeate the flame. What was the other one? That Bill [ __ ] Polon is a first ballot hall of famer. Bill Polon and Bill Bich isn't. I was walking around the house last night screaming this and Alana was like, "Who is Bill Polon and why do you hate him so much? I hate Bill Polon. I hate him so much."

1:26:50 I love it. That is a true minds. That is a real minds. Let's Let's go right back to Pasha. Let's go uh snake draft style today. Wait, can I just can I say one more thing real quick? I I I want to call uh and I and I should have said this before, but I do want to call Patriot stuff aside. I want to call Rasmus Dalan to the show. I think uh it's come out this past week. Uh everything he's been dealing with over the past,

1:27:12 you know, six months to a year. My god, my my god. I I have no idea how that guy has stepped out of the house, let alone played at the caliber of hockey that he has played at this season. It's unbelievable. My heart goes out to him, his wife, his entire family.

1:27:29 Awful, awful situation. But shout out to the Buffalo Sabres and shout out to Rasmus Darling because what he's doing this year, it's it's the story. I don't want It's tough to call it the story of the year because it's such a tragic it's such a tragedy, but the way he's performing, he needs a spotlight on himself because it's been unbelievable.

1:27:47 Can Can you give us a quick little recap for people that don't know that are listening of what happened? Yeah, I'm I'm I'm um I I don't want to go too deep. Posh, I don't know if you know exactly, but I I know his his they lost they lost a child. Um they his wife has had two heart failures. Um he uh Rasmus uh and his wife, they I think they had a shared Instagram post about it where they kind of go in depth on on everything that happened. And I'd rather kind of let her like

1:28:16 Yeah. Just I just wanted people know it's like his wife and his family, they've had had a lot of stuff. Yeah, his wife's been battling. Uh I believe they lost a child through this process. It's it's truly the saddest thing in the world. She's had heart failures and again, like I've said, it's it's it's just so surprising that this guy has been able to play at this caliber and he needs he needs a shout out. That's like the the most show it could possibly be.

1:28:41 Well said. That's what this thing is that's what this segment is for. So 100%. Yeah.

1:28:48 Try to follow that up, Pasha. Yeah. Wow. That's that's tough to follow up. I mean, I guess that that puts things into perspective, you know, when I'm pulling my hair out and losing sleep over, you know, [ __ ] about the devils and hockey. Uh, really does put things in perspective, but um, you know, I couldn't just put a devil in the show without bringing some sort of negativity. So, once again, my minds is the devil's organization. Um, Sheldon Keefe for doing a horrible job and losing the room, Tom Fitzgerald for not firing him. And uh if ownership is not letting him fire Keef, then ownership to the Minesies for handcuffing everything.

1:29:22 So complete disaster top to bottom. Um I don't care if they've won five of six or five of seven or whatever. Ke's not the guy. And until that changes, things are not going to be good in Devil's Land.

1:29:36 Wow. He's just losing so much steam, isn't he, Merles? It's just Wow. Sad to see

1:29:41 man. A defeated man. They're not bad. They're not too bad. How far out are they right now?

1:29:47 Just like you're like an old divorced guy like that got divorced when he's like 60

1:29:51 and he's going out trying to like meet meet another date or something but he just

1:29:57 What is that analogy? You're you think I'll be out shopping for new teams to cheer for?

1:30:01 No, I just like your your your aura is very like you you you tried to give us your mindsies there, but it's just so sad and like you used to have a little bit of punch. Yeah, I've lost my debroad. Yeah. Well, how do you blame me? With the way the Devils are playing, eightgame win streak, start of the year. I'm talking about deep playoff runs and then now they're probably going to miss. It's a [ __ ] joke.

1:30:24 I got to maybe take you out back and just like on a farm or something. Just s I might uh I might just kind of move off of hockey. I might be done with this sport in general.

1:30:34 John Riley in the chat says, "Arby sayingura is hilarious." Yeah. Well, the [ __ ] am I talking about? I'm not an aura guy. I'm a get off my lawn guy. Get off my lawn.

1:30:46 Oh, that's hilarious. Get that candy back. All right. Uh my turn since we're going snake draft. Oh, Pasha's losing hair almost as fast as Shane grows it.

1:30:54 That's [ __ ] up. I got plenty of hair. Don't worry about my hair. Don't worry about my hair.

1:30:59 You got a gray. I almost went to style. I couldn't get into hairdresser in Vancouver.

1:31:04 Yes. Couldn't get in there. I tried to. He just I didn't line up correctly cuz Posh's got a loaf. Shane, I'd love to see what's hiding underneath that lid, buddy.

1:31:14 I don't know why. I don't know why. Oh, no. Sorry. I'm calling him Shane. Browner. Browner. I'd like to see what's under there. Browner,

1:31:20 what are you saying? Rest in peace, Posasha. Put the hat back on. Olivia, you're up.

1:31:31 All right. Mine is uh Minesies is uh the Skate Blades cutting kids. Uh our our good 2012 team here in Troy. our best team, our flagship team, 2012's Cole Dillo took a skate in the in the wrist. I'll save you the picture. I don't want to show you that. Um, brutal injuries, blood everywhere. There. Luckily, there's there's people there to stop it and everything, but the guy heard about it. I got I guess I could have probably called the guy up to the show. It's Cut Shield Hockey. Give him a small free ad here. But he heard about it and he's sending the stuff down to Cole right away. You see Austin Matthews, he wears them on his wrist here. So, um, yeah, these injuries are seem to be happening more. I'm trying to figure out why they're happening more. Is it the new steel stay sharpener? People are saying, "No, more people have all these skate sharpening machines where me and you, you, we'd get our skates sharpened once

1:32:20 every two weeks. They're just a lot sharper." But it's just brutal that kids are have to worry about this because it kind of ruined the whole weekend for their team.

1:32:28 And uh, so that's that's in the minds, all that stuff. but show for uh for Steve and Cutshield hockey sending that kid some uh he's going to get the wrist stuff and the sock stuff and I just thought it was a good chance to since we do we do talk a lot about youth hockey and junior hockey on here try to get some of that stuff no matter what the brand is get some of that the Kevlar on there to to stop some of the cuts and uh you know make sure the young kids are wearing their neck guards every practice and every skate and uh yeah just it's a it's a it's a mindsy part of the game.

1:32:59 Yeah. Yeah, totally. That sucks and scary obviously and it's always like you don't expect it like get a get a first aid kit, keep it in your bag. I know my wife does that with my son. She buys one of these like big time like heavy duty first aid kits that has like some of this cut cut prevention type of stuff in there in case it does happen. Uh but socks, yeah, wrist protection, arm protection, like they make all these um different companies look into it. Neck guards, neck protection, of course, it's all there for you with all this great technology as well. So, totally scary stuff.

1:33:32 Yeah, I need to get that. I need to get the first aid kit. You know what else I need to get? What I completely forgot about is when I was a kid, you got to have the little bag of screws and screwdriver. Kids are always losing the screws and the buckles on their helmets. I'm dealing with that at the learn to skate.

1:33:46 Like, [ __ ] I don't have the I don't have the stuff. I got to I got to get prepared if I'm going to be the crazy hockey dad.

1:33:50 You got to be a crazy hockey dad and GM virtually. Like, that's like a GM thing or like a coach's bag where you have all that stuff in there. You got like a little bag with all the [ __ ] and then you got the puck bag, right? And then you got the white board, right? That's your go-to as a coach probably.

1:34:04 First aid kit. Yeah, it's in with it's in there with all your screws and your wrenches and your drills and everything you're going to have to carry around.

1:34:11 Look like Doomy pushing a giant chest in your park. Mark Dumis. Mark Doom, our trainer back in the day and will be legend.

1:34:20 Uh, all right. My mind's is remote learning on snow days, man. Like I'm not home. It's fine. But like I did it through COVID and like because of the storm, we're back in it right now, you know, like kid put your shirt back on and sit down. Hey, can I show you my dog? And like the teacher's like going nuts. But even for the parents at home probably that are going through with this storm that's come through and they've canceled schools because it's too cold or they can't clear streets or there's too much snow still right now.

1:34:47 um having to just like muscle through um you know tech issues at home or clicking on a project or getting stuff done. It's like it's it's the parents that are doing it. It's parents that have to do it all. So, welcome to, you know, remote learning, staying home, learning school virtually. And pretty much the moms and dads that probably have regular jobs and are trying to get stuff done are are also now basically teaching their kids because it's trying to do anything on that thing. I couldn't I I'm not doing it.

1:35:19 I mean, the biggest part of that mindsies is and it's the whole the whole country, whole North America is the minds. The kids aren't outside on a snow day. on an outdoor snow day. The kids got to be outside building snow forts, sleigh riding. It's crazy here. We're out here on this snow day. It was awesome. 20 inches out here. We're the only people in the whole neighborhood outside.

1:35:38 Swedish. Yeah. Everybody else is scared of the cold and the snow. It's guys, it's supposed to be fun. We got a snow day. Let's go crazy.

1:35:45 It's supposed to be fun, but now they make it like fear. Like, it's too cold. And you turn on the news, it's like you're going to get frostbite of exposed skin. I'm like, what? Just [ __ ] wear a hat, wear a scarf. Like, why are we doing this to the kids?

1:35:58 Yeah. Wear the right [ __ ] Kick their asses out. Get going. Get off my lawn. Get off my

1:36:03 There he is. Get Get on my lawn. Get on my lawn and and and and build a snowman.

1:36:09 Get off our lawns. Jesus. All right. What do you got? What do you want to do? The Game Notes Cupdate. Quick update. Quick updates. Quick updates. I got a funny story on the other one on the 99 trophy. There it is. Game notes cup. I'm running away with it. Merles 505, Grenell 489, Armdog 451, Pasha 448. Type down there at the bottom.

1:36:33 I'm coming for you, Army. I'm just average. I'm average like everything in life. I'm not good at anything. I'm not bad at everything. I'm a second place finisher. That's That's just me.

1:36:44 It's me, too. I'm going to catch you. This might be my first trophy I ever win in pro sports somehow.

1:36:49 Third place is more me actually. Army. I'm more of a third place guy than a second. I don't picture.

1:36:53 Yeah, just right outside. No, St. Louis. St. Louis is my team. These are my guys out there, but man, they're they're a disaster.

1:37:01 Do you see them again last night? Twice in the last week, they've been tied with Dallas in the last minute and then they they give up a goal.

1:37:08 They need they need they need more guys like local boy Shane Venagi out there with heart and soul like like St. Louis guy.

1:37:17 Yeah, even though they're in trouble. But moving on, we'll go to the 99 trophy. And I bring this up quickly because my mom my mom calls me today and she's like, "I've been thinking about the 99 trophy and I really I'm feeling bad for Army that he's going to have to take that much work to do. He should be able to hire out some people to help him or or some charity work. They can come and help him in passing the puck. I feel bad for him. He's going to lose that."

1:37:41 Yeah. This is actually great. If I lose, I'm going to make Cruz do all the shots to work on his shot. I'll be the passing guy.

1:37:47 I'll be like, "All right, kid. put this heat pack on your back and just start whailing away here. You're gonna be taking a thousand shots.

1:37:55 Yeah, that's my new move. The new punishment for me is me punishing my kid. That's great. It's all trickle down. It's a rundown.

1:38:02 It's the 180 now. Oh, this is you, Cruz. Reverse card. Stumble for Stenberg for St. Louis. We re need to reunite the brother, says Peter.

1:38:12 Oh, that's actually a good point. Yeah, Merl said it first though. That was first. You told me. I said it on chicklet credit. That's your idea.

1:38:20 Now it's mine. Another idea by Merles. Um yeah. So enough of that. Another idea by me.

1:38:28 Everything else's idea. Whitney's voice in that cracks me up every time. I got to come up with some ideas for the weekend. Penn State. I haven't seen you guys in a while.

1:38:41 I know. Up with some new stuff for you guys. Champs 4 PM be there. We will be at Champs. 4 p.m.

1:38:48 It's going to be awesome. We're going to be What day is that? Friday. That's on Friday. So before the game, the game at Pagoula is at 6 p.m. The boys are coming in. We'll be there at 4. Champs, best college bar in America. I think everyone knows that. It's unbelievable. They had like Travis Scott there a couple weeks ago. Jonas Brothers. Oh yeah. It's It's unbelievable what they do there. Also, alumni weekend, so all the former Penn State guys are going to be in there up top at Champs getting bottle service. So it's going to be a fun night. 4:00. Come by. I'm sure we'll be there after as well.

1:39:17 Looks like the two of you got some new pictures up there. They look a little better than the ones I usually got on. That was

1:39:22 Yeah. Shout out to Julia. Julia's the best. Took a couple pictures at Chicklets Cup for me. I had that one where I was like

1:39:29 for everyone it was it was awful. Oh, I have one just like brutal they put up there. It just can't even see it. It's just It like It looks like it's AI. It's so bad. It's such a bad picture. Like someone designed a brutal AI picture of me.

1:39:43 Ah, that's good. Yeah. So, are we going to go like what what's it look like? We're going to that and then

1:39:49 we're going to hang out. Yeah. Friday night we're going to be doing the party party at Champs Pink Whitney party there. Then we're going to head over to the game at Pagula where Ice Arena. It's going to be awesome to go see that. I'm very excited for you guys to get in there. It's going to be crazy. And then Saturday 1:00 game time. I'm sure we'll be in the mix at the tailgates and stuff. Game notes will have a little uh intermission hit on the Big 10 network. Uh well that's the boys are big time getting t a little TV time and uh yeah that's that's that's the plan as of now. A ton of big interviews planned. Uh game notes will be our boots on the ground doing social media all over town. So we got lots planned. We're excited to get there. I'm sure Benny Bulma will be running around.

1:40:32 Oh [ __ ] You think so? Love that guy. You think he'll be wearing a blazer? No winter coat. Just a blazer. Just professional ripping around. No winter hat. nothing. Uh Merles, you want to get into your games?

1:40:45 Yep. Let's get some picks. Let's go, buddy. Let's go. Um Yeah. So, my first one is uh you know, there was a trade. Pallet Palant went to the Islanders. Uh what was it? Susi went to the Islanders, too.

1:40:59 Rangers. So, I see the I see that Islanders I feel those trades. I feel like energy. All right, we got to go now. They got us some extra players. This is a big game. Rangers are the opposite way. They're just getting rid of guys. Guys are trying to figure out where they're going, how to get out of there as quickly as possible. So, give me the Islanders money line minus 130. I know it's a rivalry game, but I like the Islanders there. And then my second game is the ABS. ABS money line minus 148. McKinnon two points. Nate's two-point parlay plus 150. The ABS have been struggling a little bit for the ABS, you know, playing around 500 with Taves out and Gabe out, but

1:41:37 they're going to get it going. It's Ottawa. Ottawa is not good. I I really like the ABS tonight. So, those are my plays for tonight.

1:41:43 That's awesome. I'll be on that game tonight, too. And someone asked, who will be on the couch guest? Who will be the guest on on the couch with the old arm dog? I got a coach segment coming up tonight with uh with uh Kale Mar. So, stay tuned for that. It'll be awesome.

1:41:56 Um uh working for Sportsnet tonight, Ottawa, Colorado at Ottawa. Um so there's your picks. Islanders moneyline, ABS moneyline, McKinnon Nespoint parlay each. Uh, plus 150 on that baby.

1:42:11 They're so fun to watch. Oh, yeah. They get it going. Um, you want me to do my You want me to You want me to bump in my slump dog?

1:42:20 Is it going live tonight? It's going live tonight, buddy. All right, get it in. Someone Someone corrects me in the chat.

1:42:28 Um, but I'm going to do it just because it it links up with tonight as well. Um, new slump buster. Roll the thing. Posasha. If you're in a slump and you need a bump, who you gonna call? Slump busters. Kids hot. Kids running hot. Benny Kendall, mom and dad. 190 strong at the game. Two goal slump bust in Vancouver, hometown. Here we go. Look, I've been getting some uh lines in the water. A lot of requests, a lot of calls, a lot of pay attention to me. Hey, my team's struggling. I get it. This guy makes a lot of sense for me. Uh Ross Colton, he's been out the last few games. Word is, I don't know if it's come down yet.

1:43:11 I haven't checked, obviously. I'm busy doing the show. Word was that he might play tonight. He's ice cold. 26 games without a goal. This guy's a soldier. This guy's a good guy. He's a 15 to 20 goal guy. Merles, he had 22 goals in 2122. He needs me. His family needs me. He needs to get going. A special part of my heart for the old slump dog early season. I'm in Colorado on the on the Landis Cog slump bust game and he was the guy on the ice that like looked at me after the goal. He looked right back at me. I'm between the benches. He's like slump buster. He mouththed it to me in the middle of the game. He knew it.

1:43:50 He loved it. So I got a couple. He hasn't scored since that game. Yeah. It's like November when was his last goal? I think November 26th. November. So probably around that time. Not even joking. Um, so Ross Colton, you're my guy. 26 games. We can't have this. Upper body injury has missed the last few games, I believe. But he's supposed to return today, but if you're in a slump, you need a bump. This kid needs it. The slump dog's here for you. Let's pass it around. Spread it around. You've been targeted now. Not Gabe. Now it's your turn, Boss Colton. And I'm here for you, baby. For the family, for the friends, for the career. We get the kid going tonight. He's if he's back in the lineup. But we got till next Wednesday, which is

1:44:34 which is Olympic break pretty much right up to the Olympics. That already got kids got to push. Kids got to get it going. Let's go.

1:44:41 He had three glorious chances. I think it was against the Ducks. Glorious, glorious scoring chances. So, you know it's coming. It's coming for him. If he gets in tonight, it'll happen tonight. I'm riding with the arm dog on that one.

1:44:52 Let's go. Let's go against Ottawa. I'm on the broadcast as well. I'm in the studio doing the game. How does it all work out like this for the old

1:45:01 slub dog? I know. I I I think I brought him up last week. I said I was like that's a future one for us and you happen to be on the show and he still hasn't scored.

1:45:10 Here we go. It's working out. Everything's coming up. Slump dog. Let's And I'm on the ABS money line. So if he scores, you know they're winning.

1:45:16 Ross Colton. Ross Colton, we got you. We're coming for you. Been targeted. I was going to try to look that up quickly as goal anytime goal. Why don't you set up Thursday night for me while I look that up? All right, here we go. Thursday night. Thursday night, Merrtles is a big night. We got 15 games. A lot of action. Your head must have been spinning when you're putting this baby together. Like, where am I starting? Where am I going? I don't know. Only picks, picks, picks. What's the line? What's the overunder? Where are we going? But you figured it out. You got some action for us of all 15 games.

1:45:46 You've narrowed it down, brother. Yeah, it was really tough. I picked the first few. I'm like, "Oh, yeah. This is a great slate." And then, "Holy cow, I can't give out nine picks today." So, what we'll do is I got a couple picks and then the last one will be a parlay. We'll put those four teams together. We'll get it on the on the DraftKings sports book and that will be our special parlay uh on there for the night. But get things going. I'm going with the Boston Bruins minus 155 at home. I don't know if you know this. I don't know if G even knows this. As our Bruins super fan, they've won eight straight games at home.

1:46:18 Wow. So, even though we had a Philadelphia Flyers prospect on the show today, I'm taking the Bruins money line at home. Uh, I just talked about him. I just talked about the team. Ta Thompson, Buffalo Sabres. I will take them at home on the money line against the LA Kings. That's only minus 130. I know the Kings won three in a row. They beat Detroit last night, but it wasn't it was an ugly game. That wasn't pretty at all.

1:46:40 I will take the Sabres to stay hot. And then here it is again. Islanders Rangers are playing backto back against each other. So, I'll take the Islanders again. You're getting a minus 110 because this one's on the road, but the same theory. They're getting the energy of the new guys. Rangers are losing guys. They might lose two guys. They could lose Paneran by the time that game happens. And then there's the parlay. This is the parlay. It'll be a Chicklet parlay on DraftKings. Penguins money line, Lightning money line, Red Wings money line, and the Anaheim Ducks money line plus 658. And you know that covers the big night. Big night in the slate.

1:47:13 Yeah, huge 15 game night. Bruins money line, Sabres money line, Islanders money line, Pens, Lightning, Red Wings, Ducks money line parlay. That's a huge night. That's fun.

1:47:23 And I I left I see San Jose at Edmonton there. I I thought about the over six and a half, but that just that screams a Mr. Ice game to me, our good friend Elio. So, I got a feeling he'll have that one for everybody tomorrow. So, I left that one out there, you know. I didn't I didn't want to take that game on him.

1:47:39 You don't want to get there. Yeah, that's okay. Uh news in the chat. Moving on. I'm seeing news came out an hour ago is that he is not playing tonight. So Ross Colton, my slump dog. So what's the rules if he doesn't get in a game because he's banged up? I just And I carry him through into

1:47:56 the start. It's a carryover. I think what they call that in golf, right? When you're playing a skins game, it's carryover.

1:48:01 We're going to have to carry over. We're going to have to do a carryover. If he doesn't get in, if they nurse his upper body injury into the Olympic break, a rule will be that I get to carry over. If not, if I only get a couple games in with him, it's on. It's on. Slump Dog's still on. Slump Buster. Uh, just to update you there. I saw that in the chat. Could be fake news, too, cuz it's in the chat. Who knows?

1:48:22 Never know. You never know. You never want to You don't want to tell the other team till the, you know, you just, you out there in warm-ups.

1:48:27 True. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Mind games. Got to play mind games, buddy.

1:48:32 Well, there it is, bud. We That's our show. That's it. That's it. Um, shut her down. It's time to shut her down.

1:48:39 Time to shut her down. I want to give a huge shout out on behalf of Mimmers uh G and Pasha. A massive shout out to our guy Burda. Uh huge help for us. Unbelievable guy that has has come on and and really worked with us and got us going even even on the big boy side up with Chicklets on on events that we've done like uh Chicklets Cup and others. Uh a fantastic teammate, awesome guy. Um I think what what's the title we give him? Full fulltime.

1:49:05 He's full time, baby. He's now a producer for for Spitting Chicklets. So, he's it's big time, baby.

1:49:11 So, that is huge. Just a fantastic guy, though. And he's Alberta guy, too. Just We needed a an Alberta guy. Western guys.

1:49:20 Yeah. I think he's out of Calgary, right? But he's like a Lethbridge proper kind of guy. So, and and I've loved him in the last year. He's been just incredible with us. Hey, Mr. I can't say enough. He's got more I'm finding out more stuff I ever knew about with college hockey and major junior hockey because of our social media. He does an incredible job. Incredible.

1:49:40 He's dynamite guy. So, I wanted to give him and we all did a massive shout out and a congratulations to Ba.

1:49:47 Yeah. Uh, shout out to the chat of course, always giving us some laughs and some humor and some stats. They might be true, they might not. It doesn't matter. It's all in good fun. Our sponsors right here, Body Armor. This one is pineapple, passion fruit, flash IV, caffeine, zero sugar. Best thing going. Then prime Monday Night Hockey. I told you that game. Montreal, Minnesota. It's going to be awesome. Superstars on both sides. Offense, defense. Tons of stuff. The wall from St. Paul. He got a shootout win last night. So yeah, Montreal, Minnesota, Monday night prime hockey 7:30. That's going to be awesome. Check that out. Uh

1:50:24 audio audio, you know, all that. Yeah. audio, Apple, Spotify, Amazon. Please subscribe and comment. Also on our YouTube. YouTube's massive. We're still here for you on YouTube, of course. Uh streaming live every Wednesday at noon. Maybe next week. I think I got to bump it back. So stay tuned for that because of my travel. I got a crazy last week of travel before Olympics.

1:50:45 Um so I might have some travel there, too. We might chase some goals. IO's talking about chasing some goals next week. So

1:50:52 So we might be both jammed up. Maybe we'll bump the show back to like one or two. Stay tuned for that. Uh just because um and then Friday meet and greet Merles, we'll be there. We'll be there

1:51:03 at chance. Been one of those in a while. They haven't been throwing down the Pink Whitney with the people in a while.

1:51:09 Yeah, we'll be ready to rip. It'll be fun. Pink Whitney party. Um and Merles. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's been fun and stuff. We had some sad news yesterday and um you know, somebody close to me, my old RBI assistant coach, John Burke, he passed away, fight with cancer. Um, he's the first guy like I always wanted to go to RPI and I'll never forget it when I was younger and I was playing in a game and he was standing on the glass and I saw the black, you know, I don't know what it was at the time if it was a golf jacket or something. It had the RPI logo on there. I'm like, "Oh my god, they're here to see me. This could be it." So, I he was the first guy I saw at RBI. One of his favorite stories to tell was he was watching me up in uh in the that crazy Toronto Metro League. And in this place, Quinny, which was crazy.

1:51:56 They had all these signs that were yelling about the coach and stuff. Somebody shot a puck at the sign. One of the players, this was Keith's team, that crazy team, Keith and Jefferson,

1:52:06 and it went right through the sign, hit him right in the head and cut cut his head. And he he would always show me, and he's like, "That's your fault." Because I was there watching you and recruiting you. and he coached eight years for the men's for the men's assistant. He recruited all of us. Migs, uh Nolan Graham, you always see in the chat, Benny Bar, he recruited all of us. He was unreal. And then after that, he went and took over the women's program. He took over the women's program for for Bill Cahill. He did nine years with the women. Got him into D1. And uh he was just like he was the he was the best guy. He was just like an uncle. He's a big brother to all of us. You know, you know how we always talk about the assistant coach has to be a friend to the head coach?

1:52:42 Yeah. That was Berky. He was he was like that. And then even when I got done playing, I was r I would I would see him every single year at Saratoga. If I was there one day, it happened to be the day he was there. And we would catch up. We'd watch all nine races together. And um yeah, he was just he was special to me, special to everybody around here. And sad to see him go.

1:53:03 Yeah. Sorry, Merles. Rest in peace, Berky. Yeah. And uh Berkey's uh work in hockey and in the community obviously touched a ton of people and is remembered for that. No question. Uh, rest in peace. Yeah.

1:53:16 Another funny story was when uh we used to play this keg ball and we always had uh 13 Americans, 13 Canadians roughly on the team. So we play US Canada in a softball game and there was all these rules where you had to run around with a beer and everything. And I may have come in a little overweight my sophomore year. Started my sophomore year, a few extra lbs on. And he knew we were doing keg ball, but he knew I had to like get in shape for the next Monday. So he he made me meet him at the track and I had to run three miles with him on the track before the keg ball. He's like, "You got to do this." He's like, "You got to

1:53:48 Yeah, he did it with me." And like and I I was bitching the whole time like this is [ __ ] He's like, "I know it is, Merles. I know. Like, let's just do it. You're going to have so much fun." And um another legendary story, Berkeley. I won't say the players name. It was not me. It was not me, but this is the kind of guy he was. He's for the players. One of our players may have been out at the bar the night before a game and that was his superstition. He was hot. He was on fire and Berky was doing a a curfew check. He goes down to the bar thinking he's only going to see, you know, like MIGs, like the the healthy scratches.

1:54:22 No, there's our one of our star players is in there. So, he grabs him out of there. Same thing. Brings him up to the track, makes him run three miles, sweat it out, go to bed, doesn't tell the coach, doesn't get him in trouble. Kid scores a hat-tick the next night. So,

1:54:37 wow. Yeah. Um, I don't know if I I don't want to say his name and ruin it for him, but I'll see him at him around and I'll ask him if I can share that story, but that that was kind of guy Berky was for all of us and uh yeah, he's going to be missed. Great guy, great hockey guy.

1:54:51 Tough hearing you get choked up about him. Obviously, uh a lot of people probably feel that same way about how impactful

1:54:58 uh he was on people's lives and hockey um in general. Good people in hockey. [ __ ] cancer. John Burke, rest in peace. Um brutal.

1:55:08 Yeah, that's it. And, uh, we'll see you next week, Arm Dog. I'll see you this weekend. And, uh, yeah, let's

1:55:14 Shane Van Sagi, thanks a lot, buddy. MSU, we'll see you there, Penn State. Uh, absolutely. We'll have some fun. Can't wait to see you this weekend, buddy.

1:55:29 Under. Under. No goals. No goals. It's time to check the game notes. I think we're going to have the show of the year here. We're almost having magical moments here. Show Mindsy's time. Army show start us off. What an opportunity. Another idea by me. Everything's Mos's idea. Summer.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Hat Tricks Galore - Game Notes ft. Shane Vansaghi - 01.28.26"?

Matthew Merley (Host), Armen (Arm Dog) (Host), Shane Vansaghi (Guest).

What is "Hat Tricks Galore - Game Notes ft. Shane Vansaghi - 01.28.26" about?

The content discusses a lively performance review and commentary featuring Shane Vansaghi, highlighting recent adventures and experiences from a hockey road trip, while promoting Body Armor Flash IV, a zero-sugar hydration drink with caffeine. The conversation emphasizes the importance of staying hydrated during travel and the fun moments that come with the sport, capturing a blend of enthusiasm…

What is mentioned in this Spittin' Chiclets episode?

10 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Michigan State, Shane Vansagi, Penn State, Vancouver, Dr. Ken Barry, Ottawa. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Hat Tricks Galore - Game Notes ft. Shane Vansaghi - 01.28.26"?

The episode runs 1 h 56 min; the transcript is about 24,820 words in 403 timestamped sections.

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