Yeah.

Yeah.

What was that like? Yeah, it was awesome.

You know, when I got to college, you know, you kind of look like we just touched on.

They won in 97 and came in the next year.

And we were looking at we weren't losing.

You know, it obviously was a way different day and age than the NIL and kids getting paid a ton now.

I wanted to ask one more question just because we touched on it too, is what did you do with your cup day?

Really?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

Every once in a while when I was on the plane, I'd fire a couple in front of him because he, oh, yeah, he has a real, real hard time not hammering red vines.

Other than that, I think he's super clean.

I know.

Do you like all of these guys trying to play together and all this player empowerment?

He's more emboldened to be the piece of shit that he's been now than ever before.

[laughs] No, emboldened is a great way to put it.

I couldn't agree more with everything you said.

Um, yeah, like the whole thing was, like I said, I'm with you.

I didn't expect him to come in, you know, on, on hands and knees or whatever the saying is, with wh- wha- on his knees, with his hat in his hand, like begging for forgiveness, and "Oh, I'm so sorry." I wasn't expecting that, and I wasn't even really expecting any kind of apology.

But like, if he would've just come in and been like, you know, when, let's say when they asked about Columbus.

He didn't even have to go into the details.

[laughs]

He's more emboldened to be the piece of shit that he's been now than ever before.

[laughs] No, emboldened is a great way to put it.

I couldn't agree more with everything you said.

Um, yeah, I, like, the whole thing was, like I said, I'm with you.

I didn't expect him to come in, you know, on, on hands and knees or whatever the saying is, with a wh- on his knees with his hat in his hand, like begging for forgiveness and, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I wasn't expecting that.

And I wasn't even really expecting any kind of apology.

But like, if he would've just come in and been like, you know, when, let's say when they asked about Columbus, he didn't even have to go into the details.

[laughs]

Oh, nice.

I'm going to meet some of my boys from Fort Saskatchewan.

I'm gonna go play Gamble Sands later this week in Washington.

So I was all ready for a nice week, and then the Edmonton Oilers dropped this on me, which was a little bit of a downer on my Monday morning.

But, um, yeah, I would say, you know, at the end of the day, it's...

Uh, I mean, I'm obviously not a fan of the guy.

I think he's a scumbag.

Mm-hmm.

I'm not sure if you saw his speech to the team after the game to win, but he just seems like the quintessential guy, that coach, that players will run through a brick wall for him.

Yeah, I mean, I think you could tell guys love playing for him.

First off, I have, you know, I think the world of Rod.

We've kept in touch over the years.

He doesn't have to do that.

And, you know, I think the world of him.

You know, I laugh.

Mike, how much fun is it watching those good Canadian boys from Winnipeg supporting their boy, Seth Jarvis, and getting to see him score that OT game winning goal?

[laughs]

So like, I wasn't like, I wasn't looking at this team with like Cup, like, uh, like Cup aspirations.

I was just trying to make the team.

But if you ask guys like, and I've heard these stories.

I knew- I didn't know anything about this until years later.

Um, guys like Brett Hedican, like Brett Hedican convinced Ray Whitney to come to Carolina, uh, after the lockout.

You know, Ray very established.

[laughs]

[laughs]

Uh, yeah.

So I did, I got officially called up by the Ducks one time.

I'll shorten the story up so I don't talk too long.

So I get sent down, Babs berates me, says I don't care, says I don't work hard, blah, blah, blah.

I get called up, uh, maybe a couple months later, and immediately I get, w- we're playing a game against, uh, wherever Darcy Hord- I think we were playing Nashville or something like that.

Game's the next day.

Yeah

Because that was when Brian Murray got you the second time.

Yeah, Brian Murray traded for me the second time.

Me and Corey Stillman got traded in there.

Uh, it was supposed to be a Cup run.

Ottawa was in first place.

That was the year they went to the finals the year before.

Uh, I wanna say the first half of the year they were probably, like, they were in first place by a mile.

Wow.

But like, are there ghosts for Conor McDavid now?

Yeah, if you had to pick between the four nations, the Olympic, you'd get one of them.

The other one, silver, you obviously would have done it the other way.

But yeah, that's the one, you know, I never kind of feel for, you know, for the top, top end players.

You know what I mean? It's like, well, play better.

But watching Connor McD, I tweeted it during, it was one of, I forget, maybe the semifinal game or whatever, like, It must be so much fun to play hockey when you're like the fastest out there, the most agile, the best hands with unreal vision and you're big.

Playing hockey must be so much fun if you have all that.

It is remarkable how few of those guys had kind of won at the top level compared to the Canada team where I think it was like 13 different guys had won the cup on it.