WEBVTT
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I'd babcock as my coach before and after he treated
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me like I was that rookie, and I'm like, uh uh.
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My mentors on that team, right, Cleary Bertuzzi and my
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friends were like, you have to go in there and
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you had to stand up to the bully. So what
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he did he would run to his office and take
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his skates off and then get like a really quick
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workout before guys would get in. So he was mid
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squat with like squat rock on his back and I
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put the stick right between his eyes and I'm like,
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have you ever talked to me like that we're going
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to have an issue?
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You did not?
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Yeah, I was, and I was shaking doing him, But
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ever since that day he respected me.
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Welcome to Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired a podcast featuring conversations
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with professional athletes and coaches who have experienced being cut, traded, fired,
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and or they're retired. I'm your host, Susie Wargen. In
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the United States, most kids learn how to ride a
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bike before getting into other sports. In Canada, kids learn
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how to lace up their skates and get on the ice.
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Kyle Quincy figures he started skating around age three, and
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he he still laces him up today, but now it's
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for Colorado Avalanche alumni events. When Kyle was still in
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high school, he decided to forego college and get started
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with the juniors. In July of two thousand and five,
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he was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings during a
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commercial break. He'd score his first NHL goal just under
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two years later, and then the following year started his
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tour of what would become many stops in the pros
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the La Kings, three seasons with the Abs, Tampa Bay
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Kinda Back to Detroit, the Devils, the Blue Jackets, the
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Wild and a little stint overseas until retiring in twenty nineteen.
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A year after retirement, while still trying to figure out
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who he was besides a hockey player, Kyle's one year
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old son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. From there,
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it was a whirlwind of doctors, surgery, and healing, not
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only for his son, who was doing well today, but
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also for Kyle, who began to dig deep and find
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ways to help himself and others who are dealing with trauma.
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You'll hear more about what he's doing with the do
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Good Ranch near the end of our conversation. Let's go
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ahead and get into it, ladies and gentlemen.
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Kyle Quincy Cut Traded Fired Retired podcast with Susie Wargin.
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Kyle Quincy, how are you?
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Thanks for having me?
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Absolutely? You look like you could still play? You do
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you look good?
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Thank you? Yeah? Yeah, some days I feel like I
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could still play.
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I do you Yeah, I bet you do. It's great
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to see you again. It's been a long time. I
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know that you've made Denver your home for a long time,
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so it's good that you're around. And when I found
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out that you're still so involved with all the alumni
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events and what you're doing now post career is super fascinating.
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So I can't wait to get into that. But we
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got to start like we always do and go back
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with your roots. Yeah, yeah, you're Canadian roots. So you
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grow up in what's the name of the town. Is
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it Caldon as I say it?
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Or I was born in Kitchener, Ontario, right, moved to Shelbourne, Ontario,
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and then Orangeville and then that's beside Kaladin.
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Caladin Okay, I knew i'd say it wrong. Yeah, okay,
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So then when does hockey come into your life or
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is it just from the beginning.
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The whole Canadian cultural story of you know, gym class
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and you know, kindergarten or pre kindergarten, three years old,
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four years old, everyone everyone is skating and and then
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you know it's the dream and you fall in love
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with the leaves. And my dad was a huge hockey
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fan and.
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He kind of got you into who you looked up to, right.
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Yeah, So like I was a kind of an up
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and down plugger, left winger, and bill Berg was a
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fourth line on the story. As we went to see
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the Toronto Maple Leafs play the La Kings at the
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Maple Leaf Gardens and Wayne Gretzky, right, and my dad's like,
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don't watch him, You're never going to be that. And
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then he just picked out a guy there's like number ten,
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bill Berg and just hitting everybody, dumping it in, doing
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all the right things, just grit and like playing the
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right way. And he's like, that's you. That's who you
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watch and that became my favorite player.
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Oh my gosh.
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And yeah, when I was I think twelve, I couldn't
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make my team as a forward anymore. So they're like,
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do you want to play d Yeah, I want to
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be on the team. So then I became a defenseman.
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Do whatever you can do, right, Yeah, yeah, if you
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can't be on the offense and be on defense. I
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talked with Rick Berry about that too, where he had
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someone pull him aside and he's like, hey, you know
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what seems like you know you're not afraid. Yeah, and
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that became his role. Yeah, it's very good at it.
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Yeah.
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Yeah. So for me, which was good and bad. I
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was good at everything and not great at anything, right,
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So I think to make it a long long time
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and to have a really good career, like being great
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at one thing is important. But I was like the
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Swiss army knife. When I got traded to the Abs,
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I was, uh, you know, powerplay, penalty kill, last minute.
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I was the guy, which was great. Then I got
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traded back to the Red Wings and I'm not the guy.
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They got a lot of good guys. They got Lenstrom
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and Cronwall and Falski and on and on and on.
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So I came back into that fourth fifth secondary, power play,
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penalty kill, more of a shutdown, hard rugged making it
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hard on other teams where I was harder to do that.
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When I was playing for the because I was playing
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thirty minutes a game, so I was more of, you know,
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doing everything good. But then when I came back to
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the Red Wings and I had to play like fourteen
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to eighteen minutes then do something, I could be more
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hard and really like lean into that role.
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Interesting. Yeah, okay, So as you're growing up, then, did
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you play any other sports aside from hockey?
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Yeah, baseball was a big one. And then I grew
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up in like the epicenter of box across, So yeah,
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Orange Voluntario and Ontario is like the epicenter of box across,
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which is like mammoth, Like what the mammoth plays?
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Oh okay, I don't.
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Know what do you guys call its?
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Indoor lacrosse?
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Indoor lacrosse? There we go. Yeah. So that so that
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was big in my little town and big into golf,
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like the dream was to play like in college, like
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a two sport athlete. But broke my hand playing for
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a team Canada when I was sixteen, and then the
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golf career was over and I chose the right one.
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Did you go to college?
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No? No, I went to junior so I turned.
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Okay, I thought, yeah, I was sixty, so not only
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no golf career, no college, no going hockey.
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All the way exactly.
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Yeah, yeah, I ended up. Yeah, it's crazy that, you know,
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the rules have changed recently, But back then, at fifteen,
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I had to make a decision if I was going
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to play in the OHL, play pro or wait and
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then try to get a scholarship when I was eighteen.
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At fifteen, you had this society.
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Yeah, you're not even grown. I luckily had a girl
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spurt right then put on forty pounds four inches and
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then I'm like, I'm a man. So I went and
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played with men right away, and then that was the
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way I got to the Red Wings. And I don't know.
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So at fifteen, you made that decision to play in
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the Ontario Hockey League, which is the OHL, and so
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you start out in the minors, but you're playing with
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big kids, big boys.
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Yeah, in the years, right.
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Yeah, so in junior they call it right, and then
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they pay you fifty bucks a week, so you're not
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allowed to go to college. So you make that decision.
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Because you're making two hundred dollars a month possibly to college.
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Keep it. Yeah, but now those rules are changed, which
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is great.
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That is good.
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Well, it's kind of like the nil I mean, they're
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all getting paid.
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Yeah, but the end of the day, it's not about
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the money. It's about the freedom, right because you don't know.
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You might you might grow at seventeen and then be like, hey,
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I can't wait, I need to go play. But now
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you can play the best league in the world at fifteen, sixteen,
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seventeen eighteen and then be like, yeah, you know what,
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maybe this isn't for me. I'm going to go to college. Yeah,
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I can go get a degree. Maybe you have a
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good year there. Then you're like, got twenty three.
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I'm ready, right, Yeah, Because everybody matures at different places
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in their careers, and you can see it where sometimes
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you're not ready at eighteen nineteen, even though people think
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they might be, they're just not. You need a few
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more years before you really start to peak.
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Yeah, But the story is I grew up real fast.
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You know, when you're playing when you're playing against twenty
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year olds at fifteen and it's killer be killed, and
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especially in that world, there's like the game's a lot
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different than it was, you know, using a wood stick. Yeah,
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it was survival. I bet there's there's guys out there
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that didn't even know there was a puck on the ice.
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They're just there for one reason.
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Oh my god, yeah, killer be killed. Yeah, so did
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you stay home or did you have did you go?
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I got dropped by the London Nights, so it was
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about two hour drive and I lived in the host
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family with Rick Nash at the time. And then he
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signed like the you know, the biggest contract for like
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an eighteen year old and left. So I was on
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my own but played for London Nights, which was like
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a dream.
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And where was that? Where was that located?
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London is on the like in between Toronto and Windsor,
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right by Detroit. Okay, yeah, that kind of parlays into
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that season. Was my draft year to the NHL at seventeen,
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and we played Windsor and Plymouth, which is suburbs of Detroit.
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The stars aligned. I had a really good playoff, really
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hard playing like kind of underdog playing seven game series
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and they drafted me when I wasn't. I wasn't expecting
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to be drafted. I flew under the radar of my
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whole career. I was never like rated high or whatever,
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top prospect. But yeah, when I got my name called,
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I wasn't even at the draft. I was just and
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I got drafted in a commercial. So when that phone
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call rang, I was at a party with my buddies
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the night before and we're talking about it, watching the
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first round on the draft, right, and I got a
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phone call and it's like, Hey, it's Ken Holland from
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the Detroit Red Wings. Congratulations, we just drapped you. I'm
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like haha, yeah, yeah, right click. I thought it was
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my buddies just playing a joke on me because I'm
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watching the draft right and I'm like, but I did
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not just get drafted. I'm watching it. He called right
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back and he's like, no, no, no, hey, this is yeah. Yeah.
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And then I saw my name on the ticker. I'm like, okay, yeah,
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and I was yeah, the dream come true.
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That was.
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So that was the two thousand and three the NHL
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Entry Draft.
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Yeah, could be the best draft of all time.
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Why do you say that.
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Just because of all the players I was in it,
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the depth of it, but yeah, being drafted in the
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fourth round to Detroit, I was like one of their
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high picks because you know, they were in a dynasty
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at that time. Should have been yeah, and they were
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trading away first rounders for you know, the Brett Halls
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Luke Robatize guys like that. So I was one of
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their top guys. I was so fortunate. But my first
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defense partner in my first training camp was Chris Chelios.
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Oh kid, it takes me under his wing on and
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off the ice, teaches me how to be a pro.
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I'm just so lucky to have amazing mentors.
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Yeah really, that's huge.
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Yeah, so I was a sponge. I soaked everything up
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I could, and yeah, let me have a really good career.
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Well, what a cool experience having come from where you
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were in the juniors, where like you said, it's kill
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or be killed. So it's not like anybody's going, hey,
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come here, kid, let me let me show you how
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this works. It's like, no, you're you're going to take
243
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my job. So I'm not going to be friendly to you. Chelios.
244
00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:29.120
Do that that's huge?
245
00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:31.399
Yeah, well, again, he was a legend. He wasn't worried
246
00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:34.080
about me taking the job. But there was six or
247
00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:37.080
seven guys on that team, the older guys that they
248
00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:39.440
looked at me as a threat, and I was. I was.
249
00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:41.399
I did take their job. And that's the one thing
250
00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:44.879
that people understand of like it's it's every shift, it's
251
00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:47.840
every day because there's always some much trying to take
252
00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:49.360
your job every every day.
253
00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:52.080
Okay, you get drafted by the Red Wings, you stay
254
00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:54.279
in their AHL for a little bit.
255
00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:56.440
Right. I was up and down played two inner games
256
00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:59.320
in Grand Rapids. Okay, they have a theory in Detroit.
257
00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:04.120
Even guys like Garie Huddler of Philipoola really big names
258
00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:06.919
that played a long time and had really successful careers.
259
00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:10.399
Every single player in in Detroit's organization had to play
260
00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:11.159
in the minors.
261
00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:13.200
Oh wow, everybody did.
262
00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:15.600
Like you have the Steve Eiserman's and guys like that.
263
00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:18.120
But like in the generation when Ken Holland was there
264
00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:21.720
and how good they were, every single person that came through,
265
00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:24.879
they made you earn it because oh yeah, because when
266
00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:26.440
you get called up, you're like, I ain't going back.
267
00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:28.000
I'll do anything to not go back.
268
00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:30.440
All right, but you did well.
269
00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:33.240
I was not very my first ever game in the NHL,
270
00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:35.679
Uri Fisher actually died on the bench and they brought
271
00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:38.200
him back to life. That's how I got my one
272
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:39.679
game in two thousand and five.
273
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.399
That was November two thousand and five, right against the Ducks.
274
00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:45.399
Yet the fibulator on the bench saved his life.
275
00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:46.279
Holy cow.
276
00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:48.639
So like there was and so when I get called up,
277
00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:50.759
it was like it was just such a huge story
278
00:11:50.919 --> 00:11:53.440
and it was chaos. And then yeah, it would have
279
00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:56.240
been the next year in two thousand and seven, played
280
00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:59.240
up and down. But then my first Stanley Cup game
281
00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:03.080
was Game six, triple overtime in the Sea of Red
282
00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:05.799
and Calgary baptism by fire was an understatement.
283
00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:06.440
Oh my gosh.
284
00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:08.440
Yeah, and we're about to come up on the anniversary
285
00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:10.679
when you scored your first goal. It was April seventh,
286
00:12:10.679 --> 00:12:11.399
two thousand and seven.
287
00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:13.759
Yeah, that's a funny one too. I I just throw
288
00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:17.320
like an absolute muffin from the point and it might
289
00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:19.960
have bounced twice. And it was the So that Detroit
290
00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:21.720
was so good that the end of the year they
291
00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.360
would rest and Lindstrums and the top guys. So I
292
00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.840
would come in and play and they've already locked up
293
00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:29.879
the President's Trophy. They were that good. So Thomas Holmstrom,
294
00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:32.279
who was a great guy funny, comes up to me,
295
00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:34.240
is like, hey man, I got like a two million
296
00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:36.440
dollar bonus and that's my thirtieth goal. And it was
297
00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:38.720
the last game of the year. I'm like, oh, take it,
298
00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:41.200
like just you know, slice me off a percentage and
299
00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:44.399
pull it good, like this might have been. This might
300
00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:48.200
have been before like the it's all monitored and stuff, right, Yeah,
301
00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:50.759
he was just joking around. It was my goal. I
302
00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:54.159
probably would have rathered the hundred grand or whatever, no.
303
00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:57.039
Kidding, right, Yeah, but that's that was the last goal
304
00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:58.480
of the regular season that year.
305
00:12:58.559 --> 00:12:59.960
Yeah, and then it was like a seven to one
306
00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:02.360
win over Chicago or something. Yeah, it didn't matter at all.
307
00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:04.799
It doesn't matter if it's garbage time. It's a goal, right,
308
00:13:04.840 --> 00:13:07.279
it's your first NHL goal. So and like you said,
309
00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:09.080
they go on for the end of the playoffs and
310
00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:12.360
then you're a key component of that overtime win that
311
00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:14.159
helps them get into the second round that year.
312
00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:16.080
Yeah. Yeah, we should have won the Cup that year.
313
00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:19.200
We went all the way. It is wild. We're playing Anaheim.
314
00:13:19.879 --> 00:13:22.200
Pronger takes a It would have been a thirty gamer
315
00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:25.480
thirty game suspension nowadays, but it was a one game.
316
00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:28.360
So we're like, okay, we'll win this game and then
317
00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:30.200
win it at home, and we ended up losing the game.
318
00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:33.600
Pronger was out. Then we're up one nothing with thirty
319
00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:37.279
seconds left and Nita Meyer just kind of put on
320
00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:39.519
a show and they ended up beating us in six.
321
00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:42.000
But the next year they next year, next year we
322
00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:42.679
won in eight.
323
00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:46.360
Yeah, and then that one is interesting because you are
324
00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:49.639
on the practice team at that point or during the
325
00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:52.639
Stanley Cup playoffs, right, so you're in the picture. Did
326
00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:53.279
you get a ring?
327
00:13:53.480 --> 00:13:56.039
You know what? That's a that's an interesting question, but yeah,
328
00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.720
a legend. Yeah, we call a so it's called the
329
00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:01.840
Black Cases or are we called the Mushroom Club?
330
00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:04.039
Okay, they're the Black Aces here because Rick Berry was
331
00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:04.759
on the Black Aces.
332
00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:07.360
Yeah, yeah, it's all the Black Cases. But we had
333
00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:09.320
a joke we called the Mushroom Club because they you know,
334
00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:11.000
they feed us crap and they keep us in the
335
00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:12.399
dark and expect us to grow.
336
00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:15.440
You're literally just a fun guy, yeah.
337
00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:19.039
Exactly, but I was actually injured. So like uh chelly
338
00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:21.399
os and like McCarty and the guys are like, hey,
339
00:14:21.799 --> 00:14:23.559
we need you to be like the guy in the room,
340
00:14:23.639 --> 00:14:25.519
like not the clown, but like you got to come
341
00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:27.799
in tell stories, like have a good.
342
00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:29.879
Time and just snuff the crowd.
343
00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:32.360
Exactly. Yeah, like everyone has a role in here. So
344
00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:34.519
like I was injured. I was not There's no chance
345
00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:36.360
I was playing. But I was still there for the
346
00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:40.639
three months just to keep everybody oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
347
00:14:40.679 --> 00:14:43.279
And we had a great crew, Aaron Downey and Darren
348
00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.039
McCarty and Kelley. We were all not playing. We're all
349
00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:47.039
just hanging out. Yeah.
350
00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:47.960
But did you get a ring?
351
00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:50.240
Okay? So I was told. So I got put on
352
00:14:50.279 --> 00:14:51.840
waivers of the year after and I'm in LA and
353
00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:53.919
I remember the phone call and my agent calls me
354
00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:56.399
to say, hey, you're gonna get a ring, and you're
355
00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:58.919
gonna get it. I'm here, right, So it didn't come.
356
00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:02.919
Didn't come. There's a rings, B rings, C rings.
357
00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:05.080
Like, right to give me any rings whatever.
358
00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:07.399
I'm on the team, yes, right you are. Let me
359
00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:11.200
have people in the miners getting rings, the trainers and stuff.
360
00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.039
But it was just like, so I did not get
361
00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:14.559
a ring. I got a day with the cup.
362
00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:16.080
Your name's not on the cup either.
363
00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:18.480
You have to have forty one games or one second
364
00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:20.080
in the finals. So I don't deserve to be on
365
00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.600
the okay, but I think I deserve a ring. But
366
00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:24.480
at the end of the day that it doesn't matter
367
00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:27.000
at all. That's so far away. Just the memories and
368
00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:29.320
all the lessons I learned from that. Yeah, it was
369
00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:31.279
wild having a day with the cup, bringing it to
370
00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:34.000
my hometown, that would be cool. Sharing it with my
371
00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:36.360
small town in Orange On, Ontario was really cool.
372
00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:38.279
That's super cool and not many people get to do that.
373
00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:40.799
So that's cool, all right. So follow two thousand and
374
00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:43.799
eight that same year, that's when you get claimed offed
375
00:15:43.879 --> 00:15:45.159
waivers by the LAK.
376
00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:48.240
I get called into the office and again, we're so good. Right,
377
00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:51.240
we go to Game seven and Pittsburgh beats us that year,
378
00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:54.240
but hostas on the team. Now we're better than the
379
00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:58.519
year before and Steve Eiserman I played with him and
380
00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:01.519
now he's the assistant GM mckenn holland. So he calls
381
00:16:01.639 --> 00:16:04.200
me in and says, we traded you to Dallas, so
382
00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:06.759
go say bye to the boys. So I go say
383
00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:09.720
bye to the guys. I'm on my way to the
384
00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:13.000
airport and Brett Hall and Les Jackson calls me back
385
00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:15.279
and say, hey, we just got your MRI. Your back
386
00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:18.600
is toast. You need surgery immediately. Just turn it around.
387
00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:21.480
We avoided the trade. So I come back around and
388
00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:23.639
then they call me into the office and they say okay,
389
00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:25.960
now you need to pack a bag for anywhere in
390
00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.279
the NHL. We're going to see the president because we're
391
00:16:28.279 --> 00:16:30.120
playing Carolina and we won the Cup the year before,
392
00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:33.240
so we're going to do that or grin rapids. But
393
00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:36.559
now I'm injured, so I can't be traded, I can't
394
00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:39.639
be claimed, and I shouldn't be able to get sent down.
395
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:44.159
But I was playing on pure adrenaline, and because Detroit
396
00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:48.120
won the Cup, I didn't get my surgery because they
397
00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:51.519
didn't sign me until late August, so I just grinded through.
398
00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:53.279
I had a her need a disc in my bag,
399
00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:55.879
which was like crazy pain down my static. But like
400
00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:59.080
during the game, I never lost strength, so I could
401
00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:02.480
grind through the pain. So I come to training camp
402
00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:04.519
do that, and I'm the odd man out. We have
403
00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:07.079
a couple of young d and their theory was they
404
00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:09.160
had a bunch of smaller guys. I could play deer forward.
405
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:11.880
So I'm the guy out. So they end up put
406
00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:15.480
me on waivers and I'm beg skating before the Carolina
407
00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:19.079
game and Ken Hallan says, hey, LA just picked you up.
408
00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:22.920
Here's the phone and here you go. So I call
409
00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:27.640
Dean Lombardi. I'm like Dean I'm going to meet the president,
410
00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:30.200
like tomorrow. What do you think. He's like, buddy, get
411
00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:32.759
on a plane right now. You're playing in three hours.
412
00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:35.799
Oh no. So I fly to LA and I failed
413
00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:38.480
my physical. So I come to the rink of which
414
00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:40.400
I knew was going to happen. So I fail my
415
00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:43.559
physical and Dean is like grilling me to see if
416
00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:45.319
he's going to give me a chance, and I begged him.
417
00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:47.240
I said, give me one game and I can show
418
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:49.559
you that I can play. So he thought about it.
419
00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:52.759
He brings me to practice the next day and he
420
00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:54.880
gave me one game and I went on like a
421
00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:57.400
ten or thirteen game point streak and the rest is history.
422
00:17:57.480 --> 00:17:59.720
Oh my gosh. And you didn't get to meet the president.
423
00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:05.640
No, not yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that propelled me
424
00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:08.319
to have just an amazing season in LA.
425
00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:10.799
And you hadn't had back surgery, so you're just going.
426
00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:15.920
On excruciating pH So I play sixty games for the Kings,
427
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:17.880
have you know, close to forty points and.
428
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:18.839
With a herniated disc.
429
00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:21.880
Yeah, and set myself up for my whole career. And
430
00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:24.480
then I was never their guy. So they traded me
431
00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:27.240
in the summer to the Avalanche for Ryan Smith. Then
432
00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:29.680
I became one of the top guys.
433
00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:31.119
Here absolutely for three years.
434
00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:33.559
Yeah, but all because of that. He gave me one
435
00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:34.160
game in LA.
436
00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:36.279
It all comes back to that, Isn't that amazing.
437
00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:38.079
There's so many stories like that where it's like you
438
00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:41.640
just you need that one little opportunity, that door to
439
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.079
open and then but you got to be ready for it.
440
00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:44.880
Oh when it comes.
441
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:48.039
Yeah, most guys don't get the opportunity, but when you do,
442
00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:50.720
you have to make it absolutely. Yeah, make it work.
443
00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:52.599
All right. So while you're in the abs, as you've
444
00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:55.119
talked about, you're you're the guy. Everybody knows who you are.
445
00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:58.720
But you had some pretty crazy injuries during your your
446
00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:01.160
years and one of them happened while you were here,
447
00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:03.519
and that was when you you said you dislocated your
448
00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:05.240
shoulder from your shoulder to your hips.
449
00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:08.000
Yeah the time, yeah, yeah, the timing. So, like I
450
00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:10.200
think we were talking about just how how the career
451
00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:12.720
goes and all the stars out there the line. So
452
00:19:12.759 --> 00:19:16.519
I was on a minimum wage contract in LA and
453
00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:19.680
Colorado my first year and playing twenty eight thirty minutes
454
00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:23.160
a game. So I finally signed my first contract and
455
00:19:23.240 --> 00:19:25.960
I tried to play like I was a three million
456
00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:28.240
dollar player. Instead of just playing the way I was,
457
00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:29.559
I was trying to do too much.
458
00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:32.480
Feel more pressure. Once you signed that contract, Yeah, yeah.
459
00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.319
You want to earn You want to You don't want
460
00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:36.640
people to be like, look like, what's going making that?
461
00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:36.759
Ye?
462
00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:39.519
I want to earn it. So I was squeezing the
463
00:19:39.559 --> 00:19:41.960
stick too hard. I was trying way too hard to
464
00:19:42.039 --> 00:19:45.319
prove myself, which I already did. But it's all mental.
465
00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:49.759
And anyway, we're uh, we're playing in Washington. They are
466
00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.759
doing the Winter Classic, so HBO is there. And the
467
00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:55.519
first shift of the game, I reversed the puck a
468
00:19:55.559 --> 00:20:00.240
little early and Ovechkin reads it and runs Duchane. I
469
00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:04.640
need to get him back. I can't fight him. It
470
00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:07.599
got to be clean. But target was put on him.
471
00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:09.759
So in the second period he was bumbling like a
472
00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:12.319
two on two in the neutral zone and I just
473
00:20:12.359 --> 00:20:14.960
stopped on a dime and threw the kitchen sink at him,
474
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.240
try to knock his head off a Russian tank. I
475
00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:22.200
bounced off him and I landed on the ice and
476
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:25.200
my shoulder popped out. But I was going so fast.
477
00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:27.359
When I went into the boards, it was already out
478
00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:30.400
and then it went down, so all the nerves under
479
00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:33.000
that are in your armpit, they were all messed up,
480
00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:35.319
and that's the nerve that makes you move your arm.
481
00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:40.359
So our doctor here, you know, is great, amazing Doctrin
482
00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:42.720
did an amazing surgery. But his bedside manner is kind
483
00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:45.039
of funny. He's like, hey, good news. The nerve doesn't
484
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:47.240
come back. We don't need to do the surgery. I'm like,
485
00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:48.640
oh okay. He's like, yeah, you won't be able to
486
00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:50.839
use your arm. Give me fine, And I'm twenty three
487
00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:54.480
years old, Like no, no education. Right. I get to
488
00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:57.960
the dressing room and like Scotty Woodward, who's still in
489
00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.559
the abs, an amazing, amazing guy. Love them. I go,
490
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:04.039
I just, I just. They end up scoring on the play.
491
00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:06.119
So I get up and I hold my arm. I'm like, Scott,
492
00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.599
something's wrong. So they cut my jersey off and I
493
00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:11.759
go to put my hand where my arm is, and
494
00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:14.880
my arm is all the way down. Yeah, my ribs.
495
00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:17.599
So it took them an hour and a half to
496
00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:20.200
put the ball back in the socket because it came
497
00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:22.079
out so aggressively.
498
00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:24.680
But I give you anything, I hope for something.
499
00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:27.119
All we had was like the numbing for for your
500
00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:30.640
for the so they did. There's jabbin. But yeah, after
501
00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:33.119
like five minutes, your body goes into full like panic
502
00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.519
mode and it tightens all the sure. But yeah, got
503
00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:38.960
to learn a lot about the body through all these injuries.
504
00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:41.559
How long did it take to come back from that?
505
00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:44.079
I missed the whole year I was that was in December,
506
00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:47.519
So I missed that whole year and then I came back.
507
00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:50.079
But yeah, it was a long rehab. It was the
508
00:21:50.119 --> 00:21:51.319
worst painful surgery.
509
00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:53.200
Did you think you would come back and play again?
510
00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:55.519
Oh yeah, okay, yeah yeah, But for a couple of
511
00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:57.720
weeks there when I was rehabbing my my nerve, I
512
00:21:57.759 --> 00:21:59.960
was like, this doesn't come back, Like I'm I'm out
513
00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:01.319
posts and.
514
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.200
Then what do you do? Right, that's what you got
515
00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:06.119
to think about. I gotta come back, yeah, because hockey's all.
516
00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:09.240
You knew exactly all I was good at at the time.
517
00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:14.000
Yeah, yeah, okay, So three seasons here in twenty twelve,
518
00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:16.519
you get a weird trade what I read, you get
519
00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:18.720
traded to Tampa Bay, but then right after that, right
520
00:22:18.759 --> 00:22:20.920
back to Detroit, like all on the same days.
521
00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:23.119
I think it's like the funny, It's like the Avs
522
00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:25.279
and the Red Wings. They don't do business together because
523
00:22:26.680 --> 00:22:29.400
something like that. But no, I think I think they
524
00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:32.759
needed Tampa to make it work. Okay, Yeah, it's funny.
525
00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:36.039
A lot of trade deadlines they bring up one of
526
00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:38.000
like the worst trades of all time, which was me,
527
00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:40.920
which was you because the pick that went back to
528
00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:44.799
Tampa was ended up being Vassilevski. Oh yeah, so it was.
529
00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:47.480
But yeah, I went back to Detroit as like a
530
00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:51.960
depth defenseman and Lindstrom was about to retire. Then it
531
00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:55.000
was Zetterberg and so we had we had a little
532
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.359
window to make a run, and we couldn't get past
533
00:22:57.359 --> 00:22:57.960
the first round.
534
00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:00.519
But how different was it going back to the same
535
00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:03.599
organization a second time, you know, with a few years
536
00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:06.119
in between, because every organization has a personality. But I
537
00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:09.720
also think if there's space in between, you know, stints,
538
00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:11.920
it can be a completely different team, even if you
539
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:14.279
have the same ownership or a lot of the same
540
00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:15.599
people in the front office.
541
00:23:15.640 --> 00:23:18.440
So I I had Babcock as my coach before and
542
00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:21.039
after he treated me like I was that rookie and
543
00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:23.119
I'm like, uh uh, I'm a I'm a made man
544
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:25.920
in the NHL like that, I've been number one d
545
00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:27.880
on two teams. Now, I know I'm not that here,
546
00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:30.720
but like you got to. So I demanded respect, and
547
00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:33.079
he did after I had to stand up to him.
548
00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:35.559
But did you Oh, that's a good story.
549
00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:37.640
I'd love to hear that one. Can you tell that one?
550
00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:40.279
Yeah, he made a point. We were kind of going
551
00:23:40.359 --> 00:23:42.880
back and forth during a drill and then we did
552
00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:44.440
like a one on one drill out of the corner,
553
00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:49.480
and uh, he was making a point and I just
554
00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:52.720
started running guys from behind, and I just like you,
555
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:54.359
I'll keep going if you want to. Then he just
556
00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:58.319
blew the whistle and practice was over, and like Bertuzzi,
557
00:23:58.440 --> 00:24:01.160
like my mentors on that team, right Cleary Bertuzzi and
558
00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:03.359
my friends were like, you have to go in there,
559
00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:05.519
and you got to stand up to the bully. So
560
00:24:06.039 --> 00:24:08.880
what he did he would run to his office and
561
00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:11.680
take his skates off and then get like a really
562
00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:14.039
quick workout before guys would get in. So he was
563
00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:16.400
mid squat with like squat rock on his back and
564
00:24:16.440 --> 00:24:18.359
I put the stick right between his eyes and I'm like,
565
00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:20.440
if you ever talk to me like that, we're going
566
00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:21.240
to have an issue.
567
00:24:21.480 --> 00:24:22.200
You did not.
568
00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:25.119
Yeah, I was, and I was shaking doing it, but
569
00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:27.680
ever since that day he respected me. You got to
570
00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:29.960
stand up to the bully. It's hard. It's hard, especially
571
00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:35.680
at you know, a young age like that. But yeah, yeah.
572
00:24:34.759 --> 00:24:36.880
Okay, well yeah, but that makes sense.
573
00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:38.119
I was on the power Play the next night.
574
00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:44.160
Yeah yeah, okay. So then you you end up signing
575
00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:46.359
a nice deal while you're with the Red Wings on
576
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:49.079
your second stint with them, you have some ankle issues,
577
00:24:49.240 --> 00:24:50.960
have an ankle surgery? Was that when you had your
578
00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:51.799
gnarly ankle?
579
00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:54.839
Yeah? When I was in junior Sorry, when I was fifteen,
580
00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:58.839
playing junior B I broke and dissocated my ankle, so
581
00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:02.920
like my foot was almost completely off my body. And
582
00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:06.759
I think with all that trauma, and every time I
583
00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.319
would roll my ankle, a little piece of bone would
584
00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:13.599
come into my channel like my ankle canal, and my
585
00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:16.559
body wasn't absorbing the bone enough, so I ended up
586
00:25:16.599 --> 00:25:19.079
with these bone chips. So what they did is they
587
00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:21.000
made like five or six cuts and they went in
588
00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:22.960
there like trimmed down my achilles and everything, but they
589
00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:26.359
pretty much just vacuumed out. So I was playing in
590
00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:29.880
the NHL and that season and the bone chip would
591
00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:32.160
get caught in a weird place and I couldn't walk.
592
00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:36.519
I would crawl to the bathroom, but I would always play.
593
00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:40.960
So when you're injured like that extreme like you have
594
00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:43.960
to be so precise with your angles and your positioning.
595
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:47.440
So I almost played better, Like even like into La,
596
00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:49.279
I was in so much pain, but I was like
597
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:52.359
I was so dial like I couldn't. I was never
598
00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:55.759
a good skater at that level, Like I wasn't an
599
00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:58.200
elite skater, like I'm a car where he can skate
600
00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:02.279
himself out of trouble. I could not get in trouble. Okay,
601
00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:04.079
so if I ever got into a foot race, I'd
602
00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:05.960
lose it. And I knew that. But I would never
603
00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:09.599
ever get myself in that position. So when you're playing,
604
00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:13.079
even injured, it's even more heightened and you actually play better.
605
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:14.279
That's fascinating.
606
00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:17.279
Yeah, huh, all right, So then after that second stint
607
00:26:17.319 --> 00:26:20.680
in Detroit, you have stops with the Devils, the Blue
608
00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:23.359
Jackets and the wild was that over a course of
609
00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:24.039
how many.
610
00:26:24.119 --> 00:26:27.279
It was wild? It was really tough. Twenty sixteen, I
611
00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:30.680
play in Detroit. I'm making four million at that point,
612
00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:34.480
and I knew I wasn't that player, and I didn't
613
00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:37.519
deserve that. So at this point, I just want to
614
00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:40.039
play in the NHL, like I play for a minimum wage.
615
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:42.519
But I think it might have been assumed.
616
00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:44.880
That, like that was my number you're asking.
617
00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:49.119
Or even yeah. So I didn't get a contract all summer.
618
00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:53.119
Now it's there's one preseason game left and I am panicking,
619
00:26:53.319 --> 00:26:55.880
oh yeah, because I'm in my not not prime but
620
00:26:56.119 --> 00:27:00.599
I'm still very good defenseman in the NHL. And I
621
00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:04.200
get a call from New Jersey and they're like, forgive
622
00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:07.680
you this, and I'm like, I'm done. I sign me up.
623
00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:09.920
But I knew I was going on a team that
624
00:27:10.039 --> 00:27:12.519
was rebuilding. I knew if I played well, i'd be
625
00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:15.279
needed for So I got traded to Columbus at the
626
00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:19.200
trade deadline as that like solid five to six stay
627
00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:22.920
at home guy, that team's need death guy. In the playoffs,
628
00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:25.880
we ended up running into a hot team Pittsburgh and
629
00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:27.920
they beat us. But yeah, that's how I got.
630
00:27:27.799 --> 00:27:29.480
To Columbus, Okay, and then how'd you get to the
631
00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:31.000
Wild July one.
632
00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:33.400
I had a good season and I showed that I
633
00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:36.440
could be that player they signed me to be that player,
634
00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:39.440
that fifth sixth guy kind of mentor the young guys,
635
00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:43.799
and things didn't work out for many different reasons in Minnesota.
636
00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:46.440
But yeah, like you know, people say like, hey, when
637
00:27:46.440 --> 00:27:49.759
did you retire. I'm like, well, I got fired December
638
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:53.200
of twenty eighteen, okay, when I was playing for the
639
00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:55.559
Wild Yeah, and they released you. Yeah, it was weird.
640
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:58.240
They it was just kind of go home, and I
641
00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:00.200
think I had a chance to get traded to the
642
00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:02.279
deadline and keep it going. But at that point I
643
00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:07.359
was so mentally physically I was done. I was totally done.
644
00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:09.599
And then again that was thirteen years, like I had
645
00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:11.960
a great run. Yeah, yeah, but when I when I
646
00:28:11.960 --> 00:28:15.680
started seeing the bullshit. So I don't know if I
647
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:18.960
can say that on this by the podcast, but when
648
00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:22.160
I started seeing the lies and everything, I was like,
649
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:24.559
you know what, I'm out And I was in a
650
00:28:24.599 --> 00:28:27.720
lot of pain at my back and shoulders and neck
651
00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:28.400
and everything.
652
00:28:28.440 --> 00:28:30.680
And I'm I'm.
653
00:28:30.599 --> 00:28:33.640
Getting a concussion every season, like not not big, just
654
00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.160
kind of grazing, and.
655
00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:37.319
But each one adds up and is worse than the other.
656
00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:38.079
Exactly.
657
00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:38.519
Yeah.
658
00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:41.559
So but couldn't go out like that. I wanted to
659
00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:44.039
go to Europe and I went to Finland and lived
660
00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:46.279
in Helsinki and I FK took care of me and
661
00:28:46.359 --> 00:28:48.240
had a great and we were so close to winning
662
00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.799
a championship there. But it was a great way to
663
00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:52.839
wean off a career. And then I had such a
664
00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:54.799
good time. I was I wanted to play in Germany
665
00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:57.720
or another team like I was playing for the love
666
00:28:57.759 --> 00:28:59.599
of it, just to kind of like not grow up
667
00:28:59.799 --> 00:29:03.079
and just to see Europe. And I was riding my
668
00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:07.680
bike up in Conniffer out here and knocked myself out
669
00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:10.000
and I'm laying in the river and I'm like, you
670
00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:12.480
know what. So I came home and talked to my wife.
671
00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:14.400
And that was the you knocked yourself out?
672
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:16.680
How I went off a jump and hit a tree
673
00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:20.680
and okay, it was like that, I'm done. Yeah, yeah,
674
00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:23.160
what am I doing? Right? So I got to respect
675
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:27.079
my body and my brain. Then that kind of got
676
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:28.880
me down my path when I'm doing.
677
00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:31.440
Now okay, so then let's go there. So twenty nineteen,
678
00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:36.039
you officially retire and you have a series of events,
679
00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:39.160
one of them being with your son Axel, who has
680
00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:41.440
a brain tumor at the age of one, and my
681
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:43.400
husband had a brain tumor and O nine. I'm very
682
00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:46.000
familiar with how those work, so did my mom that
683
00:29:46.119 --> 00:29:49.240
she passed away from last year. So I mean to
684
00:29:49.279 --> 00:29:52.200
have your one year old with that, and then you've
685
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.400
just gone through so much trauma with your career and
686
00:29:55.400 --> 00:29:58.519
concussions and whatnot. How did that all kind of add
687
00:29:58.599 --> 00:30:00.920
up and lead to what you're doing now with the
688
00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:01.799
Do Good Ranch.
689
00:30:01.960 --> 00:30:07.039
Yeah, March twenty twenty was for COVID, right during I
690
00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:09.480
call COVID March fifteenth, because I was supposed to be
691
00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:11.000
on a plane that day, and I remember I was
692
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:14.480
supposed to be in ceremony with an indigenous tribe in
693
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:18.240
San Diego on HBO that next day.
694
00:30:18.359 --> 00:30:20.000
Really yeah, and it all.
695
00:30:19.880 --> 00:30:23.039
Got shut down. But it was March thirtieth when we
696
00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:26.000
decided to take our kid in because Axel was throwing
697
00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:29.119
up and we thought, you know, we didn't know what
698
00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:31.720
to think, but it was that day that you know,
699
00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:33.720
rushed in and had surgery the next day.
700
00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:35.759
And what kind of tumor?
701
00:30:35.880 --> 00:30:38.200
Was it a pandomoma? So which is me in the back,
702
00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:41.799
the back kind of like upper neck, but it was
703
00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:45.240
squeezing off his his spinal fluid. It was pooling, so
704
00:30:45.319 --> 00:30:47.960
he was just trying to dehydrate himself get rid of
705
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:52.279
the pressure. So we had surgery to relieve that, and
706
00:30:52.359 --> 00:30:56.039
then we kind of understood what we were dealing with
707
00:30:56.119 --> 00:30:57.960
and then made a game plan. But going into the
708
00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:01.880
hospital every day was and see the news was one thing,
709
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:04.400
but actually seeing the transition in a hospital, like I
710
00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:06.359
lived in a hospital pretty much, so it was like,
711
00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:08.359
all right, now you gotta wear a mask. Okay, now
712
00:31:08.440 --> 00:31:09.839
you can't do that. Okay, now you can't do this.
713
00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:12.200
And then then yeah, like understanding that no one really
714
00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:13.119
knew what was going on.
715
00:31:13.319 --> 00:31:14.559
No, well, we all thought it was going to be
716
00:31:14.599 --> 00:31:16.359
two weeks and we'll be back to normal, and it
717
00:31:16.480 --> 00:31:17.039
just wasn't.
718
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:20.440
Oh my gosh. So on top of that, and I
719
00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:22.240
think men are very good at this, but I had
720
00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:26.440
to compartmentalize. I was in the thick of the loss
721
00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:30.119
of identity, the loss of purpose, the dealing with all
722
00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:34.480
the TBI symptoms of you know, huge mood swings of depression,
723
00:31:34.599 --> 00:31:37.960
anxiety and suicidal ideation, and and then all of a
724
00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:40.440
sudden you have to stuff all of that down and
725
00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:43.680
then be the rock for the family. And my parents
726
00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:45.759
couldn't come down because they were in Canada, and my
727
00:31:45.799 --> 00:31:48.240
wife moved into the hospital, and then we have another son,
728
00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:52.279
so yeah, after we went through all that and we
729
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:55.960
had to move to Philadelphia. This is the beautiful deal
730
00:31:56.039 --> 00:31:59.480
with hockey and the community and the family. The NHL
731
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:03.240
shut down and we had an airbnb downtown Philadelphia and
732
00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:06.680
we're watching the riots. I think it was George Floyd
733
00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:09.799
at the time, and the city's on fire, like literally,
734
00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:11.240
and we're looking it up on a map. It's like,
735
00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:15.400
that's a block away from our airbnb. So Brian Elliott,
736
00:32:15.400 --> 00:32:19.559
who played here Goaltender, He's like, dude, I heard what
737
00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:23.119
you're going through. Take the house, the car's guest up.
738
00:32:23.559 --> 00:32:26.119
We have a five and two year old, toys and everything,
739
00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:28.000
and it was like the perfect It was a lifesaver.
740
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.079
So we literally moved. They went back home and we
741
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:34.119
just moved in and everything was dialed for us. And
742
00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:37.119
we were there for three months and they did the bubble.
743
00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:39.519
They went back into the bubble and like in August.
744
00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:43.799
But it was such a such a blessing. So we
745
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:48.039
did an We did a like a thirty hour surgery,
746
00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:50.359
so they had to remove every cell of the cancer
747
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:55.359
off of brain stems and vital nerves, and then we
748
00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:58.400
did thirty days of radiation and then we climbed up
749
00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:01.400
the rocky stairs, ring the bell when we got home
750
00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:06.119
is when I could finally put my mask on and
751
00:33:06.440 --> 00:33:09.759
get some healing for myself. And a great hockey friend
752
00:33:09.799 --> 00:33:13.119
of mine was going through very similar things and found
753
00:33:13.880 --> 00:33:17.519
psilocybin as a medicine and he's like, I'm coming to
754
00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:19.920
get you, and you're gonna go see this person. We're
755
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:22.279
gonna sit with this medicine. And it changed my life.
756
00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:24.559
I got my power back in that one ceremony.
757
00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:25.319
That's amazing.
758
00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:28.960
A year later, I bought the ranch and then it's
759
00:33:29.079 --> 00:33:31.680
organically over the last four years become a healing center
760
00:33:31.799 --> 00:33:35.240
for a lot of special operators, a lot of first responders,
761
00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:38.079
and a lot of athletes. But it's for everybody that
762
00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:41.000
wants to be a better version of themselves. Were committed
763
00:33:41.039 --> 00:33:44.119
to creating a container in a safe space for people
764
00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:45.519
to come and do some healing.
765
00:33:45.720 --> 00:33:49.559
Talk more about the medicine cause it's a derivative of mushrooms. Correct.
766
00:33:49.720 --> 00:33:52.920
Psilocybin is the psychoactive compound in mushrooms.
767
00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:55.240
So how do they get it from the mushroom?
768
00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:56.480
Yeah, you eat it, so.
769
00:33:56.440 --> 00:33:58.279
You're just not just taking it by It's it's your story.
770
00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:00.960
We know there's products that that we partner with that
771
00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:04.119
are extracts, and but yeah, I.
772
00:34:04.039 --> 00:34:05.400
Know a little bit to be dangerous.
773
00:34:05.880 --> 00:34:07.680
Jake Ummer, I know exactly.
774
00:34:07.880 --> 00:34:10.440
So Jake is working on the Lion's mane, the Turkey
775
00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:12.840
tail and the ratime putting it. He has an amazing well,
776
00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:15.760
it's an unbelievable product. It's called Unbo. What we're doing
777
00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:18.400
is partnering with more of the psychoactive stuff and using
778
00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:24.119
that sil cybin compound to heal brain trauma, PTSD, anxiety,
779
00:34:24.119 --> 00:34:27.360
depression and just kind of it's a long, long story
780
00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:29.840
to get into it, but anyway, this compound of sil
781
00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:33.159
cybin has changed and saved my life. So what I'm
782
00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:36.159
doing my job really in the grand scheme of this
783
00:34:36.280 --> 00:34:39.480
movement is to educate people, you know, use the platform
784
00:34:39.559 --> 00:34:43.639
of the career and say, hey, this is the symptoms
785
00:34:43.719 --> 00:34:47.280
I've had and this is what I did to continue
786
00:34:47.320 --> 00:34:50.079
my journey, and this is what I'm doing now and
787
00:34:50.119 --> 00:34:54.639
I feel great, And just to be like a role
788
00:34:54.679 --> 00:34:58.039
model for people to take that step of their ownership
789
00:34:58.119 --> 00:34:58.800
of their own healing.
790
00:34:58.920 --> 00:35:02.639
So how does that then differ from Lion's Mane and
791
00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:04.760
all of those I mean, and there's so many different.
792
00:35:05.679 --> 00:35:08.880
Because of my son, I had to and myself, I
793
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:11.719
had to. I educated myself, and I was so fortunate
794
00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:16.880
to be around PhD about chemists and elders and some amazing,
795
00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:19.239
amazing people, And like the Navy Seals took me under
796
00:35:19.239 --> 00:35:21.880
their wing and I went to a bunch of their
797
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:25.079
mentors and elders and I just soaked, just like Chilio's.
798
00:35:25.079 --> 00:35:28.400
I soaked up every information I could. Then I started
799
00:35:28.400 --> 00:35:31.400
doing my research, learning about Lion's Maine and the nerve
800
00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:34.719
growth and the turkey tail and the immune system because
801
00:35:35.480 --> 00:35:37.760
we were putting a hazmat suit on to change my
802
00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:41.280
kids diaper, and like learning the evil of chemo and
803
00:35:41.320 --> 00:35:44.400
like all of these things and how it's just a cycle,
804
00:35:44.840 --> 00:35:49.039
a disease cycle. I'm like, no way, So figuring out
805
00:35:49.079 --> 00:35:51.679
how we can use the earth and our bodies to
806
00:35:51.719 --> 00:35:54.719
heal each other. Yeah, yeah, so the turkey tail lines
807
00:35:54.760 --> 00:35:58.440
main that's called functional medicinal mushrooms, non psychoactive, got it.
808
00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:01.159
And then we live in Call, which is an amazing
809
00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:05.519
state that is allowing us to start using soil cybin
810
00:36:05.719 --> 00:36:10.119
as the medicine with reverence. And again, like that's another
811
00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:13.800
thing I'm teaching people is intention and reverence of this
812
00:36:13.960 --> 00:36:18.239
amazing technology which is the mushroom, and it will it
813
00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:20.880
will treat you well if you treat it well with respect.
814
00:36:21.159 --> 00:36:21.360
Right.
815
00:36:21.800 --> 00:36:24.000
Anybody that goes to the Do Good Ranch, do they
816
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:26.760
have to do the medicine part of it or can
817
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:29.280
they just go there as a as a healing.
818
00:36:29.239 --> 00:36:31.800
The ranch is what it is. It's you know, it
819
00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:34.679
sleeps twenty people with these geodesic domes. But we have
820
00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:39.320
sauna from my hometown Coal Plunge. We have you know,
821
00:36:39.599 --> 00:36:42.840
amazing partners that come in for breath work, for yoga,
822
00:36:43.639 --> 00:36:46.199
and it's a it's a space where people can We
823
00:36:46.280 --> 00:36:48.960
partner with people that do men retreats or they do
824
00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:51.880
women yoga retreats, and if they want to do the medicine,
825
00:36:51.760 --> 00:36:54.039
we partner with people that can help provide that.
826
00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:56.320
Wow, that is cool. So if somebody wanted to just
827
00:36:56.320 --> 00:36:58.480
go so it's not like it's rotating through with people
828
00:36:58.519 --> 00:37:00.159
all the time that you have to you can do
829
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:01.000
retreats and.
830
00:37:01.480 --> 00:37:04.079
Have yeah built it it's brand new.
831
00:37:04.199 --> 00:37:06.320
Oh okay, and is it open yet?
832
00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:08.280
Oh yeah, we have our first partnership this weekend.
833
00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:10.199
Oh wow, this weekend, yeah.
834
00:37:10.039 --> 00:37:12.679
Men's retreat. Yeah. So they're doing it. I'm so excited.
835
00:37:12.719 --> 00:37:14.039
Oh my gosh, Yle, that's awesome.
836
00:37:14.079 --> 00:37:16.639
Yeah. Then I'm bringing up a crew in April tenth,
837
00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.480
and then we have like an indigenous tribe taking it
838
00:37:19.960 --> 00:37:22.000
for seven days late April, so.
839
00:37:21.960 --> 00:37:24.159
People can go on because I looked at the website.
840
00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:25.960
The website is awesome dot com.
841
00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:28.119
Yeah, and go there and they can find out about
842
00:37:28.159 --> 00:37:30.760
how if they wanted to reserve iteah and get involved.
843
00:37:30.920 --> 00:37:32.039
So that is really cool.
844
00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:33.800
And all the inquiries come to me.
845
00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:35.039
So you're in charge.
846
00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:37.480
Does your wife help out or are you just doing everything?
847
00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:38.119
Okay?
848
00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:41.320
Yes, she's she's done ceremony with me, and she's seen
849
00:37:41.440 --> 00:37:44.920
the benefit. I'm sure and everyone around me has seen it.
850
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:48.440
And that's attraction, not promotion, just trying to live by
851
00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:51.599
example and when people are ready to take ownership of
852
00:37:51.639 --> 00:37:54.199
their own health, like we're here absolutely.
853
00:37:54.360 --> 00:37:56.480
And you had known Rachel for a long time, right,
854
00:37:56.559 --> 00:37:56.880
hadn't you?
855
00:37:57.239 --> 00:38:01.960
Yeah? Grand Rapids Days two and five?
856
00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:03.280
When did you guys get married?
857
00:38:03.639 --> 00:38:04.559
Twenty sixteen?
858
00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:08.159
Oh gosh, Okay, so she's seen the transition of you
859
00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:12.719
through several years and injuries and everything else. So that's huge. Yeah,
860
00:38:12.760 --> 00:38:14.400
and what a great way to have a support system.
861
00:38:14.559 --> 00:38:18.159
Oh yeah, big time. Yeah, no, she's she's amazing. Met
862
00:38:18.159 --> 00:38:22.599
her in Michigan and she's been all on all the travels. Yeah. Wow.
863
00:38:22.760 --> 00:38:26.639
And two boys, Axel and Stone. Yeah, seven and six. Tomorrow,
864
00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:29.719
April Fools is Axel's birthday, which is the day we
865
00:38:29.880 --> 00:38:33.000
found out about on his first birthday. Oh my god,
866
00:38:33.320 --> 00:38:34.320
so tomorrow is a big day.
867
00:38:34.599 --> 00:38:37.519
Okay, yeah, yeah, really cool. That's very cool.
868
00:38:37.559 --> 00:38:39.400
Okay, Excel and Stone, how'd you get those from?
869
00:38:39.480 --> 00:38:40.880
Are we like huge music fan?
870
00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:41.880
Guns and roses?
871
00:38:42.599 --> 00:38:46.519
More so Stone Stone Morrison? Okay, I really wanted to
872
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:50.559
have like Morrison as a first name, but we wouldn't sure,
873
00:38:50.679 --> 00:38:54.480
you know, so we gave them both. But Stone Stone, Gossard,
874
00:38:54.960 --> 00:38:58.079
Rolling Stones. And then Morrison is you know, Jim Morrison,
875
00:38:58.159 --> 00:39:01.400
Van Morrison and Red Rocks Morrison Colorado. Okay, Axel was
876
00:39:01.400 --> 00:39:03.800
supposed to be born in Finland. Oh so we gave
877
00:39:03.880 --> 00:39:06.760
a Scandinavian name. We always love that name. It's Axl
878
00:39:07.199 --> 00:39:10.800
not like a diehard Axel rose from but don't not
879
00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:11.719
like them? Right?
880
00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:13.159
But yeah, well you came in here and you were
881
00:39:13.199 --> 00:39:15.400
super impressed. We're in the Fox studio and we've got
882
00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:17.519
all these albums up and you said you're a huge
883
00:39:17.519 --> 00:39:18.760
collector of albums and.
884
00:39:18.760 --> 00:39:21.599
Music, and I can see that yeah, big time. Yeah, No,
885
00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:23.079
music is fun. All right.
886
00:39:23.159 --> 00:39:25.840
This has been super cool to hear more about you.
887
00:39:26.039 --> 00:39:28.119
My last question that I ask all of my guests, Kyle,
888
00:39:28.320 --> 00:39:31.280
is when you get to those points and you've had them,
889
00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:33.400
where you've been down and trying to figure out what's
890
00:39:33.440 --> 00:39:36.119
my next step? What do you tell people? And this
891
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:38.239
will be what you end up talking to people about,
892
00:39:38.280 --> 00:39:40.880
I'm sure with the do Good ranch is how do
893
00:39:40.960 --> 00:39:43.639
you pick back up and move forward and keep going.
894
00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:47.079
Yeah. The biggest message that I've come to realize is
895
00:39:47.119 --> 00:39:50.039
that this life that we were living is a journey
896
00:39:50.119 --> 00:39:52.960
and it's a process. It's not about an end game.
897
00:39:53.039 --> 00:39:56.079
It's not about you know, when I was five years old,
898
00:39:56.119 --> 00:39:59.280
I dreamed of making the NHL, winning the Stanley Cup,
899
00:39:59.480 --> 00:40:02.159
making some good money, and then retiring on a beach.
900
00:40:02.199 --> 00:40:05.719
And it doesn't work like that. I've actually checked most
901
00:40:05.719 --> 00:40:08.880
of those boxes off, and you know, a year later,
902
00:40:08.880 --> 00:40:11.159
you're dealing with all your injuries and stuff and you're like,
903
00:40:11.400 --> 00:40:15.360
what's my identity? What's my purpose? But once you understand
904
00:40:15.400 --> 00:40:19.079
that the prize is the process and to enjoy the journey.
905
00:40:19.639 --> 00:40:23.079
That's where the beauty is and you're always grateful and perspective.
906
00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:25.639
And that's where I've gotten to now because of all
907
00:40:25.679 --> 00:40:28.360
the work I've been doing with all the psychedelics and
908
00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:30.599
stuff and all the amazing people that have taken me
909
00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:33.280
under their wing, but just trying to enjoy the journey
910
00:40:33.360 --> 00:40:33.840
every day.
911
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:34.719
That's awesome.
912
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:36.559
The support system is huge, and I know you guys
913
00:40:36.639 --> 00:40:39.480
have a great group with the alumni, and you guys
914
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:41.440
are all very close. I didn't realize how close you
915
00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:43.639
were to I talked with Brick Barry how much you
916
00:40:43.639 --> 00:40:46.079
guys all still stay in touch and are together.
917
00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:49.400
Yeah, Like with with the ranch, we call education, like
918
00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:53.760
our pillars are education, access in community, and it's similar
919
00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:56.440
to the alumni where the one thing that we miss
920
00:40:56.480 --> 00:40:58.800
and need and it's and during COVID is when I
921
00:40:58.840 --> 00:41:02.679
really realized this is it is a vital human need
922
00:41:03.320 --> 00:41:06.159
to have community in a tribe and the alumni is
923
00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:08.679
my tribe. There's seven hundred guys in the world to
924
00:41:08.679 --> 00:41:11.079
get to do what we did at the highest level,
925
00:41:11.719 --> 00:41:14.840
and we're unicorns. Like if you think about it, we
926
00:41:14.880 --> 00:41:19.280
only relate to those people, to the depths of understanding
927
00:41:19.360 --> 00:41:22.559
what we've gone through, especially as men and not really
928
00:41:22.679 --> 00:41:27.239
communicating or saying our emotions very well. But it's a
929
00:41:27.280 --> 00:41:29.639
reason why we push to do these events. Right. So
930
00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:31.480
we get to go to Vail and Aspen and tell
931
00:41:31.480 --> 00:41:35.000
your ride and Breck we're doing Breck next weekend, and
932
00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:37.760
we get to raise money for youth hockey, give back
933
00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:40.480
to the game that's given us everything. But we get
934
00:41:40.519 --> 00:41:42.440
to sit in that dressing room with the guys again,
935
00:41:42.880 --> 00:41:44.320
and we get to look each guy in the eye,
936
00:41:44.400 --> 00:41:46.920
and it's our accountability network if guys aren't doing well.
937
00:41:47.199 --> 00:41:49.679
That's part of the reason why the Do Good Ranch exists.
938
00:41:49.679 --> 00:41:52.599
But we have a support system, like, dude, let's talk
939
00:41:52.599 --> 00:41:54.239
about this. What do you got going on? We're all
940
00:41:54.239 --> 00:41:56.840
going through similar stuff, so we lean on each other
941
00:41:56.880 --> 00:41:57.920
and that's our community.
942
00:41:58.000 --> 00:41:59.320
That is amazing. I love that.
943
00:41:59.400 --> 00:42:01.400
I do have one question, because we talked about it
944
00:42:01.400 --> 00:42:03.960
before we started this. You mentioned when you got a
945
00:42:03.960 --> 00:42:06.119
slap shot in the face and had to have one
946
00:42:06.199 --> 00:42:07.440
hundred and fifty two hundred stitches.
947
00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:09.760
Well, the one hundred fifty stitches was a cumul of
948
00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:12.440
across the career. Oh okay, I didn't I didn't get
949
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:14.320
any stitches from that, which is wild.
950
00:42:14.280 --> 00:42:16.239
Had no stitches when you got hit in the face
951
00:42:16.239 --> 00:42:16.719
with a puck.
952
00:42:16.840 --> 00:42:19.320
Yeah, it broke my orbital sinus and all the bones
953
00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:22.519
in my cheek. We had a plan to uh remove
954
00:42:22.599 --> 00:42:26.239
my skin on my face and my face off style, yeah,
955
00:42:26.320 --> 00:42:29.480
and put put bars in and mesh to uh, but
956
00:42:29.960 --> 00:42:32.159
the bones were barely touching, so they just let it
957
00:42:32.199 --> 00:42:33.599
heal and I played three weeks later.
958
00:42:34.199 --> 00:42:35.000
That's crazy.
959
00:42:35.559 --> 00:42:35.880
Wow.
960
00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:37.719
Okay when you said that, that's why I asked, I
961
00:42:37.719 --> 00:42:39.199
can't even see a scarm, like had you have one
962
00:42:39.280 --> 00:42:41.400
hundred and fifty stitches in your face? Okay, but that's
963
00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:42.480
over the course of your career.
964
00:42:42.639 --> 00:42:46.440
Yeah. Yeah, skates and sticks and pucks and it's.
965
00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:47.039
A brutal sport.
966
00:42:47.199 --> 00:42:47.519
Yeah.
967
00:42:47.519 --> 00:42:48.159
But you loved it.
968
00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:51.880
Then, ye best, I love it. Yeah. Yeah, we're playing
969
00:42:51.880 --> 00:42:52.400
this weekend.
970
00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:53.760
That's awesome. All right.
971
00:42:53.800 --> 00:42:56.039
Hey Kyle, this was super fun. Thanks for coming in.
972
00:42:56.039 --> 00:42:56.599
Appreciate it.
973
00:42:56.679 --> 00:42:58.199
Yeah, thank you, Thank you. Kyle.
974
00:42:58.480 --> 00:43:00.880
Definitely check out the website for the Do Good Ranch
975
00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:05.360
at dogodranch dot com. New episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired,
976
00:43:05.400 --> 00:43:08.960
Retired are released on Tuesdays. Please follow and download this
977
00:43:09.079 --> 00:43:11.800
podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and keep up on
978
00:43:11.880 --> 00:43:16.239
new releases by following on Twitter and Instagram at ctfur podcast,
979
00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:20.239
and also on the website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm your host,
980
00:43:20.280 --> 00:43:24.159
Susie Wargen. To learn more about me, visit Susiewargen dot com.
981
00:43:24.199 --> 00:43:26.840
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, please
982
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:29.840
be careful, be safe, and be kind. Take care.
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I'd babcock as my coach before and after he treated
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me like I was that rookie, and I'm like, uh uh.
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My mentors on that team, right, Cleary Bertuzzi and my
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00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:11.439
friends were like, you have to go in there and
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you had to stand up to the bully. So what
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he did he would run to his office and take
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his skates off and then get like a really quick
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workout before guys would get in. So he was mid
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squat with like squat rock on his back and I
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put the stick right between his eyes and I'm like,
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have you ever talked to me like that we're going
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to have an issue?
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You did not?
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Yeah, I was, and I was shaking doing him, But
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ever since that day he respected me.
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Welcome to Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired a podcast featuring conversations
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00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:44.679
with professional athletes and coaches who have experienced being cut, traded, fired,
18
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and or they're retired. I'm your host, Susie Wargen. In
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the United States, most kids learn how to ride a
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bike before getting into other sports. In Canada, kids learn
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how to lace up their skates and get on the ice.
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Kyle Quincy figures he started skating around age three, and
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he he still laces him up today, but now it's
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for Colorado Avalanche alumni events. When Kyle was still in
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high school, he decided to forego college and get started
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with the juniors. In July of two thousand and five,
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he was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings during a
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commercial break. He'd score his first NHL goal just under
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two years later, and then the following year started his
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tour of what would become many stops in the pros
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the La Kings, three seasons with the Abs, Tampa Bay
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Kinda Back to Detroit, the Devils, the Blue Jackets, the
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Wild and a little stint overseas until retiring in twenty nineteen.
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A year after retirement, while still trying to figure out
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who he was besides a hockey player, Kyle's one year
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old son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. From there,
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it was a whirlwind of doctors, surgery, and healing, not
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only for his son, who was doing well today, but
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also for Kyle, who began to dig deep and find
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ways to help himself and others who are dealing with trauma.
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You'll hear more about what he's doing with the do
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Good Ranch near the end of our conversation. Let's go
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ahead and get into it, ladies and gentlemen.
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Kyle Quincy Cut Traded Fired Retired podcast with Susie Wargin.
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Kyle Quincy, how are you?
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Thanks for having me?
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Absolutely? You look like you could still play? You do
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you look good?
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Thank you? Yeah? Yeah, some days I feel like I
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could still play.
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I do you Yeah, I bet you do. It's great
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to see you again. It's been a long time. I
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know that you've made Denver your home for a long time,
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so it's good that you're around. And when I found
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out that you're still so involved with all the alumni
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events and what you're doing now post career is super fascinating.
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So I can't wait to get into that. But we
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got to start like we always do and go back
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with your roots. Yeah, yeah, you're Canadian roots. So you
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grow up in what's the name of the town. Is
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it Caldon as I say it?
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Or I was born in Kitchener, Ontario, right, moved to Shelbourne, Ontario,
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and then Orangeville and then that's beside Kaladin.
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Caladin Okay, I knew i'd say it wrong. Yeah, okay,
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So then when does hockey come into your life or
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is it just from the beginning.
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The whole Canadian cultural story of you know, gym class
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and you know, kindergarten or pre kindergarten, three years old,
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four years old, everyone everyone is skating and and then
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you know it's the dream and you fall in love
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with the leaves. And my dad was a huge hockey
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fan and.
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He kind of got you into who you looked up to, right.
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Yeah, So like I was a kind of an up
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and down plugger, left winger, and bill Berg was a
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fourth line on the story. As we went to see
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the Toronto Maple Leafs play the La Kings at the
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Maple Leaf Gardens and Wayne Gretzky, right, and my dad's like,
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don't watch him, You're never going to be that. And
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then he just picked out a guy there's like number ten,
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bill Berg and just hitting everybody, dumping it in, doing
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all the right things, just grit and like playing the
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right way. And he's like, that's you. That's who you
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watch and that became my favorite player.
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Oh my gosh.
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And yeah, when I was I think twelve, I couldn't
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make my team as a forward anymore. So they're like,
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do you want to play d Yeah, I want to
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be on the team. So then I became a defenseman.
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Do whatever you can do, right, Yeah, yeah, if you
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can't be on the offense and be on defense. I
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talked with Rick Berry about that too, where he had
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someone pull him aside and he's like, hey, you know
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what seems like you know you're not afraid. Yeah, and
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that became his role. Yeah, it's very good at it.
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Yeah.
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Yeah. So for me, which was good and bad. I
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was good at everything and not great at anything, right,
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So I think to make it a long long time
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and to have a really good career, like being great
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at one thing is important. But I was like the
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Swiss army knife. When I got traded to the Abs,
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I was, uh, you know, powerplay, penalty kill, last minute.
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I was the guy, which was great. Then I got
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traded back to the Red Wings and I'm not the guy.
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They got a lot of good guys. They got Lenstrom
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and Cronwall and Falski and on and on and on.
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So I came back into that fourth fifth secondary, power play,
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penalty kill, more of a shutdown, hard rugged making it
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hard on other teams where I was harder to do that.
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When I was playing for the because I was playing
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thirty minutes a game, so I was more of, you know,
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doing everything good. But then when I came back to
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the Red Wings and I had to play like fourteen
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to eighteen minutes then do something, I could be more
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hard and really like lean into that role.
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Interesting. Yeah, okay, So as you're growing up, then, did
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you play any other sports aside from hockey?
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Yeah, baseball was a big one. And then I grew
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up in like the epicenter of box across, So yeah,
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Orange Voluntario and Ontario is like the epicenter of box across,
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which is like mammoth, Like what the mammoth plays?
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Oh okay, I don't.
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Know what do you guys call its?
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Indoor lacrosse?
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Indoor lacrosse? There we go. Yeah. So that so that
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was big in my little town and big into golf,
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like the dream was to play like in college, like
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a two sport athlete. But broke my hand playing for
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a team Canada when I was sixteen, and then the
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golf career was over and I chose the right one.
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Did you go to college?
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No? No, I went to junior so I turned.
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Okay, I thought, yeah, I was sixty, so not only
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no golf career, no college, no going hockey.
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All the way exactly.
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Yeah, yeah, I ended up. Yeah, it's crazy that, you know,
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the rules have changed recently, But back then, at fifteen,
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I had to make a decision if I was going
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to play in the OHL, play pro or wait and
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then try to get a scholarship when I was eighteen.
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At fifteen, you had this society.
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Yeah, you're not even grown. I luckily had a girl
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spurt right then put on forty pounds four inches and
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then I'm like, I'm a man. So I went and
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played with men right away, and then that was the
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way I got to the Red Wings. And I don't know.
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So at fifteen, you made that decision to play in
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the Ontario Hockey League, which is the OHL, and so
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you start out in the minors, but you're playing with
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big kids, big boys.
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Yeah, in the years, right.
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Yeah, so in junior they call it right, and then
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they pay you fifty bucks a week, so you're not
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allowed to go to college. So you make that decision.
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Because you're making two hundred dollars a month possibly to college.
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Keep it. Yeah, but now those rules are changed, which
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is great.
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That is good.
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Well, it's kind of like the nil I mean, they're
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all getting paid.
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Yeah, but the end of the day, it's not about
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the money. It's about the freedom, right because you don't know.
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You might you might grow at seventeen and then be like, hey,
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I can't wait, I need to go play. But now
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you can play the best league in the world at fifteen, sixteen,
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seventeen eighteen and then be like, yeah, you know what,
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maybe this isn't for me. I'm going to go to college. Yeah,
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I can go get a degree. Maybe you have a
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good year there. Then you're like, got twenty three.
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I'm ready, right, Yeah, Because everybody matures at different places
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in their careers, and you can see it where sometimes
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you're not ready at eighteen nineteen, even though people think
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they might be, they're just not. You need a few
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more years before you really start to peak.
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Yeah, But the story is I grew up real fast.
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You know, when you're playing when you're playing against twenty
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year olds at fifteen and it's killer be killed, and
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especially in that world, there's like the game's a lot
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different than it was, you know, using a wood stick. Yeah,
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it was survival. I bet there's there's guys out there
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that didn't even know there was a puck on the ice.
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They're just there for one reason.
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Oh my god, yeah, killer be killed. Yeah, so did
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you stay home or did you have did you go?
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I got dropped by the London Nights, so it was
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about two hour drive and I lived in the host
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family with Rick Nash at the time. And then he
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signed like the you know, the biggest contract for like
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an eighteen year old and left. So I was on
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my own but played for London Nights, which was like
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a dream.
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And where was that? Where was that located?
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London is on the like in between Toronto and Windsor,
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right by Detroit. Okay, yeah, that kind of parlays into
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that season. Was my draft year to the NHL at seventeen,
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and we played Windsor and Plymouth, which is suburbs of Detroit.
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The stars aligned. I had a really good playoff, really
199
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hard playing like kind of underdog playing seven game series
200
00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:44.200
and they drafted me when I wasn't. I wasn't expecting
201
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to be drafted. I flew under the radar of my
202
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whole career. I was never like rated high or whatever,
203
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top prospect. But yeah, when I got my name called,
204
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I wasn't even at the draft. I was just and
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I got drafted in a commercial. So when that phone
206
00:08:59.480 --> 00:09:01.440
call rang, I was at a party with my buddies
207
00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:04.440
the night before and we're talking about it, watching the
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00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:07.240
first round on the draft, right, and I got a
209
00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:09.720
phone call and it's like, Hey, it's Ken Holland from
210
00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:12.159
the Detroit Red Wings. Congratulations, we just drapped you. I'm
211
00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:14.039
like haha, yeah, yeah, right click. I thought it was
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00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:15.720
my buddies just playing a joke on me because I'm
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watching the draft right and I'm like, but I did
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00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:20.720
not just get drafted. I'm watching it. He called right
215
00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:24.240
back and he's like, no, no, no, hey, this is yeah. Yeah.
216
00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:27.000
And then I saw my name on the ticker. I'm like, okay, yeah,
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and I was yeah, the dream come true.
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That was.
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So that was the two thousand and three the NHL
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Entry Draft.
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Yeah, could be the best draft of all time.
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Why do you say that.
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Just because of all the players I was in it,
224
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the depth of it, but yeah, being drafted in the
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fourth round to Detroit, I was like one of their
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high picks because you know, they were in a dynasty
227
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at that time. Should have been yeah, and they were
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trading away first rounders for you know, the Brett Halls
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Luke Robatize guys like that. So I was one of
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their top guys. I was so fortunate. But my first
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defense partner in my first training camp was Chris Chelios.
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Oh kid, it takes me under his wing on and
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off the ice, teaches me how to be a pro.
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I'm just so lucky to have amazing mentors.
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Yeah really, that's huge.
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Yeah, so I was a sponge. I soaked everything up
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I could, and yeah, let me have a really good career.
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Well, what a cool experience having come from where you
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were in the juniors, where like you said, it's kill
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or be killed. So it's not like anybody's going, hey,
241
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come here, kid, let me let me show you how
242
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this works. It's like, no, you're you're going to take
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my job. So I'm not going to be friendly to you. Chelios.
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Do that that's huge?
245
00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:31.399
Yeah, well, again, he was a legend. He wasn't worried
246
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about me taking the job. But there was six or
247
00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:37.080
seven guys on that team, the older guys that they
248
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looked at me as a threat, and I was. I was.
249
00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:41.399
I did take their job. And that's the one thing
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that people understand of like it's it's every shift, it's
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every day because there's always some much trying to take
252
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your job every every day.
253
00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:52.080
Okay, you get drafted by the Red Wings, you stay
254
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in their AHL for a little bit.
255
00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:56.440
Right. I was up and down played two inner games
256
00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:59.320
in Grand Rapids. Okay, they have a theory in Detroit.
257
00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:04.120
Even guys like Garie Huddler of Philipoola really big names
258
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that played a long time and had really successful careers.
259
00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:10.399
Every single player in in Detroit's organization had to play
260
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in the minors.
261
00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:13.200
Oh wow, everybody did.
262
00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:15.600
Like you have the Steve Eiserman's and guys like that.
263
00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:18.120
But like in the generation when Ken Holland was there
264
00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:21.720
and how good they were, every single person that came through,
265
00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:24.879
they made you earn it because oh yeah, because when
266
00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:26.440
you get called up, you're like, I ain't going back.
267
00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:28.000
I'll do anything to not go back.
268
00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:30.440
All right, but you did well.
269
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I was not very my first ever game in the NHL,
270
00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:35.679
Uri Fisher actually died on the bench and they brought
271
00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:38.200
him back to life. That's how I got my one
272
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:39.679
game in two thousand and five.
273
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.399
That was November two thousand and five, right against the Ducks.
274
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Yet the fibulator on the bench saved his life.
275
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Holy cow.
276
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So like there was and so when I get called up,
277
00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:50.759
it was like it was just such a huge story
278
00:11:50.919 --> 00:11:53.440
and it was chaos. And then yeah, it would have
279
00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:56.240
been the next year in two thousand and seven, played
280
00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:59.240
up and down. But then my first Stanley Cup game
281
00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:03.080
was Game six, triple overtime in the Sea of Red
282
00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:05.799
and Calgary baptism by fire was an understatement.
283
00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:06.440
Oh my gosh.
284
00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:08.440
Yeah, and we're about to come up on the anniversary
285
00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:10.679
when you scored your first goal. It was April seventh,
286
00:12:10.679 --> 00:12:11.399
two thousand and seven.
287
00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:13.759
Yeah, that's a funny one too. I I just throw
288
00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:17.320
like an absolute muffin from the point and it might
289
00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:19.960
have bounced twice. And it was the So that Detroit
290
00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:21.720
was so good that the end of the year they
291
00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.360
would rest and Lindstrums and the top guys. So I
292
00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.840
would come in and play and they've already locked up
293
00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:29.879
the President's Trophy. They were that good. So Thomas Holmstrom,
294
00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:32.279
who was a great guy funny, comes up to me,
295
00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:34.240
is like, hey man, I got like a two million
296
00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:36.440
dollar bonus and that's my thirtieth goal. And it was
297
00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:38.720
the last game of the year. I'm like, oh, take it,
298
00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:41.200
like just you know, slice me off a percentage and
299
00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:44.399
pull it good, like this might have been. This might
300
00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:48.200
have been before like the it's all monitored and stuff, right, Yeah,
301
00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:50.759
he was just joking around. It was my goal. I
302
00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:54.159
probably would have rathered the hundred grand or whatever, no.
303
00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:57.039
Kidding, right, Yeah, but that's that was the last goal
304
00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:58.480
of the regular season that year.
305
00:12:58.559 --> 00:12:59.960
Yeah, and then it was like a seven to one
306
00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:02.360
win over Chicago or something. Yeah, it didn't matter at all.
307
00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:04.799
It doesn't matter if it's garbage time. It's a goal, right,
308
00:13:04.840 --> 00:13:07.279
it's your first NHL goal. So and like you said,
309
00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:09.080
they go on for the end of the playoffs and
310
00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:12.360
then you're a key component of that overtime win that
311
00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:14.159
helps them get into the second round that year.
312
00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:16.080
Yeah. Yeah, we should have won the Cup that year.
313
00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:19.200
We went all the way. It is wild. We're playing Anaheim.
314
00:13:19.879 --> 00:13:22.200
Pronger takes a It would have been a thirty gamer
315
00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:25.480
thirty game suspension nowadays, but it was a one game.
316
00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:28.360
So we're like, okay, we'll win this game and then
317
00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:30.200
win it at home, and we ended up losing the game.
318
00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:33.600
Pronger was out. Then we're up one nothing with thirty
319
00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:37.279
seconds left and Nita Meyer just kind of put on
320
00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:39.519
a show and they ended up beating us in six.
321
00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:42.000
But the next year they next year, next year we
322
00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:42.679
won in eight.
323
00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:46.360
Yeah, and then that one is interesting because you are
324
00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:49.639
on the practice team at that point or during the
325
00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:52.639
Stanley Cup playoffs, right, so you're in the picture. Did
326
00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:53.279
you get a ring?
327
00:13:53.480 --> 00:13:56.039
You know what? That's a that's an interesting question, but yeah,
328
00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.720
a legend. Yeah, we call a so it's called the
329
00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:01.840
Black Cases or are we called the Mushroom Club?
330
00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:04.039
Okay, they're the Black Aces here because Rick Berry was
331
00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:04.759
on the Black Aces.
332
00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:07.360
Yeah, yeah, it's all the Black Cases. But we had
333
00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:09.320
a joke we called the Mushroom Club because they you know,
334
00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:11.000
they feed us crap and they keep us in the
335
00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:12.399
dark and expect us to grow.
336
00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:15.440
You're literally just a fun guy, yeah.
337
00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:19.039
Exactly, but I was actually injured. So like uh chelly
338
00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:21.399
os and like McCarty and the guys are like, hey,
339
00:14:21.799 --> 00:14:23.559
we need you to be like the guy in the room,
340
00:14:23.639 --> 00:14:25.519
like not the clown, but like you got to come
341
00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:27.799
in tell stories, like have a good.
342
00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:29.879
Time and just snuff the crowd.
343
00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:32.360
Exactly. Yeah, like everyone has a role in here. So
344
00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:34.519
like I was injured. I was not There's no chance
345
00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:36.360
I was playing. But I was still there for the
346
00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:40.639
three months just to keep everybody oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
347
00:14:40.679 --> 00:14:43.279
And we had a great crew, Aaron Downey and Darren
348
00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.039
McCarty and Kelley. We were all not playing. We're all
349
00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:47.039
just hanging out. Yeah.
350
00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:47.960
But did you get a ring?
351
00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:50.240
Okay? So I was told. So I got put on
352
00:14:50.279 --> 00:14:51.840
waivers of the year after and I'm in LA and
353
00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:53.919
I remember the phone call and my agent calls me
354
00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:56.399
to say, hey, you're gonna get a ring, and you're
355
00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:58.919
gonna get it. I'm here, right, So it didn't come.
356
00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:02.919
Didn't come. There's a rings, B rings, C rings.
357
00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:05.080
Like, right to give me any rings whatever.
358
00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:07.399
I'm on the team, yes, right you are. Let me
359
00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:11.200
have people in the miners getting rings, the trainers and stuff.
360
00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.039
But it was just like, so I did not get
361
00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:14.559
a ring. I got a day with the cup.
362
00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:16.080
Your name's not on the cup either.
363
00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:18.480
You have to have forty one games or one second
364
00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:20.080
in the finals. So I don't deserve to be on
365
00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.600
the okay, but I think I deserve a ring. But
366
00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:24.480
at the end of the day that it doesn't matter
367
00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:27.000
at all. That's so far away. Just the memories and
368
00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:29.320
all the lessons I learned from that. Yeah, it was
369
00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:31.279
wild having a day with the cup, bringing it to
370
00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:34.000
my hometown, that would be cool. Sharing it with my
371
00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:36.360
small town in Orange On, Ontario was really cool.
372
00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:38.279
That's super cool and not many people get to do that.
373
00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:40.799
So that's cool, all right. So follow two thousand and
374
00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:43.799
eight that same year, that's when you get claimed offed
375
00:15:43.879 --> 00:15:45.159
waivers by the LAK.
376
00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:48.240
I get called into the office and again, we're so good. Right,
377
00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:51.240
we go to Game seven and Pittsburgh beats us that year,
378
00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:54.240
but hostas on the team. Now we're better than the
379
00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:58.519
year before and Steve Eiserman I played with him and
380
00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:01.519
now he's the assistant GM mckenn holland. So he calls
381
00:16:01.639 --> 00:16:04.200
me in and says, we traded you to Dallas, so
382
00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:06.759
go say bye to the boys. So I go say
383
00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:09.720
bye to the guys. I'm on my way to the
384
00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:13.000
airport and Brett Hall and Les Jackson calls me back
385
00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:15.279
and say, hey, we just got your MRI. Your back
386
00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:18.600
is toast. You need surgery immediately. Just turn it around.
387
00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:21.480
We avoided the trade. So I come back around and
388
00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:23.639
then they call me into the office and they say okay,
389
00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:25.960
now you need to pack a bag for anywhere in
390
00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.279
the NHL. We're going to see the president because we're
391
00:16:28.279 --> 00:16:30.120
playing Carolina and we won the Cup the year before,
392
00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:33.240
so we're going to do that or grin rapids. But
393
00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:36.559
now I'm injured, so I can't be traded, I can't
394
00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:39.639
be claimed, and I shouldn't be able to get sent down.
395
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:44.159
But I was playing on pure adrenaline, and because Detroit
396
00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:48.120
won the Cup, I didn't get my surgery because they
397
00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:51.519
didn't sign me until late August, so I just grinded through.
398
00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:53.279
I had a her need a disc in my bag,
399
00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:55.879
which was like crazy pain down my static. But like
400
00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:59.080
during the game, I never lost strength, so I could
401
00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:02.480
grind through the pain. So I come to training camp
402
00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:04.519
do that, and I'm the odd man out. We have
403
00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:07.079
a couple of young d and their theory was they
404
00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:09.160
had a bunch of smaller guys. I could play deer forward.
405
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:11.880
So I'm the guy out. So they end up put
406
00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:15.480
me on waivers and I'm beg skating before the Carolina
407
00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:19.079
game and Ken Hallan says, hey, LA just picked you up.
408
00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:22.920
Here's the phone and here you go. So I call
409
00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:27.640
Dean Lombardi. I'm like Dean I'm going to meet the president,
410
00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:30.200
like tomorrow. What do you think. He's like, buddy, get
411
00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:32.759
on a plane right now. You're playing in three hours.
412
00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:35.799
Oh no. So I fly to LA and I failed
413
00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:38.480
my physical. So I come to the rink of which
414
00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:40.400
I knew was going to happen. So I fail my
415
00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:43.559
physical and Dean is like grilling me to see if
416
00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:45.319
he's going to give me a chance, and I begged him.
417
00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:47.240
I said, give me one game and I can show
418
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:49.559
you that I can play. So he thought about it.
419
00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:52.759
He brings me to practice the next day and he
420
00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:54.880
gave me one game and I went on like a
421
00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:57.400
ten or thirteen game point streak and the rest is history.
422
00:17:57.480 --> 00:17:59.720
Oh my gosh. And you didn't get to meet the president.
423
00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:05.640
No, not yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that propelled me
424
00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:08.319
to have just an amazing season in LA.
425
00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:10.799
And you hadn't had back surgery, so you're just going.
426
00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:15.920
On excruciating pH So I play sixty games for the Kings,
427
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:17.880
have you know, close to forty points and.
428
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:18.839
With a herniated disc.
429
00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:21.880
Yeah, and set myself up for my whole career. And
430
00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:24.480
then I was never their guy. So they traded me
431
00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:27.240
in the summer to the Avalanche for Ryan Smith. Then
432
00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:29.680
I became one of the top guys.
433
00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:31.119
Here absolutely for three years.
434
00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:33.559
Yeah, but all because of that. He gave me one
435
00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:34.160
game in LA.
436
00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:36.279
It all comes back to that, Isn't that amazing.
437
00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:38.079
There's so many stories like that where it's like you
438
00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:41.640
just you need that one little opportunity, that door to
439
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.079
open and then but you got to be ready for it.
440
00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:44.880
Oh when it comes.
441
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:48.039
Yeah, most guys don't get the opportunity, but when you do,
442
00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:50.720
you have to make it absolutely. Yeah, make it work.
443
00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:52.599
All right. So while you're in the abs, as you've
444
00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:55.119
talked about, you're you're the guy. Everybody knows who you are.
445
00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:58.720
But you had some pretty crazy injuries during your your
446
00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:01.160
years and one of them happened while you were here,
447
00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:03.519
and that was when you you said you dislocated your
448
00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:05.240
shoulder from your shoulder to your hips.
449
00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:08.000
Yeah the time, yeah, yeah, the timing. So, like I
450
00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:10.200
think we were talking about just how how the career
451
00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:12.720
goes and all the stars out there the line. So
452
00:19:12.759 --> 00:19:16.519
I was on a minimum wage contract in LA and
453
00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:19.680
Colorado my first year and playing twenty eight thirty minutes
454
00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:23.160
a game. So I finally signed my first contract and
455
00:19:23.240 --> 00:19:25.960
I tried to play like I was a three million
456
00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:28.240
dollar player. Instead of just playing the way I was,
457
00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:29.559
I was trying to do too much.
458
00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:32.480
Feel more pressure. Once you signed that contract, Yeah, yeah.
459
00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.319
You want to earn You want to You don't want
460
00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:36.640
people to be like, look like, what's going making that?
461
00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:36.759
Ye?
462
00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:39.519
I want to earn it. So I was squeezing the
463
00:19:39.559 --> 00:19:41.960
stick too hard. I was trying way too hard to
464
00:19:42.039 --> 00:19:45.319
prove myself, which I already did. But it's all mental.
465
00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:49.759
And anyway, we're uh, we're playing in Washington. They are
466
00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.759
doing the Winter Classic, so HBO is there. And the
467
00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:55.519
first shift of the game, I reversed the puck a
468
00:19:55.559 --> 00:20:00.240
little early and Ovechkin reads it and runs Duchane. I
469
00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:04.640
need to get him back. I can't fight him. It
470
00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:07.599
got to be clean. But target was put on him.
471
00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:09.759
So in the second period he was bumbling like a
472
00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:12.319
two on two in the neutral zone and I just
473
00:20:12.359 --> 00:20:14.960
stopped on a dime and threw the kitchen sink at him,
474
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.240
try to knock his head off a Russian tank. I
475
00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:22.200
bounced off him and I landed on the ice and
476
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:25.200
my shoulder popped out. But I was going so fast.
477
00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:27.359
When I went into the boards, it was already out
478
00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:30.400
and then it went down, so all the nerves under
479
00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:33.000
that are in your armpit, they were all messed up,
480
00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:35.319
and that's the nerve that makes you move your arm.
481
00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:40.359
So our doctor here, you know, is great, amazing Doctrin
482
00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:42.720
did an amazing surgery. But his bedside manner is kind
483
00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:45.039
of funny. He's like, hey, good news. The nerve doesn't
484
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:47.240
come back. We don't need to do the surgery. I'm like,
485
00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:48.640
oh okay. He's like, yeah, you won't be able to
486
00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:50.839
use your arm. Give me fine, And I'm twenty three
487
00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:54.480
years old, Like no, no education. Right. I get to
488
00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:57.960
the dressing room and like Scotty Woodward, who's still in
489
00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.559
the abs, an amazing, amazing guy. Love them. I go,
490
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:04.039
I just, I just. They end up scoring on the play.
491
00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:06.119
So I get up and I hold my arm. I'm like, Scott,
492
00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.599
something's wrong. So they cut my jersey off and I
493
00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:11.759
go to put my hand where my arm is, and
494
00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:14.880
my arm is all the way down. Yeah, my ribs.
495
00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:17.599
So it took them an hour and a half to
496
00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:20.200
put the ball back in the socket because it came
497
00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:22.079
out so aggressively.
498
00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:24.680
But I give you anything, I hope for something.
499
00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:27.119
All we had was like the numbing for for your
500
00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:30.640
for the so they did. There's jabbin. But yeah, after
501
00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:33.119
like five minutes, your body goes into full like panic
502
00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.519
mode and it tightens all the sure. But yeah, got
503
00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:38.960
to learn a lot about the body through all these injuries.
504
00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:41.559
How long did it take to come back from that?
505
00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:44.079
I missed the whole year I was that was in December,
506
00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:47.519
So I missed that whole year and then I came back.
507
00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:50.079
But yeah, it was a long rehab. It was the
508
00:21:50.119 --> 00:21:51.319
worst painful surgery.
509
00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:53.200
Did you think you would come back and play again?
510
00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:55.519
Oh yeah, okay, yeah yeah, But for a couple of
511
00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:57.720
weeks there when I was rehabbing my my nerve, I
512
00:21:57.759 --> 00:21:59.960
was like, this doesn't come back, Like I'm I'm out
513
00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:01.319
posts and.
514
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.200
Then what do you do? Right, that's what you got
515
00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:06.119
to think about. I gotta come back, yeah, because hockey's all.
516
00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:09.240
You knew exactly all I was good at at the time.
517
00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:14.000
Yeah, yeah, okay, So three seasons here in twenty twelve,
518
00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:16.519
you get a weird trade what I read, you get
519
00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:18.720
traded to Tampa Bay, but then right after that, right
520
00:22:18.759 --> 00:22:20.920
back to Detroit, like all on the same days.
521
00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:23.119
I think it's like the funny, It's like the Avs
522
00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:25.279
and the Red Wings. They don't do business together because
523
00:22:26.680 --> 00:22:29.400
something like that. But no, I think I think they
524
00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:32.759
needed Tampa to make it work. Okay, Yeah, it's funny.
525
00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:36.039
A lot of trade deadlines they bring up one of
526
00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:38.000
like the worst trades of all time, which was me,
527
00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:40.920
which was you because the pick that went back to
528
00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:44.799
Tampa was ended up being Vassilevski. Oh yeah, so it was.
529
00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:47.480
But yeah, I went back to Detroit as like a
530
00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:51.960
depth defenseman and Lindstrom was about to retire. Then it
531
00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:55.000
was Zetterberg and so we had we had a little
532
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.359
window to make a run, and we couldn't get past
533
00:22:57.359 --> 00:22:57.960
the first round.
534
00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:00.519
But how different was it going back to the same
535
00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:03.599
organization a second time, you know, with a few years
536
00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:06.119
in between, because every organization has a personality. But I
537
00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:09.720
also think if there's space in between, you know, stints,
538
00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:11.920
it can be a completely different team, even if you
539
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:14.279
have the same ownership or a lot of the same
540
00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:15.599
people in the front office.
541
00:23:15.640 --> 00:23:18.440
So I I had Babcock as my coach before and
542
00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:21.039
after he treated me like I was that rookie and
543
00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:23.119
I'm like, uh uh, I'm a I'm a made man
544
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:25.920
in the NHL like that, I've been number one d
545
00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:27.880
on two teams. Now, I know I'm not that here,
546
00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:30.720
but like you got to. So I demanded respect, and
547
00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:33.079
he did after I had to stand up to him.
548
00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:35.559
But did you Oh, that's a good story.
549
00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:37.640
I'd love to hear that one. Can you tell that one?
550
00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:40.279
Yeah, he made a point. We were kind of going
551
00:23:40.359 --> 00:23:42.880
back and forth during a drill and then we did
552
00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:44.440
like a one on one drill out of the corner,
553
00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:49.480
and uh, he was making a point and I just
554
00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:52.720
started running guys from behind, and I just like you,
555
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:54.359
I'll keep going if you want to. Then he just
556
00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:58.319
blew the whistle and practice was over, and like Bertuzzi,
557
00:23:58.440 --> 00:24:01.160
like my mentors on that team, right Cleary Bertuzzi and
558
00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:03.359
my friends were like, you have to go in there,
559
00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:05.519
and you got to stand up to the bully. So
560
00:24:06.039 --> 00:24:08.880
what he did he would run to his office and
561
00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:11.680
take his skates off and then get like a really
562
00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:14.039
quick workout before guys would get in. So he was
563
00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:16.400
mid squat with like squat rock on his back and
564
00:24:16.440 --> 00:24:18.359
I put the stick right between his eyes and I'm like,
565
00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:20.440
if you ever talk to me like that, we're going
566
00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:21.240
to have an issue.
567
00:24:21.480 --> 00:24:22.200
You did not.
568
00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:25.119
Yeah, I was, and I was shaking doing it, but
569
00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:27.680
ever since that day he respected me. You got to
570
00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:29.960
stand up to the bully. It's hard. It's hard, especially
571
00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:35.680
at you know, a young age like that. But yeah, yeah.
572
00:24:34.759 --> 00:24:36.880
Okay, well yeah, but that makes sense.
573
00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:38.119
I was on the power Play the next night.
574
00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:44.160
Yeah yeah, okay. So then you you end up signing
575
00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:46.359
a nice deal while you're with the Red Wings on
576
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:49.079
your second stint with them, you have some ankle issues,
577
00:24:49.240 --> 00:24:50.960
have an ankle surgery? Was that when you had your
578
00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:51.799
gnarly ankle?
579
00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:54.839
Yeah? When I was in junior Sorry, when I was fifteen,
580
00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:58.839
playing junior B I broke and dissocated my ankle, so
581
00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:02.920
like my foot was almost completely off my body. And
582
00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:06.759
I think with all that trauma, and every time I
583
00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.319
would roll my ankle, a little piece of bone would
584
00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:13.599
come into my channel like my ankle canal, and my
585
00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:16.559
body wasn't absorbing the bone enough, so I ended up
586
00:25:16.599 --> 00:25:19.079
with these bone chips. So what they did is they
587
00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:21.000
made like five or six cuts and they went in
588
00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:22.960
there like trimmed down my achilles and everything, but they
589
00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:26.359
pretty much just vacuumed out. So I was playing in
590
00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:29.880
the NHL and that season and the bone chip would
591
00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:32.160
get caught in a weird place and I couldn't walk.
592
00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:36.519
I would crawl to the bathroom, but I would always play.
593
00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:40.960
So when you're injured like that extreme like you have
594
00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:43.960
to be so precise with your angles and your positioning.
595
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:47.440
So I almost played better, Like even like into La,
596
00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:49.279
I was in so much pain, but I was like
597
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:52.359
I was so dial like I couldn't. I was never
598
00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:55.759
a good skater at that level, Like I wasn't an
599
00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:58.200
elite skater, like I'm a car where he can skate
600
00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:02.279
himself out of trouble. I could not get in trouble. Okay,
601
00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:04.079
so if I ever got into a foot race, I'd
602
00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:05.960
lose it. And I knew that. But I would never
603
00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:09.599
ever get myself in that position. So when you're playing,
604
00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:13.079
even injured, it's even more heightened and you actually play better.
605
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:14.279
That's fascinating.
606
00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:17.279
Yeah, huh, all right, So then after that second stint
607
00:26:17.319 --> 00:26:20.680
in Detroit, you have stops with the Devils, the Blue
608
00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:23.359
Jackets and the wild was that over a course of
609
00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:24.039
how many.
610
00:26:24.119 --> 00:26:27.279
It was wild? It was really tough. Twenty sixteen, I
611
00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:30.680
play in Detroit. I'm making four million at that point,
612
00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:34.480
and I knew I wasn't that player, and I didn't
613
00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:37.519
deserve that. So at this point, I just want to
614
00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:40.039
play in the NHL, like I play for a minimum wage.
615
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:42.519
But I think it might have been assumed.
616
00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:44.880
That, like that was my number you're asking.
617
00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:49.119
Or even yeah. So I didn't get a contract all summer.
618
00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:53.119
Now it's there's one preseason game left and I am panicking,
619
00:26:53.319 --> 00:26:55.880
oh yeah, because I'm in my not not prime but
620
00:26:56.119 --> 00:27:00.599
I'm still very good defenseman in the NHL. And I
621
00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:04.200
get a call from New Jersey and they're like, forgive
622
00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:07.680
you this, and I'm like, I'm done. I sign me up.
623
00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:09.920
But I knew I was going on a team that
624
00:27:10.039 --> 00:27:12.519
was rebuilding. I knew if I played well, i'd be
625
00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:15.279
needed for So I got traded to Columbus at the
626
00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:19.200
trade deadline as that like solid five to six stay
627
00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:22.920
at home guy, that team's need death guy. In the playoffs,
628
00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:25.880
we ended up running into a hot team Pittsburgh and
629
00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:27.920
they beat us. But yeah, that's how I got.
630
00:27:27.799 --> 00:27:29.480
To Columbus, Okay, and then how'd you get to the
631
00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:31.000
Wild July one.
632
00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:33.400
I had a good season and I showed that I
633
00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:36.440
could be that player they signed me to be that player,
634
00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:39.440
that fifth sixth guy kind of mentor the young guys,
635
00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:43.799
and things didn't work out for many different reasons in Minnesota.
636
00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:46.440
But yeah, like you know, people say like, hey, when
637
00:27:46.440 --> 00:27:49.759
did you retire. I'm like, well, I got fired December
638
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:53.200
of twenty eighteen, okay, when I was playing for the
639
00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:55.559
Wild Yeah, and they released you. Yeah, it was weird.
640
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:58.240
They it was just kind of go home, and I
641
00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:00.200
think I had a chance to get traded to the
642
00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:02.279
deadline and keep it going. But at that point I
643
00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:07.359
was so mentally physically I was done. I was totally done.
644
00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:09.599
And then again that was thirteen years, like I had
645
00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:11.960
a great run. Yeah, yeah, but when I when I
646
00:28:11.960 --> 00:28:15.680
started seeing the bullshit. So I don't know if I
647
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:18.960
can say that on this by the podcast, but when
648
00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:22.160
I started seeing the lies and everything, I was like,
649
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:24.559
you know what, I'm out And I was in a
650
00:28:24.599 --> 00:28:27.720
lot of pain at my back and shoulders and neck
651
00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:28.400
and everything.
652
00:28:28.440 --> 00:28:30.680
And I'm I'm.
653
00:28:30.599 --> 00:28:33.640
Getting a concussion every season, like not not big, just
654
00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.160
kind of grazing, and.
655
00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:37.319
But each one adds up and is worse than the other.
656
00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:38.079
Exactly.
657
00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:38.519
Yeah.
658
00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:41.559
So but couldn't go out like that. I wanted to
659
00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:44.039
go to Europe and I went to Finland and lived
660
00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:46.279
in Helsinki and I FK took care of me and
661
00:28:46.359 --> 00:28:48.240
had a great and we were so close to winning
662
00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.799
a championship there. But it was a great way to
663
00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:52.839
wean off a career. And then I had such a
664
00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:54.799
good time. I was I wanted to play in Germany
665
00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:57.720
or another team like I was playing for the love
666
00:28:57.759 --> 00:28:59.599
of it, just to kind of like not grow up
667
00:28:59.799 --> 00:29:03.079
and just to see Europe. And I was riding my
668
00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:07.680
bike up in Conniffer out here and knocked myself out
669
00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:10.000
and I'm laying in the river and I'm like, you
670
00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:12.480
know what. So I came home and talked to my wife.
671
00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:14.400
And that was the you knocked yourself out?
672
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:16.680
How I went off a jump and hit a tree
673
00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:20.680
and okay, it was like that, I'm done. Yeah, yeah,
674
00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:23.160
what am I doing? Right? So I got to respect
675
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:27.079
my body and my brain. Then that kind of got
676
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:28.880
me down my path when I'm doing.
677
00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:31.440
Now okay, so then let's go there. So twenty nineteen,
678
00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:36.039
you officially retire and you have a series of events,
679
00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:39.160
one of them being with your son Axel, who has
680
00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:41.440
a brain tumor at the age of one, and my
681
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:43.400
husband had a brain tumor and O nine. I'm very
682
00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:46.000
familiar with how those work, so did my mom that
683
00:29:46.119 --> 00:29:49.240
she passed away from last year. So I mean to
684
00:29:49.279 --> 00:29:52.200
have your one year old with that, and then you've
685
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.400
just gone through so much trauma with your career and
686
00:29:55.400 --> 00:29:58.519
concussions and whatnot. How did that all kind of add
687
00:29:58.599 --> 00:30:00.920
up and lead to what you're doing now with the
688
00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:01.799
Do Good Ranch.
689
00:30:01.960 --> 00:30:07.039
Yeah, March twenty twenty was for COVID, right during I
690
00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:09.480
call COVID March fifteenth, because I was supposed to be
691
00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:11.000
on a plane that day, and I remember I was
692
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:14.480
supposed to be in ceremony with an indigenous tribe in
693
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:18.240
San Diego on HBO that next day.
694
00:30:18.359 --> 00:30:20.000
Really yeah, and it all.
695
00:30:19.880 --> 00:30:23.039
Got shut down. But it was March thirtieth when we
696
00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:26.000
decided to take our kid in because Axel was throwing
697
00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:29.119
up and we thought, you know, we didn't know what
698
00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:31.720
to think, but it was that day that you know,
699
00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:33.720
rushed in and had surgery the next day.
700
00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:35.759
And what kind of tumor?
701
00:30:35.880 --> 00:30:38.200
Was it a pandomoma? So which is me in the back,
702
00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:41.799
the back kind of like upper neck, but it was
703
00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:45.240
squeezing off his his spinal fluid. It was pooling, so
704
00:30:45.319 --> 00:30:47.960
he was just trying to dehydrate himself get rid of
705
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:52.279
the pressure. So we had surgery to relieve that, and
706
00:30:52.359 --> 00:30:56.039
then we kind of understood what we were dealing with
707
00:30:56.119 --> 00:30:57.960
and then made a game plan. But going into the
708
00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:01.880
hospital every day was and see the news was one thing,
709
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:04.400
but actually seeing the transition in a hospital, like I
710
00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:06.359
lived in a hospital pretty much, so it was like,
711
00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:08.359
all right, now you gotta wear a mask. Okay, now
712
00:31:08.440 --> 00:31:09.839
you can't do that. Okay, now you can't do this.
713
00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:12.200
And then then yeah, like understanding that no one really
714
00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:13.119
knew what was going on.
715
00:31:13.319 --> 00:31:14.559
No, well, we all thought it was going to be
716
00:31:14.599 --> 00:31:16.359
two weeks and we'll be back to normal, and it
717
00:31:16.480 --> 00:31:17.039
just wasn't.
718
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:20.440
Oh my gosh. So on top of that, and I
719
00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:22.240
think men are very good at this, but I had
720
00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:26.440
to compartmentalize. I was in the thick of the loss
721
00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:30.119
of identity, the loss of purpose, the dealing with all
722
00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:34.480
the TBI symptoms of you know, huge mood swings of depression,
723
00:31:34.599 --> 00:31:37.960
anxiety and suicidal ideation, and and then all of a
724
00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:40.440
sudden you have to stuff all of that down and
725
00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:43.680
then be the rock for the family. And my parents
726
00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:45.759
couldn't come down because they were in Canada, and my
727
00:31:45.799 --> 00:31:48.240
wife moved into the hospital, and then we have another son,
728
00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:52.279
so yeah, after we went through all that and we
729
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:55.960
had to move to Philadelphia. This is the beautiful deal
730
00:31:56.039 --> 00:31:59.480
with hockey and the community and the family. The NHL
731
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:03.240
shut down and we had an airbnb downtown Philadelphia and
732
00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:06.680
we're watching the riots. I think it was George Floyd
733
00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:09.799
at the time, and the city's on fire, like literally,
734
00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:11.240
and we're looking it up on a map. It's like,
735
00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:15.400
that's a block away from our airbnb. So Brian Elliott,
736
00:32:15.400 --> 00:32:19.559
who played here Goaltender, He's like, dude, I heard what
737
00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:23.119
you're going through. Take the house, the car's guest up.
738
00:32:23.559 --> 00:32:26.119
We have a five and two year old, toys and everything,
739
00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:28.000
and it was like the perfect It was a lifesaver.
740
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.079
So we literally moved. They went back home and we
741
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:34.119
just moved in and everything was dialed for us. And
742
00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:37.119
we were there for three months and they did the bubble.
743
00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:39.519
They went back into the bubble and like in August.
744
00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:43.799
But it was such a such a blessing. So we
745
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:48.039
did an We did a like a thirty hour surgery,
746
00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:50.359
so they had to remove every cell of the cancer
747
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:55.359
off of brain stems and vital nerves, and then we
748
00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:58.400
did thirty days of radiation and then we climbed up
749
00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:01.400
the rocky stairs, ring the bell when we got home
750
00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:06.119
is when I could finally put my mask on and
751
00:33:06.440 --> 00:33:09.759
get some healing for myself. And a great hockey friend
752
00:33:09.799 --> 00:33:13.119
of mine was going through very similar things and found
753
00:33:13.880 --> 00:33:17.519
psilocybin as a medicine and he's like, I'm coming to
754
00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:19.920
get you, and you're gonna go see this person. We're
755
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:22.279
gonna sit with this medicine. And it changed my life.
756
00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:24.559
I got my power back in that one ceremony.
757
00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:25.319
That's amazing.
758
00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:28.960
A year later, I bought the ranch and then it's
759
00:33:29.079 --> 00:33:31.680
organically over the last four years become a healing center
760
00:33:31.799 --> 00:33:35.240
for a lot of special operators, a lot of first responders,
761
00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:38.079
and a lot of athletes. But it's for everybody that
762
00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:41.000
wants to be a better version of themselves. Were committed
763
00:33:41.039 --> 00:33:44.119
to creating a container in a safe space for people
764
00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:45.519
to come and do some healing.
765
00:33:45.720 --> 00:33:49.559
Talk more about the medicine cause it's a derivative of mushrooms. Correct.
766
00:33:49.720 --> 00:33:52.920
Psilocybin is the psychoactive compound in mushrooms.
767
00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:55.240
So how do they get it from the mushroom?
768
00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:56.480
Yeah, you eat it, so.
769
00:33:56.440 --> 00:33:58.279
You're just not just taking it by It's it's your story.
770
00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:00.960
We know there's products that that we partner with that
771
00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:04.119
are extracts, and but yeah, I.
772
00:34:04.039 --> 00:34:05.400
Know a little bit to be dangerous.
773
00:34:05.880 --> 00:34:07.680
Jake Ummer, I know exactly.
774
00:34:07.880 --> 00:34:10.440
So Jake is working on the Lion's mane, the Turkey
775
00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:12.840
tail and the ratime putting it. He has an amazing well,
776
00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:15.760
it's an unbelievable product. It's called Unbo. What we're doing
777
00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:18.400
is partnering with more of the psychoactive stuff and using
778
00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:24.119
that sil cybin compound to heal brain trauma, PTSD, anxiety,
779
00:34:24.119 --> 00:34:27.360
depression and just kind of it's a long, long story
780
00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:29.840
to get into it, but anyway, this compound of sil
781
00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:33.159
cybin has changed and saved my life. So what I'm
782
00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:36.159
doing my job really in the grand scheme of this
783
00:34:36.280 --> 00:34:39.480
movement is to educate people, you know, use the platform
784
00:34:39.559 --> 00:34:43.639
of the career and say, hey, this is the symptoms
785
00:34:43.719 --> 00:34:47.280
I've had and this is what I did to continue
786
00:34:47.320 --> 00:34:50.079
my journey, and this is what I'm doing now and
787
00:34:50.119 --> 00:34:54.639
I feel great, And just to be like a role
788
00:34:54.679 --> 00:34:58.039
model for people to take that step of their ownership
789
00:34:58.119 --> 00:34:58.800
of their own healing.
790
00:34:58.920 --> 00:35:02.639
So how does that then differ from Lion's Mane and
791
00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:04.760
all of those I mean, and there's so many different.
792
00:35:05.679 --> 00:35:08.880
Because of my son, I had to and myself, I
793
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:11.719
had to. I educated myself, and I was so fortunate
794
00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:16.880
to be around PhD about chemists and elders and some amazing,
795
00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:19.239
amazing people, And like the Navy Seals took me under
796
00:35:19.239 --> 00:35:21.880
their wing and I went to a bunch of their
797
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:25.079
mentors and elders and I just soaked, just like Chilio's.
798
00:35:25.079 --> 00:35:28.400
I soaked up every information I could. Then I started
799
00:35:28.400 --> 00:35:31.400
doing my research, learning about Lion's Maine and the nerve
800
00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:34.719
growth and the turkey tail and the immune system because
801
00:35:35.480 --> 00:35:37.760
we were putting a hazmat suit on to change my
802
00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:41.280
kids diaper, and like learning the evil of chemo and
803
00:35:41.320 --> 00:35:44.400
like all of these things and how it's just a cycle,
804
00:35:44.840 --> 00:35:49.039
a disease cycle. I'm like, no way, So figuring out
805
00:35:49.079 --> 00:35:51.679
how we can use the earth and our bodies to
806
00:35:51.719 --> 00:35:54.719
heal each other. Yeah, yeah, so the turkey tail lines
807
00:35:54.760 --> 00:35:58.440
main that's called functional medicinal mushrooms, non psychoactive, got it.
808
00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:01.159
And then we live in Call, which is an amazing
809
00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:05.519
state that is allowing us to start using soil cybin
810
00:36:05.719 --> 00:36:10.119
as the medicine with reverence. And again, like that's another
811
00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:13.800
thing I'm teaching people is intention and reverence of this
812
00:36:13.960 --> 00:36:18.239
amazing technology which is the mushroom, and it will it
813
00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:20.880
will treat you well if you treat it well with respect.
814
00:36:21.159 --> 00:36:21.360
Right.
815
00:36:21.800 --> 00:36:24.000
Anybody that goes to the Do Good Ranch, do they
816
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:26.760
have to do the medicine part of it or can
817
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:29.280
they just go there as a as a healing.
818
00:36:29.239 --> 00:36:31.800
The ranch is what it is. It's you know, it
819
00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:34.679
sleeps twenty people with these geodesic domes. But we have
820
00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:39.320
sauna from my hometown Coal Plunge. We have you know,
821
00:36:39.599 --> 00:36:42.840
amazing partners that come in for breath work, for yoga,
822
00:36:43.639 --> 00:36:46.199
and it's a it's a space where people can We
823
00:36:46.280 --> 00:36:48.960
partner with people that do men retreats or they do
824
00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:51.880
women yoga retreats, and if they want to do the medicine,
825
00:36:51.760 --> 00:36:54.039
we partner with people that can help provide that.
826
00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:56.320
Wow, that is cool. So if somebody wanted to just
827
00:36:56.320 --> 00:36:58.480
go so it's not like it's rotating through with people
828
00:36:58.519 --> 00:37:00.159
all the time that you have to you can do
829
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:01.000
retreats and.
830
00:37:01.480 --> 00:37:04.079
Have yeah built it it's brand new.
831
00:37:04.199 --> 00:37:06.320
Oh okay, and is it open yet?
832
00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:08.280
Oh yeah, we have our first partnership this weekend.
833
00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:10.199
Oh wow, this weekend, yeah.
834
00:37:10.039 --> 00:37:12.679
Men's retreat. Yeah. So they're doing it. I'm so excited.
835
00:37:12.719 --> 00:37:14.039
Oh my gosh, Yle, that's awesome.
836
00:37:14.079 --> 00:37:16.639
Yeah. Then I'm bringing up a crew in April tenth,
837
00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.480
and then we have like an indigenous tribe taking it
838
00:37:19.960 --> 00:37:22.000
for seven days late April, so.
839
00:37:21.960 --> 00:37:24.159
People can go on because I looked at the website.
840
00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:25.960
The website is awesome dot com.
841
00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:28.119
Yeah, and go there and they can find out about
842
00:37:28.159 --> 00:37:30.760
how if they wanted to reserve iteah and get involved.
843
00:37:30.920 --> 00:37:32.039
So that is really cool.
844
00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:33.800
And all the inquiries come to me.
845
00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:35.039
So you're in charge.
846
00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:37.480
Does your wife help out or are you just doing everything?
847
00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:38.119
Okay?
848
00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:41.320
Yes, she's she's done ceremony with me, and she's seen
849
00:37:41.440 --> 00:37:44.920
the benefit. I'm sure and everyone around me has seen it.
850
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:48.440
And that's attraction, not promotion, just trying to live by
851
00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:51.599
example and when people are ready to take ownership of
852
00:37:51.639 --> 00:37:54.199
their own health, like we're here absolutely.
853
00:37:54.360 --> 00:37:56.480
And you had known Rachel for a long time, right,
854
00:37:56.559 --> 00:37:56.880
hadn't you?
855
00:37:57.239 --> 00:38:01.960
Yeah? Grand Rapids Days two and five?
856
00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:03.280
When did you guys get married?
857
00:38:03.639 --> 00:38:04.559
Twenty sixteen?
858
00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:08.159
Oh gosh, Okay, so she's seen the transition of you
859
00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:12.719
through several years and injuries and everything else. So that's huge. Yeah,
860
00:38:12.760 --> 00:38:14.400
and what a great way to have a support system.
861
00:38:14.559 --> 00:38:18.159
Oh yeah, big time. Yeah, no, she's she's amazing. Met
862
00:38:18.159 --> 00:38:22.599
her in Michigan and she's been all on all the travels. Yeah. Wow.
863
00:38:22.760 --> 00:38:26.639
And two boys, Axel and Stone. Yeah, seven and six. Tomorrow,
864
00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:29.719
April Fools is Axel's birthday, which is the day we
865
00:38:29.880 --> 00:38:33.000
found out about on his first birthday. Oh my god,
866
00:38:33.320 --> 00:38:34.320
so tomorrow is a big day.
867
00:38:34.599 --> 00:38:37.519
Okay, yeah, yeah, really cool. That's very cool.
868
00:38:37.559 --> 00:38:39.400
Okay, Excel and Stone, how'd you get those from?
869
00:38:39.480 --> 00:38:40.880
Are we like huge music fan?
870
00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:41.880
Guns and roses?
871
00:38:42.599 --> 00:38:46.519
More so Stone Stone Morrison? Okay, I really wanted to
872
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:50.559
have like Morrison as a first name, but we wouldn't sure,
873
00:38:50.679 --> 00:38:54.480
you know, so we gave them both. But Stone Stone, Gossard,
874
00:38:54.960 --> 00:38:58.079
Rolling Stones. And then Morrison is you know, Jim Morrison,
875
00:38:58.159 --> 00:39:01.400
Van Morrison and Red Rocks Morrison Colorado. Okay, Axel was
876
00:39:01.400 --> 00:39:03.800
supposed to be born in Finland. Oh so we gave
877
00:39:03.880 --> 00:39:06.760
a Scandinavian name. We always love that name. It's Axl
878
00:39:07.199 --> 00:39:10.800
not like a diehard Axel rose from but don't not
879
00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:11.719
like them? Right?
880
00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:13.159
But yeah, well you came in here and you were
881
00:39:13.199 --> 00:39:15.400
super impressed. We're in the Fox studio and we've got
882
00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:17.519
all these albums up and you said you're a huge
883
00:39:17.519 --> 00:39:18.760
collector of albums and.
884
00:39:18.760 --> 00:39:21.599
Music, and I can see that yeah, big time. Yeah, No,
885
00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:23.079
music is fun. All right.
886
00:39:23.159 --> 00:39:25.840
This has been super cool to hear more about you.
887
00:39:26.039 --> 00:39:28.119
My last question that I ask all of my guests, Kyle,
888
00:39:28.320 --> 00:39:31.280
is when you get to those points and you've had them,
889
00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:33.400
where you've been down and trying to figure out what's
890
00:39:33.440 --> 00:39:36.119
my next step? What do you tell people? And this
891
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:38.239
will be what you end up talking to people about,
892
00:39:38.280 --> 00:39:40.880
I'm sure with the do Good ranch is how do
893
00:39:40.960 --> 00:39:43.639
you pick back up and move forward and keep going.
894
00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:47.079
Yeah. The biggest message that I've come to realize is
895
00:39:47.119 --> 00:39:50.039
that this life that we were living is a journey
896
00:39:50.119 --> 00:39:52.960
and it's a process. It's not about an end game.
897
00:39:53.039 --> 00:39:56.079
It's not about you know, when I was five years old,
898
00:39:56.119 --> 00:39:59.280
I dreamed of making the NHL, winning the Stanley Cup,
899
00:39:59.480 --> 00:40:02.159
making some good money, and then retiring on a beach.
900
00:40:02.199 --> 00:40:05.719
And it doesn't work like that. I've actually checked most
901
00:40:05.719 --> 00:40:08.880
of those boxes off, and you know, a year later,
902
00:40:08.880 --> 00:40:11.159
you're dealing with all your injuries and stuff and you're like,
903
00:40:11.400 --> 00:40:15.360
what's my identity? What's my purpose? But once you understand
904
00:40:15.400 --> 00:40:19.079
that the prize is the process and to enjoy the journey.
905
00:40:19.639 --> 00:40:23.079
That's where the beauty is and you're always grateful and perspective.
906
00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:25.639
And that's where I've gotten to now because of all
907
00:40:25.679 --> 00:40:28.360
the work I've been doing with all the psychedelics and
908
00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:30.599
stuff and all the amazing people that have taken me
909
00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:33.280
under their wing, but just trying to enjoy the journey
910
00:40:33.360 --> 00:40:33.840
every day.
911
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:34.719
That's awesome.
912
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:36.559
The support system is huge, and I know you guys
913
00:40:36.639 --> 00:40:39.480
have a great group with the alumni, and you guys
914
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:41.440
are all very close. I didn't realize how close you
915
00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:43.639
were to I talked with Brick Barry how much you
916
00:40:43.639 --> 00:40:46.079
guys all still stay in touch and are together.
917
00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:49.400
Yeah, Like with with the ranch, we call education, like
918
00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:53.760
our pillars are education, access in community, and it's similar
919
00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:56.440
to the alumni where the one thing that we miss
920
00:40:56.480 --> 00:40:58.800
and need and it's and during COVID is when I
921
00:40:58.840 --> 00:41:02.679
really realized this is it is a vital human need
922
00:41:03.320 --> 00:41:06.159
to have community in a tribe and the alumni is
923
00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:08.679
my tribe. There's seven hundred guys in the world to
924
00:41:08.679 --> 00:41:11.079
get to do what we did at the highest level,
925
00:41:11.719 --> 00:41:14.840
and we're unicorns. Like if you think about it, we
926
00:41:14.880 --> 00:41:19.280
only relate to those people, to the depths of understanding
927
00:41:19.360 --> 00:41:22.559
what we've gone through, especially as men and not really
928
00:41:22.679 --> 00:41:27.239
communicating or saying our emotions very well. But it's a
929
00:41:27.280 --> 00:41:29.639
reason why we push to do these events. Right. So
930
00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:31.480
we get to go to Vail and Aspen and tell
931
00:41:31.480 --> 00:41:35.000
your ride and Breck we're doing Breck next weekend, and
932
00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:37.760
we get to raise money for youth hockey, give back
933
00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:40.480
to the game that's given us everything. But we get
934
00:41:40.519 --> 00:41:42.440
to sit in that dressing room with the guys again,
935
00:41:42.880 --> 00:41:44.320
and we get to look each guy in the eye,
936
00:41:44.400 --> 00:41:46.920
and it's our accountability network if guys aren't doing well.
937
00:41:47.199 --> 00:41:49.679
That's part of the reason why the Do Good Ranch exists.
938
00:41:49.679 --> 00:41:52.599
But we have a support system, like, dude, let's talk
939
00:41:52.599 --> 00:41:54.239
about this. What do you got going on? We're all
940
00:41:54.239 --> 00:41:56.840
going through similar stuff, so we lean on each other
941
00:41:56.880 --> 00:41:57.920
and that's our community.
942
00:41:58.000 --> 00:41:59.320
That is amazing. I love that.
943
00:41:59.400 --> 00:42:01.400
I do have one question, because we talked about it
944
00:42:01.400 --> 00:42:03.960
before we started this. You mentioned when you got a
945
00:42:03.960 --> 00:42:06.119
slap shot in the face and had to have one
946
00:42:06.199 --> 00:42:07.440
hundred and fifty two hundred stitches.
947
00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:09.760
Well, the one hundred fifty stitches was a cumul of
948
00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:12.440
across the career. Oh okay, I didn't I didn't get
949
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:14.320
any stitches from that, which is wild.
950
00:42:14.280 --> 00:42:16.239
Had no stitches when you got hit in the face
951
00:42:16.239 --> 00:42:16.719
with a puck.
952
00:42:16.840 --> 00:42:19.320
Yeah, it broke my orbital sinus and all the bones
953
00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:22.519
in my cheek. We had a plan to uh remove
954
00:42:22.599 --> 00:42:26.239
my skin on my face and my face off style, yeah,
955
00:42:26.320 --> 00:42:29.480
and put put bars in and mesh to uh, but
956
00:42:29.960 --> 00:42:32.159
the bones were barely touching, so they just let it
957
00:42:32.199 --> 00:42:33.599
heal and I played three weeks later.
958
00:42:34.199 --> 00:42:35.000
That's crazy.
959
00:42:35.559 --> 00:42:35.880
Wow.
960
00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:37.719
Okay when you said that, that's why I asked, I
961
00:42:37.719 --> 00:42:39.199
can't even see a scarm, like had you have one
962
00:42:39.280 --> 00:42:41.400
hundred and fifty stitches in your face? Okay, but that's
963
00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:42.480
over the course of your career.
964
00:42:42.639 --> 00:42:46.440
Yeah. Yeah, skates and sticks and pucks and it's.
965
00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:47.039
A brutal sport.
966
00:42:47.199 --> 00:42:47.519
Yeah.
967
00:42:47.519 --> 00:42:48.159
But you loved it.
968
00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:51.880
Then, ye best, I love it. Yeah. Yeah, we're playing
969
00:42:51.880 --> 00:42:52.400
this weekend.
970
00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:53.760
That's awesome. All right.
971
00:42:53.800 --> 00:42:56.039
Hey Kyle, this was super fun. Thanks for coming in.
972
00:42:56.039 --> 00:42:56.599
Appreciate it.
973
00:42:56.679 --> 00:42:58.199
Yeah, thank you, Thank you. Kyle.
974
00:42:58.480 --> 00:43:00.880
Definitely check out the website for the Do Good Ranch
975
00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:05.360
at dogodranch dot com. New episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired,
976
00:43:05.400 --> 00:43:08.960
Retired are released on Tuesdays. Please follow and download this
977
00:43:09.079 --> 00:43:11.800
podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and keep up on
978
00:43:11.880 --> 00:43:16.239
new releases by following on Twitter and Instagram at ctfur podcast,
979
00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:20.239
and also on the website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm your host,
980
00:43:20.280 --> 00:43:24.159
Susie Wargen. To learn more about me, visit Susiewargen dot com.
981
00:43:24.199 --> 00:43:26.840
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, please
982
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:29.840
be careful, be safe, and be kind. Take care.