Intro: This is for the sled dogs in the trenches. Real hockey parents, real stories. The Good and the Gong Show. No filters, no sugarcoating, no politics, just straight hockey talk, and the best guests around the barn. Welcome to the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast.
Alright, boys. Grind them corners, chirp responsibly, and bring that savage fire.
Scott: Alright, everybody. Welcome back to episode number 75 of the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast powered by Pacific Rink, the unfiltered podcast for hockey parents. No politics, no sugarcoating, just real talk for hockey parents in the trenches.
Jamie: Thank you to Big John Dangles for our awesome intro. Go check him out at Big John Dangles Instagram. BJD, that's our intro, and I think you'll be surprised if you have not seen his stuff yet.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie: And stuff.
Scott: Check out BJD on Instagram as well. Yeah. Yeah. Super big shout out to him. Yeah.
Jamie: Have you seen have you seen the recent stuff, by the
Scott: way? I did. I did. Said he did wanna post, like, Brick with, like, the mini baby.
Jamie: He's, like, graduating to other like, he's he's evolving.
Scott: Yeah. Of course. I mean, look. There's plenty of content
Jamie: for him to, like, you know, to Nice little thing.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah. I know. That's funny too. Clever.
Creative. All of the above. Shriek. Yeah, man. Yeah.
So let's just shout out to partners. You wanna kick us off?
Jamie: Oh, you can. Yeah. A shout out to Howie's Hockey. Go check out our discount code, Crazy 10 for
Erik: 10%
Jamie: off your Howie's hockey gear. They have great tape, laces, gear, hats, candles, wax, the scissors, anything you could think of. Howie's has it. They've been around forever. They're an awesome company.
Have the second best logo in youth hockey next to ours. So go check out howie'shockey.com. Use the code crazy 10 for 10% off your hobbies hockey video. Yo. Why'd you take
Scott: your Howie's Baba hit that It broke.
Jamie: It broke? I was asking yeah. See, my my my it was. It actually was an ornament hanger. Ornament.
Scott: Oh, I see.
Jamie: It was an yeah. But
Erik: it broke.
Scott: Because to get it out onto this
Jamie: thing. So we're obviously doing a little upgrade to our our situation here. We have, like, a new, like, audio interface and, like, we're you know? So the mics are moving and stuff like that. And and I broke it or it broke.
I was trying to bend it because we we took the mics off to go record remotely
Scott: That's true.
Jamie: From wall view.
Scott: And that just got jacked up on the way
Jamie: Yeah. And it just broke as I was trying to bend it. Yikes. So like
Scott: You need to have softer touch, buddy. You need silkier mitts to handle stuff like that. Your fucking sausage fingers
Jamie: Way too aggressive.
Scott: Way too aggressive, man. You don't have that, like, soft touch.
Jamie: I don't. Clearly, zero touch. You know I mean? It's all all, like
Scott: All force. Like, all strength.
Jamie: Seriously. You know, it's funny. My father-in-law Mhmm. When I when when I first met when I first met him, like, he he would use things like fulcrums and leverage and stuff like that. And I was just trying to use, like, brute strength.
He's like, are you doing? Like, what do you need? He's like, he's got so many easier ways to do what you're doing.
Scott: How many times were you with your father-in-law and required a fulcrum?
Jamie: I was just thinking I'm just curious. I would just think I don't remember. I mean, I've known him for a long time now. So but he
Scott: So at least once.
Jamie: No. No. It's probably been multiple. Several fulcrum. My my my father-in-law has done a lot of things around the house Okay.
That have that have have needed different leverage. Physics. Yes. You know? So it it it every time I go to do something, I just try to use, like, straight up strength Yeah.
And he just uses his brain.
Scott: Work smarter, not harder, buddy.
Jamie: Correct. Exactly right.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So so anyway so yeah. So I she tried to use great strength, I broke this. So I asked your daughter for a a paper clip.
Scott: Oh, how'd that go?
Jamie: And she's like, We don't have any paper clips. I was like, pretty sure I can ask your mom.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah. That's her just being lazy.
Jamie: Exactly. I'm assuming there's one in the house.
Scott: Yeah. But she wouldn't know. Probably would've.
Jamie: Well, no. She definitely would. Yeah. Yeah. She she showed me, like, when I said, like, paper clips, she showed me, like, a big back, like, the black binder clips.
Scott: Oh, yeah. Like, those bulldog clips and
Jamie: those fucking things, man. Probably that was gonna work. Maybe. I mean, probably not. I don't know where you would clip the big clip onto unless you, like, clip him onto.
Scott: I don't know, man. I'm just saying.
Jamie: It wouldn't be a good situation. Yeah. I feel like that's that claw machine, like, you know what mean? Oh, like, like, like, at the When
Scott: you play
Jamie: the arcade or
Scott: at Yeah. Yeah. The box. Yeah. Those things are such money grabs.
Although, dude, I saw one.
Jamie: That's her go ahead.
Scott: Yeah. You end up with, like, a $30, like, stuffed toy from, like, China that's, like, barely staying together, and it's probably made of, like like, asbestos and lead.
Jamie: So I don't know if I've ever I don't know if you've ever even talked about this on the podcast. When I when I got out of college, I started working for a stuffed animal company.
Scott: Yes. Did we ever talk about this? You've talked about your time overseas. Oh, I did. And you had your Canadian driver guy
Jamie: I did. In in Hong Kong.
Scott: In Hong Kong. Yes. You talked about that, and you had to carry all these duffel bags full of stuff.
Jamie: I did. Yes. So we we had a carnival line. Mhmm. I was not in control of it.
I was the retail line, we went out to see like retail stores. But there was a carnival line.
Scott: Wait. Hold on. Let me get this straight. You would have toys manufactured in China Yes. Shipped to The United States.
Jamie: Okay.
Scott: And then you would put them back into duffle bags and bring them back over there to sell them to people?
Jamie: Technically, yes. Really? Technically, they they
Scott: I find that fascinating. Why?
Jamie: The so the alright. So the stuff that obviously came over in containers was the product that was being delivered to somebody. Right? Yeah. We obviously had samples that were made that were sent over here from China.
And, yes, I did duffle bag them and bring them back to where they came from.
Scott: And what was the point of that?
Jamie: Well, because so when you deal with the big retail companies
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: When you sell to big retail, especially when it's like some of it's made overseas, they all put their
Scott: Are we talking Walmart?
Jamie: Yeah. Walmart, Kmart, Russell Stover, Big Lots, Albertsons, Stop and Shop. Yep. Whenever they we respect stuffed animals there, Pups Toys. Mhmm.
They're all obviously made overseas. Mhmm. So they all have offices in Shenzhen, which is right outside of Hong Kong. Mhmm. It's across Victoria Harbor from Downtown Hong Kong.
Mhmm. And they all have the offices there. So they go over to to Mainland China, right outside Hong Kong, to put their lines together, and everybody meets over there. Mhmm. So where everybody goes over for, you go over a couple times a year for, like, for meetings.
And when you're there, you see you take you off dinner. You bring your lines, and they decide what they wanna pick for and and buy. And then they put orders in because it ends generally, like, six to eight month.
Scott: I got it. So you were basically setting up for like trade shows type stuff and like
Jamie: It wasn't trade shows. You're going into their office.
Scott: Okay. They're China office. The bottom line is the stuff that came over a container, like, that's a 100% of it is in the container. It's not like you can go to the factory where it was made and pick up a few extra ones. You'd physically have to bring over all the extra.
Jamie: The fact the factories are in the factories parts of China. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're they're world they're in the middle of nowhere.
Scott: Really? They're So did you ever go to one?
Jamie: Actually, no.
Scott: Oh, interesting. Yeah. That would be a cool thing to check out.
Jamie: I don't know
Scott: about that. I think it would be cool.
Jamie: I'm not so sure I like that idea. I Why? I've heard stories about people going out there.
Scott: Fucking getting killed?
Jamie: No. But I've heard stories about Why
Scott: would you go?
Jamie: It's just the middle of fucking nowhere.
Scott: So it's gotta be it would be an adventure.
Jamie: That dude, going over to going over to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, like Mainland China, like Shanghai, that's an adventure all to itself.
Scott: Yeah. So you only if you're up for, like, double the pleasure and double the fun?
Jamie: I suppose.
Scott: Yeah. I suppose. You know?
Jamie: I mean, listen. So yeah. So so so that's where they set up all so they all have offices over there. Yeah. They all have, they all set up.
Scott: Got you. Yeah. So that's where You know, speaking of fun
Jamie: But I was saying so what I was saying about this is so you were saying about, like, the $30 item. Yes. So we would manufacture stuff for, like, for, like, boardwalks. We had a whole boardwalk line.
Scott: Mhmm.
Jamie: And that shit is, like, nothing. It's Like, the dirt. It's cheap. Garbage. Like Of course, it's not.
It's like landed here for, 90¢.
Scott: That's unreal.
Jamie: It's shit. Yeah. This some of the stuff on the boardwalks nowadays are a little bit better, but the stuff back then was, like, it was crap.
Scott: Are you like a are you like a plush toy snob or a plush toy connoisseur of sorts?
Jamie: I suppose.
Scott: Oh. I I do This is a whole new line of questioning for
Jamie: this guy. Do know the difference in fabrics.
Scott: You do.
Jamie: Well, because you when you when you deal with it and you know how much it costs per yard So what what if you have such
Scott: a clean blend?
Jamie: It's not so much it's it's it's more the feel. Ah. The plushiness.
Scott: Yeah. Exactly. The plush meter.
Jamie: Correct.
Scott: Do you have a plush meter?
Jamie: I suppose an internal one. Internal plush meter. An internal one. I mean, when when you feel it, you kinda know. You know, but let's finish up.
You can also tell by the look. You know what shit is on. Yeah. I but, yeah, you do you do get an idea of what is and what isn't good.
Scott: Wow. Yeah.
Jamie: In any in any industry. Wow. You know what mean? Like, there's some people that are really bad at podcasting.
Scott: Yeah. Probably ours.
Jamie: And then there's us, which is the top of the heap.
Scott: Oh, you know, I remember back in those in the days when you were that modest, humble young boy. No. Actually Was that Oh, really? No. Not so much.
No. That wasn't the way you rolled.
Jamie: Don't I always had been pretty confident.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes
Jamie: Overconfident? Or
Scott: Yeah. But that happens.
Erik: It's the
Jamie: only way I really know how to be, though.
Scott: Well, you know, you gotta learn somehow.
Jamie: My glasses are always half full.
Scott: Is it?
Jamie: You know?
Scott: Were we on the phone? Was it on the phone? The what? Were we on the landline?
Jamie: On the what?
Scott: We're we're on that, like, corded phone. The what? With the rotary dial.
Jamie: There's only this VHS tapes like you're hearing about.
Scott: Yeah. Those are spectacular. Very bulky. Take up a lot of space.
Jamie: They did.
Scott: Yeah. Remember you'd have, like, the individual, like oh, whatever. This is silly. But what was I gonna say? No.
Totally lost my track.
Jamie: Sorry. You were talking about overseas.
Scott: It doesn't matter. Yeah. Okay. But you know what should probably do? We probably get back to our hours.
Jamie: Alright. Fire away. Think you're
Scott: Partners. Hell, yeah. I'm totally Coach Kevin? Yeah. So hockeytraining.com.
So coach Kevin, hockeytraining.com is premier source for all of your off season and in season two, but we're in the off season now. So off season, off ice, speed, strength, agility, training, and stick handling training, and anything that you could probably want to practice in the off season to get bigger, stronger, faster, as well as, oh, improve your route. Yeah. There you go. That was a new one.
Erik: There you go.
Scott: Sorry. Got distracted there, everyone. But anyway, so just work on your off season training off the ice in the comfort of your home, basement, local school, whatever it might be. But check out hockeytraining.com for drills and, you know, different options on how to improve your game in this off season.
Jamie: Yeah. Coach Kevin's great.
Scott: Coach Kevin is the man.
Jamie: He's got an awesome library. And go check out titanbattlegear.com. Sky and I trust our kids in Titan Battle Gear. It's the most cut resistant stuff on the market, and it looks awesome too. So go to you could do the link in our show notes, which is titanbattlegear.com backslash Crazy Hockey Dads.
Use the code crazy dads 10 for 10% off. Like I said, there's the Miami Vice. There's the new USA. Awesome. Had Donna just got it the other day.
One I didn't put up on our Instagram.
Scott: Mhmm. Mhmm.
Jamie: But I got it. Yeah. He actually yes. Mhmm. Yeah.
We have it. It looks it looks really good. Nice. He's getting a bunch more for Penn State and Princeton. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Because he's growing like a weed, he doesn't fit in his other stuff. Mhmm. Mhmm. So I use our discount code.
Scott: Beast. So go check out
Jamie: our discount code. Go use crazy dads 10 at titanbattlegear.com for 10% off your titan battle gear.
Scott: That's it. And for any of the coaches and managers out there that are looking into or thinking about video review and analytics for your upcoming season, please check out athletic performance insight. Felt use the contact form. Reach out to Eric. He'll be more than happy to give you a demo of the platform as well as break down a game for free, and you'll be able to see all the analytics you can use in team video sessions, one on one video sessions to go over Hockey IQ and different, you know, in game situational play with team individuals.
It's a tremendous tremendous video review software and analytics software. So please check it out. Athleticperformanceinsight.com.
Jamie: 1010%, but 10% off, which is a $100 value.
Scott: Gotta mention Crazy Hockey Dads, though.
Jamie: Gotta mention Crazy
Scott: Hockey Gotta mention the Crazy Hockey Dads. Tom, we're using it. What? Are you guys gonna use it? That is still TBD.
Did you
Jamie: send anything to your coach yet?
Scott: Absolutely. Did you? Yeah. Nice. Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. No. He Eric, take care of you guys. He's he's good like that. Yeah.
Check it. Check out Eric. He would definitely said would do demo, mention Crazy Hockey Dads, 10% off, $100 value.
Scott: Can't beat it.
Jamie: Yeah. You definitely can't.
Scott: No. It's great.
Jamie: So Otto's back?
Scott: So Otto's back. Otto's back from Woodward. He came back with concussion, mild concussion after he attempted to do a double back flip off of
Jamie: Double backflip?
Scott: Or a backflip. I don't know. It's confusing me. Was doing he was doing double backflips on the trampolines they have there. Okay.
But he was also using a tramp scooter, which is a scooter that has no wheels so that you can practice on a trampoline using, like, the scooter without wheels.
Jamie: And you
Scott: can practice, like, swinging it and flipping it.
Jamie: So it's just
Scott: the deck. It's the deck without the wheels. Okay.
Jamie: Yep. So they he's actually balancing on a trampoline
Scott: On the scooter with no wheels.
Jamie: What's the insurance premiums like for this camp?
Scott: I don't know. We didn't really get into that when we registered. We just kinda
Jamie: What if they
Scott: let them that?
Jamie: What if they had a pretty serious policy with like a a sub policy to
Erik: go Well,
Scott: it was something over with their regular policy. Interesting. So they have like a helipad there in case anyone needs to get like
Jamie: Medevaced out?
Scott: Medevaced. And that's definitely happened, unfortunately. Right? Because you don't wanna hear that type of stuff. Down.
Yeah. Otto came back with, like, a concussion because he had They
Jamie: were, like, blacklisted in the last day. Right?
Scott: They they red banned you.
Jamie: Red Sox. Yeah. I knew there was any name of it. I knew it was red something. I knew it my daughter was.
Scott: Yeah. But he's a
Jamie: I don't know. Red band means like you're not
Scott: allowed. You're not allowed. Nope. Subject to further further That's a concussion protocol. Of thing.
Yeah. But I mean, also if you injured like something else, if you sprained your ankle, they might red band you also.
Jamie: Okay.
Scott: Got it. In any event, yeah. So he was out there and he was practicing those types of things and got injured and, you know, thankfully, it wasn't too bad, not not an awesome outcome nonetheless. But he he's he's fine.
Jamie: So I'm curious. Is there like like, obviously, like, school nurse. I'm assuming there's, like, a EMT ish
Scott: staff. Yeah. They totally have. They have
Jamie: just one guy.
Scott: No. They've got, like, trainers there, and
Jamie: they've I don't got think there's, multiple
Scott: They have staff. But this was interesting. Funny you even bring this up because you would think in a place like this, they they probably deal with concussions Regularly. On the regular. I would think so.
You would think so. I 100% think so. So that's so this is
Jamie: Mountain biking, like flipping scooters, like parkouring.
Scott: Right. You would think people smack their heads or something cuts in left and right. Injured, yes. But like so this was interesting. So Otto, we get told that Otto has a concussion.
Right.
Jamie: And Which he probably didn't know hearing the symptoms. I think I was probably pretty Sure. I'm not Great headaches, like, kind of he Sensitivity. Didn't remember a
Scott: lot of it as Yeah. It So he
Jamie: Was he sensitive to light too?
Scott: I think he had some problems focusing
Jamie: or Anyway,
Scott: so the regardless of whether it was or not, I think it was. But
Jamie: It's not. Yeah.
Scott: It sounds like it so we were on the phone with, like, the whatever the staff that
Jamie: was responsible for, like, checking him. EMT crew.
Scott: Right. And so they were like, well, you know, we could take him to the so he keeps coming on on a Saturday. And we're like, okay. He's not gonna be here until the afternoon. Where are we gonna take him till the before?
Like, happened Thursday end of day. And then he came back Saturday, like
Jamie: Okay. So it literally, like, twenty four hours then.
Scott: Yeah. But the interesting thing was is that, like, as we were asking about, like, what to kinda like, what they were doing and, like, planning our next steps to have him evaluated.
Jamie: Right.
Scott: They were like, oh, we can take him to urgent care if you want. And we're like, okay. Well, maybe we should just have him do that since he's not doing anything else anyway. Like, go to urgent care there as opposed to waiting to go to urgent care here. Right.
Right? Just like
Erik: Oh, did
Jamie: guys take him when he got home?
Scott: Well, hold on. That was more Yes. We did. Okay. But he we were just like, yeah.
Take him to urgent care. And so was like, well, why not? So it's out of state and whatever. Was like, listen. Just let's call over there and find out how much
Jamie: How much it costs?
Scott: How much it's gonna cost.
Jamie: Sure. Like insurance one.
Scott: Yeah. Like, find out what the insurance deals.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of course.
Scott: So then we call over there, and they were basically like the urgent care was like, yeah. No. I need any pediatric or children's, like, concussion or, you know, thought you know, we we just we immediately send that over to the ER.
Jamie: They don't want the liability.
Scott: And I was like, well, why would why wouldn't the camp know that? Why are they offering to take our kid to ER? I mean, to urgent care?
Jamie: They thought they were gonna decline.
Scott: Well, I guess they didn't know that.
Jamie: How did they not know that?
Scott: Well, they said they were gonna take them to urgent care. They didn't say they were gonna take them to the ER. Why would you
Jamie: go why'd you make a second stop? Yeah. No. You would think that they would work with this place from regular
Scott: So in any event, we so and that was, like, further away. It was, like, a bigger deal, blah blah blah. We're like, listen. We'll just have him come back here. We'll take him to the urgent care and blah blah blah.
Jamie: So you waited till he got back here.
Scott: We waited till he got back, but I just thought it was a weird thing that they didn't have like really dialed in at a camp where you think like dealing with injuries like constantly is a thing, but maybe kids aren't constantly getting injured. I don't know.
Jamie: I have a hard time believing that.
Scott: I mean, based on what Otto tells me, it certainly sounds like every time he's been there
Jamie: Every time he's there
Scott: there's some kind of
Jamie: Somebody gets hurt. Yeah. Broken ankle.
Scott: Something.
Jamie: They must have somebody's medevac that recently. Yeah. Like, I I would think that helicopter gets a lot of mileage to it.
Scott: But they anyway Fortunate. Keep on hitting this. It's annoying.
Jamie: See that. You keep hitting my accountant. Yeah. Yeah. But I I would think that that that I would yes.
I'm with you.
Scott: I would say, man.
Jamie: Gets pretty good use.
Scott: So, you know, he he made his way back. He's okay. He's gonna get on the ice tomorrow. He's gonna do like a
Jamie: Cool.
Scott: Like a half day camp for four days. Okay. But then oh, speaking of which, he's gonna be going to the to Moe's Smile
Jamie: Moe's Smile.
Scott: Which we got going on this week. So great. Yeah. For anyone that has heard us talking about Moe's Smile, it is a fundraising event for in honor of a former local high school or former local hockey player who passed away from a rare form of pediatric Cancer. Cancer.
And they have since started an event to raise money for cancer research with memorial memorial school in Kettering. And so Larry Robbins is hosting an event at his at his property, which is gonna be, like, they're going all out doing whatever
Jamie: they can
Scott: do to honor Moe's legacy and to raise money for a great cause. So for anyone that has heard us talking about it, please check out us on Instagram. Click the link in our bio. If you are up for it, we can appreciate any donation, large or small. They all help, and they all go to a great cause.
So, yeah, please check it out. And, yeah, Otto's gonna be there because they're gonna have a bunch of games based on birth year. I think they're doing four on four, if I'm not mistaken.
Jamie: That's what I yeah. I believe it is four on four.
Scott: So there's a full day of games. And at the end of the day, there's gonna be a pro game, which is gonna have, like, either current pros, which, you know, could be, you know, international pros. They
Jamie: could College be kids.
Scott: But they're not in the they're playing in the coast, or if they're playing in Yeah. The AHL, or even NHL. Yeah. So we'll see. It's gonna be Yeah.
Our first time, but it's gonna be a great event to participate in. And we're gonna meet probably a bunch of Crazy Hockey Barons.
Jamie: I think we're gonna meet a lot of Crazy Hockey
Scott: Oh, I think so too.
Jamie: We're gonna get to interview Moe's dad. Yeah. From what I understand. Yep. So that's gonna be awesome.
Yeah. I know that this is the third annual, right, they were telling us? Correct. Third annual. Most Smiles, which again, we're beyond thrilled to be able to help out and be associated with it.
I hope that we raise a ton of money. Like Scott said, please go to our Instagram and check out the donation. It all goes to Memorial Sloan Kettering, you know, which is one of the premier cancer centers. It's childhood cancer. No parent should ever have to to bury your child.
You know? So any any amount of money that that they can raise, you know, is fantastic to try to combat this stuff because, like I said, no parent should ever have to bury their child. You know? So we're looking forward to helping out and raising some money. Otto's playing right before Dominic, right?
On that? Yeah.
Scott: It must be.
Jamie: Yeah. Because he does with PBs. Right? Then Dominic's playing the Bantam game. No,
Scott: I'm we're
Jamie: most looking forward.
Scott: Yep. Well, we'll be there all day. That's for sure.
Jamie: We will Scott and I will be there. We'll be there the day before, help in setting up too. Yes. Yeah. So, again, we are thrilled that they asked us to to kind of, you know, come and help raise some money.
We're gonna give away a bunch of stuff that day. We have Hockey actually donating a lot of stuff, which kinda got off to an email exchange with them. They're they're gonna, you know, send us a bunch of stuff to give away during that during that event. I think there's gonna be a bunch of Mo giveaways. You know, there's a silent auction.
Scott: Yep. You know? And a lie a silent auction with
Jamie: a And a live auction.
Erik: There's gonna
Scott: be a live auction too. That would be awesome.
Jamie: Auctioneer, which is awesome, by the way. I I think Josh was sent Josh is the kinda like the the guy who's what would you call Josh?
Scott: He's like What say?
Jamie: His like his
Scott: His official title is? Yeah. I would say
Jamie: When it says he's like the
Scott: the director of operations.
Jamie: Right. He's like the chief of staff for that, at least I kind of feel. Yeah.
Scott: He's he's a jack of all
Jamie: trades.
Scott: He he definitely seems to run that place. Yes. He definitely For for whatever we need.
Jamie: Yes. No.
Scott: He's might be other people.
Jamie: Even wonderful for us, but, you know, but and and this is, like, all hands on deck, because this is gonna be some of that.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: You know, and it keeps getting bigger, which is fantastic. There's gonna be kids shooting for for a cure there. So like we said, we're we're thrilled to be a part of it. Couldn't be happier. We hope it makes a truckload of money for this.
Scott: Yeah. No. A 100%. So that that's coming up for us this week on Thursday. We're already there.
Last week. We did some recording on-site last week, and then we'll yeah. We're gonna report back on the event. We'll probably do some lives during the event. Definitely.
So if anyone's on their phone, take like, with CS:GO live. We're gonna have some live action from what's going on over at Longwood. Yeah. And, again, shout out to Larry Robbins and his staff and, you know, all the people that are, you know, coming together to make this day, you know, even possible. So
Jamie: We're not gonna tell it's some event. Yeah. I mean, we just kind of see, like, the behind the scenes stuff, and it hasn't even happened yet. But the more we're seeing, it's like a monster thing. Yeah.
Like, this is a production.
Scott: Oh, for sure. It's a full on production.
Jamie: Impressive. I I can't wait to show, like, videos and footage from this thing.
Scott: Yeah. It's gonna be really cool.
Jamie: It's I'll get you off the charts.
Scott: No doubt, man.
Jamie: You know? It is I'm curious. We're obviously gonna be there all day. Otto's coming, like, later on. Like, what's the plan?
And Nancy was asking me when she should dominate.
Scott: That's a good question. So there's it's definitely meant to be an all day thing.
Jamie: Right.
Scott: So I don't know. If I had this is what I haven't really thought about it so much. I would think be there in time for your game Right. And then hang out afterwards. I don't know what your your family schedule is.
Jamie: Right. My family schedule is whenever we're leaving Yeah. Whenever the day is Are you out?
Scott: So you're gonna be there for the wait. Yes. You'll be there for the day? You'll have two cars there? Do want me to pick you up?
We'll figure that out later.
Jamie: Maybe. Yes. Maybe Nats will drop me off early.
Scott: Yeah. House. And what am I doing?
Jamie: I don't kind of believe you over there because yeah. Because whenever we leave, right, whatever time that is, I guess after the program. Right? Really?
Scott: Yeah. Well, we have to finish, we have to break down. Right. We have to do any type of recording. So, well, we'll see.
You might not leave until, like, you know, one in the morning.
Jamie: Listen. I'm and I'm driving out to Penn State.
Scott: Yeah. That would be easy. So, yes. So, get out to Nancy can drive, and you can sleep.
Jamie: You're right. Yeah. Yeah. That's not a thing,
Scott: buddy. That's not a thing? No. Nancy doesn't drive and used
Jamie: to No. She does, but there's no way I'm gonna sleep in the passenger seat. She's trying It's to throw funny. I always felt bad falling asleep on my spouse when she's driving.
Scott: You know, I I
Jamie: Like, I can't
Scott: do that.
Jamie: I don't wanna be that dude.
Scott: I think that's such a dick move. Why? I just think it is. What if you're tired and you wanna go to sleep?
Jamie: It's I think it's so, like,
Scott: I'm Why is it a dick move? I think it's
Erik: a dick.
Scott: What if you ask for permission and your spouse is like, yeah. Go for it. Get some sleep. I know you work hard. I know you're tired.
This is a perfect opportunity to catch up on some rest.
Jamie: I I suppose. I was never like the fall asleep guy in the passenger seat. Are you the fall asleep guy? You mean the dick?
Scott: Yeah. Totally. Guy you are? I'll go to sleep in the
Jamie: passenger seat. Hell yeah. Really?
Scott: Yeah. Why not? Why?
Jamie: It's a perfect time to take a nap. Is like, yeah. You're good. Gotta go catch some z's?
Scott: Yeah. I mean, like, sometimes like, so we will say, like, you know, if she wants if she's falling asleep, like, driving and she wants company, like, I'll stay home. You know, if she's tired, but if she doesn't care, then
Jamie: Do you guys log a lot of road miles?
Scott: We do. Not as probably not as much as you guys do. No? I don't think so.
Jamie: Yeah. I don't fall asleep. I don't I don't I don't for no reason. I just never wanted because I don't like
Scott: people who Oh, because you must not be such a dick. You must be
Jamie: I don't like when people go to me, so I don't do I don't admiss us that. That. Maybe I don't like people fall asleep by me so much.
Scott: Why do you care?
Jamie: I don't know. I
Scott: Then it's like you're driving by yourself.
Jamie: Yeah. And you Single that? I of course, I can. I've done it a ton of times,
Scott: but I'm
Jamie: like, I I yeah. I'm not the false thinker.
Scott: No. You're not. No. No.
Jamie: See that. Never was.
Scott: No. No. No. No. Not this guy.
Not
Jamie: this guy.
Scott: Not you.
Jamie: Not this guy. Nope. Definitely not me. For what are my reasons?
Scott: Because you're not a dick. You've already established that.
Jamie: And you are? Is that what we established?
Scott: According to you. According to your metrics, I am.
Jamie: So I don't know. Anyhoo.
Scott: Oh, anyhoo.
Jamie: But, yeah, we're gonna have a lot of fun at this event. Yeah. And then we're gonna drive out of Penn State, and
Scott: I'm gonna hope to not fall asleep and pass it. No. You won't because you're not a dick. Listen.
Jamie: It's gonna be a long day, though.
Scott: It will be a long day. Whatever. It won't be your last long day either.
Jamie: No. That's for sure. So but and then we kinda then they were not back to our house for quite some time.
Scott: Oh, man. Must be rough living out of those suitcases in fancy hotels.
Jamie: It's pretty long long long long long long long is
Scott: like I I don't know why you what your phone is like does this often. It's just banners.
Jamie: It's just the the alerts. Oh. Yeah. So I see.
Scott: Oh, got it. So you don't think it has to do with us talking about it? There was just like
Erik: I don't.
Jamie: Gotcha. That was that was just coincidence.
Scott: Alright. So what do you got going on hockey wise? What do
Jamie: I got going on hockey wise? We've been we've been shooting a bunch. Dom makes boxing, obviously, so we're
Scott: When you say we, you mean him.
Jamie: Yeah. And it's not me. When I say we, it's not me.
Scott: Yeah. Got you.
Jamie: No. When I just say we, I don't know why I say we. It's all done. Yeah. Yeah.
I just drive him.
Scott: Yes.
Jamie: You know? So he's been doing a lot of shooting Mhmm. With our buddy Ryan Murphy.
Scott: Good. That's a lot.
Jamie: Well, not and we we had another we he was I think they had Devils again. They had Devils Development Camp, so we were off for a week. So we missed him for a week, and then we started it again. So we were there today. We were down with Ryan Murphy today.
And I actually wanna talk about this too because because I think we all, especially when our kids are younger, we me. I'm sure there's lot to do with me. I always want Dominic to shoot hockey pucks in the drive. Right? Like, you do take you want him shoot hockey pucks.
Yep. So I was always in the volume is better category.
Scott: Quality over quantity.
Jamie: Correct. You know? I was always in that quantity over
Scott: Right. Right.
Jamie: Right. I always wanted to just go and then figure out what works and what doesn't. Yeah. Right? And it's funny too because now, as I'm getting older and I'm seeing and Dominic's getting older, I'm gravitating more toward the quality or the quantity and doing it right versus
Scott: Yeah. But that changes at some point. At some point, you need less volume and you need the quality. And I guess you just need to get used to using the fuck the stick.
Jamie: And I guess we're there.
Scott: Yeah. You're at a point where it's not about shooting as many pucks as humanly possible. It's about getting quality reps.
Jamie: Correct. And and listen. It also helps when when you have a coach that knows what they're doing. Right? We're lucky enough to have usually the devil skills coach Ryan Murphy, who we had on the podcast.
He was wonderful. So I watched him now. I've I've seen him now twice.
Scott: Okay.
Jamie: Alright. And and listening to him when he talks to Dominic. Yeah. Like and I asked Dominic. I'm like, Dominic, I'm like, me ask you a question.
I'm like, is it different listening to him than, like, other coaches that you hear? I'm like, because he's like a an NHL skills coach. Right? And he says, There's certain certain different things that that he teaches that don't get taught.
Scott: Okay.
Jamie: Okay.
Scott: Do want to reveal what those are?
Jamie: He didn't tell me what they were, but he's like, there's things that he that he he's If you would ask him. I will. I I will. Next time, I'm a come back, and I'll give you some kind of details. Yeah.
Well, that's pretty cool, though. You know? So so he's now alright. So so he obviously changed Dominic's stick, was telling you, on the last potter two pounds ago. Dominic was using a 30 flex
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: And he was airmailing the crossbar.
Scott: So he's at a 40 now?
Jamie: So he was at a 40. We tried a 50. So he brought the 50 to
Scott: the Oh, did it cut it down?
Jamie: So it's fun. Alright. So
Scott: He's like, man, return it.
Jamie: He has a 40 sorry. He has a forty fifty two inch. Does that sound right? Cut down to a 51. Okay?
So it's probably a 45, 43
Scott: I think it's like five per inch.
Jamie: Correct. Right? So and then we have a 50 not cut, which is a 54 inch. Okay? So so he shot with the 50 in the driveway.
He's like, it's too stiff. Right? And the 30 is too whippy. So he was shooting pucks yesterday with the 40. Mhmm.
And this guy is like, it feels weird. And I'm watching him, like, drill pucks into the top corner. And I look at him and go, hey, Bobby. I understand it feels weird. I go, but it looks pretty good to me.
Right. Right? So today, Nathan and I dropped him off at where I'm and we went to in in town, Ken came back with, like, ten minutes left. And Ryan comes out. He's like, that's the stick.
Scott: Oh, yeah?
Jamie: Yeah. He's like, that's the stick. Apparently, he was doing very well with it. But my I guess my point is is that when you know the correct mechanics to shoot I wanna say it's easy. It's not easy.
But when you know the correct mechanics to shoot, the stick should do most of the work. Right?
Scott: That's what I'm told because I don't shoot correctly.
Jamie: Neither do I. I am prepared about that. I am even playing the game. Right? So you're well ahead of me.
But but I I so I'm I guess I guess the more the stories. So as as Dominic's getting older and I'm watching, you know, gear and stuff like that and and getting with, like, higher higher level coaches, I'm gravitating more toward the quality over the quantity.
Scott: Yeah. That makes sense. Right? Of course.
Jamie: I'd rather them shoot, like, like, 50 really good pucks with good with good mechanics.
Scott: Construction.
Jamie: Then, like, 500 Yeah. Kinda, like, throwing them to the
Scott: Yeah. But don't you think at some point, like, the once he has, like, the mechanics, at least at this point, dialed
Jamie: in Then you dialed
Scott: in then then you can get more quantity.
Jamie: Then no question about it. Yes. I I guess it I guess you're right. I guess it's gonna ebb and flow.
Scott: Right? It's gonna ebb and flow as you're like but once you have your shot dialed in, you should shoot more just to get more reps.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Sure.
Scott: To a point. To a to a point.
Jamie: I'm curious where fatigue factors into that.
Scott: Mine's after four shots.
Jamie: Four
Scott: shots, my arms are
Jamie: It doesn't hurt?
Scott: Yeah? Yeah. Because I don't do it right. No. It doesn't hurt.
I'm joking.
Erik: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott: Yeah. But it's just like I was talking to someone on the bench because I took pickup yesterday morning. Yeah. Saw a Pacific Rank bag in the locker room. Did you?
Nice.
Erik: Pretty sweet. Right?
Scott: It's pretty sweet. Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. Speaking of Pacific Rank What about We're interviewing Brad Tommer.
Scott: Oh, I know. That's
Jamie: talking. One one of the two founders of Pacific Rank tomorrow. Yep.
Scott: That's gonna be great. Looking forward to that. For sure.
Jamie: Brad's gonna be on the podcast shortly, so be be looking out for Brad Serkin from Pacific Rink.
Scott: Yes. But pickup, talking to a guy on the bench. Yeah. And we were just there was a there's a guy that plays pickup that played in the the ECHL. Mhmm.
And guy's lights out. Right? Like
Jamie: Yeah. I'm sure.
Scott: And and he's like he's like head and shoulders better than the next best player on the ice.
Jamie: I'm sure.
Scott: But just when when we're I was watching him, and I was just talking to another guy, it's, like, amazing how, like, effortless it just makes, like, all this look. And then I was, like, saying how, like, on my men's league team, there's a a guy a kid that played a club for Quinnipiac.
Jamie: Okay.
Scott: And Club for Quinnipiac. Club for Quinnipiac. Right. Played club. And So
Jamie: not even D1, but he
Scott: played This guy is also like
Jamie: He's nasty.
Scott: Right? He's he's definitely nasty. Yeah. But just the way that he shoots the puck, like, the I can't believe how Just looks different,
Jamie: doesn't it?
Scott: It looks different, number one. And then number two, just like it it's it is going so fast, the puck is, and it just seems with such little effort. And I was just telling this guy on the bench, was like, you know, like me also. And I'm just like, dude, isn't it like so frustrating when you go out there and like if you try to like either emulate or
Jamie: like Yeah. It's not working.
Scott: It doesn't it's yeah, man. Makes me wanna practice my shot.
Jamie: I get it. It's funny. It's funny to say that because when Ryan was texting later on this afternoon, he got done, I was asking how Dominic did. And he says, you know, it's supposed to look effortless but with power. He's like, that's how you know it's what he's doing is working.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: And he said that's what he was gravitating toward, which is great. So I'm curious to see what that's gonna look.
Scott: Maybe I should sign for a session with Mars.
Jamie: He's great. I gotta tell you, anyone who's listening to Lawson, we're talking about, like, how hard they shoot. Yeah. So I didn't tell you this, but I'm gonna tell you now.
Scott: How how hard who shoots?
Jamie: I'm gonna tell you.
Scott: The NHLers.
Jamie: I'm gonna tell you right
Scott: now.
Jamie: Yeah. So we get done with we get done with Dom's lesson today.
Scott: Mhmm.
Jamie: The guy and Murph, like, I gotta go. Okay. Cool.
Scott: K.
Jamie: So we got it. So it so where it is it's the shooting Lane's upstairs Mhmm. And the rig is down. Right? So we come down, and we noticed there's like older people on rink.
Oh, older professionals? On rink, and there's some older big people on rink.
Scott: What do you mean big people? Like giants?
Erik: What are
Scott: you are you talking
Jamie: They're not kids.
Scott: So you were you were you you're looking at the ice and you noticed there's grown men
Jamie: on the Murph jumped on the ice with three dudes. Yeah. A very big goalie.
Scott: Yep.
Jamie: Another kid who was like Murph size. Yeah. You know? The kids these are like, you know, these are men.
Scott: Yeah. Mean, men. Yeah. Got it.
Jamie: And another really, really tall dude wearing a Florida Panthers red practice jersey.
Scott: Oh, Ka'Chuck was on the ice. Brady Ka'Chuck was on the ice. Correct. Working with Murphy?
Jamie: Yes.
Scott: Really?
Jamie: I swear. That's crazy. Stayed and watched.
Scott: Do you take video?
Jamie: I didn't watch him.
Scott: Why?
Jamie: Because I felt like a jackass.
Scott: You are a jackass.
Jamie: I felt like a jackass. I didn't want I didn't wanna be that dude.
Scott: Well, you are that well, I mean, should have been.
Jamie: I I I will ask him if I wanna Shit. Why do you keep hitting my camera? Shit. Oh, shit. You're effing up our entire production here.
Scott: Oh, I know.
Jamie: Oh, shit. Oh, shit. But, yeah, man. So we're talking about, like, it just looks different when people that know I should shoot. So first of all, the amount of saucers that they were throwing all over the ice was was.
Scott: Ew, sauce. Ew, sauce. Ew, sauce.
Jamie: Like, the saucers were everywhere. Yeah. And, like, it didn't matter the distance. Yeah. Like, it was short.
Scott: To take.
Jamie: And it it was like, whether it was short and, like, short and, like, touchy. Right? Or it was, like, long. You know? Like, it didn't matter.
It didn't matter the distance. They were just throwing the forehand back in. It didn't matter.
Scott: Didn't matter.
Jamie: And number one, puck moves just so fast.
Scott: Mhmm.
Jamie: And, dude, when Brady shoots. I mean, it just it looks so
Scott: That's crazy that he was at the rink. Who else so who else was on the ice with him? Wait. You didn't even get an autograph or a picture?
Jamie: I didn't. Why? I didn't
Scott: You just stay until the end?
Jamie: I didn't stay until the end. Yeah. We left we probably left with with we probably left when they were, like, had five minutes left was my guess.
Scott: Got it.
Jamie: You know? My guess is they were doing an hour.
Scott: Dude, you could have gone up to them be like, bro. You could have been like, yo yo, wingman, crazy hockey dad.
Jamie: Let's go. Don't think I didn't think
Erik: about that.
Scott: Well, you think that you've
Jamie: been thought about it. Don't think I didn't think about it. But I gotta tell you. So just like I'm not this fall asleep in the passenger seat guy, I'm also not the, hey. Go up to dudes and get that autograph guy.
Okay. If I if I see a famous person, I don't go up to them like, bro, can
Erik: I go order for a
Scott: human Well, doesn't it depend who the famous person is, maybe?
Jamie: Not really.
Scott: Listen. I I so I personally
Jamie: I'm just not that guilty. You know what I mean?
Scott: Listen. You but you would you wouldn't be that guy for someone who, like, has always been, like, a fan of.
Jamie: Do you know who I would do that for? The president of The United States. No matter who it is. I would I would do that. I would go up and shake that gentleman.
Okay. But, like, celebrity, like like, I've I've went into people in my life. I and I I I don't like, I'm not I'm just not that dude. Okay. You know what mean?
Yeah. Dominic hunts him down. Yeah. Like, Dominic hunted down Trevor Zebras when we were in Canada. Right?
Like, I'm just not that guy.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: You know? Are you that guy?
Scott: Not necessarily. I would I would consider saying hello under certain circumstances.
Jamie: I mean, if somebody introduced me, that's the story. No. But I would I mean,
Scott: I would walk up to someone and say hi. I've I've done it before. Oh, we what do mean? We did it when we were at the Oh, yes.
Jamie: You did. You went up to Mike That's right. You did. Yeah. Yeah.
It's funny. We walked right behind it. I didn't even recognize him.
Scott: Oh, I him. I recognize him.
Jamie: Yeah. Didn't even turn around and walk by and be
Scott: like, yeah.
Jamie: That fucking was Mike right there.
Scott: Let's go back.
Jamie: That's right. You are that guy.
Scott: Well, I mean, listen. In the and but listen. If I was there, like, just with Otto, maybe I would have gone back. I I think it depends. We were there for, you know, crazy hockey dads.
You don't know where that conversation might go. Like, you know, it's like That's more like that kind of stuff. Yeah. Like, if I was walking down the street and Mike Richter walked past me, no I mean, like, maybe.
Jamie: But Yeah. I I don't
Scott: it's not like I don't I don't seek
Jamie: it out. You know what I mean? The most I've ever really done is I walked by Woody Johnson in Manhattan.
Scott: Oh, yeah. And I and then Told him to sell the team.
Jamie: No. I should have. You're not actually
Scott: What would he do?
Jamie: So I think if I remember correctly, when I when it happened, the Jets were actually decent. It was under Rex Ryan.
Scott: Okay.
Jamie: So it was years ago.
Scott: Okay.
Jamie: So I I didn't tell him to sell
Scott: You didn't have your daggers up then.
Jamie: I did not. You're a 100%. The the the fangs were not out yet. They are now, but they weren't out of time. And now I just want Gary Vee to buy them.
And he it's funny. Was was walking down, like, I'm trying to walking down, like, 55th or something like that. A street. Yeah. I think it 50 Midtown.
Right? And and he's wearing he's wearing his Jets hat. I recognize him immediately. And I thought I I think I said, like, go Jets and I'm like that.
Scott: Oh, yeah?
Jamie: But I'm not like a you know what? I would rather tell Dominic. If Dominic walks like somebody he knows, I'm like, you know what? Why you go over to Sam? Yeah.
So I you know, like let him know Sam.
Scott: I've you know, so it's funny when you mentioned Dominic. I'm definitely not with celebrities, but for things that I might not have asked, like, another human being for, like, I don't know. Again, this is so, like, off topic or but, you know, I don't know. Like, as opposed to searching for the bathroom, like, go ask for the bathroom or whatever the deal is. Right.
I always encourage my kids to go up to people and, like Say. What what do they ask me for something? I don't know. Go ask the person that works here. I don't know where it is.
Jamie: Absolutely.
Scott: And then they'll be like, oh, but I'm scared. I'm like
Jamie: That's why you should do it.
Scott: I'm like, exactly.
Jamie: That's exactly why
Scott: you So then I oversell
Jamie: figure it out.
Scott: So now my kids are, like, really good at, like
Jamie: At at doing for
Scott: the show. Whatever it is. Yeah.
Erik: That's
Scott: good. I'm like, yo, Otto, listen. Go get the check and ask the lady, you know, whatever. And, like, yeah. No problem.
Jamie: They can't go and have them pay for it too.
Scott: Yes. Okay. Say say
Jamie: Like you?
Scott: Say Sea Bass. Sea Bass.
Jamie: It sounds Sea Bass and the boy.
Scott: Yeah. The boys.
Jamie: The boys. Right. No. But yeah. So so so we're talking about shooting, this motherfucker should tell him.
Scott: Yeah. Who oh, Brady Kochuck does. Is he known to have a cannon? I mean, all the guys on the base must have who's the goalie?
Jamie: So the goalie was a kid that apparently was just signed by the Panthers, local kid from, like, Long Island.
Scott: Why are we why why are Devil's Skills coaches, like
Jamie: because he's the man,
Scott: dude. Teaching the the Florida Panthers.
Jamie: Well, they're all off season. Yeah. And they're from this area. Yeah. And the other dude was the other guy that was there
Scott: So it wasn't a Devils specific pick. It was just like a pro skate.
Jamie: Yeah. There goes a Bruins draft pick.
Scott: Oh, okay. Got you. Got you. I thought it was like a Devils
Jamie: No. No. No. Sorry. There goes a it was a Bruins draft pick who's playing for the Providence Bruins
Scott: right now. Okay. Got it.
Jamie: Yeah. So, like, two two AHL guys for the most part and obviously, Higgins? No. No. No.
Local kid from Del Barn.
Scott: Oh, yeah?
Jamie: He played at he played at Harvard. Oh my god. His name's escaping me. John. Oh my god.
It's escaping me. I remember this right now.
Scott: Is Higgins from Long Island?
Jamie: He is.
Scott: Yeah. Higgins is.
Jamie: Yeah. Higgins from
Scott: Long Island. Yeah. That's what I thought. I think so. Yeah.
That's I thought maybe it was.
Jamie: Oh my god. It's blank on the kid's name.
Scott: Good job, buddy.
Jamie: I wanna say Fibonacci. It's not Fibonacci, but it's something along those lines. Fuck. Hardwood kid Del Barden for high school, Harvard, and then now he's on the Providence program. I think he played a game.
I think he got called up for a game for the Duels, and he's still in a minor league system. Harvard kid, local kid. He's a he's a I think he's from down
Scott: I know.
Jamie: Just look it up. John.
Scott: John Ferronacci.
Jamie: Ferronacci. Thank you.
Scott: John Ferronacci. Right. He's in o one. Right. Yep.
Erik: It looked good.
Scott: Yeah. He made his he graduated in '23 from Harvard. He made his NHL debut at the Bruins in 2025, native of Wright Bank. So right there
Jamie: He's a local kid.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: They're I yeah. I think I think two of them were local kids. Obviously, Brady's not so local, but but but Brady's I think pretty sure Brady's family lives around here. I think his wife is from
Scott: Right. You had mentioned that. Yeah. I think
Jamie: that's You know? So yeah. So he's working out, you know, down there with Ryan, which is pretty awesome. Right. Sounds pretty sweet to kind of stumble upon.
Scott: That is that's so that's wild. I would never yeah. That's that's crazy.
Jamie: And you you can't miss No. Physically opposing. When he gets on the ice, he's big boy.
Scott: Yeah. He's like a a whole head taller than his brother.
Jamie: He's he's I wanna say he's like six four, six five.
Scott: He's big dude. Big. Yeah. He's a big dude.
Jamie: When we were talking about, you know, like, when it looks different when they're shooting. Yeah. It looks tipped on when they're shooting.
Scott: Yeah. Well
Jamie: Yeah. They were doing this sick drill where I mean, they they tip the puck so effortlessly effortlessly.
Scott: Oh my god. Dude. So effortless. But dude, that's like okay.
Jamie: It looks so good.
Scott: I know you were talking we're talking about NHL, but like at my men's league game or whatever, my pickup game. Yeah. This dude that played in the the coast, that was another thing that was just like, he makes look effortless. So like, he'll he'll be defending and like some someone sending like a pass, like, you know, a sauce pass like somewhere. Yes.
Like
Jamie: Takes it out of the air.
Scott: He just takes it out of the air. Dude. And like, he's done it enough where it's like
Erik: Well,
Jamie: it's not it's not
Scott: It's not an act. Like, it's not even a little bit. You know what I mean? And it's like
Jamie: It it it wasn't a one off.
Scott: He doesn't do it every time, but he did it to me. He did it to someone else, and it's just Yeah. Like
Erik: Bro.
Jamie: Dude, I'm telling you. They they were they were throwing saucers, basically shooting saucers at each other, like, standing in front of net, and they were tipping everything. Were they were tipping the free. They were tipping it, then taking it out of that net, and then, like, firing on the goalie who was right beyond the net. So they put a net close to the goalie in front.
Scott: Oh. So it was a tip. Tip. And then they would retrieve that puck.
Jamie: And go around either side, like, left or right, and then shoot them.
Scott: That you know what another thing is also, like, just a joy to watch sometimes is, like and same thing with this guy, is just when they're so filthy on their back end. Like, just watching people pick corners on their back end, you're like, dude, how do you do that? Right. So
Jamie: so Brady had one so funny that just had that. So it was a little bit of And Brady kinda comes down on the left side, but I don't I don't even know how he got it up into the top right corner. I don't even know. Right. It was it almost looked like it was a backhand with one hand.
Right. It was like I don't even know the puck got to where where where it went. I don't I I looked at Dominic and Nancy. I'm like, how?
Scott: How did that happen?
Jamie: Dominic's like, that was that one hand. I'm like, I I don't even know what I just saw.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: The puck just ended up in the top corner. Like and I and I I didn't realize how it got there. And I and still, as I'm thinking about it, I still don't understand how it got there.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: Because of his body placement and where the puck was and where his stick was. I don't understand how it got through I was.
Scott: Dude, that's why they get paid the big bucks.
Jamie: It was crazy. Damn. Yeah. So that's we kinda stumbled upon that.
Scott: That's so cool.
Jamie: What a treat. Right? Yeah. I I was gonna I was gonna I was gonna call you over there, but I'm like, you know what? I'm like, let me see.
Scott: Can you FaceTime me, dickhead?
Jamie: Well, I I wanted to save it for this. So you had, like, a, you know, a
Scott: So I can use my memory or my imagination
Jamie: to No. So I can
Scott: imagine how hard those shots were when I could have in fact watched them with you. Jesus Christ.
Jamie: So speaking of NHL
Scott: Speaking of NHLers.
Jamie: Who do we have today?
Scott: Eric Cole. Eric
Jamie: Dogg. Fifteen year NHL bet.
Scott: Yes. Played over 800 games. One Stanley Cup. That's what's up. Caroline Hurricanes.
Hurricanes. Right? Yeah, man. So we this was a great great introduction. Great to talk to him just to hear more about, you know, what what life is like at like the higher levels and kind of like what he went through and also being a hockey dad.
And you know, we covered a lot of topics.
Jamie: We did. Yes. The man can talk.
Scott: Oh, yes. Like Yeah. No. But look, I, you know, just I was listening to the whole thing just like Eric,
Jamie: like, chill.
Scott: No. No. A 100%.
Jamie: Yeah. He was a fun man.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: No. I feel like we need to have a part two with him.
Scott: Well, we certainly could do a part two with him for sure.
Jamie: I thought there was so much more we didn't get into.
Scott: No. I would I would agree with that. Yeah. I know. Especially, like, some of the dad stuff and Yeah.
Like, when he was coaching as well. And Exactly. You know?
Jamie: And he's coaching again now.
Scott: He's coaching again now. Yes. But now he's, like
Jamie: Like, older kids.
Scott: Older. Right. But what was I gonna say was oh, we were talking about, like, he could talk, and it's funny because he was sitting outside on his porch.
Jamie: Chop it up.
Scott: But no. But when he was sitting on it, like so it was at the time of day. It was,
Jamie: the end of the I knew you were gonna say this.
Scott: You just saw the, like, all of a sudden
Jamie: The light disappearing. Through it.
Scott: That's like Like, you see him clearly, and then all of a sudden,
Jamie: Yeah. He's like sitting in Yes. He was on his porch, the light was disappearing. Know what's funny about that? Because because he's in the same time zone we are.
And I was looking at his screen, and I saw his screen is when we first started, his screen was pretty light. Yeah. And then I looked outside my window, and my mine was not.
Scott: Was I was light.
Jamie: Was lighter where he was for whatever reason.
Scott: It might be
Jamie: Maybe there's more trees around me. East?
Scott: And it could be yeah.
Jamie: Maybe. But his background stayed lighter much longer than mine did.
Scott: Well, you're getting cheated out of natural sunlight somehow. Clearly. That's messed up. Yeah. You better have a conversation with someone.
Jamie: Someone. But Eric was he was he was a lot of fun, man.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie: He was he was a really, really good interview.
Scott: Yeah. So what do you think? You wanna send it over to him?
Jamie: Yeah. I to do, buddy.
Scott: Let's do it, everyone. Enjoy this episode, this interview Interview. With Eric Cole, former Stanley Cup champion, Carolina Hurricanes.
Jamie: Let's go. Let's go.
Scott: Alright, everybody. Welcome to another interview here on Crazy Hockey Dads, and today's guest is someone who played nearly 900 games in the NHL, won a Stanley Cup with Carolina, represented team USA, and, like, has just built an amazing career over multiple years. I think it was maybe seventeen years. Correct me if I'm wrong, Eric. But we got Eric Call on the line tonight to talk about his journey, you know, from youth to NCAA to the NHL, winning the cup, and everything that comes in between.
Eric, thanks so much for joining us tonight, man.
Erik: Yeah. Happy to be here. Fifteen years total pro.
Scott: Fifteen. Okay.
Erik: Thir thirteen in the league just, due to, well, the one year with the lockout, and I spent one year in the minors. But Right. Very, very fortunate to have the career that I had.
Scott: Yeah. It's it's unreal just going through, like, your hockey DB, your elite prospects whatever it is. But for, for any of the listeners, if you could just like, if you can kinda, like, set the table and just kind of, like, high level stuff, like, in terms of your, like, your years in the NHL, kind of, like, the teams you played for, the highs, the lows, and then we definitely wanna rewind the tape and talk about, like, just, like, youth hockey for you growing up and, like, your kids as well.
Erik: Yeah. I mean, like, obviously, so at the at the higher levels, I was drafted by, the Carolina Hurricanes in the third round in 1998. The franchise had just moved here in '97, so it was, you know, new franchise, new market, but I had a leg up. My sister moved to the Raleigh area in, like, 9495. So I knew all about it.
Yeah. Like, honestly, it's it's why they drafted me. Really? The draft was yeah. The draft was in I honestly think it was.
Like, the draft is in Buffalo, and I had a nothing I was, like, waiting for another interview. I was standing around the hotel waiting, and my agent was like, hey. Carolina wants to have a quick word with you. Like, you know, you mind taking this quick interview? And I said, yeah.
And they're like, oh, we got this great new market, and it's Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm like, yeah. I know all about it, guys. It's like, I bet, you know, I've been to Rock Cola. I've you know, whatever.
They're like, wait. What? I'm like, my sister moved there a couple years ago.
Scott: Like Yeah.
Erik: I got I got this. But I was, yeah, I was drafted by Carolina. Fortunately, it was, you know, obviously, you know, it all worked out. I'm I'm still here in the Carolinas. But I was drafted by them.
Came in to I I left Clarkson after my third season and, decided it it was time to to move on from from Clarkson. I didn't I didn't feel like there was anything left there for me. One, to prove, and two, I didn't feel like my development was was gonna increase at all, like, there. Like, I knew it was Right. If I if I if I stayed, it would have been a nightmare.
An absolute nightmare. I mean, my junior year was a bit of a nightmare, to be honest with you. Like, between, like, the coach and everything, like, it was not, not an ideal situation for for any athlete, like, whether you're drafted or not drafted. And it it was just time to move on. So I did.
I went out, and I played, like, the last nine games of the regular season so that way my contract didn't kick in. Like, if I played 10 or more, my contract would've kicked in on that on that year. Yep. So they bought themselves an extra year with me on my entry level. Right.
So I played the last last nine games of the regular season, played a bit in the playoffs here and there, not a regular in the lineup. You know, still feeling my way through, through the minors and through professional hockey. But, you know, the the fun fact about it was I played in the IHL, which obviously no longer exists. So was I was I was a part of the IHL for the the last little bit of its second to last season in existence
Jamie: Mhmm.
Erik: Before before the, you know, the league got turned upside down. Obviously, the NHL wanted just one farm system and Right. They wanted to have it all just kind of, you know, like, streamlined. Room for something. Stream yeah.
Streamlined and and be able to be able to to, you know, just navigate it that way, which, you know, you don't fault them for that at all. Right. But so, it was a great experience. I I ended up spending one year in the minors. I came into my first pro training cram just, you know, like, scared to death.
You know, didn't wanna make a mistake. Was just trying to just be very efficient in everything and just not not stick out in a negative way. I forgot the fact that you need to stick out in a positive way at some point. So I learned my lesson there. Right.
Spent a full year in the minors. We only had one call up the entire season Uh-huh. From the Cyclones. His name was Greg Keeler. It's actually a really great article on The Athletic about it.
He played one shift. He jumped over the boards, skated up and down the ice for, like, thirty seconds, whistle blows, a penalty got called. He never saw another shift.
Jamie: Wow.
Erik: The rest not only the rest of that game
Scott: I never
Jamie: saw earlier. Wow.
Erik: In the NHL. Yep. Like, he he he he still, like, carved out, like, some really good numbers and really good seasons in the minors. Yeah. But that was his, you know, like, that was his chance.
Right?
Scott: Like, which is
Erik: Which is ridiculous. And Kiehl's was great for us that year. He, I mean, he he was he scored north of 30 goals. I think he scored 35, like, that year. He was tough.
He was fighting guys, like, you know, he just, like, he he had such a great season. Yeah. It was just it was weird how it all how it all panned out. And, obviously, you know, I was a drafted player that they had invested in me, and I don't know if that was the case as to why, like, I got the opportunity the next season. But, you know, I went back to training camp very, very determined that, you know, I wasn't leaving Raleigh this year and was able to somehow find a way to convince them to let me stay.
It was a long long road. It was a lot of lot of late nights. You know, I was married with a kid and, you know, I'm doing bottle feeding at 2AM.
Jamie: Not easy. Yeah. Not easy.
Erik: In a in a hotel room and yeah. It was just but but I had a I had a a reason a reason to be there, and I I had other people that were depending on me. And, yeah, I was very, very determined in my in my second training camp, and it it it worked out. They they allowed me stay, and, you know, we we went on a great run that year. And I, you know, I got my foot in the door, and then it was just, you know, like, you know, the next probably three three years or so was just trying to figure out, you know, where I fit in and what kind of player I was I was gonna be or what kind of player I was even capable of being.
So I basically spent the first decade of the February in the Hurricanes organization. I had a brief run up to Edmonton where I got traded in 2008, to the Oilers right on July 1, I think, as soon as the clock struck.
Scott: Oh, yeah.
Erik: New new trade deadline? And yeah. No. It was, like, for for free agency.
Jamie: Oh, oh, I gotcha. Yeah.
Erik: Once the once the salary cap jumped
Jamie: Oh, I see.
Erik: They could fit it, and and the trade was, like, it was ready to go first ticker on there, I think. Oh, wow. So traded to Edmonton, for that eight, nine season, but I got traded back to Carolina that same season after 63 games. And
Jamie: that's wild ride right there.
Erik: It was it was really weird. Yeah. Like, it was it was I mean, it was really strange because, you know, I woke up that morning. We were in Ottawa. We were on a road trip.
There was a lot of noise around the Phoenix Coyotes at one point. There was just, you know, so so many different rumors as to where I was going, but it was made pretty clear to me that I probably wasn't not getting moved on the deadline that day. And, you know, we we sat there and we watched all the coverage. We I mean, we were in Ottawa. I mean, course, I had a camera on me the entire, you know, practice that we ran in Ottawa that morning.
And Right. I prob I'm you know, it probably should have been a day off for me, but, you know, we had played in Nashville the night before. I felt like I needed to get out there and stretch the legs.
Scott: And Yeah.
Erik: And, yeah, it was it was just weird. Sheldon Souray told me that morning on the bus, he's like, hey, my my guy says it's you and Bobby you and Bobby Nielsen are headed to LA for O'Sullivan and Froloff, the, you know, big winger Russian And by the end of day, you know, the deadline passes and me and, you me and the the younger crew, in Edmonton, Bobby Nielsen, Sam Gagne, Tom Gilbert, Andrew Cogliano. Like, you know, we we we headed out to go grab, like, a late lunch, and then we were gonna hit a movie and grab dinner and and head back to the hotel. Next thing you know, my buddy Murray Koonce, who's an agent out of Toronto now, he and I played together at Clarkson. He calls me and he's like, oh, hey.
Back to Carolina. Hey. And I was like What? What? What are you talking about?
You know, we're sitting at lunch. And and he's like, oh, you didn't know. And I was like, no. I didn't know. That's crazy.
So so yeah. So that's that's how that whole thing went down. Like, I I never knew, like, the pieces of the puzzle or anything like that until the next day. It was, you know, it was kinda bittersweet coming back to Raleigh and finding out that Justin Williams who, you know, was one of my really good friends, you know, while I played on the Hurricanes and, you know, he and I were in the 18th Fairway playing around the golf when I got announced that when I got announced that I was going to Edmonton. So it's just like
Jamie: Oh my god.
Erik: Yeah. So it's you know, you come back to town and then you realize you you find out, like, who went the other way and you're just like, crap. Yeah. Worst trade ever, like, for sure. I mean, the guy went on to win two more cups and his the con smite.
So, like Oh, god. Yep. Who's laughing now? Right? But, no, he just, yeah.
It's just it's just weird how those things happen, but I I ended up I was a free agent at the end of that season, and we looked at other opportunities. There were a lot of other opportunities, with with some organizations that had kinda coveted me for for a couple years or, you know, just kind of you hear things from from friends in the business and from your agent, you know, himself, you know, just filling in on on things. And Steve Bartlett was always my agent, still is to this day. Yeah. You know, life lifelong Yeah.
Bond bond there. He's he's always been great for me and my family and and looking out for me. But, you know, when when it boiled down to it, if I were to have left Raleigh that off season, it would've made for, like, I think, like, a move to any city no matter what it would've been would've been five different school systems for, like, my daughter in Yeah. You know, like It's a lot. Year and a half, like, calendar, like, year.
And, yeah, it just didn't seem worth it. You know, this is where I wanted to be, and, you know, I I always loved my time here. Obviously, like I said, you know, I had ties here to the area with my sister and everything. And Right. You know, it just it it was a great place to to play, great place to raise your family, and so we made the decision to stay.
And then two years later, you know, we missed out on the playoffs. I came back for the o nine run where we lost to Pittsburgh. They went on to win it. The next year, we went veteran heavy. Didn't work out.
And then the year after that, they decided to go younger, and we missed out. Also, we had to do is win a win a hockey game on the last day of the regular season or have the rangers lose.
Jamie: To make the playoffs. Yeah.
Erik: And neither one of neither one of those things happened. Sucks. Yeah. Unfortunately. And we we went into that off season, you know, open minded about everything, But the the the initial phone call from Jim Rutherford to to Steve Bartlett did not go over very well with Steve.
And, he relayed it to me, which, you know, I always appreciated him being, you know, very candid with me. And and then seeing, like, some of the guys that we were resigning, we we resigned Yoni Pekinen to a contract that year, and I was like, what are we doing here? We tried to trade this guy for five months. Like, why are why are we Why are we reinking him? Yeah.
What's going on here? Resigning him for another four years. Yeah. I just it didn't make a lot of sense to me. And and then on on top of that, you know, they were they called Steve, they were like, yeah.
Great news. We wanna resign him, but we wanna pay him what we paid him this and so they went back and forth for a bit, and then we signed UC Hockey in for, like, a three year $3,000,000 contract. And I think at the time, they were offering me, like, two for, you know, two and a half, 2.9, something like that. And I was just like, yeah. No.
We're gonna we're at least gonna explore the open market
Scott: and Right.
Erik: See what's out there. And, I mean, I had a I had a good season. I was finally felt healthy again, which was the the bigger thing, like, going into all that, like, that last season here in Carolina. Joe Corvo and I were roommates, workout buddies, hung hung out away from the rink all the time together. Our kids are the same age.
Jamie: And,
Erik: you know, I I I finally was able to have a summer reboot because, you know, that season after the the o nine cup run, my left hand went numb for, like, three months. I got told to retire, and, you know, I just I think I only it was my lowest, like, game total of my career. I think I only played, like, forty, forty one games like max. Right. And just it was a a real struggle.
I had to get a second opinion to keep my career going, that kind of thing. And, you know, I had a great summer with Joe in the in the gym, was back to finally being healthy, being myself, feeling strong on the ice, and and, you know, I had a great year to back it up. So it was it was a little little disappointing at the end of the day that, you know, Carolina didn't have as much value as I hoped they would have in in bringing me back because I I felt like I, you know, I I wasn't wearing a a letter or anything like that, but, you know, was a good mentor for Skinner and some of their younger players that they were bringing into the fold. And and that was, you know, when Montreal came in. And, you know, we we had other offers other than Montreal, but, you know, Montreal was was willing to throw on the fourth year in terms of the term of the contract.
Yeah. And, you know, at the end of the day, Carolina's offer to me wasn't anywhere close to the offer from Montreal. Right. And so they, you know, they didn't even really make it very tough on me in terms of the decision. I think they just assumed because I liked it here so much and the family ties and everything that That you said.
It's it's well yeah. Like, and it's it's that's kinda one of the tough things with, you know, when you're on the on the player side of it because, you know, they'll make business decisions about you. But when you make a business decision, they take it personal. And, you know, it like, in my opinion, it's it's reciprocal. Right?
Like, when they make a biz business decision about you, you take it personal. Yeah. So Absolutely. So it it it in my opinion, it should be a two way street. It's not always viewed as a two way street from the organization's standpoint, you know, however they wanna try and spin it with the fans and whatnot.
Yeah. But yeah. It it just yeah. It was, you know, it was an opportunity to and especially, you know, it was the haves. Right?
Like Right. I was a point per game guy against Montreal. I loved playing in that building. I'm from Northern New York.
Scott: Yeah. It was a good Like,
Erik: it was I mean, there there's a reason I scored 35 the next season. Right? Right? Like, I was and I and I barely got an opportunity, like, at the start of the season there from Jacques Martin. Like, I, you know, I was I wasn't on the power play.
I was playing third line minutes. I was just like, why did they why did they bring me here for this? Understand. They brought me here for this. Like, it was and it wasn't until until the coaching changes were made and everything, and I got more of an opportunity, and I was playing with great players and and, you know, we just we clicked, and, you know, it it it all worked out.
We had a great season together. Unfortunately, team wise, we had a terrible season.
Jamie: Mhmm.
Erik: We had so many injuries to some key guys that it just, you know, it was it was it was too much to overcome. And, you know, you go into the next season where there's a lockout coming and, you know, there's a complete overhaul in Yeah. Management, coaching staff, everything. And then, you know, combine that with the with the lockout. And I gave an interview during the lockout because I became really good friends with the guys on SiriusXM radio.
They would come to Oswego for my my charity event when I was doing the the Eric Cole Dream Big Foundation fundraiser and everything. And, you know, I'm having a conversation with them on the radio, and they're, like, you know, asking me about heading overseas again, which I did in the o four lockout. I went to Berlin, won a championship. It was a great experience.
Scott: Oh, you won a championship over there?
Jamie: That's cool. Didn't know that. It was awesome. That's unreal. Yeah.
That's pretty cool.
Erik: Well, my yeah. And now, you know, Berlin's won, you know, 12 championships or whatever Like, it they've they've been a wagon.
Jamie: They've been a wagon. Wagon is right. Yeah.
Erik: Ever since that year. Like, it was yeah. It was crazy. But but, yeah, they were asking me if I was gonna, you know, head out and and go play, like, overseas somewhere. And I was like, you know, I I know these guys personally, and I give an off the cuff answer.
And I'm like I'm like, man, you got a better chance of seeing me retire than head over to Europe again or whatever.
Scott: Like, you
Erik: know what I mean? I was like, no. Like, I'm not going I'm not going over there. And then, you know, of course, now the the next headline is like, oh, Eric Coles, you know, says he's gonna retire. This, that, and I'm like
Scott: Oh, no.
Erik: Thanks a lot. Yeah. Yeah. They they did me did me a a real solid there for for that little that little quip.
Jamie: Jesus. Well So you've won multiple championships. I mean, I you won NCAA title. You won a Stanley Cup, and you won one overseas. I mean
Erik: Well, no. So NCAA was just, it was just league league titles, not a not a national championship.
Jamie: It was an ECAC championship.
Erik: Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. One Got it.
But one that we took a lot of pride in, especially that year, like, we'll we'll circle back to to the college stuff Definitely. Later. But Yep. So we we have the the shortened season lockout, you know, like our our skates, you know, like, as they always do during a lockout, they dissipate, as time rolls on. Right?
Like, guys are staying in shape, staying in shape, staying in shape, wanna be on the ice, and then next thing you know, you're losing guys to teams in Europe and, you know, your your group that was 30 skaters Right. You know, is now suddenly somewhere between ten and fifteen. Jeez. So it so it it changes and then evolves as as the lockout continues. Come out of the lockout, and, you know, we've got new GM, new coaching staff, everything.
For some reason, they thought it was a good idea to split up Patcher Eddie and Darren and I, and, you know, kind of like and they kinda pinned it on us, like, you know, like, yeah, you guys aren't playing well together and, you know, so they decided to split us up, which we all hated. And then, you know, before you know it, I'm getting offered to waive my no trade to go to Dallas. I've got a former teammate, Ray Whitney, who's there at the time. He's actually the one that called me. He called me and said, hey, I got a interesting phone call from my owner.
I was like, oh, this can't be good. And he's like he's like, yeah. Maybe don't say anything just yet. He's like, but our owner called me asking if you'd be a good fit here. And I was like, okay.
Well and then I'm thinking back to, like, my no trade list and everything, and I'm like Dallas. I don't I don't actually, it wasn't it wasn't like I didn't I didn't submit a no trade list. I submitted a, like, a trade that I would be willing to accept.
Jamie: Right.
Erik: So those are the teams that I that I submitted, not the other way around.
Jamie: Was doll was Dallas on that list?
Erik: They they were not on the list.
Jamie: Right? Yeah.
Erik: So so yeah. So, you know, I get that phone call from Ray. I talk about it with Brian Gianta, like, the next day. We're we're busting to Ottawa for a game. And, you know, I'm just kinda hashing it out with him, and he's like, dad, you know, whatever.
Scott: It's, you
Erik: know, it's rumors, like, all this. Sure enough, we're playing in Ottawa, like, that Sunday, and it's in it's in the the Ottawa papers, like, that morning, like, saying that there's, you know, a rumor of of this possibly happening, all this, whatever. I was just like, here we go. So playing Ottawa that Sunday night, traveled to Toronto from there, and then we had a practice day in Toronto on that Monday. And then we had, like, our our NHLPA meetings with, like, with the doctors and security meetings since, you know, stuff we we do each and every year early in the season.
And I get a I get a phone call from from Steve Bartlett, like, in the middle of the meeting. Brian Gianna is sitting next to me, and I just show him my phone that it's Steve Bartlett. Step step out of the room, answer the phone call, and I'm like, let me guess. They want me to waive my no trade to go to Dallas. He's like he's like, man.
He's like he's like, you're a little bit you're a little bit more in tune with everything than I give you credit for. I'm like, yeah. I got a call two two days ago. I'm like, what's the deal? And he's like, you know, he explained it to me, and then, you know, they they were requesting a decision by, like, end of day.
Like, not even end of day, like, end of, like, you know, NHL hockey day, like Right. Where where they're gonna have to pull a guy out of the lineup, you know, by 5PM kind of thing. Right. So there's a definite deadline on it. I've got about, you know, four or five hours to make a decision, you know, call Ray Whitney, speak with him about it again, call my, you know, call my then wife, talk to her a bit about it, have her call Ray and Bridget Whitney, who we, you know, played with in Carolina and everything.
And you just you know, you're going through the whole thing. I went downstairs to meet Brian Gianna and Travis Mullen for lunch, and, Mark Bershavan, like, was in the lobby. He he grabbed me and pulled me aside. He was the GM at the time in Montreal, and and he started explaining it to me and talking to me about the whole like, how it came up and, you know, you know, Dallas called and the salary cap was coming down. We had, you know because through that lockout is where we went to fifty fifty with the owners.
So that changed things a little bit and kind of, you know, it hiked up escrow, put the pinch on everybody. And he's like, you know, all of a sudden we started looking at it and, you know, you've got a few more years of term. Like, it started making sense to us. He's like he's like, maybe, you know he's like, you know, if it's not if it's not this deal, you know, maybe it's it's another one. I can look at your accepted trade list and and see who else is out there that's, you know, a possibility.
And I think at that point, I just wanted to keep it, like, under my own control. And, you know, I knew Ray was out there, so I had a familiar face right away. And, you know, Ray's like, you know, like you're you're not gonna be out of out of the top six out here, like, you know, like, just, you know, like Yeah. Make make the call. So so I accepted it, But it it was difficult leaving that group in in Montreal.
I I actually I ordered up a bunch of beers to the hotel room and I put it out there on the group chat that we had going, like, through the whole lockout, and I said, fellas, I got some news. I'm in room, whatever I was at the Harbor Castle. I said, I need you guys to to stop by and and have a chat with me. And so so the guys, you know, came by the room and, you know, we we we talked about it. You know, I I told them I was waving my no trade to go, you know, just wanted to remind them that it wasn't a situation where, you know, it wasn't that I didn't believe in, you know, what what they were doing in the group that they had.
And, you know, I wish there was a way that I could stay and be a part of it, but it's not looking that way. And, you know, this is, you know, tough tough lesson, but it's the business side of it. And, you know, you deal with it and you move forward. So
Scott: Let me let me ask you a quick question on that. And you just brought something that I I I never maybe even like thought of. But when when a player when a player moves or gets traded and do you get a lot of players that kinda look at, you know, whatever player is being traded and being like, bro, what the fuck? Like, are you doing, guy? Like, there a is does that does that type of thing come up as like a player response to another player when one moves?
Jamie: It has to.
Erik: Yeah. Yeah. There's always there's always gonna be guys, you know. I mean, these guys are your teammates. Right?
Yeah. So, like, they, you know, they either want you around or, you know, maybe they're, you know, somebody that wants you go, whatever. But, like, you know, there's there's there's always gonna be, like, those types of conversations. Like, for me, the look on, like, Day or Nay and Patrieretti's face
Scott: was
Erik: was pretty tough on them. Carrie Price was another one that stood out. Josh George's you know, Gio and I had already talked about it. So, like, you know, we kind of anticipated that it was a strong possibility that something might happen. Right.
But, yeah, you just I mean and especially when when you go through the season that we had in Montreal together, you know, it was just a lousy season. We you know, everyone gets fired. You know, we had so many injuries that were just so difficult to overcome. And yeah. But you kind of you know, you bond through through those times.
Scott: Adversity.
Erik: Like, you know, a guy like Josh Georges, you know, he and I were the only two guys on the roster that played all 82 games that that season. Nobody else did. Like Jesus. And, you know, and I actually I mean, it it was so bad that, like, he and I were playing cards against one another, like, because, like, we had so many injuries and we didn't have enough card players
Jamie: that got on the plane.
Erik: Right? Like
Scott: Wow.
Erik: We're playing, like, heads up, like, you know, seven up or, you know, was just
Jamie: Just the two
Erik: of you. Yeah. Just a nightmare. Just trying to kill the time. Right?
Like Yeah. Right. Wow. So but but yeah. No.
Just, you know, you you you form such such great bonds with with your teammates, you know, in the in no matter what the scenario is, really. Like, you know, in any given year, whether it's a good year, a bad year, whatever, you're always gonna remember those guys and Sure. Remember all the, you know, you know, the hotels, the buses, the planes, the the downtime in the locker room. Yep. Yeah.
Just Right. Just everything. Right? Like, it's just like, when you look back on it, like, it's just so many great memories, and you just you know, as like, I had to convince myself of this one. You know?
It's it's a little saying that I I try and go by. You know? It's you know, you you can't be upset that something's over. You know? Just you gotta be happy about the fact that it ever happened in the first place.
Right? Like Well said. So Yeah. So there's there's, you know, a little little bit of comfort in that that analogy and, you know Yeah. Like, just that that little little bit of just, you know, shifting your mentality about it because, you know, at the end of the day, when you look back on it, you're like, you know, how the how the hell was I so lucky to even get to this point?
Right?
Scott: Sure.
Erik: You're like, it's there there's there were so many great players that I grew up with that, you know, didn't get the same breaks or the same opportunities that I did. Yeah. You just you you you wonder, you know, how that ever happens.
Scott: Well, when when when you think about that and just like True. We can rewind the tape a little bit, just going to, like, you know, growing up in New York, Upstate New York, and, you know, were were you like, your family, like, it was a hockey family, siblings. Like, how did how did hockey, like, you know, become such a big part of your life? And and and and if you could just kinda walk us through, like, your youth hockey career and what that was like if you had crazy hockey parents and, like, what what worked well or didn't work well with those relationships along the way.
Erik: No. My my my parents were the furthest thing from crazy hockey parents. Okay. My my my father never grew up playing playing hockey. He was a football basketball track guy in Northern New York, a small town called Carthage.
Okay. But my older brother played. My older brother, Quint, played. And, you know, I brought his coattails as much as I could. And when my mother was sick of having me in the house and my brother was going to play street hockey with his friends, you know, she'd be forcing him to take take me along.
Yeah. Sounds about right. And those fellows and those fellows would always say those fellows would always say, like, well, you know, if he's gonna be here, like, you know, we're not gonna, you know, we're not gonna treat him like, you know, your little brother. We're gonna treat him just like he's one of us kinda thing. And and so yeah.
So I got my butt kicked a lot as a kid. It was yeah. I was a I was I was a very tiny kid. I was a late bloomer.
Scott: K.
Erik: So I was I I got my butt kicked a lot early on. Not even just by, like, my brothers, like, friends, and even my own peers, but, like, my my cousins, everything. Like, they all played football. They're like giants. I'm like the runt of, like, the family kind thing.
Yeah. So so, yeah, I used to get my ass kicked a lot. And and then, you know, the late, you know, late teens started kicking in, and I started growing. And all of sudden, I'm shoulder to shoulder with these guys. They've been taking liberties on me for a bunch of years.
And
Jamie: Now it's on.
Erik: I was and then I was just I was just I had a good memory, and I was meaner. So There we go. So it worked out pretty well for me. But, yeah, it, yeah, it was there was a lot of lot of butt kickings along the way. But yeah.
So my my brother was, you know, the the reason that I I play in Lyndon, you know, with with my parents. You know, my my father my mom was, you know, maybe a little bit of the crazy hockey mom because if anyone ever, you know, took a liberty on me or whatever, you know, she wasn't having that. I was the baby of the baby of the family, that kind of thing. Can remember, you know, she'd be telling referees that she'd meet him in the parking lot kind of thing. That's fantastic.
You you don't mess with scary Sherry, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's it goes one of two ways. It's either share bear when she's nice and she's good, and then she's scary Sherry when she's really angry.
Jamie: Love it.
Erik: But so so yeah. So so I grew up in Oswego, New York, you know, cold weather right on the shore of Lake Ontario. I played all my minor hockey, like, through Oswego minor hockey. Never, you know, never went anywhere else all the way through high school and everything. Played, I didn't play my freshman year of high school, but did my my sophomore and junior year.
I didn't I didn't like the the the seniors, you know, that that were in the in the classes when when I was a freshman. Yeah. And I was very, very fortunate to have the coaches that I had through Oswego Minor Hockey. You know, from the time I was a might, it was, you know, local guys that, you know, played some college hockey and everything. They were just trying to give back to the program.
They were you know, they're still friends to this day. That's right. And then it led to Doug Ackley who was a Messina, New York guy. Had more ties to, like, Saint Lawrence University than anything else. He coached me through squirt, then my my Pee wee coach was Ed Gozick, the the great Ed Gozick from Oswego State that just stepped down this past year.
So I had Eddie as a as a Pewy hockey coach, which was, you know, wonderful. And then Bantam Hockey was a guy named Dan Ford who is out of Potsdam, New York. We still keep in touch to this day. He's actually relocated down to the Raleigh area. Oh, nice.
He he he reached out to me, you know, during the cup run, asking questions and, you know, congratulating me on the on the Charleston gig and everything. And Nice. He was a he was a really helpful individual and influence, you know, at the time when things were changing for me really, really quickly. And that was you know, you know, I was, you know, growth spurt, playing better hockey, playing more confidently. And and he was he was a yeah.
He was a really, really great resource for me between especially between he and Pete Sears was my high school coach who you know, he's a '72 Olympian, you know, was a goaltender on the Olympic team, played at Oswego State. He was my seventh grade social studies teacher. Oh, wow. That's a dream ball. You know?
That's wild. Yeah. So, you know, that's the the type of community that I grew up in and was very, very fortunate. The the the the big year for me like, one of one of two really big years for me was actually, probably three years now that I think about it was my last year playing Bantam Hockey for Dan Ford when I I said I didn't wanna play for the high school team. Yeah.
I had a really, really strong year. Like, you know, and and we and we would go out and challenge I mean, we were a b organization, and we would go out and challenge triple a programs and give them a run give them a run for their money and even beat them in some scenarios. And I think that season, you know, we we have played 60 something games, and I had a 178 points or something like that. Like, just
Scott: shit. Woah.
Erik: Like, it was, like, a really big that was, like, the big confidence year for me at, like, 15 is where it sort of shifted. And then clicked. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Things started coming together around then, and then my you know, I I pulled that into my sophomore year of high school where I actually did play high school hockey and had a good year. Not great, but good. And, you know, with the lack of games that you play there, we we searched out a lot of, like, summer hockey with you know, whether it was I was playing Uncle Sam's with Maddie Merley and, you know, his dad was running that program. Timmy Conley, Travis Howe was was on our on our team, and the Syracuse stars were always trying to pull me in. Don Don Kernan was always always trying to pull me into the Syracuse stars program, but my my family couldn't afford it, and I knew it.
Scott: Right.
Erik: It's just you know, it's and it it was what it was. But, you know, through all of that, you know, I I played three sports growing up. I played soccer in the fall to get ready for hockey. I played hockey all winter and, you know, then baseball season started up, and we still had snowbanks out in left field. Like, it just kind of that's that's how we that's how we did things.
Yep. Right. But so but so after that sophomore year, I I played I played probably a lot more summer hockey that year and went to a lot more, you know, predraft up in Boston, and I was playing with the Adirondack Thunder under Gavin Reagan going across the border and playing in Canadian tournaments in Kingston and Montreal and everything. And then and then my junior year of high school came in, and Dan Ford had done a little bit of research where a lot of those, like, Northern Northern New York City is, like, remote towns, like, Messina, Potsdam, Canton, Ogdensburg, like, all those border towns. Yep.
A a lot of those guys that play high school hockey, they also jump on with a junior team across the border and play junior b in the reduced Saint Lawrence League. And he went and watched the playoff game and requested a meeting with the Ganonokwai Islanders. Wilf Johnson was the coach there, and he he he took a meeting with him after a playoff game and said, I've got an American kid that's gonna come in here next year, and I think you're really gonna like him. And Wolf kinda scoffed at it, like, whatever. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Send send them up. We'll send them out on a rail kinda thing. Right.
Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Some yeah. We're gonna love some American kid.
Jamie: Yeah. Whatever. Exactly right. Yep.
Erik: It was that kind of mentality up there. And and so that was that was the year, my junior year, I had to, you know, stop playing soccer and, you know, just kinda focus on, like, okay. Like yeah. Just focus on hockey. The season was starting in September up there and everything.
And so I I showed up the first day, and, you know, they watched me and and everything. And, you know, I was lingering on the ice, like, after the skate. You know, the fellas were, you know, shooting pucks around and, you know, working on some stuff. And the wolf not wolf Johnson, who's the GM and head coach, he comes down to the glass and calls me over, and he says, can can you come back tomorrow? I was like, well, I thought this was a tryout, so I was gonna keep coming back until you told me to fuck off.
It was my plan. Yeah. Like, the idea is I'm here until you tell me to leave. Leave.
Scott: Right.
Erik: And so I end up making the team. They slap, number 72 on me because the kid that wore the jersey the year before, Gibson was his last name. I'm trying to think of his first name. It's escaping me right now, but he won rookie of the year and was drafted by the front necks and was headed to the OHL, like, that following season. And they were like, you're gonna do the same thing.
And I was like, I don't think I'm going to the OHL, fellas. I was a little petrified of the OHL. Too many horror stories back then.
Scott: Oh, like like, just out of care. Like like, what? Like, what were
Erik: the I
Scott: Like, what was the reputation?
Erik: Well, no. Well, American kids kinda getting
Jamie: That's right.
Erik: Not a not a Not a necessarily. Yeah. Like
Jamie: for them. Yeah.
Erik: Well, it was more so, like, if they're like, say it was between me and a Canadian kid and we were fairly equal or even if I was, like, a step in front of him Mhmm. The opportunity would go to the Canadian kid.
Scott: Got it.
Erik: So, like so for me and and besides that, I was never a sure thing. So we wanted to keep things, like, college oriented Yep. And everything. Right. And at that point, you know, my like, Clarkson was already well on my radar.
Steve Yonikis, who was the assistant athletic director at Clarkson, I played against his son growing up all the way through, and he watched me in that junior year of high school hockey. And he he asked, you know, another parent, like, who my dad was and and whatnot. And he said, hey. You know, after this game, do you mind if I talk to your son? And my father's like you know, my father Dennis is like, yeah.
Sure. Like, can I be there also? He's like, of course. And so he just all he said to me was keep doing what you're doing. Keep playing the way you're playing.
And he's like, there's gonna be a lot of scholarship opportunities, like, waiting for you. Just keep your grades up. Like, pay attention to the books. Like, don't, you know, don't just over oversee that aspect of it. And it was, you know, one of the two best pieces of advice I got from from Steve Vionicus, before ever going to Clarkson were those two things.
But I ended up, you know, playing kind of like a split season a little bit with the the team in in Ganonokwai. It was I'm not gonna lie. It was 96 miles one way. Snowstorms along 81. We're in the snow belt, like Yeah.
Capital of, you know, The United States, across, you know, the the Eastern part of Lake Ontario. And there were some rough nights home for Dennis and I, but, I think I I think I I think I ended up playing 38 games. So the rule was if I had a you know, I'll be there as much as I can, like, early on. And then once my high school season starts, like, I was practicing every day for high school. If I have a game for high school, that takes precedence over a game for junior hockey and practice and whatnot.
But there was days where I'd finish a full school school day. I'd go to my high school practice, go to the locker room, pack up my bag. My old man would have the have the vehicle backed up, ready to go, throw my gear in the back of the back of the vehicle, and we'd we'd drive up to drive up to for a seven, seven thirty puck drop, and we'd turn it around right after. Wow. So, yeah, so we we we put in some miles that year on the old least Ford Explorer.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Turning that back in must have been a pretty penny.
Erik: I know. That yeah.
Jamie: Sir, you're over by 75,000 miles?
Erik: Yeah. I think I think I think
Jamie: At a at a quarter mile? That's a
Erik: Yeah. I think about I think about, like, halfway through it, he realized he needed to, like, buy more miles. To buy yeah. Totally. Yeah.
But, but I I I I think I only played, like, 38 games for, for the islanders that year. I was an all star. I was rookie of the year and just had such a unbelievable confidence building year. I was 16 turning 17, and it really translated back to high school hockey. High school hockey was nothing that year for me, like, competing with with those guys, like, all fall and and whatnot.
So by the time my high school season rolled around, I was in mid season form.
Jamie: It was easy for him.
Erik: Yeah. It was it was a joke. Yeah. Honestly, like, it it, like and and it but it was it was so great, like, because, you know, like, because I was doing it with, like, my childhood friends and everything, and it was great. Right?
Like, we we we played 25 games that year. I had 90 points. We we lost we lost we lost two games. We lost two games all season. We lost a a Christmas tournament championship game in Saratoga to, like, Saint Francis out of, like, Western New York, and we lost the state championship game Oh, man.
To to to grease lightning. Yep. Four three. And
Scott: Oh, man.
Erik: And so it was like, shit. Right? Like, you know, like, I I I like, when when I walked into our first team meeting, I was like I was like, I think I think we can run the table this year, boys. Like like, no, like, no losses. Yeah.
Be completely unblemished and just take down everybody. Like, let's go. Like, that was my mentality heading into that year. But so that season, you know, happens, and and then it's, you know, time for, you know, predraft and all the summer hockey stuff, Adirondack Thunder again. I get a phone call at my parents' house from Scott Owens of the Des Moines Buccaneers, and he's telling me how he drafted me.
And he's gonna be out in Boston next week to watch me, and he's like, yeah. I'd love to take you to breakfast and talk about your future out here in Des Moines. And I'm like, Des Moines. About that. Not so sure I like that idea.
Yeah. I'll tell you what. He didn't he didn't sell me on it right away with that phone call. Yeah. Right.
I can I can remember hanging? I hung up that phone call, and I was like, yeah. Right. Like, I'm going to Des Moines. Like, fuck that.
Jamie: You fucking nuts.
Erik: Yeah. But he he he showed up in Boston the next weekend and took me to breakfast. And it wasn't until he and I rolled out of the parking lot that all the other parents whose kids play triple a hockey during the season and, like, play way higher than what I'm playing back home. They were like, do you realize, like, what that what that is? Like, what that just was?
Like, that is, like, huge and, like, all this and telling my parents this. And it wasn't until the ride home from that weekend, my dad tilted his mirror, his rearview mirror back so he he can make eye contact with me, and he's like, hey. We're gonna have to talk about this. And I was like I was like, wait. What?
Like, seriously? He's like he's like, yeah. He's like, apparently, it's a thing. I was like, alright. Well,
Jamie: fucking Des Moines.
Erik: It out. Des Moines. Let me just ask a
Scott: quick question, though. You were you were saying how your your fit like, your 15, 16 is when you really have, like, a big confidence year. Like but along the way, like, through the, like, younger ages, like like, n h like, playing college hockey, NHL, like, is this something that's, like, going through your mind? Like, you know that you're, like, maybe head and shoulders above a bunch of other kids. Like, when when did you really start to understand that you were gonna be able to take this to, like, such a high level?
Like, was it at this point in time? Was it maybe a little bit before, like, playing other sports? Did you ever consider sticking with a different sport besides hockey? Like, what was that like?
Erik: Yeah. So I always wanted to be a hockey player. Always. In my sixth grade, like, testimonial, they were like, you know, what are you gonna be doing in 2000, you know, call it, gosh, 04/06, when whatever it was.
Scott: Yeah.
Erik: Yeah. Whatever year they were they, you know, they were yeah. And I said I I was gonna be playing professional hockey for the Pittsburgh Penguins. That was my team, and Mario was my guy. Yeah.
But, yeah, like, it it wasn't until that year in Des Moines that it was like, oh, shit. Like, this Yeah. Like, this It's a thing. This might this this might be a thing. Like, it might be.
Might be.
Scott: And was that level of hockey out in Des Moines when you got there? Was that, like, the best you've ever seen?
Jamie: Oh. USHL. Right?
Erik: Yeah. Yeah. US yeah. Yeah. It was it was honestly insane.
It was very eye opening for me going out to Des Moines. So, like, I I was a good player when I was younger and fast and, you know, smaller than everybody, and then everybody grew. And then they were allowed to check me, and then I became not very good hockey player because I didn't grow.
Scott: Right.
Erik: And and then eventually, I grew and, you know Yeah. Got got back into the rhythm. Got back into the rhythm with everyone else, and, you know, I I was collecting receipts on everybody. Yeah. You were.
So so I got I got out to Des Moines, and one of the first faces I see is an old friend, Pete Frigo, on a machine in New York. Again, known him since I was, you know, 12 years old or whatever. Played Adirondack Thunder together, all that stuff. And he's like, what are you doing here? I'm like, what are you doing here?
He's like, man, I was here last year. I'm like, what is this? He's like, this is the spot, man. You gotta you gotta come.
Scott: Wow.
Erik: And he really he really convinced me and was like he's like, this is legit. And I was like, alright. You know? I didn't go out, and I had a a great camp. I'd like, I literally was only there for a day.
They had me skate a little bit in the, like, late morning, and then they played me in the first game. I think I scored a goal on my first shift. Like, just Nice. Like, lit it up. Like, Scott Owens is up in the stands.
He's got two college coaches with him, one from Providence and one from UNH. Those two guys were the first two schools that visited did a home visit, like, my parents' house the the week that my that my eligibility for recruiting, like, opened up. Those guys both did, like, in home visits. And but for me, my mind was set on Clarkson. I never looked anywhere else.
I never entertained anything else. Like, I knew where I wanted to go. But so I ended up in Des Moines, and it was there that you recognized, like, holy crap. Like, every other guy that I'm playing against, like, you you look at every other team's roster, and everyone's on a full ride somewhere. Right.
Like, it was it was insane to me. And it was intimidating at first for sure. Like, it took me a while. Like, it wasn't till, like, November where I was, like, confident and comfortable enough to be like, okay. Like, I can play with these guys.
I can compete with these guys. And and so that was kind of the year that things really started to progress in terms of, like, the possibility of actually playing pro one day. Mhmm. I got kicked out of a game early for getting you know, you get in a fight and you get booted. I I took Was early one.
I there a lot
Scott: of that? Was there a lot of fighting? Just see a 140 pims year compared to all of your
Jamie: other years. That's just like
Erik: more than I I had more than I should've, for sure. Yeah. Scott. Yeah. I think at one point, Scott Owens brought me into his office after a weekend set, and he's like, you know, it'd be nice to have you, like, either on the ice or on the bench at the at the end of a game.
Jamie: You're sitting on the wrong bench.
Erik: As opposed to what you're doing right now. And I was like, got it.
Scott: Yeah. Rogers.
Erik: Sorry. So yeah. So he he he he helped me a ton. He he he he cleaned me up quite a bit. But, yeah, I got I got into a fight early in one game.
I think it was, like, Clarkson's, like, even first time, like, seeing me play and, you know, I finished a hit on a defenseman. He didn't like it. Grabbed me. We had a dance. Off you go to the showers, and I go upstairs to watch the rest of the game.
And the guy sitting next to me at the table is the head of central scouting. And he was just like, you know, we've we've got you on our our radar. Like, we're watching you night in, night out out here. You know, you keep doing what you're doing, and, you know, good things are gonna come from all this and whatnot. And so yeah.
So that that year in Des Moines was a big confidence boost for sure. Yeah. Right.
Jamie: And then you wound up going to Clarkson shortly after Des Moines?
Erik: Yeah. Went to Clarkson right out of high school and went in as a freshman, thought I knew everything, knew nothing, really. Mhmm. But but fig figured things out pretty quickly and then, you know, got got drafted at the end of that season to Carolina. And then my my sophomore year was a bit of a mess early on.
Early on, I got I got put in the stands on the backside of a weekend set in North Dakota, pretty much the whole, like yeah. The the five to two loss was all blamed on me, which I found amusing. But but prior to that, we we hosted Northern Michigan and lost two one goal games against them. We lost, like, three two and, like, six five, like, the next night. And I think I had, like, you know, what we have?
Six five. So, like, of the seven of the seven goals we scored, I think I was in on five of them.
Scott: Shit.
Erik: But yet But yet it was your fault? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
It's all your fault kinda thing.
Jamie: Was this a rough coaching situation? Like, coaching you didn't see eye on?
Erik: It was Mark Morris. We can't stand him. We like, I I'll get to that
Jamie: story in a second. Alright.
Erik: But so so, Sheldon Ferguson, was the head of scouting for the Carolina Hurricanes, you know, he he was at the Northern Michigan weekend. And I and I'm playing center, which isn't my natural position. So I'm, like, playing out of my natural position just to, like, you know, help the lineup kinda thing. Right. And had I mean, I had a good weekend whenever he you know, Sheldon Ferguson grabs me after, and he's like, you know, we just wanted to make sure you still wanted to be a hockey player.
And I said, well, yeah, I still wanna be a hockey player. He's like, okay. Good. Like, you know, I'm gonna be out in out in North Dakota here in a couple weeks. Like, let's grab a cup of coffee and talk about your future with the hurricanes.
I was like, yeah. Yeah. That all sounds good. I'm like, but you gotta run it by Mark. He's really crazy about this stuff.
Like, he's, like, weird about me talking with, like, scouts and agents and whatever. Like, just make sure you let him know. So what does Mark do? Gets information that Sheldon Ferguson's gonna be out there. Oh.
After after after game one after game one on Friday, guess who's in the stands Saturday?
Jamie: Puts you down.
Scott: That's bullshit. That's fucked up.
Jamie: That's such bullshit.
Erik: But no. It was no. He the cherry on top was that, you know, I I had to go do the walk ashamed of my parents' room who, you know, they had traveled all the way out to North Dakota to watch me play that weekend because it was my mom's birthday and my birthday that weekend. So, you know, they they traveled out to to be a part of it, and I've gotta go tell them that I'm not in the lineup.
Jamie: Right.
Erik: Then I get then I get back to my, like, team hotel room, and my my roommate, Yan Turgeon, is like, hey. Moe's looking all over the place for you. I want you to go to his room. So I go to Mark Morris's room for him to sit me down and give me a two and a half hour rip session in front of Sheldon Ferguson.
Jamie: Jesus. What?
Erik: Like, directly in front of Sheldon Ferguson. His hair is too long. He doesn't shave often enough. His girlfriend's only seeing dollar signs. Like, yeah, I mean, you name it.
Like, he went across the board. Yep. That's crazy. Just completely, like, just berated me in front of, like, the Hurricanes, like, head scout. But the good news was he also wanted me to go sit and watch the game with Sheldon that night.
And as I sat and watched the game with Sheldon, we talked hockey and we, you know, watched the play, watched, you know, what I was seeing, what he was seeing, everything. He's showed me Brad Dafoss, somebody I'll be competing for a roster spot with, all this stuff. We get to the end of the game, and he shakes my hand. He said, listen. I don't know what the hell these guys are thinking.
He's like, but you just put your head down, go to work, and everything's gonna be fine.
Scott: Wow.
Erik: I said I said, okay. Got it. Like, we'll do. I ended up being an all American that year.
Scott: Wow.
Jamie: Right?
Erik: But so but hearing the stories from Sheldon years after in Carolina, and he's like, those guys were contemplating, like, booting you out of Clarkson. Like, not, like, booting me, but, like, basically, they would just kinda clip me from the team, but they would still have to honor my scholarship, but I just wouldn't be able to play hockey there. And Sheldon Ferguson's message to them was, you go right ahead and Yeah.
Jamie: I will take him now.
Erik: And he's like, I'll I'll put that kid in the minors this year, and he'll be in the NHL next year. He's like, do me a favor. Yeah. He's like, do me a favor and make sure that that kid doesn't have any other options so we can squeeze him on his contract. Right.
And I'll put him
Jamie: in the
Erik: minors. Yeah. He's like, I'll offer that kid $200, and there's no way he'll say no.
Scott: No. That's right.
Erik: Yeah. He was like he was like, do it. Do it. Like, dared him.
Scott: And they and
Erik: they didn't. Right? So so as as, you know, the season wore on and everything, Mark just became more and more I don't I don't even know if, like, paranoid's the word or, like, whatever it was. He was
Jamie: just A little bit of jealousy that
Erik: I think I'm gonna He was just he was just
Jamie: a dick?
Erik: He yeah. He was just a dick. Like, he really was. Like, I I can remember at one point, one of the assistant coaches grabbed me and said, like, you know, let's meet for a coffee and, like, how can I help? And I was like, just tell him to leave me alone.
Like, just I don't need him opening the door for me to yell at me that, like, I fucked up on the ice. Like, I know when I fuck up on the ice. Right. Right? Like like, thanks, but no thanks.
Like, fuck off. Like, I don't need that shit. And and so, eventually, it got better and better, but, you know, we could win a game on a Friday night and get berated about how dog shit we were on Friday night with, you know, having a game again to play Saturday night. And it just it just got to the point where it just became too much, too much. It was just so much negativity, so much just like, it was just it was it was just bad for the group, and we had a great group of of guys.
We were we were on a weekend trip, Dartmouth, Vermont, and he walked out of the room after ripping us after, like I mean, we might have lost, we might have won, whatever it was. But it was before we went into Vermont to play the catamounts, and I can remember. Like, I was like, hey. Like, that's it. Like, enough's enough.
Like, no no more no more noise from from that motherfucker or from anywhere else. Like like, we know what we have in here. We're gonna play hard for one another. We're gonna fucking we're gonna win this fucking shit in spite of him. Like, let's go.
Like, we like, we've got the group. Like, we can handle this. And we went out the next night, and it wasn't looking too wasn't looking too good. We're down we're down down to to one in the third in Vermont. And, and I score a goal I score a goal to make it two two, like, you know, probably midway through the third period.
Right? Bang. Okay. We're right back in this thing. Tied up at two.
We're playing in the gut. Right? Awful rink to play in just to mess up a place. Right? Nobody likes being there.
So off the off the face off right after we right after we won, a defenseman, like, turned the puck over, like, just fumb fumbled it, whatever. I grab it, score again. Three two. Now we're up three two. The the last, you know, five minutes now we're in buckle down mode.
Like, Moe's freaking out. All of his, like, nervous, like, crazy energies, like, just reverberating up and down the bench. We end up taking a penalty in, like, a six on five situation. Oh, man. And Kent Kent Hockey, who's a Stanley Cup winner with Anaheim, he's like, son of he's like, bullshit.
I'm like, no. No. This is a good thing. Now I can ice the puck at their neck. Like, this is perfect.
I'm like, I want I want them to pull the goalie so I can have a free shot at their at their empty net. Right. Yeah. And sure sure enough, like, thirty seconds later, I I get to a loose puck first, grab it, snap it down the ice, cap off a cap off a hat trick. Nice.
Beat him we beat him four two. We went on a run the rest of that season. We won, like, 14 or 15 straight. League league title.
Scott: That's when
Jamie: you won the ECAC that year.
Erik: Right? Yeah. We won we won the league, and then we went up to Lake Placid and won the tournament.
Scott: Awesome.
Erik: But by the hair of our chinny chin chin, I will say that. Yeah. We were, yeah. We were beating Princeton, like, you know, five five one or something like that. And, again, you know, mister negativity and his nervous energy, like, just creeping all over, like, the back of your neck, like, every shift you're getting ready to go out there for.
Yeah. Yeah. We end up and so we end up, like, giving up the lead. They they end up tying the game late, five five, and then we win a face off. Willie Mitchell fires a knuckle puck from the red line that goes off to the bottom of their goaltender's glove in the night.
We we beat them six five with with two seconds left.
Scott: Oh my goodness. Puck from mid ice is what won the game?
Erik: Yep. Yep. It was like
Jamie: a That's crazy. The goalie must have been beside himself.
Erik: Oh, I don't think he returned to campus after that. I don't think so either. I wouldn't have. Like I think anybody
Jamie: would have.
Scott: I need to change the scenery.
Erik: Yeah. Yeah. Too bad there wasn't the portal back in those days. Oh, there you go. Horse fucker.
Jamie: Seriously. Jesus.
Erik: And so then and so then the next night, we we actually got to play against Saint Lawrence in the in the 1980, which was one of my honestly, not even one of. It was my most favorite college game that I played in. Yeah. It was it was wonderful. Play sick, isn't it?
I well, you know, I'm from Northern New York. Right? So, like, I've been I've been playing games in that arena since I was 12. Jack O'Callaghan is a member at the same club, down in South Carolina, Succession Golf Club that I'm a member at. And, OC and I, man, I could sit and listen to him tell stories all night long on that back porch.
Jamie: It's I can imagine. We've had Mike Arusione on. And
Erik: Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. Is another one that we need to have on, by the way. That's that that would be an awesome interview as well. We gotta talk about that moving forward too, Eric.
Erik: Yeah. I can I can pass you his contact info?
Jamie: No. No. That would be tremendous. So so I'm just curious. So now you're you're back into you're in coaching.
Right? I mean, you then hockey datted for your son who is gonna be a sophomore playing division. Is it division three hockey up there in Upstate
Erik: New York? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. SUNY Potsdam, the SUNY Act.
Jamie: Right. So, so so you went through the entire process yourself. You played obviously the highest level humanly possible. So now you had to become a hockey dad. Right?
Erik: It was it was not it was it was not in tie it was not very good for me in that first year when I was pouting. Understood. But but but but eventually, I started working my way into, you know, helping out a little bit, and I was, you know, helping out at practice. I would run a door, like, on the bench and I'm sure. Just gradually.
And then and then I ended up coaching, like, him and, you know, a bunch of his peers at the double a level, where, you know, it started out where I had, you know, kind of like the, you know, the island of misfit toys kind of thing. And but but actually taught them taught them all how to play hockey the right way. And we ended up losing in overtime in the national championship game at 60 at 16 u, like, three years later. So Wow. So it was it was a it was a pretty pretty cool, evolution of all of it.
You know, like, for me, USA Hockey has turned so much attention to skating and skill, which there's just so much with the private lessons and, like, just all this specialty shit I hate. Interesting. You know, I I played I I I grew up I grew up and played three sports, like I said, but I lived on my rollerblades. I lived in my parents basement shooting pucks on my rollerblades. I skated miles and miles all over my hometown.
I played, you know, organized and played street hockey with my buddies as much as I could. Right? Like, wasn't, oh, I gotta pay this guy $200 an hour Right. For a nice session. Right?
Like, it's for me, it's you know, like, I I had this conversation with, you know, a good friend of mine who's my ex brother-in-law, Josh Bartel, and he's still associated with, like, Clarkson University and everything. And they were looking for, like, a new assistant coach, and he's like, man, you can't find like a good, know, third assistant coach at at like even the d one level right now, like of anyone that's like played d one hockey. I'm like, yeah, because all those guys are going to these minor hockey programs where there's a triple a program, and next thing you know, they're the skating and skill development coach, and they're getting paid, you know, 6 figures from that organization on top of doing private lessons with every kid that, you know, they can get on I'm the like I'm like, why the why the heck would they go to Clarkson for $40 in free housing? Right. It's really gray there during the winters.
Even even the spring. Right? Like, fuck. Yeah. Like, no.
Those guys aren't gonna do that.
Scott: Right.
Erik: So so for me, like, like, what's like, the middle class has been lost a little bit in my opinion where and even even at the, like, the PA level, you know, we we talked about it for years and years, like, trying to protect the middle class and always worried about the median salary and and whatnot. And it it really got lost for a few years. Now I think it's it's been regulated through this new system, and they've figured out, like, how to make it work, which is great. It's great for the players. It's great for the game, everything.
But, you know, for me with with the kids, it's you know, like, the the skating in skill is great, but when a kid, you know, 10 years old, 11 years old can just, you know, go back and grab a puck from behind his net and skate it all the way up the ice himself. Like, that's not teaching that's not teaching a kid how to play hockey. And then Right. No. And then eventually, like, everyone's gonna be able to hunt down that kid and angle him and eventually put a body on him and That's right.
His his frustration level's gonna go through the roof and he's gonna wanna quit and whatever. Like, you actually have to teach him how to, like, move the puck, play the game, and actually be a team. And so I felt like I did a really good job of that, like, with with the group that I had or the groups that I had. I mean, I can I can remember having you know, we'd bring in a new kid that had played in a different organization? I'd have to tailor some of my practice drills just to get this kid moving the puck away from him, like, through through neutral ice.
Like because
Jamie: he wanted to skate
Scott: it or end to end? That
Erik: what He wanted to go coast to coast nonstop, and then Yeah. He's banging his stick on the glass and on the ice and, you know, pouting in frustration. And it's like, listen. Like, if you if you give away the puck, everyone's focus goes over there where Yeah. The puck just went.
And then you can get the puck back.
Jamie: In open space.
Erik: And at and at that point, maybe two people are even capable of paying attention to you. But you have to move it and get it back and, you know, it's just there's lots of little things. And I gotta be honest with you, like, I didn't know all this stuff, like, when I was a teenager, like, even through college, like, didn't necessarily learn a ton at Clarkson. Like, I mean, I played hard nose, straightforward, like, and just bold my way to the net lots of times. Right?
Like, playmaking and, like, you know, a finesse game was not part of my game, especially early on. Right. But I I, you know, I learned that, like, as I went along and, like, Rod Brindamore for me was a huge mentor, especially in my rookie season where, you know, I I learned so much from him about all these little things to look for and just little passing lanes and just, you know, like, things you things you don't pick up along the way. You you get it when you're there. And so for for me, I feel like being able to to have all those little nuances that I learned kinda later in my career or not, you know, early in my professional career, but later in my hockey career and be able to apply, like, those little lessons along with, like, the coaching philosophies of, you know, not just Roddy, but Paul Maurice, Peter Laviellette, like, the guys, like, guys that I, like, played for and had success with and Yeah.
Just really like the way they operated and stuff. Like, yeah, it's I mean, it's a no brainer for me.
Jamie: So I'm actually curious. So it's funny that you just said that you learned this kinda later on when you were at the higher levels, right, these things. So what would you say or I guess, let's say that you let's say that you had, like, a five year old right now. Right? And you were gonna
Erik: teach God. I hope not. I hate to look over his shoulder. Let's say
Jamie: and and you had to teach that that kid from from from the beginning. Right? Or or or or even to, like, parents with young kids, what would you say that they should focus on? Maybe it's not the skills. Maybe it's not the power skating.
You know, what would you tell, you know, parents to have their kids focus on and pay attention?
Erik: For me, it's for me, it's it's do not watch the do not watch your highlights on social media. Watch your highlights, like, on the n NHL network where it's an actual hockey play, and it gets broken down from like, for me, like, anytime again, if my team gave up a goal, you know, people wanna sit there and look, you know, fifteen seconds prior to that goal to see where the breakdown was. And for me, I would go back as far as sixty seconds to see where the actual breakdown was. You know? Like, if if if you to put this puck here and put this puck back behind their d rather than turning it over, we never would have been in that situation to begin with.
Right? Like, so, like, for me, that's kinda how I look at things, in terms of, like, the the coaching side of it. But with that being said, there's gonna be breakdowns, like, all over the ice, and everyone's gonna make mistakes, and everyone's gonna have turnovers and whatnot. And it's having structure within how you play the game to be able to back one another up. Like, that's how I view all that.
So for me, like, if I had a young kid right now and I was getting him in the game, I would one, I would encourage him to play other sports. Like, I would rather I would rather have an athlete than a hockey player.
Jamie: We say it all the time.
Scott: Yep. Yeah.
Erik: If I like, honestly, like, if I would have been a better, like, hitter in baseball, I probably would have been a pretty good baseball player, but I couldn't hit the ball worth of shit. But I but I was but I was but I was fast and I could field and, like, no no ball dropped in front of me in center field or left field or wherever I was playing. Right? Like but and I would and I would have my I would want my kid to, like, live on his rollerblades. Like, have an actual, like, desire to do it.
You know? Like, if I I just think it means more when it comes from within than it does where you're paying somebody to bark at your kid on the ice and make them do edge work and whatever
Jamie: The shit they hate. The shit that they tell
Erik: me hate. I gotta be honest. Yeah. Like, like, I want you know, we we do edge work, you know, with with our groups and stuff like that. Like, even at, you know, down in Charleston.
And I'll I'll turn to somebody and I'll be like, I don't think I could do half this shit. Like, I don't I
Jamie: don't No.
Erik: Now. Now. Oh, now. Like, not even not even then. Like, I gotta do this shit now.
Like like, no. Like, I like, I can't do that stuff. Like, I'm not even gonna try it.
Jamie: Do you think it's necessary, or you think it's or you think it's kinda obsolete for today's game? I'm
Erik: just curious. I think it's I think it's just too much. I think there needs to be, like, a bit of a reset on it where there has to be a little bit more like, like, there has to be just a little bit more, like, takeaway from the skill in skating. Like like, obviously, like, you need to continue to work at that, but you can also do that on your own time where you're not having to pay somebody. And, like, all of a sudden, you know, like, hockey has become, like, just this I mean, it's it's basically, like, you know, it's not it's not as blue collar as it used to
Jamie: be. No.
Erik: It's very much a a rich kid's, like, sport where, like, the the more, you know, one on one training and everything that you get, like, because your parents can afford it is is, like, where it's at kind of thing. But I gotta be honest with you. That is not that's not the ticket. Like Right. Like, I can I can sit here and rip off so many names of people in this Raleigh area who spent a ton of money on private lessons and sending their kid here and there and whatever and, like, all this stuff?
And, like like, I've I've had, you know, late night conversations with hockey dads, like, here in The Carolinas where I'm like, listen. Like, you need to stop. Like like, stop stop coaching your kid. Stop trying to tell him that he should be doing this or trying to do this or he should be doing this. Like, no.
Like, you you know what my dad said to me when I stepped out of the vehicle? He told me to skate hard. That was it. Ever. Yeah.
Never anything more. That was the only thing he ever said to me. And after the game, he'd say, how do you think you played? And I'd be like, wasn't great. Or I'd be like, yeah.
I felt pretty good out there today. Like, that was it. Right. But it was never like, well, why didn't you pass it to this guy when you saw him there or whatever? You know what I mean?
Like, my dad was more of the guy at tryouts being like, hey, I think I saw some kid beat you in one of the races, like, at the skate at the end. I was like, oh, fuck. No, he didn't. It was all about the effort. Yeah.
Was like, nobody nobody fucking beat me. Like, who who are you kidding? You know what I mean? Like, yeah. Got then I'd get offended, then I'd get ahead of my dad.
You know what? I'll walk home.
Scott: But I
Erik: always it's just it's just too it's just too much right now. Like and and I get it. Like like, I feel like USA Hockey felt like we needed more first round draft picks, more high end talent, and I feel like they've kinda isolated, like, that top five to 10% of those players. And those guys are getting developed and, like, having great success, which is awesome. But, you know, the other, you know, 90% of the kids are, you know, struggling to stay in the game and or, like, have a fine you know, have a love for the game where they even wanna play men's league at the end of it.
Jamie: Right. Do you think that USA Hockey was do think USA Hockey was trying to compete too much with Hockey Canada? Do you think that's why
Erik: Yep.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. It's kinda like they were
Erik: just trying That was always that was always the conversation. We'll look at how many first first round draft picks that Canada has, like, first overalls, especially the overalls. Right?
Jamie: Yeah. Right.
Erik: Yeah. It's it's Canadians. It's Russians. It's you know what I mean? Like
Jamie: Yeah. It's anything with The US. Right? Right.
Scott: Well, we were talking to, oh my god. Now that I'm blanking, even though he was just in the news, the commissioner of the, USHL.
Jamie: Oh, Glenn Heffern.
Scott: Glenn Heffern. Yeah. And, and one of the things that was eye opening to me was just the amount of money, like how much the NHL subsidizes the CHL. CHL. Looks that CHL players will get just through organize you know, in NHL organizations because so many of their, you know, management staff or CHL, etcetera.
And it was just that was a really interesting piece, which, you know, obviously makes sense, but never even thought. And now with the expansion of the USHL and them, you know, like, vying for more money from the NHL, you know, who knows how that's gonna to shake out, but that's that's an interesting piece.
Erik: Yeah. It's so crazy. Like, I mean, even just just the junior hockey landscape alone is like, it's so significantly different than when I went through it. Mean, I I can remember, like, even back in the day when I was going through it, like, the the CJ, which was, you know, the it's now the CCHL or whatever across the border, you know, in Ontario and all that used to be a huge feeder for, like, ECAC schools and and whatnot. Like and that that league now has just turned to, like, crap, basically.
Right? Like, it's completely different. There's, you know, there's all these different leagues and, like like, one of my big beefs right now with you know, I take this NCDC coaching job, and then, you know, this spring USA Hockey releases this statement that if you play, like, more than nine games on an NCDC roster, you're not eligible to to play for a North American Hockey League team or for the USHL.
Jamie: Oh, is that right?
Erik: Yes. So, like, now so now I'm handcuffed with the fact that, like
Jamie: It limits the amount of players that'll talk to you.
Erik: Right? I could well, but I could I could develop a player that could be ready to play in that league by by season's end next year and go play, like, with them, like, for a playoff run or a playoff stretch or whatever and earned his, like, spot, you know, hopefully, on on a roster for the the following season. Mhmm. And now I don't I know I don't I don't have that opportunity or the kids don't have that opportunity more so, like, more importantly. Right?
Like and so they're handcuffing us, like, which I just I don't understand. Like, it's just it's amazing how much that it like, all of this has just become about the dollars rather than, like, the success of, like, kids. Like, it's that's I think that's the part that kind of bothers me the most about, like, how it's structured and set up. But, yeah, like, you know, I and so it has made some challenges in recruiting Mhmm. This spring, which I'm sure they're they're happy about.
Right? Because that was obviously the intent of it. Right. But I missed out on some prospects because if they come play for me, then they don't have that opportunity, you know, at the end of the season. So now I've gotta kinda refocus my, you know, hour, I shouldn't say, my hour recruiting.
Matt Reed's my GM. Like, he's been doing, I'm telling you, the load of the work way more than me. Right. And but now the the situation is, like, okay. So now we need to maybe grab a kid that's a, you know, birth year or two younger, and we'll like like, here, come to us.
We're gonna develop you, and we're gonna get you to a place where, you know, we'll use every connection that we have to try and get you into an NA camp or a USHL camp, like, the following season.
Scott: Right.
Erik: Right. We'll give you experience. We'll teach you how to play the game, and hopefully, we graduate you onto the next level.
Scott: Yeah.
Erik: Like, that's that's I mean, that's our goal. Like, it's for our younger players, like, I don't want you for two years. I I want you to come here, have a great year, learn as much as you can, and then go do something better. And for, like, the players that are our older players, I want you to come here and be the best that you can. Give me everything that you have, and I'm gonna try and put you in to the best situation moving forward, which is really based on what you want.
Do you wanna go to do you wanna go to play d three? You wanna go just play club hockey? Like, whatever it is. Like, we're gonna find that best situation for you. Like, that's that's our mentality.
Jamie: Right. Yeah. And and we've we've kept you for an hour and a half, and I I feel bad. But I I have one more question for Maybe you. We're gonna have to have you back on to, like, keep going over
Erik: this I gotta be honest with you. The only the only person you're pissing off right now is Mike Commodore.
Jamie: Why are you they
Erik: they might be waiting. They'd probably stop waiting. Who am I kidding? He's so impatient. We're all good.
Don't worry
Jamie: about it. So so I so I'm just curious because you're right. The money part of this game is a problem, right, and has been for a while now. I'm curious. Is there a logical fix for that?
Right? I mean, it's a it's a it's a very difficult question. So, you know you know?
Erik: Well, I think I I think, one parents have to be able to recognize, like, what's enough for what's too much. I think there there needs to be like, you can't always just listen to somebody saying, you know, your your kid needs these private lessons, these skating lessons, or whatever. Like, in my opinion, like, buy your kid a set of roller blades. Tell him to go skate around the neighborhood. Like, go go skate up hills 10 times over.
I I mean, I made my kid do it a 100%.
Jamie: Like Right.
Erik: Yeah. But, like, there's ways to get better without doing private lessons. And the other thing is, like, this is one thing that drives me bananas here in The Carolinas is, like, the stick and puck. Mhmm. How these, you know, private instructors pay a certain fee and they get like a portion of the stick and puck ice from the kids For to the point where if you go if you go out for stick and puck, you get from the blue line down to the goal line at one end with however many kids that aren't out there getting private lessons.
That is the biggest joke I've ever fucking heard of.
Jamie: It's everywhere. It's everywhere.
Erik: It's the biggest joke ever. Like, if you are going to run private lessons, buck up, pay the cost. Right. Right? Because you paying $20 to run private lessons where you're charging a $100 per kid or whatever you're paying is ridiculous.
Yep. Yeah. That's ridiculous. Yeah. Like, I I that used to drive me nuts.
It's it's everywhere. Yeah. It's called, yeah, it's called stick puck, and private lessons. Stick and puck. Stick puck is like you give the kids the ice to go out there with their friends and
Jamie: And be creative. Yeah. And do whatever.
Erik: Come up with games and be inclusive, like, whatever. Like Yep. Yeah. It's yeah. Stick puck and private lesson is not a big fan.
Like, no.
Jamie: They must go in for the t shirt that says that or something along those lines. You know?
Erik: Oh, they should make jerseys for all the kids that go out there and do it. Like, it's awful. No. That drives me bananas. I do not like stick puck in private lessons because I grew up stick and puck.
Right. Or like public skating.
Jamie: Right. Right?
Erik: Public skating. Go go play tag with your friends.
Scott: Yeah. Totally. Work on your ages that way.
Erik: Yeah. Exactly. Jesus. I'm telling you. Yeah.
And there's yeah. There's a lot to it right now that I don't I don't love. And I'm I'm certainly not gonna be changing it, like, single handedly or anything, like. Yeah. I know.
You know, it it has to, like and honestly, it has to come from from parents and whatnot that, you know, they just need to, at some point, stop listening to somebody telling them that their kid needs this and their kid needs that. Like, talk to your kids. Like, you know, like, get a get a real beat on what your kid wants and what they need and let them be a kid. You know, like, for me, like, I'm like, I I if I'm being honest, I wanted my kid to be a pro golfer. I'm like, bub, like, you're striping it out here.
Like like, I'd I'd I'd shoot I'd shoot even par and and lose. Right? Like, I'm like Oh, wow.
Jamie: Oh, he's legit. Okay.
Erik: Oh, he was yeah. He was legit. Right?
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah.
Erik: And all of a sudden, you know, one summer he woke up and he's like, yeah. I don't wanna go to the course today. I'm gonna go rollerblade over to Will's and we're gonna play basketball, then we're gonna come back over here, go for a swim, then we're gonna go play football, and we're gonna play street hockey, and this and I was like, damn it. I was like, okay. Yeah.
Like, you can't argue with it. You know what I mean?
Jamie: No. You can't.
Erik: If he told me if he told me he was gonna sit in his room and play video games, I said, fuck no. Right?
Jamie: Right. Yeah. I
Scott: know. That's a different story.
Erik: Yeah. Not a chance. Yeah. 100%.
Scott: That's unbelievable. Well, listen, Eric. It's, we've been, like, an hour forty. So this is just I mean, honestly, like,
Erik: Jamie The only person you're gonna have to apologize to is Mike Commodore.
Jamie: Tell tell
Erik: Mike's tell Mike we Maybe one other person.
Scott: Yeah. Well,
Erik: maybe you'll
Scott: get a pass since you were talking hockey. I don't know.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott: But
Erik: It's all good.
Scott: Yeah. No. Listen. Thank you so much. And, Jamie's the one that usually always says this, but I'll say this time, it would be great to have you on again because I know there's a lot more to, like, what what you've been through and, like, your story that I'm sure we, you know, would love to hear and and share with others.
But, you know, this was an amazing conversation. So happy that you took the time to talk with us. I'm sure our parents are gonna take away a lot just from hearing your story. And and, you know, honestly, it's just so refreshing to, like, continue to have conversations about you know, with people that are just, you know, talking about being a multi sport athlete, not getting caught up in all the things that come along with the private lessons and just like, you know, yeah, all all of it because it's so easy to get swept up in it.
Erik: Yeah. It's so easy. Keeping up with the Joneses, man.
Scott: Totally. That's right. It's real. Exactly. It's real.
Jamie: It is. Yeah.
Scott: Alright, Eric. Well, listen. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your time. And Yes.
You know, all the best on on your move and all the transitions you got going on down there, but, we'd love to have you on again another time.
Erik: Absolutely. I'd be happy to. Worries And, about yeah. Definitely keep tabs on the, on the Charleston colonials for me.
Scott: Oh, a 100 We're on it.
Jamie: Thanks, Eric. Appreciate it. Have a good night.
Scott: Alright. Thank you.
Erik: Alright, fellas. Cheers. Thanks. Alright.
Jamie: And we're back from
Scott: our awesome interview with Eric Cole. Yeah. Well, that was that was a very, very quick return from
Jamie: It was. Did you well, yeah. I was trying something different.
Scott: Oh, and that's great. Yeah. Good job
Jamie: for 1% better every time.
Scott: Well, listen, that was a that was a wealth of information.
Jamie: When did you have him on for a part two? Yeah. I mean, like, very, very soon.
Scott: Yeah. He he's he definitely he's he can talk. He's a talker. He can talk and he's got a lot of great info and yeah, I I was just listening and then I realized that so much time had passed and I was like, shit, we didn't talk about half the stuff that was on the outline.
Jamie: Yes. No. He had a long past that he didn't get into. Yeah. Pretty some pretty cool stories and I'm sure you haven't even heard that.
Scott: No. I'm sure that yeah. Know. The injury issues that we never even talked about that stuff.
Jamie: That's a shame. My goodness. Yeah. Basically made him end his career early.
Scott: I mean, he still had a long career.
Jamie: Yeah. He had a fantastic career. But Anybody would kill to have fifteen years in the NHL. Yes. No doubt.
Still, I mean, you know, he probably would have even played longer. Much longer. I don't
Scott: know how much longer, but yes, sure. I mean, look, what
Jamie: He wasn't ready to shut it down yet.
Scott: No. No. But that's, know, just like coming from New York, and it was interesting again, just, you know, it was like when we had the the brothers on, the Kellen brother, I mean, Kellen Jones'? Jones' brothers, yes. You You know, they were just talking about how, like, where they grew up.
There wasn't, like, all these different club teams, and there wasn't all these you just played with what was in front of you, meaning, like, the the local team. Then Same with him.
Jamie: I was
Scott: It was same it was the same thing, and it's just I just I can't help but think what a different mentality it must be if you're not worried about, like, all of the other, like, There club is no other teams. Yeah. I mean, well, look. Didn't he say that he he didn't play for the Syracuse Crunch?
Jamie: Something like that. Yeah. Whatever the Syracuse team was. Crunch? Something like that.
Scott: Is that right?
Erik: No. Doesn't sound right. No. No.
Jamie: I think it's like the Syracuse what's the team up there? Stars? I wanna say Stars or something like that. I'm pretty sure Selects? Pretty sure Boo played for that team.
Scott: Yeah. Oh, right on.
Jamie: Pretty sure Boo played for that because he's from Syracuse. Yeah. You know? But yeah, I mean, you know, so you you don't have a lot of options up there. Right?
Scott: Not as many. No. So he was an
Jamie: Oswego boy like the whole time. Just kinda
Scott: he's kinda do. But he's also our age. So like he was doing this like, you know 100%. Many years ago.
Jamie: Oh, yeah. No. But it's I think I think sometimes maybe we may have too many options around us.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah. I hear you, man. Or, you know, you notice like, I don't even know if it's like, I don't even know how many options, like, I take that back. I haven't thought about this so critically, but like what it makes me think is less about like there's, yes, there are options.
And if you wanna be crazy and you wanna do like what we did or what you've done and drive for hours, you you fuck. I keep on hitting your camera, dude.
Jamie: See this.
Scott: This is no bueno. The new setup. New setup is oh, whatever. It's working. It's just not idiot proof yet.
Jamie: No. Not yet. No. It's not. We're working on that.
Scott: Idiot proofing. Yeah. Know. Need to like put like rubber things on the corner so I don't hit my head. Seriously, like toddlers?
Totally. You need to put locks on like everything. Speaking of Wait. Hold on. I didn't finish.
Oh, sorry. This is what I was gonna say.
Jamie: Yes. Let's hear it.
Scott: Maybe this is what I was gonna say because I might have forgotten it, which is not great.
Jamie: It was something about about playing on well, we have multiple teams around here.
Scott: That's Oh, yeah. This what I was gonna say is so what I was gonna say was one thing that it does for sure when you have other kids playing for other teams and like you're crossing paths with different families and like whatever, it's like that that that FOMO stuff becomes even more real. You know? And whether or not the other family or the other kid or the player or the parent or the coach is telling you the truth, that's not even the point. You just you're able to like start conjuring up these ideas of what it's like to be at program a and then program b.
Sure. But if you're at b and you're playing tier one versus c at tier two, it's like there's so many other, like, iterations of, like, what like, you know, where you could so many, but there's like you you know what I'm trying to say. It's like you you you can start thinking like, oh, if I went there, I went there. I don't know.
Jamie: No. I hear you. You know, I kinda like how he grew up. I like how the Joneses grew up. I like how, you know, Eric Cole grew up.
I I like how they did that. No. I agree. Were not a lot of, like, options
Scott: in there. I agree. And it it doesn't get stuff in your head or, like, plant like whose ideas that whether true or not, it still gives you takes up more bandwidth, more, like, you know, like maneuvering and more like MacGyvering and whatever you gotta do to get your kid on whatever team you think they need. You
Jamie: know? Meanwhile, I think you're right. I think it was a Syracuse crunch, by the way.
Scott: Think you might have Right?
Jamie: I think it is a Syracuse crunch. But, yeah, no, I I like how the I wish almost wish that our kids grew up like that. You know, there's so many options around here. It just kills AAA hockey. The
Erik: fact that
Jamie: Waters everything down below it, in my opinion. You know?
Scott: No. Look.
Jamie: His parents are willing to pay for it. You know? And it kind of I don't say it ruins it because it doesn't ruin it, but it really fucks it up.
Scott: Listen. The one thing that I I think we lose sight of is that when you have all these different programs putting forward teams
Jamie: Yeah.
Scott: You know, it's obviously a business, and I don't know the business, like, but
Jamie: Definitely, it's a business. But I
Scott: think, like, it's making hockey more accessible at the same time. So That's and it that doesn't come without things like, now look You're not every wrong. Time you every
Jamie: It does make it accessible.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: Almost too accessible.
Scott: I don't
Jamie: know. It's good to have options.
Scott: Also Should like should every rink should every rink have, like, a club team?
Jamie: I would think so.
Scott: Right. Okay.
Jamie: I think so.
Scott: So that that's that's like I think so. The rinks around here have club teams. Right?
Jamie: Yes. But there's also a lot of rinks close to each other around us, where you have a lot of different club teams.
Scott: Okay. But let's go let's go through it this way.
Jamie: Not a bad thing.
Scott: I've got right at this point where I live, the the rink where we play at is 25. It's no. It's like thirty minutes from us. And then the other one is like twenty five minutes. Okay.
I've got two rinks Yeah. That have twenty fourteen birth year tier one and tier two teams. I can
Jamie: that And if you wanna drive a little farther, there are a lot more.
Scott: If I wanna drive a little far like, a little further, then I'm up to four. If you
Jamie: think I think it's even more than that.
Scott: No. Well, a little further would be like Wayne Yep. And then Morristown. Right. You wanna go a little further, then there's the Rockets and Woodbridge.
Jamie: I was just gonna say that. Yep.
Scott: And then you wanna go a little
Jamie: further Connecticut. You can probably also go to Connecticut.
Scott: Yeah. No. Listen.
Jamie: Can you can go into the city. Listen. You could do that.
Scott: I'm not saying that there's a shortage of choices. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just saying there's two that are reasonable for my family to do.
Jamie: How many teams do you think are within an hour driving of where you are?
Scott: Oh, a lot. Yeah. A lot. A lot. A lot.
A lot. A lot. Lot. Like a lot.
Jamie: Yeah. And and if you're and if you're playing tier two,
Scott: it's a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. Yeah. So I mean, what's what's the what are we saying here You
Jamie: know, it it's funny. Like I said
Scott: Having having options is you think it would be better if there were less options?
Jamie: No. I see it from both sides of the coin. I see so I see the fact that there's a lot of teams around here, and parents are willing to pay for triple a. Right? And so you have a lot of watered down triple a in our area, in my opinion.
Scott: Yep. A lot
Jamie: of these kids should be playing tier two. And and then those kids should be playing, you know, single a. Right? Know, so I think that I think it waters it down in that respect. And then to your point, which I also see, I also like when you have options.
Because if the coach in your birth year is just awful Mhmm. Right? Mhmm. And maybe the maybe the program is not run very well even in tier two department Yep. You have the ability to go elsewhere.
Right. So I I I see it from both sides of the coin. I don't know how you fix that problem. I don't think you do.
Scott: No. I don't think you do. I just think that you have to make the best decision for your family, and if you have options, then that's great. If you don't have options, that's not great. Or maybe it's great.
I don't know.
Jamie: I I think there's something to be said for being stuck up in the middle of nowhere and having to play locally, and just playing locally, and just doing what you do. Yeah. And playing baseball in the off season or basketball or whatever you're doing.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: You know, I think there's something to be said for that. Because the FOMO the FOMO is not really there.
Scott: No. The FOMO is not there, but then, like, you know, then it gets me thinking, like, the other part, like, an advantage to, like, being, like, in a place where you're you have a lot of teams, like, you start to better understand, like, I guess what am I trying to say? Like, from a skill perspective. Right? Like, if you're only playing for one club and, like, I don't know how many other teams, like, you're really getting to see.
Jamie: I mean,
Scott: I think one of the things that we've been lucky around here is that we've we have access to a lot of high quality hockey. Now, of course, going up to Massachusetts
Erik: Mhmm.
Scott: Is is you know, that's not what's hard doing every weekend. Yeah. But I mean, there there's, like, tremendous hockey up there. There's but, like, you know, it's
Jamie: true.
Scott: So the point of what I'm saying is that like oh, I don't know. You you know, if if you have a kid that's that's ambitious and wants to, you know, play Right. You know, higher level or push themselves, I can imagine a scenario where like, you know, having and having, you know, like a bunch of Right. I don't know.
Jamie: I think that you if I had to do everything all over again, I would probably just pick one place, and I would I would have my kid play there through like peewees. Regardless? Yeah. Really? And maybe even Bantams, to be honest with you.
Scott: Even if he's a shitty coach?
Jamie: You wouldn't. Hopefully, that wouldn't be the case.
Scott: Well, that's not. In theory, if it's a good organization, the coaching is good, then ideally, you'd wanna stay in one place.
Jamie: Right. I would I would stay in one place, probably through Bantam, and then because that's when I think it starts to change. I think so let's just say you're in the middle of nowhere. Right? Like the Joneses, you're the middle of nowhere, and there's just one team to play for.
Mhmm. Right? When you get good and you get older Mhmm. I think then you start to spider out.
Scott: Know? Yeah. Sure.
Jamie: That's if I had to do it over again, I would I would take that kind of blueprint.
Scott: But how much like when you say spider out, like by the time you get to the age that you're talking about, you're probably like then people are if if you're good enough, people are coming to you.
Jamie: Yeah. I think Right.
Scott: It's like then then it's like your all your choices are kind of being made for you in some Probably. Regards.
Jamie: Yeah. I and I think you probably branch out as the kid gets older, and you there's more skills coaches and more power
Scott: Well, yeah.
Jamie: As you and I think you should at that point, you should probably play some spring hockey. You know what mean? And and go travel
Erik: a little
Jamie: bit to better spring hockey teams, right, to see how you are compared to, like, you know, local kids or local the kids on that, you know, spring team.
Scott: Yeah. That's what
Jamie: I would do different. Wouldn't do any spring hockey when I was younger, and I would just train,
Erik: train, train, That makes sense.
Jamie: And as my kid hit, like, 14, 15, I would then look to kinda like if it's if he's he wants to do it, number one, and if he's good enough, number two, then I would kinda spider out.
Scott: Yeah. It's an interesting If I had do it over
Jamie: again.
Scott: If you it was initially thought, like, you wonder if, like, you didn't do all that stuff, like, hot and heavy in the beginning Right. I would be surprised if he didn't, like, still develop a passion and love for it. You know what I mean? If he was or do you think being a part of, like, these high end teams and these high end practices, you think that was part of what made him, like, fall in love with playing hockey that he was he got recognized for being good, and he was somewhat, like, rewarded by being My kid?
Jamie: Yeah. No. No. I don't think so.
Scott: So if if if you didn't do any of those, like, pre break, you know, whatever, do any of those early on tournaments, or do you still you think
Jamie: I think he
Erik: actually would have
Jamie: been better Better. Suited today.
Scott: Okay.
Jamie: Because I think that he would have played local, and he would have not had some pressure on him. Well And Yeah. Different kids deal with that in different ways. Don't get me wrong. Right?
Scott: Oh, yeah. Saw your eyes. You were like, oh, were looking at the cable.
Jamie: No. I was No. Was Oh,
Scott: I thought you were wondering whether or
Erik: not.
Jamie: No. I was looking at your mic because your mic is all messed up.
Scott: That's not messed up.
Jamie: No, it
Scott: is. What's
Jamie: messed I'm looking at it. You're you're that's alright. The the stabilizer that's in between is is Hey. Hey. Restabilized?
Restabilized. I I have to tell you. So I'm I'm just gonna give you guys a disclaimer. Scott and I have new gear. We we went out, we upgraded our gear, so our audio interface is brand new, and it kinda looks like a dashboard in a rocket ship.
That's we're both
Scott: I think I think it looks like something that belongs like on a DJ's turntable.
Jamie: Something out of the board game Candyland, only electronic? Not far off. Right? You know Very colorful. I see Colorful.
Pink, purple, blue, orange, green, everything under the sun.
Scott: Well, at least our listeners now know you're No. Not
Jamie: I'm definitely not color blind. I mean, we're we're using new gear, so just bear with us audio wise. We're hoping that
Scott: Oh, this is perfect.
Jamie: We're hoping that this is going to enhance
Scott: our sound. It's enhanced. It's it's enhanced. It's enhancing. Know we need
Jamie: a lot of enhancing, but we're enhanced.
Scott: We're we're in the process of it being enhanced.
Jamie: We're in the process
Scott: of being enhanced. Anyway, this was sound right. This was a rather lengthy
Jamie: It was.
Scott: Lengthy up until this point. Yeah. What do think? You wanna, like, wrap this one up?
Jamie: We certainly can. Yes. Thank you to Eric Cole for coming on with us. It was awesome. I hope he does a part two with us.
It was pretty sick to have an ex in each other. Is that me? Can you ex me out there, buddy? No. There you go.
Thank
Scott: you. See, didn't even look.
Jamie: I I gotta get these alarms to stop going off. I was impressed we did that without without looking us right.
Scott: I mean
Jamie: Nice job, buddy.
Scott: I try.
Jamie: Yeah. Sometimes harder than others. Thank you again.
Scott: Talk to my children.
Jamie: The next time we see you guys, we'll be kinda live from the Moe's Smile event.
Scott: Looking forward to that. Absolutely.
Jamie: That's awesome. Thank you to our partners for supporting us. Thank you to everybody for listening and downloading and sharing. I know that it is hard to listen in the summertime because everybody's on vacation, so we appreciate the ones who do.
Scott: Yes. Thank you all. Thank you all.
Jamie: Yes. And that's 75 in the books, and we'll see you in a couple of days.
Scott: Alright, my guy. Alright, bye. Peace. That's easy.