Michigan Hockey Is Rolling! Denver Sweep + Exclusive Interviews with Brandon Naurato & Marty Turco

[Michigan hockey fans, it’s time for the Maize and Blue Breakaway podcast with your host Billy Jaffe.

Well, it took 45 years to get Michigan and Denver together in the regular season, not in games otherwise. But I’ll tell you what, good things happen for those who wait, I guess, as the Michigan Wolverines sweep Denver in Denver Friday and Saturday, albeit two different games, but the Wolverines come out with a big sweep and are now the new number one team in the NCAA Division I hockey. What a weekend it was. No better guest to have than this guy, Coach Brandon Naurato, joining us here for a couple of minutes on Maize and Blue Breakaway as we set you up for this week and talk a little bit about last week.

What a series, coach. What a fun series to watch. Intense. But, I’m watching it. I’m working a few other games as well. And I’m watching these games and I see you guys come out and play with such passion. The atmosphere appeared electric watching it on TV. But you tell me, you were behind the bench. Tell me about the games, the energy, the passion of that weekend.

No, it was awesome. It was everything you’d expect. I think they broke an attendance record at Magness Arena. I don’t know if it was for the full weekend or just Friday night, but obviously they celebrated their national championship before and how that goes like waiting a little bit longer with some of the event stuff. But, I think both teams were just excited to get after it and play some high-intensity hockey early in the year. So, it was a good test for us.

It was great. Now, again, outside looking in, it seemed like two almost very different games. Would you agree with that? That the way that they were played. Friday I’m watching you guys. I thought your back pressure, your sticks, everything was great. More of a defensive, not defensive battle by any stretch, but a defensive effort. On Saturday seemed a little more frenetic, a little bit more wide open.

Yeah, both games—you’d have to talk to them too on how they felt. Like I feel like there’s still a lot more from us. I felt like on Friday we played—I don’t want to use the word safe like because it’s a negative connotation, but like after having the lead for a little bit, like we sat back instead of continuing to attack and in a good way. Like I felt like we managed the game well, but that it’s not our goal to sit back and hang on and hold on.

I didn’t like the penalties in both games, just too many. Without getting into it, I don’t think we were undisciplined. I don’t think they were bad calls either, like penalties are penalties, but really proud of the PK and killing off the five-on-threes, especially on both nights. It was kind of like a little bit of a tug-of-war, but I don’t know if we ever like got into a flow after the first period on either night just because of the penalties and even the faceoffs like just taking a long time and both teams getting kicked out and kicked in.

I know this sounds crazy, but they were almost boring games at times with the type of talent on both teams and the offense. It was kind of boring. And obviously they do a really good job of being above and their defensive structure. So, maybe a little bit of a chess match, but more from the players, not from the coaches. But it was good. They’re a really good team. Both games could have gone either way.

Like I said, being in the box as much as we were is not conducive to winning in the future, but I think I feel like the penalty kills stood up for sure, especially on those three-on-fives. And I thought Jack was outstanding.

Jack was awesome. We’re going to get to that very soon. But just to put some numbers to what you’re talking about because I have it down here. Six penalties in each game. Six short-handed situations in each game. So, 12—just way too many. I know you already said it, but that probably doesn’t lead to winning hockey overall when it’s all said and done. Usually three is the number that most coaches can live with and you guys double that.

But because of the way your goaltender played and because of the way some of your top PK guys really worked well, moved well. Again, I thought Friday good sticks, etc., you’re able to make it not as much as a factor, I guess. Let’s talk about Jack. It’s so worth it because again I was watching some highlights again this morning and his movements at times he’s got that great athleticism to him and reminds me a little bit about a former goalie at U of M years ago, Marty Turco who we’re talking to afterward—not just his pads but his style but then I also found him a couple of times just so set and so calm and so ready for the moment for the shot coming at him.

I don’t know him personally. You obviously do. His personality at least from the outside again looking in seems to be that way. Very controlled.

Yeah, controlled. Just calm demeanor, swagger, confidence. I think that’s the biggest thing, Billy. I’m not a goalie guy, but like he’s never swimming in the net. It’s never desperation saves unless it has to be because of some broken play or chaos, but he’s always set and he almost makes it look easier at times because he covers the puck or he gloves it or whatever it may be. His rebound control is so good so you don’t get into those chaotic moments where now you’re, feeling like the momentum shifting and the pressure’s on and all that stuff.

He calms the game down.

He’s impressive and I don’t know if the statement is, accurate enough that he is the best goalie in the NCAA. I will say this, he’s one of the best goalies in the entire NCAA. You’re going to be seeing a good one coming up this weekend on Friday against Western Michigan. Actually, ironically, a former Denver goalie as well, DU goalie who was there last year. Let’s talk about Friday night not having Landon DuPont in the lineup and when you realize that, and how that alters your game plan as far as how you manage your defensemen, coach, take us through that thought process.

Yeah, we’ve been dressing seven. We dressed seven for that game. We played six for the majority of the game. It’s just it sounds so cliche, Billy, but it’s just next guy up. We made some tweaks to the power play just to move some different guys around. And obviously losing Landon’s a big piece, but when that stuff happens the day before a game or whatever it may be, you don’t really have too much time to think about it. It’s like, all right, we need other guys to step up and they did and let’s get after it.

Like you said, you played six of the seven regularly. Three of them though hit the 20 minute mark. You had Rhéaume-Mullen and then you had Asher Barnett and Robertson each played over 20. So, you obviously didn’t just rely on them. You played guys an awful lot, but those guys in particular ate more minutes and in contrast on Saturday night Naurato, only one guy hit that number basically. So again it’s a it’s just it seemed to be a different way of managing your D crew.

Yeah, just how the games go. That’s the thing about the penalties too is obviously if you have a good PK it’s going to be that much better if you take three penalties versus six. But in the second period on Saturday night, the Hage line is sitting there for six, seven minutes because of those five-on-threes back to back. So that’s tough. Now you’re pulling your top offensive line off the ice and just the flow and the momentum. But the coolest thing is when we were killing that three-on-five off outside of like the big block shots or the saves or the clears, just the bench energy.

I feel like the guys that weren’t going did a great job of supporting the guys that did knowing that when it’s my turn again, we’ll be ready. And you know how that is when you’re sitting there as a player for a long time and then you get the second period break, you got to kind of refocus and get amped up to finish it off. So, I was proud of the guys for that. But I thought it’s kind of what we’ve been fighting for over the last few years is just the maturity in our game that I’m really proud of the guys for how we’re managing games when we’re up and it’s not about sitting back or attacking but playing the right way and it’s a three-on-two rush with a backchecker a three-on-three you have numbers above we have to lay it behind them.

We’re learning to play different styles of play early on in the year because of the returners and their pain and success moments. There was like two odd-man rushes each in Saturday night and they’re probably four-on-threes. Like there’s nothing there. They’re always above. That’s why they’re in it every year. And they do a good job with their tracking and their reload. So, like you have to feed your forecheck and that’s not like a secret sauce against them. And it’s if you don’t do that, you’re going to get burned because they’re so good at creating turnovers in the neutral zone.

So, I was proud of our guys, especially our top offensive guys for buying into that especially so early in the year. It’s a standard by the end, but it was good and great that we won two games, but it’s awesome in October. It means nothing. And we’re we know who we’re playing this weekend and there’s a good rivalry there and a lot of respect and obviously they won it two years ago and they’ve had a lot of success since Fersch has been in there and we know this weekend’s going to be a war and just getting prepped for that.

So we’ve turned the page pretty quick.

Friday night game in Ann Arbor, at Yost, and you have the 30th reunion of the 96 team coming as well. So that’s it’s always cool it’s just those moments are cool. It’s what makes great hockey schools great schools, right? Tradition, people coming back, etc. Important. You bring something up that I wanted to ask you about. You talk about top guys buying in and just again little notes that I have from watching the game. Hage, no points on Friday. This is I think a good example and I’ll ask you specifically about him.

But Saturday night, he starts producing, right? But when a guy who’s so good offensively doesn’t get the offensive, reward so to speak, have you noticed that players like a Michael Hage understand that it doesn’t matter it in the sense of, they want to score and they need to get their cookies as we like to say eventually, but going from Friday without scoring, but the team still wins 4-1 and then Saturday he produces. Do you notice a difference in him now as a junior that he understands those moments more?

Oh, big time. And he’s still hungry to get on the scoreboard on Saturday. He was out for Perron’s first goal on Friday and second man support and helped Horcoff get it up to Dakoda. So, he would have had the third assist, but I think that’s why one of the big reasons he came back to Michigan is to help this team win. So, it’s been cool to see his maturity. All these guys have of course they want to score and have their own individual goals, but winning should trump that.

And I think he’s showing it with his play.

Where has Perron become a better player this year? And again, I know it’s early, but the goal scoring is there. I’m watching him and it’s cliche, Naurato, but the puck is finding him. But after knowing him from last year to this year, where have you seen the bump in his game?

Yeah, I think it started last year in the second half, especially around like the beginning of February, really got hot from a production standpoint, but his habits started really consistently figuring out around Christmas or January. He’s so elite with the puck. He’s one of the most skilled guys we’ve ever seen like carrying the puck through the neutral zone and in the offensive zone. What he’s gotten a lot better at, Billy, is his inside plays away from the puck. His puck support when he doesn’t have a play, not forcing plays to the middle, but we call them like next play options.

Like how do I keep not like a dump in, but even when we’re in the zone, placing a puck to speed away from it so that we can still have offensive-zone possession. But the biggest thing is just getting to the inside. It wasn’t that he was perimeter or soft in the past. It’s just finding ways to get inside. There was a play in the second period or first period on Saturday night. It was a rush play where Hage ended up pulling up and hitting the weak side and then Horcoff got like a shot tip in front of the net.

But the whole play developed because Perron went to the net and it backed up both their D actually sucked two guys to him and Horcoff was wide open. So didn’t touch the puck. Wouldn’t have had an assist on the play. But that’s the little things. It’s kind of like a soccer concept. We talk about running the first route for your teammate and run the next route for yourself. And he’s doing all those little things to allow his teammates to have success and for him to have success as well.

Speaking of letting your teammates have success, some guys that play like a more of a traditional defensive style game don’t get as much recognition for obvious reasons, right? How fun was it to see a guy like Barnett get the goal on Saturday night? Albeit, let’s call it a fluke. It is what it is. It’s a good bounce. It’s a great bounce if you’re a Michigan fan, but this is a guy that’s known for being in a wonderful way rock solid stay at home leader as a young player etc.

But here he is shrinking the zone, getting the puck up top, not 10 or 15 feet farther out toward the point. If he doesn’t support there, he might not get that shot off or at least it might not get the same. Here he gets a pretty good shot off, but yet it misses the net. The carom is perfect again if you’re a Michigan fan. Hits the goalie and the and the DU player and back into the net. You have to laugh about it in hindsight, but at the moment, what were you thinking when you saw that happen?

It was a big goal. I was thinking, did he touch it with the high stick or not? Because they originally waved it off. But, we’ve got a new nickname for Asher. We’ve been calling him Barney Orr, number four. So, it’s kind of it’s kind of sticking in a fun way because, he had a couple shifts against Alaska where he was dancing and carried the puck up. But, it’s been really cool to see a guy like him take so much pride on the penalty kill and the defensive side of the game, but then have success through our structure of producing more offense.

Because it I don’t think it’s a knock, but that was kind of the knock on him growing up is he’s so good defensively, but when you’re so good at one versus the other, you kind of get knocked like I remember Jack Johnson guys saying that he wasn’t good defensively or Quinn Hughes because they were so good offensively, right? So Barney’s finding ways to have success from an offensive standpoint inside the structure and he deserves it and it’s there

By the way, I can throw out a name. He was not a Michigan kid, but Jaccob Slavin, pretty darn good defensively. He’s had a pretty sweet career. It’s funny how scouting reports can knock kids in everything. Find something you’re really good at. Do it well. Work on other stuff, too. But it’s amazing how it works out. Couple of more minutes with you. Naurato, as this team is in a great spot early on in the season. Haven’t even hit Big Ten yet.

We’re pumping brakes here at Maize and Blue Breakaway, but we understand what this team is about, but we understand it’s also about depth. And a guy like, I’m going to ask you if you had one or two players that you said had a great weekend that maybe won’t get talked about. I’m going to throw out a name, too. You can completely disagree with me and say, “Hey, Billy, you’re full of it.” which have been known to me before, but guy like Nesbitt, I was watching him Friday night and I loved his faceoffs and I loved his attention to detail.

Would he be a player that probably doesn’t get enough credit when it’s all said and done?

From the public for sure, not from his teammates and us to beat a team like we did on the road. And again, those games could have gone either way. You need everybody. It wasn’t just one line. I feel like all of our lines have been going and without going through everybody, but Cole McKinney and Jack Nesbitt in the faceoff circle and especially on the penalty kill. Gosh, I don’t know if I’ll ever have that luxury again of a lefty and righty.

And both guys are great on their off sides as well. So it’s not like, oh, it’s a left shot, I got to put Nezzy out or right shot, I got to put McKinney out. They just win draws at big moments and how they play down low their 200-foot game but then also creating offense on the other side like it’s big time his stick detail both of them Nezzy had one on the three-on-five where he broke up a play cleared it and then sprinted to the bench it was like a clip that you want to show every youth hockey player in the world of just like winning hockey and doing it the right way.

But those guys take pride in that stuff. So those guys really stand out to me. Obviously everyone was involved, but it’s big-time stuff that wouldn’t show up on the scoresheet.

You need that. And you bring up a point about winning faceoffs on your offside, too. The good ones, I don’t want to say make it look easy because they’re actually winning it often times with their head and their quickness, etc. But it’s not easy to do. The strong side so much easier to do. Leverage, bottom hand of your stick, etc. Let’s wrap this segment up here talking about Western Michigan. You mentioned it earlier—Fersch, a.k.a. Pat Ferschweiler, the head coach there.

What has he done so well? This is the first time you and I have been able to talk about it. What has he done so well in the last couple years with the Broncos with that program to put them into the high level elite status that they are now?

Their style of play like they just work. Obviously they’ve been top three, top five every year in goals for and special like it’s everything. Special teams has been has been really good, but they forecheck, they track, and they reload harder than anybody. Like you really have to earn it in like a very complimentary way. Like they don’t sit back, they’re attacking the whole time. They’ll lay pucks in, they’ll feed the forecheck. They’ve got an offensive-zone game. They play fast in transition.

They’ve got a rush game. They’ll come at you hard. They’re tough. I’m pumping them up probably too much, but they’re a really good team. Like they’re they are a tough out in the regular season and in the playoffs. Like you have to earn it on them. You have to earn it. But to me, it’s kind of all the same stuff that and how we play and how we want to play. We don’t want to defend by sitting back. We want to defend by taking the puck from you.

I feel like they’re the same way and they want to play in the offensive zone and I believe that’s how hockey should be played. And so a lot of respect for their team and how they do it over there.

Well, you had a big boy weekend in Denver. You guys went out a night early. Looks like practice on Thursday helped the team. Again, you could tell me better. Didn’t look tired at all. They handled the acclimation to the altitude. They get there. They get the sweep. Now they come back. Last weekend doesn’t matter. Now they come back and face another one of the top teams in the country for another Big Boy game. Just one this week, which is nice for you guys after the travel, etc.

But I’m looking forward to watching this one, too, because the way that Western plays and the way that you guys play should lead to some awesome hockey this time at home. And again, it’s the 30th reunion of the 96 team. A lot of the guys are going to be in the house. I don’t know if we’re going to have a another intermission Score-Oer shootout, situation, which is akin to winning the Powerball lottery. How that happened, years ago, 10 years ago.

But it’ll be great to have all those guys there from 96. I know that’s important to you and the program and have a great weekend. Have a great Friday night. Enjoy it. Good luck and take it to Western. Awesome weekend. Take it to them this weekend and get a little rest on Saturday.

Yeah. Thanks a lot, Billy. And appreciate what you guys are doing. The show’s been awesome and yeah, keep it going here. Be great.

All right. Thanks a lot, Coach Naurato joining us here on the Maize and Blue Breakaway. And coming up is going to be one of those guys from the 96 team, Marty Turco. Marty Turco is going to be joining us here on the Maize and Blue Breakaway, a Michigan hockey podcast. Stay tuned. Well, and as I mentioned with Coach Naurato, a big weekend coming up in Ann Arbor because it’s that 30th reunion for the 96 team and I figured no better guest to have.

And there’s some great guests from that team. What a team that was. But this guy I haven’t been able to catch up with lately and so it’s a pleasure to bring Marty Turco in. Turks, this has been too long. We got the text going again and everything, but this guy right here, Marty Turco, goaltender, 1996 and 98 NCAA championship. Most outstanding player in the 98 one. Four Frozens. I’m going to go through everything quickly. 127 wins. 2017 Michigan Hall of Honor class.

On and on and on. And by the way, oh, now you’re even in Dallas Stars Hall of Fame. It’s just ho-hum for you now, Turks, right? Awards galore.

Hey, Jaff. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, thanks for having me. No, hey, nothing’s ho-hum when you get to our age, right? You take everything you can. You’re at that stage of our lifetime where you get to reflect. You get to enjoy it, include the family, and also get to say thank you to a lot of great people that have made a big difference in my life. And you know me—I love sharing things with others and the Stars Hall of Fame was a real cool one and I look forward to that one.

That’s not till December. So it should be fun time.

Quite an honor. Really impressive stuff. An 11-year NHL career after his four-year career at Michigan which I think is probably safe to say that would not happen in this era anymore. Marty as everybody gets rushed through the experience of the NCAA. You may have been lucky, my friend, to have two years, I think, in Ann Arbor if you were playing goal there now.

No, guess we’ll never know. But, I really wasn’t that good. There’s other better goalies and the Stars for that matter that drafted me, they didn’t need me. They had Roman Turek and Ed Belfour, Manny Fernandez, and Mike Bales. Like it was daunting when I turned pro to come here and look at the long list of guys and to their credit they looked at Michigan with like Craig Button and Les Jackson they’re like you’re going to final fours every year we sold out the Palace of Auburn Hills we sold out Joe Louis Arena you like you’re going to play more on TV than you are in the minors.

Michigan is such a great spot for you. We played big games, walking into Dane County my freshman year playing against Wisconsin. They’re like, “What environment can we do in pro that you’re getting here? This is such a better experience.” So, they could have been full of it, but they didn’t need me is more of my point. And I always tell people like, when you have to get to play four years, have all those wins because the teams were good most importantly, but Red played me every game.

I was never hurt and I was just bad enough that the Stars didn’t want me to turn pro, like you got to get all those things to line up the right way and it was a heck of a four-year run. We did have a blast and as you said that 96 team some special people on there, not just on the ice, but off the ice.

Oh, what a crew. We’ll get into that in a little bit as well. Before I want to get to your story going to Michigan, deciding to go there and right before it, etc. But what I what I want to know though before we do that is do you get a chance to know what this current Michigan team looks like a little bit, and what they’re about? I did I think you caught one game this past weekend. Is that correct?

Yeah, I caught one this past weekend, a Friday night game. I was almost really bummed out. I was like set my whole Friday night up before this. It was a nice night in. I was going to Vegas on Saturday and I watched them one game already this year and it was starting to get really cool for me. You’ve got a great goaltender. I’ve known Jack since he was 13 14. I know the family and I’ve communicated with him before he ever went to Michigan when he was in the OHL and playing for team Canada.

So selfishly, it’s like we, know some of these guys and obviously some of the guys’ dads I played with or against, in the NHL. And then now we’ve got young stud JP Hurlbert, his dad Jeff and I, we were classmates at Michigan. We’re business partners here in Dallas. We’re dear, dear, dear friends. He just had a big 50th birthday party. So, it’s just starting to feel like, I’ve probably never been more excited personally for a team and that partly does include cuz, I know some of them and that personal attachment is there, but also this team just looks fantastic and that Friday night, they just look hungry and ready to play and it is one of the best defensive performances I’ve seen.

They’re just these guys are reloading. They’re in the right position. They’re willing to do whatever it takes and that’s, that’s winning hockey right there. We know we could score. But can we keep the puck out collectively and play the right way for 60 minutes nightly? I think that’s the challenge for any team, not just one in college, but they looked awesome this weekend and caught the highlights of the Saturday game. So, I’m pretty invested, Jaff. I’m pumped to go back.

They did look great, man. And you talk about defensively, yes, the D crew gets a ton of attention, given a couple of names back there, but the forwards are committed so far. You can’t play great D without good forwards pressing back as well. You just can’t, you got to have gap closure, all that stuff. So, they’re doing it. And then, and then, oh yeah, by the way, when some of these kids decide, I want to get after it offensively from the back end, holy smokes, the skating ability is just it’s impressive.

It really is. Take me back, though. Let’s start with this. Take me back to a couple of years before you’re in Michigan or you go to Michigan for your freshman year. You’re a Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, not to be confused with the Soo where Lake State is on the U.S. side—kid. But take me back to where you’re 15, 16, maybe 17 and you’re saying, “Okay, maybe I’m good enough to go play college somewhere.” And then the process begins with Michigan.

When did that begin? When did you think maybe you had a chance to go play college hockey?

It wasn’t 15, 16, and maybe only half of 17. This part you don’t know, Jaff. But I was already starting to count chickens in the wrong way. Not with a two foot birdie putt to win all the money either. I’m talking like, youth hockey ends after high school, right? And so, I just wasn’t that good. And I was good enough to play AAA and I was really talented, but I was small. And I was I don’t know when I was 16 I was probably still 5 foot six like people shooting over my head.

And so it wasn’t until Abbie Carricato my coach for the Soo Legion AAA team U18 and U17 back then. And he’s like dude are you going to try? Right. I’m like I’m trying. He’s like no like actually try. It’s like I don’t understand what he’s saying. He’s like, “Marty, you come here, you go through the motions.” Yeah, you make most of the saves, but are you getting better? Do you think about what you’re doing before you come here or do you think about it afterwards?

Are you making your teammates the best you can? And when you left here, were you better than before you came? And I was like, “Yeah, typical kid.” And I really thought about it that night. That resonated with me and we were all a little scared of him. And then I was like, anyway, I started putting the effort in. The size helped get a little more muscle mass and so anyway, we went to Air Canada Cup my last year playing with them.

I don’t think I lost the game all year, maybe lost one or two in the playoffs. And that year Michigan Tech was there and they offered me a scholarship and I hadn’t taken the SATs yet, I didn’t have an uncle, my dad, nobody to help me out. I didn’t have an agent and I was like they’re like, “Listen, we got to register you. We have an all-American goalie. Redshirt. You come in the year after and you can be the guy.

I was like, I don’t know what shirt I thought you guys are black and gold. I don’t know what’s this redshirt you’re talking about. They’re like, you need number two pencils. I was like, I took two pencils to an SAT. I had to drive to Traverse City. I was so naive. So, anyway, this long story short, the guy and Billy Powers knew each other really well and I said, “Hey, I’m going to play junior. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Let me take the SATs.” And I went to Cambridge, Ontario, and that coach, I forgot his name, told Billy Powers, he was like, “Hey, you guys, Shields, he’s a senior, we had [name unclear], just go watch him.” And then him and Mel did. And so anyway, that whole year was kind of it was finally wasn’t until my really my last year playing youth hockey that I thought maybe there was a chance. But I yeah, I didn’t know there was a chance to go to somewhere like Michigan and then I got recruited and I they kept asking me to come down on a Saturday to watch a football game in the fall and I’m like I think this is a test.

Like no Canadian kid is going to leave their own team on a Saturday night. Are you crazy? Yeah. We just we all we do is play hockey. I’m not leaving my team high and dry. And I did unofficial visit maybe in January, February, just driving through and I just knew sitting with my dad, even though I got grilled by Red, it was awesome. I was so scared. I was nervous. The cover was Wisey, Ollie, and Shieldsy, all Hobey Baker candidates. They’re ranked top three in the country.

I still didn’t know much about it. I just, all I knew is like looking down at Shieldsy, I wanted to be that guy. I don’t want to be the guy that they’re booing and heckling out at the other end. And then I said no to every other scholarship offer I had, which was not many. And I could have been caught left with the bag if Red went with John Grahame or somebody else. To be honest with you, I went all the way in the third round of the playoffs before Red offered me the scholarship.

And if he didn’t, I probably would go back and play junior. And so, people say, yeah, I was there’s a lot of luck to it. Timing and stuff and for me, you got to get the luck and then you got to walk through the door, right? But the timing was impeccable. Yeah.

What was that call like from Red when you finally got offered? This is really late to get offered, but what do you remember about the call?

Yeah, I remember it was Monday morning and we just wrapped up a series with Listowel. I didn’t even know the name of their team. I couldn’t even find this one on the map. Somewhere in the middle of potato farms in Ontario. And we played that Saturday night. It was [name unclear] and his team. And they were good scrappy team, but this was a tiny building. I’m thinking maybe 800 people packed to the gills. Red called and said, “Marty, I was at that game Saturday night in Listowel.” We won, too.

I made 52 saves. Wow. Red was up there in the blue line room probably having a few beers with some of his NHL scouts and you just making saves like you’re on the street, right? You made 52 saves in 60 minutes in a playoff game is, it’s one of the greater games I ever had. But I didn’t know Red was there and I didn’t care in the playoffs. But so he called me and he just said and cuz Michigan had just lost to Lake State who went on to win the national championships in the quarterfinals which people were calling that was the national championship game right there and Red’s like Marty we need to win one and I watch you Saturday night but don’t answer right now.

I want to offer you full-ride scholarship call me back tomorrow sleep on it. I was like thank you sir. Yeah I’ll call you tomorrow for sure. And then, I called my dad, told them, and then about an hour later, really weird. Ric Schafer called me from Notre Dame. It was only their they just completed their first full season at D1, and I never talked to them once. So, I don’t even know how they got the my this phone number at my billets’ house, and they called and said, “Hey, I’d like to offer you scholarship.” I’m like, “And who doesn’t know Notre Dame even though I never talked to them, right?” So, I called my dad and he’s like, “Well, you got a decision to make.” I’m like, “I never visited there.” but at the end of the day, I would have regretted it because Michigan was it, Yost, Red, it’s just everything.

And again, it worked out. It was a fun four years, but it was a little dicey going into the whole deal.

Yeah. So, all right. So, then you get to Michigan after your junior career. You’ve always been a confident guy and that’s I think all successful athletes many and most successful people forget athletes in life have a confidence to them. But did you feel that confidence walking in as a freshman? And I don’t mean cockiness. Did you feel it, or did you question things when you got there about how am I going to deal with this?

And I don’t mean just on ice. I’m talking about Michigan’s impressive. It’s fun. We all love it. But it can be intimidating too, especially for a smaller town kid.

Yeah. Probably the best thing was being a smaller town kid, having like literally was clueless about Americana, about Michigan that like I didn’t know it was probably the most popular school in the world for an American institution. So, being that naive was really helpful because I was like, “All right, what’s up now?” I met Travis Conlan who’s a point guard for Michigan my first day on campus and we talked about all the time.

We were at the Michigan house at West Quad in the courtyard, like he always the way he tells the story. What’s up, guy? Guy, what do you do? Basketball, what do you do? Hockey. Oh, yeah. Let’s hang out. And we trade tickets and we still hang out and golf. Him and Greasie and I. So, I was perfectly naive. And to your first part of the question, I was super scared. I almost didn’t want to play because one I couldn’t I was so small.

I was still 154 pounds I think when [name unclear] weighed me in at 5-foot-10 maybe. Not that I’m massive now but I still grew 2 inches and gained 30 pounds in college over those four years which is crazy. And I was 19 when I walked on campus so I was scared. I was really nervous. I didn’t know if I could hang. But that freshman year having two guys, one more important than the other, no offense to my boy Mucks cuz he was a freshman too, but he could shoot it.

He had an NHL shot. But we had Mike Knuble on the team. Yeah. And I had really good eyesight back then. I actually lost it after the summer of my freshman year where I needed contacts. But my freshman year, I could read the label on that puck coming in and if I knew I could catch up to Knuble’s shot, that gave me confidence in every day. But I was just a kid. You know what it’s like to practice Monday, Tuesday, terrible Tuesdays, Wednesday, lightly on Thursday, and then go to go play Friday, Saturday.

Yeah. My legs were noodles by Wednesday. And I remember leaning on my crossbar halfway through games in the second or third period on the second night. Like I was exhausted. I’d be I’d actually sleep on the bus on the way back from, Western Michigan coming from back from Kazoo and guys were talking, making plans. We’re going to go out Friday, Saturday night. I’m like, I’m going to bed. I’m so tired. But anyway, I was really scared. By senior year, obviously, I wasn’t, but also senior year, we lost, those nine amazing guys in that 97 class.

We had 11 freshmen coming in. We just that was our best team maybe ever. We didn’t win it. So even though I was not scared going to my senior year, I was confident, but I was scared because we had 11 guys to groom. And so we put our head down and went to work. But I was, yeah, that’s a part of my a lot of my career. I was always scared of, can I right? And then you get a contract and then I was like, well, I’m going to earn that contract.

And so it’s a mentality. And so, yes, I was a confident guy, but we all are. You got to be, especially as a goaltender. But I also think being naive and the greatest asset was always just getting willing to put it behind me, right? Like have bad exam like willing to learn going to the office. Hey Sue, what do we do? Let in four goals, including one in overtime at Lake State and Red’s glaring at me like back to work Monday, terrible Tuesday.

All right, looking forward to Friday. Can’t wait to get this week over with. It was so much fun. I just love even thinking about it how scared I was to be honest.

So, goalie influences. I had forgotten this and I fully admit did a little bit of research. I probably should do more as a good host would do, but I’m a hockey guy.

He’s a great host.

So, I didn’t realize Mike Liut was I forgot that he was involved. I don’t know how much he was there regularly, but he was listed as the goalie coach. Was it three or four years? Yeah, that’s unbelievable. I know he had gone to law school in Michigan and then he went I remember it now and went to U of M then or was in that area. So he helped out. So how much did he impact you and a couple of other names that influenced you?

Yeah. Well Liut was awesome. Unfortunately he was in law school I want to say at Oakland now somewhere in Detroit. Okay. So I literally see him twice a month maybe three times tops. Okay. But the interactions were so amazing because, he done it in college. He was amazing at Bowling Green. I’m pretty sure he won a Hart Trophy in the NHL. He had a great run. Unbelievable. One of the best. Yeah. Heck of a starter. But a great leader, too, and a very fiery competitor that I’ve learned to know.

But he was really funny. Obviously had high IQ just in law school and on the ice and in the locker room. So he just kept things in perspective and he would just tell like it is. He’d be like—I was young, right? And I was fast and I’d go to like the hash marks to start my wiggle back and he’d be like, “What? Why you go that far?” I was like, “Well, I got to get the speed.” He’s like, “Can’t get speed from 10 feet closer?” I’m like, “I could.” He’s like, “Well, then do that.

Why? Why? Farther you go, the more mistakes you make.” I’m like, “All right, it’s a simple way to look at it. So thanks, Liut.” But he was great. He was really just good to talk to and he just helped the demeanor, the confidence and after games he’d be like only it was only him and Red that really gave a crap after we destroyed someone 10–2 but they’d be like we saw those two goals. What are we doing on this one, and what are we doing on that one?

So yeah, I wasn’t getting articles in the Daily or Ann Arbor News or whatever about those two goals, but those two guys pointed out and kept me kept me on a straight and narrow. Kept me honest. Yeah, but other influences like without knowing it, just being a proud Soo boy. Tony Esposito, guy’s a butterfly guy in late 60s, 70s, early part of the 80s, but that’s why I wore 35. I’m proud to wear that at the University of Michigan. And then, Félix Potvin was kind of my high school influence as I was, watching TV like there’s no internet, no YouTube, no, I didn’t really have any coaching.

It was just figure it out. So, I took a little bit of each guy in the NHL and watched the Toronto Maple Leafs every Saturday. So, I got to watch a lot of Felix. Really enjoyed watching Kirk McLean and the Vancouver Canucks in his heyday. That run he did 94 was awesome. I couldn’t play like him. He’s a stand-up guy, but he really moved the puck well and he was efficient at it and he just I’m just really enjoying it. Plus, he’s a cool, calm customer, and I think playing the puck and that demeanor of his was something that, I wanted to emulate.

Let’s go. Let’s take that. Let’s go from there. And I don’t mean to cut you off, but I want to get make sure I get this. The puck-handling ability because you’ve been one of the best credited one of the best puck-handling goaltenders. There’s a there’s a few guys like yourself and Martin Brodeur and a couple of others, but you were kind not kind of, you developed a different grip that worked for you, the claw, the Turco grip, whatever you want to call it.

So, so tell me about when you started bringing your puck-handling abilities to U of M and how one head coach was about that and what he thought about that.

Well, I thought I was I wanted to play the puck. I just love hockey. If I would play on the ponds in the backyards, I’d always be forward D or just play out, wouldn’t play goalie. I knew the game really well. I had a good skill set. But my biggest detriment wasn’t my confidence or willingness to play the puck. It was just my strength. Every year sticks got a little bit better, a little bit lighter, but also I got bigger, more muscles that I could actually shoot the puck.

So, I wasn’t raising the puck much before I even ever went to Michigan to be honest with you. Had this really cool old Forster glove and blocker that had no plastic piece in it. I would send rebounds crazy. Anyway, I digress. But I that glove was money cuz I wasn’t getting any new gloves. And so that glove I can really grip the stick, but I was doing it the old-fashioned way, straight left arm. I have a 13-and-a-half-degree lie stick. And so at Michigan where I tried it, in my last couple years at Michigan where, I just turned the hand over.

Not only I went from this point right in a very stuck position to like shoulders down, legs bent, very athletic position and I could grip the stick and not like I grip it. I can sauce it cleaner. I flat pass. I can my dispersion range like straight arm you can only kind of once you start going this direction you got to pass it that way. But now my dispersion range went I don’t know 140 degrees. I could look over here and pass it underneath me.

So that just opened up the world to me and really didn’t get really good at it until I played the puck a lot in college, but Mike Sloan be running into me and Peter Bourke, I’d be like, “What he what he standing over there for?” And I’m like, “Give Bubba the puck.” Bubba, especially my senior year, Bubba was the man. I think he played 40 minutes in the national championship game. So playing the puck really became more of a pro thing for me.

And then once I changed that grip, that just changed everything. And I had a backhand. I had a backhand on the glass hard. I had a backhand I could sauce and put it over sticks. And so you’re only as good as your what your coach is willing to do. And so Red didn’t yell at me too much. In the minors I did whatever. And then Ken Hitchcock was already kind of groomed through Belfour in the NHL. And then once I worked every day with Rick Wilson and Zubov and Sydor and Hatcher and Matvichuk and all those guys, they knew what I could do and they were willing to let me do it even though I might make a mistake once a month.

It was the other 65 times, that a puck landed on the stick or got out of trouble and they never got a hit that it and then we just knew there was no analytics back then. It was the eye test, right? We’re like, hm, we’re spending more time in their end than we are on our end with Marty playing the puck. I think that works. And so, I did have a lot of confidence to do it. That’s part of it. But I also practiced this thing every day, worked with my teammates, work with the coaches to make sure we’re all on the same page.

And I think communication as much as skill set is both equally as important.

Well, you mentioned playing out on the ponds, on the lakes, whatever, just the outdoor rinks and love hockey and shooting, etc. You, 10 years ago, happened to be on the ice at U of M for the 20th reunion of the 96 team. And then they had their intermission Score-O which I grew up with Chicago stadium. To me that was the original Score-O. I trust me that was that was the old Chicago stadium and the Score-O there was tremendous.

I’m happy that Michigan took it on, too. You get out there and then two more players get out there. Starting with Brendan Morrison and then Mike Legg. And we’ve got the video and our producer, our guy Doug, I don’t know if he can roll it in or not. If he can’t here, we’re going to roll it in after the fact. But holy smokes, you go out there and you sink it from the far blue line, right? The far blue line.

Farther than that. Farther than that. Okay.

Almost at the hash marks in the other end.

All right. You sink it right in the And the hole is all of 5 in, 4 in, whatever it is. Like it’s inches. That’s wide. That’s it.

Probably you got to no more than three pucks wide but whatever that is there’s like a two inches on each side if you’re dead center. Yeah. It’s not that big. No. So you hit it. Place goes crazy. You crazy.

Morrison comes out. Okay. Now this I don’t want to say it doesn’t make sense that you can do it, but here comes Brendan Morrison. We all know his story. Can’t wait to have him on the podcast as well. He nails it. He nails it. Okay. Then the third guy, Mike Legg, who comes out, and I hope we have time to get to it in this show. He picks the puck up off the ice like he’s going to do the Michigan goal or the Legg Michigan goal and then flings it.

Hurls it. That’s exactly what he hurls it down the ice. How the hell does that go in? Literally, the three of you score. And if you It’s the old lottery ticket. If you bought a lottery ticket, you may have a better chance of actually winning money than three shots going in from that distance. And in particular, the Legg shot.

Yeah, it was. So, we were before the game. Mikki Grant—she’s our team grandma, our mother hen. We were in a little room, and we’d all been congregating for hours before that, probably at one of the local establishments. Brown Jug, I think, was the one that afternoon. She’s like, “Okay, we need three guys to volunteer for the Score-O.” We’re all just like, “No chance. I’m not going on the ice. Are you crazy?’

She goes, “Don’t make me do it.” And half the team’s like, “No, no, go ahead. We’ll know who you’re going to pick.” And of course, picked the goalie, Hobey Baker, and then the famous guy for doing it. So, I actually went up to the student section right before that. So, when So, we went on the ice after the first period and then after that on the way up to the seats, I went into the student section. I wanted to do like a goalie ‘sieve’ chant or whatever?

And so, I did some I did some of the chants with the students and I was talking to them. It was really fun and they’re the best. And then at the someone came and got us and we started walking down the Zamboni tunnel and I’m standing there got these two interns, you see them at the net and she’s like, “Hey, here’s a stick.” Like we didn’t bring our own stick. We didn’t go in the locker room and find one of these player sticks.

We had like 30-year-old sticks. One was like six inches taller than the other one, left-handed. And so I look at Morrison. I’m like, “Which one you want?” He’s like, “Take the tall one.” Oh my god, I took the tall one. Legger’s over there rubbing a stick like he does like this. I’m probably gonna get splinters in his hand. So she brings us out on the ice and she drops the puck at the first blue line and I look up at the student section and they’re all standing with their arms crossed.

They’re like, Yost is not that big. It’s so intimate and I could just see, right? They’re like, “Back it up, dude.” So I went back to the red line. They’re like, “Keep going.” Which is fair. We all played professional hockey and so anyway, I go all the way back to my old net like, is this good enough? Like as a joke and then I few steps forward, I’m at the hash marks, maybe just past the hash marks and they’re like, “Hey, goalie, you go first.” And I was like, “All right, whatever.” And so anyway, when I when mine went in, I really called it to, what it’s like.

I’m left-handed. It’s on the right edge of the dot. And I saw it. It was a little spin going left. I was like, “No way.” I was like, “F that.” like Morrison in your face, dude. Like what are you going to do now? So then when he makes it and the place is going absolutely bananas, we’re like okay. Like sorry, Leger, but if he scooped it up, we’re like, “Okay, at least if he misses. He can save face cuz he’s, he’s doing a little trick.” And then he makes it.

We’re like unbelievable. No effing way. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Morrison’s like, “Pick him up. Pick him up.” We put him on our shoulders. We’re traveling around. He’s doing the wave like he’s the queen. He’s so good at it. And then so we get off the ice. this is my favorite part of the whole story. We get off the ice and one of the intern she comes up and she’s in awe—you see her face cuz she’s at the board. The place is going so crazy.

And so we get off the ice and she looks she goes that was unbelievable. She goes, “Oh, I think you guys actually deserve this.” And she gave me a $25 Meijer gift card for I was like, “No, I don’t need it.” She’s like, “Oh, I can’t keep it. I can’t keep it. I wish I still had it and put in the frame. Oh my gosh. So they I still think I can, but Sean Ritchlin was there and ESPN called Crocker and it was so unbelievable that they were going to put it as number one at SportsCenter that night but they just literally didn’t believe it.

So they called Sean they said hey we saw this video at Michigan. Is it true? We just it’s almost unfathomable. He’s like, “Not only is it true, I was there and it was unbelievable. You got to put it on.” So next day, of course, at the reunion at the Big House, they’re getting ready to do the 96 team. And what do they start with last night? Yost Ice Arena. Not Morrison scoring the overtime goal against Colorado College. Not a save, not Morrison or Legg scooping that goal up at Mariucci against the Gophers.

No, they talk about us scoring the shootout the night before. So it took on a life of its own. It’s still crazy to watch and they asked us to do it this weekend coming up. We’re like, “No, nobody’s doing that.” That was a walk-off, one and done. Drop the mic, put in the archives.

All right. Well, that saves me the next question. If you’re planning on going out there, I don’t blame you for not. Sometimes it’s better left to not try it again. The first time’s always just amazing. Just amazing.

I told her I’m not No more eligibility for me. Sorry. Find three others. Get them out there.

All right. Well, I want to talk about the 96 team. Even though they didn’t want to start with that at the big house on that Saturday, I want to get to it. And I could have a whole show. We could we could sit and have a whole show about your 96 and your 98 team for everything you guys went through. So different those two teams, but specifically 96 since you’re going back this coming weekend. And again, Friday night against Western Michigan is 30th reunion for you guys.

That’s going to be awesome. But take me onto the ice and into your head during that game where you’re down a bit. You’re playing Colorado College at Riverfront in Cincinnati, the Riverfront Coliseum. Who thought, Cincinnati was going to be this hockey hotbed and it what a game and what an atmosphere it was there. But you tell me what you’re seeing, thinking, feeling, especially when you see that game-winning overtime goal going off the stick of one of your captains, Brendan Morrison.

Yeah, there was just so much anxiety and nervousness, pressure because we hadn’t won a national championship in 30-plus years and Red was on the hook for it, right? And even though that wasn’t my demeanor, he’s like, ‘We’re bringing you here to win.’ I’m sure he tells everybody that, right? we need to win the big one. Then the year before losing in triple overtime. But I really think the game, semi-final game against a really awesome team against BU.

They’d had a really tough year with Travis Roy. Beating them handily, 4–0, kind of gave us even more, confidence to be like, okay, no, we deserve to be here. We knew that, but like this probably is our time now. Well, we ran into a buzz saw Colorado College beat a fantastic couple players in Marty St. Louis and Perrin and Tim Thomas and Vermont in a in a controversial overtime game in the semis. But these guys are good. They’re rotating goalies.

They’re built for this. Don Lucia, their coach was well revered, but this is their team. This is the one chance that they had if not a couple. But, anyway, we came out a little nervous, but we were playing great. They’re fast and but we get down one but just like all year it didn’t faze us popped one in you let another one in made a great play made a couple saves and that get to the third period Halko just makes a great pinch and gets a shot on that and Leger just a perfect spot controls a rebound he’s such a talented guy and then that overtime they had a couple chances and was just trying to thwart them off and just give ourselves a chance but it was it I had a great I had a great view with, Mucks swept it over there and then, Bach laying down trying to roll over.

I just felt like felt like an eternity, right. But, nobody better than our Hobey Baker, future Hobey Baker winner, Brendan Morrison. To be there on the doorstep to put that puck away and what an elated moment we had. Don’t remember all of it. It’s fun to watch videos of it, just to see, the hugs and the tears and the gloves and the helmets going flying and then for Brendan to say the absolute right thing at that moment that, what our program had endured, how Red had turned it around, over that last decade to get to that point that it was for everybody, we felt it and that’s why we worked hard, every day in that weight room and it always came up like these chances don’t come along every year and, we knew we had a great team and we had a lot of great teams who were close, but couldn’t do it.

So, it was great. It was a lot of fun. I actually I that was it was the I think it was the last afternoon game of the final four. It wasn’t the Frozen Four yet either. And so that was like a an afternoon tilt. Anyway, on the bus ride home, we’re It was so much fun. I was I literally fell asleep for about two hours back in Cincinnati. I don’t know if I was getting ready for the party that night or what it was, but it was very it was very draining, but obviously so well worth it.

And getting to share with everybody else and then that summer 96 at Fraser’s Pub having, a reunion weekend. So many guys came back, it was such a blast. And the memories will never fade away in that one.

Can you remember at all, Marty, the locker room after the third going, heading into overtime. Can you remember that? And the energy.

Yeah, the energy wasn’t like no one was jumping around by any means, but there’s a cool calmness about the group. No, we hadn’t been there before, but like I said, we played triple overtime the year before, beat a great team two days earlier. And you kind of usually are the way of your leaders and our ultimate leader was Red and Red’s demeanor, he never yelled at us in four years. Teddy Kramer says differently from his era, but I tell you Red never yelled at us.

So, it’s I may have gotten yelled at a little. He’s not a yelling guy, just as a team in the locker room. He’s just always had the right thing to say. He’s just an amazing public speaker, but he was calm and so were we and we believed it and we believed him and we believed in ourselves and so I do remember being pretty calm. Nobody was some people you could tell would walk around being a little nervous, but that’s like before every game.

So, it was it’s kind of like things were normal. They just that they weren’t. It was a lot laying on the line. But, I was just really proud of, the way the guys expected to handle themselves and went out and took care of business.

It’s awesome. And I remember it vividly, myself and a couple of guys, all teammates were at a place, it’s no longer around in Chicago called High Tops right near Wrigley Field and they had the game. You’re right. It was an afternoon game and we were enjoying ourselves that afternoon and then we were up and down emotionally with you guys and then to have the winning goal go in the party that erupted there but also then to hear Mo say Brendan Morrison say that on his interview, his headset interview right after the game.

It really struck us and it really touched us. It did that and it felt like I was a nothing at Michigan. I but it felt like we were part of it with you guys like that it felt like that it mattered for him to say it because of you guys feeling that way. It made everybody it really did you guys made everybody feel amazing because of that and not just winning but just how you felt about it and the importance for the past that had been there.

Yeah. It wasn’t just something he said. That’s truly how we how we did feel. We all felt like that. We talk about Michigan hockey traditions and that’s what that’s what we think of. You want to build something for the next crew and you want to build what the crew before you did and the teams that you played on in the late 80s and early 90s and the close calls and the good teams and that stuff just we knew it all and it was a really special time to be around when alumni weekend there were so many guys back around and we heard the stories and we felt the pride of the program and so that was just because it we hadn’t Red hadn’t won one.

The team hadn’t won one in so long that it was just it was a lot and it probably was so much so that maybe hurt us the next year. But again, it’s just one of those one games, right? You we lost to BU when we had an amazing team. It’s just one of those games you just can’t have. Does one of those games letting the goals I did and post that we hit which could have been a back-to-backer but nothing will ever change from that 96 team because it was to your to that point like that buildup to that 96 team of all those years of sacrifice and hard work and losses and failures that just culminated for it was a program win for the ages.

It was amazing. Hey, I want to go back to something you said much earlier in our chat here about knowing one of the current players since he’s been 13 or 14 and Jack Ivankovic the goaltender for Michigan. I was I wanted to ask you your favorite gear setup that you had at U of M over your four years and then part two of the comment question is how flattered are you were or were you that Jack honored you with what he has right now?

I think we have a picture of this from the a tweet about a year ago. And I’m assuming the hardcore people know this about what Jack did when he got there with his gear. There we go. Sean Shapiro and a year ago had this picture out there, but it’s a bit of a tribute to you, Marty. It looks an awful lot, albeit a little different brands and obviously the just the size of the equipment. But when you see that picture and you see your get up, what did that mean to you that Jack to do it?

And what was your favorite setup in your four years at U of M because I know goalie gear is important to you and almost all of you guys in the goalie union how you look.

Well, I loved every one of my setups. Mr. Brian Heaton was a fantastic guy, but I was when so Frank, Jack’s dad, text me. He’s like, “Can you send me a signature on a blank piece of paper?” and he was kind of a jokester. I was like, I’m not sending you my signature, you can do whatever you want with, but he ended up putting it on the scoop of his pad on the side there. And so it was I was, really humbled by, him doing that, copying my senior year pads.

I’ll never forget the day they showed up. Like I designed them, but until you see them in person, right? And they showed up in the box and Ian and I are going through it. I remember Red walked in the locker room. He just looked at him. He’s like, “Jesus Christ.” You know, he didn’t say anything. He didn’t say, “No, that’s ugly or it’s terrible.” No one ever done a switch. I only thing I regret now is that I each pad were opposites of each other, but the gloves were the same.

I’m like, “Why didn’t I have one glove be opposite of the other?” hindsight being hindsight, but Jack’s just such a special goalie and special kid and a lot of great ones over the years and he’s going to be a good one too. But yeah, that’s I there’s something like had some dark blue setups my freshman year. They were tiny pads, but I also was tiny. But probably my junior year where we put this leather this maize sleeve over the leather straps right in the middle of the pad and mostly dark blue.

I just liked blue leather, that dyed blue leather. You’re like, man, this is the best part. And you got the winged helmet. We what a time for me. I was just like amazing. And I speaking of equipment, didn’t dawn on me until recently that the first pair of first brand new pair of goalie skates I ever got in my life was at Michigan. Really? So, I got a scholarship to Michigan and drafted by the Stars with hand-me-down skates.

Like, I’m dead serious. And I was like, man, I should have been telling my kids this young.

Well, let me tell you this about me. I go into Michigan and I’m not the biggest recruit there, but I’m there in 1987 and my skates were Jeff Norton’s skates that he barely wore the year before. And they give them to me, the Bauers, whatever. They give them to me. The only problem is Turks. I don’t skate like Jeff Norton does. Nobody did. The beauty of them. So, funny stuff, but I ended up using them and, I enjoyed them until mine came in.

Listen, I want to ask you just a couple of other quick hits there as we wrapped up this chat. And just about time in Ann Arbor. So, I’m going to It’s not rapid fire, just a couple of questions to make because I want to bring it back to just being a student athlete at Michigan. As I have my dog chirping in the background here too as he’s starting to get ready to go back to the ride home. I want to know a couple of things.

What was your favorite thing to do on off days in Ann Arbor? Like can you go back to your days as a student athlete? Was there something that you just loved to do to take yourself away or whether it was away from the team or in general? But just non-hockey thing in Ann Arbor.

The non-hockey thing there was nothing. It was hockey all the time, right? We lived in the same house for the last three years, with Foxy and Malicke, Herrsy and Mucks and a few others in between. We had a football guy, two golfers. And then [name unclear], who tried to walk on with us. Anyway, just hanging with the crew was the most fun. We played some video games back in the day and crank the tunes, cook dinner together or go out and just I just loved it so much being around the boys that I couldn’t get enough.

And my, my girlfriend then wife now, Kelly was 13 hours away and in Thunder Bay, so I had all the time in the world for the guys. And so there wasn’t one place on campus we’d go to. I remember Bobby Hayes had set up like a almost a weekly bowling league, for us. We’d go and do and stuff like that down the down the road, but everything was just about the guys, about the team and there’s big reason why we were as close as we were and we’d won a lot of games.

It was just because we were tight. We spent a lot of time with each other and we were like brothers more than anything. Yeah, we fought like cats and dogs and we told it like it was, but what good teams don’t?. You need to be like that. There’s no sweeping things under the rug. At least with us, we wore hearts on our sleeves and we played like it. We worked our butts off. And when Red said stuff, we listened to be honest.

We had fun on Saturday nights if we were at home and didn’t have to travel and then you had your crap together on Sundays. You were studying and maybe watching football or watching other hockey games, or hanging out with each other. So, it just didn’t feel like we had much time to ourselves because we’re so busy. As you know, our schedule was crazy. So, we had time off. I just, we were just us and hanging out and, having a good time and, yeah, usually center around food.

We were hungry, hungry young men back in the day.

Did you have a favorite place to go eat in the day?

Yeah, we went to a new barbecue place. H, what was it called? They had the grill.

Oh, is it the Mongolian barbecue?

Yeah, Mongolian. Mongolian barbecue. Because it was all you can eat, right? It was probably only it was like 15 bucks maybe 20 all in which to me it was a lot of money. It was the most expensive thing we ever did but it was all you can eat. So we would hammer down go up there two or three four more times. It was and then we took one of the linemen that live with us [name unclear] one time and he put on a display.

I was like holy schnikes. They don’t want that guy coming back. I’ll tell you that. But yeah this that was that was a good one. But we miss Mr. Spots. We were staples there and it was at Bob’s, like it was so good. But yeah, Mr. Spots was great. Keith was the man.

Absolutely devoured the wings over there over the years, too. So good. Listen, Turks, we could go on and on. Again, I could talk to you about so many different things. We’re going to get some of your beverages here. Your Kingsville brewery. Marty’s a multi-level type of entrepreneur now. So, we’re looking forward to getting some of that and then we’ll sell them nationally and then get you as a sponsor. All kidding aside, listen, a special player, a special time in Ann Arbor.

There you go with the lid on. Thanks for taking the time here on Maize and Blue Breakaway. And we appreciate and we’ll get you on another time. We’ll talk 98. We’ll talk some other stuff that you’re doing now, too. I know that’s important to you, but really appreciate the time. Thanks a lot, buddy.

All right, Jaff. You’re the best. Go Blue, bud.

Go Blue.]