Last Second Heroics Reveals Michigan True Strength. Guest Mike Grinnell, known for Spittin’ Chiclets

[Michigan hockey fans, it’s time for the Maize and Blue Breakaway podcast with your host Billy Jaffe. Welcome to the Maize and Blue Breakaway, a Michigan hockey podcast. I’m Billy Jaffe and it was another challenge, a big challenge last weekend, fellas, for the Wolverines. And they took it to Western Michigan in a game. They end up winning 3-2 with 0.1 second left. We’re going to get into all of it. What a crazy third period. But welcome into the show. This week I got Shu and Nolan joining me again for the first part of it.

Coming up in a bit, we’re bringing in G-Man Mike Grinnell from Spittin’ Chiclets or Chiclets U. That’s where he’s made his name with those guys. Separated himself tongue-in-cheek a little bit there. But we’re going to talk all things college hockey. Fellas, fantastic to have you back on the show this week and what a game. What a game. First of all, before we get into the game, we’ll start with you, Max. How you been the last couple of weeks?

Hanging in there, Billy. Hanging in there. I think you guys know I got a little one at home. Just turned eight weeks the other day. So, that’s been good fun in my personal life. And boy, just watching this Michigan hockey team. Nolan, I think we’ll maybe bump to you. But geez, that’s been a ton of fun here to get the fall off to a nice start. It’s beautiful here in Michigan. So, all good in my world, Billy. Thanks for asking.

Yeah, it’s I missed you guys last week. You know, we had a good rhythm for the first couple weeks, but no, the quality of guests so far has been great, Billy. Yeah. Bringing on Coach Naurato and Turco and getting some of the big names going to get some inside Michigan hockey and especially with the reunion that we had this past weekend for the ’96 team. Very fitting to have those guys in there and having a conversation about it. But no, it’s been a heck of a it was a heck of a game last weekend.

Kind of a bummer we didn’t get two out of the weekend. Just the one game one-game series, the rare one-game series in college hockey, but they kept you on the edge of your seat and scoring in bunches with those two goals. And then obviously that goal with 0.1 seconds left is was a cherry on top.

What a fantastic finish. Albeit fantastic if you’re a Michigan hockey fan. If you’re a Western fan, it sucked. But you know what? They got used to it after what happened in the football game the first weekend of the year. Albeit, I think they got a little unfortunate or Michigan got a little fortunate on that one, but this one was legit. This one was 0.1. They looked at it. What a shot from Will Horcoff. We’ll get into the importance of that goal, or at least in theory, I think the importance of that goal for a player like him this year.

Michigan’s now 7-0. They’ve played seven. They’ve won all seven. They are not by any stretch. Look, their first weekend they played some different competition, but the last few weeks they’re not steamrolling Denver or Western, but they’re taking care of business. I think the best news though, fellas, coming out of it is that there’s still a lot more to give. And not to sound too much like Coach Naurato there, like Coach Naurato, but we all know that, you know, being a coach and being a coach that has high expectations that I’m sure he looked at that game and he said it was nice, but it wasn’t great when it was all said and done.

And Max, again, I’ll start with you on that. I mean, it wasn’t like Michigan had free rein on the game. Heck, they were down in that one, right? And but it’s how they responded and in particular early on in the third period.

Well, Billy, how about just these matchups to start the season. This is so much fun. These these high-flying top-ranked teams getting together. It’s just awesome for the sport. We don’t want to get ahead of your conversation with Mike Grinnell, but love the visibility that he’s getting into with college hockey. What a great untapped source of entertainment. What we’ve been treated to so far this season, especially as Michigan hockey fans, has been just outstanding. Right? I think back to some of our out-of-conference matchups that were maybe a little bit questionable in terms of some of the opponents coming to town, but not this year, right?

I mean, they are right at it. Iron sharpens iron with some of these teams they got coming in and Michigan’s risen to the task each time. 7-0. What a start for this team. Getting all the accolades now. They got their target on the back as the kind of undisputed number one team in the nation right now. But getting into the weekend, I mean, you mentioned it. You got Western Michigan coming into town. You know, this is a serious state rivalry. You talk about players that come into Yos want to put their best foot forward.

I mean, every player on Western Michigan is thinking, I’d like to be on that side of the ice. So, they’re coming in, guns ablazing, and that’s kind of what they did. I mean, Western came out, they get that first goal in the first period, sort of hush hush the home crowd a little bit. I mean, Yost obviously is always buzzing to the max, but that’s that’s what you want to do as the road team is come in there, kind of punch the other team in the mouth and get things going.

So, some credit to those Western Michigan Broncos, but they’re a structured team, Shu. They are a structured team. They play well. Pat Ferschweiler Nolan always has them prepared. They’re a little bit older, very mature physically. A physically mature team. I really like the way that they play. I do. By the way, you speak you speak Shu about looking over at the Michigan bench and some of them every like to be over there. Well, William Whitelaw was over there for crying out loud.

Scored a big goal in that the shorty in the game, but the others haven’t. But I like the way that Western play. It’s obvious what they’ve built over there, Nolan. How well they play, how structured they are, and how they really don’t waver from their game. And that’s I think at times what frustrates other teams is that they just don’t waver from it.

Well, they’re not far removed from a national championship. And they’ve established this culture. Or like you said, whenever I talk to people that aren’t don’t watch college hockey every weekend, that’s kind of the what I get from them is, well, Western Michigan, like they have they have a team that’s competing with Michigand Michigan State and Denver and North Dakota. I’m like, not only are they competing, but they’re coming out, their program is set up a little bit differently where they are able to bring in some of these older guys.

Historically maybe guys that aged out of playing juniors that were like older, bigger, and stronger, even playing in junior hockey, and now they come in and they’re already a step ahead of everyone. So, I think the stigmaround Western is long gone. Like this team, and now that they have a winning culture, it’s going to be easier and easier to bring in guys. But like you were saying, Billy, it’s I think probably Michigan’s toughest test so far. I think they were on their heels for most of the game.

You saw them playing from behind for the bulk of that game and then about a quick two goals for Michigan to bring them back into it and then you think it’s going to overtime and then to kind of jump ahead a little bit to Horcoff like just the underhandling of that puck. It’s amazing what that’s the kind of things that you practice and I’m sure something that’s been harped on with him. It’s like underhandle the puck just get that thing off as quick as you can.

You never know what’s going to happen and it happens to go in. So, that was a heck of a finish to the game. But, I also found myself doing a little bit of kind of just checking the rankings to see what’s going on there. Getting way too far ahead of myself because I’m looking at where Denver is right now. They’re ranked two or one not long ago. They’re down at 23. So, exactly what Coach Naurato said to kind of reiterate that.

It’s like you’re never as good as you think you are and never as bad as you think you are because one weekend can change everything and all of a sudden you can go from one down to 18 in a hurry if you don’t take care of business. So, the focus is ahead on Ohio State and making sure they get in there and get after it this weekend.

Yeah. And the buildup is all about come April. I mean, yes, you want to win Big Ten. Yes, you want to be as high ranked as you can heading into the tournament, but really the high ranking, it’s nice for I guess ego. That’s about it. But it’s really about just winning those one-game series when it’s all said and done. So in the end, a team like Denver, just to your point, Nolan, yes, they won’t like where they are right now after they just split, I believe, if I remember it was with Boston College, they’re going to still have a lot of work to do, but you we all know the three of us know in the end Denver’s a really good chance they’re going to be there or really close there in the end because of it.

Back to the Western Michigan game. There were no goals scored in the first period. In the second period, it was Wisdom who scores for Western. He puts them up 1-0. But then it’s early on in the third period. The 44-second mark. Jayden Perron comes in and Perron—just what a gorgeous backhand goal. Just absolutely sick—a right shot coming down the left side, roofs it backhand, gets the place going crazy. Then a few seconds later, what, 20 or 21 seconds later, Rhéaume-Mullen scores a kind of a big rebound or carom after Moldenhauer shot is wide.

Rhéaume-Mullen comes in from the left side. The point and he’s able to put it in. But then Whitelaw scores the shorthanded goal at the 8:45 mark and then Will Horcoff wins it and we will go through the Horcoff goal in better detail coming up. But that ends up being your winner. Michigan outshot Western in the first, 12-8 although Western had some maybe better chances than Western in the second period did for sure. 10-6 were the shots in that period. It’s pretty even in the third 11-10.

Overall in the game, 29-28 in favor of Western. Neither team scored on the power play and as I mentioned the Whitelaw goal was a shorthanded goal. Those are some stats from that game.

Quickly here, I think it’s just worth mentioning early on in the show. Michigan, as we all said, 7-0 already. 39 goals for, guys, only 14 goals against. All right, in those seven games, pretty damn good. They have the highest shooting percentage in the NCAA too at 16.5%. The team—or Ivankovic—has a .933 save percentage. Power play’s been good. Not great. If there’s an area, one area that they can definitely improve on, it’s the power play 18.5% penalty kill at 82%. Their power play guys is tied for 30th out of 63 teams in the NCAA.

You’re not used to seeing that. And their penalty kills at 28. So would you agree, Shu, that the special teams could use a little a little special attention perhaps? And I’m sure the coaching staff knows that better than we do.

Well, no doubt, Billy. I think that’s bang on analysis just in terms of what they want to be doing and what they’re used to doing. I mean this is power play that under Brandon clicks more at a 25–30% clip, which is I mean just unbelievable, right? I mean you follow the NHL with plenty experience in that realm, but I mean these are like Edmonton Oilers type numbers in terms of the rate that they’re clicking at. So very impressive in the past, but you know, we’re in the here and now where the 18.5% I’m sure those guys are looking at each other thinking we can do a little bit more here.

You know, always with the special teams like I think you go back and forth on one that around 100% combined between the penalty kill and the power plays kind of hovering there. But I think these guys are probably just thinking water finds its level. Let’s keep shooting the puck, keep doing what we do that gives us success and gives them a chance to get those goals because maybe if there’s anything they could do a little bit more. Not a ton of chances this weekend.

Obviously, you have the shorty that takes a lot of wind out of your sails. But, you know, I think the message from the coaching staff is probably keep shooting. These percentages will will level back out and we’ll get to where we want and sort of need to be. But, I mean, that being said, 5.5 goals per game. I don’t know if you threw that stat in there, but that of course leads the nation. So, still, it’s not like they’re having any trouble scoring.

So, if these are the so-called problems, and I think they’re good problems to have for this group.

Yeah. Water finding your level. I think, sorry to jump in there, Billy. I think you’re going to see that happen both for as a positive and you’ll see some guys come back down to earth a little bit. Talked about shooting percentage. I think Perron’s around 35% shooting percentage right now. Guy’s got like 30 shots on goal and has 10 goals this year. Like it’s like that’s that’s impossible to sustain. Like obviously he’s going to be thrilled with that number, but even if he ends up around the 15, 10% mark, that’s still an exceptional year.

So you’re going to see that come down. But the same way you’re going to see that power play start to figure it out and push that up. And then you’re seeing like Drew Schock’s got 10 points this year. He’s already matched the total from last year. Unbelievable. So it’s like maybe I’m sure he’s going to have a he’s going to continue to grow from his freshman year. Is he going to put up 55 points this year? Probably not. But even if you can Yeah.

You get 25 points out of him, like what a surprise that would be, especially with the amount of talent they have back there. So, I just love your point about kind of water finding its level because you’re going to see it move around a little bit and some of these metrics are going to kind of come back down to earth a little bit. But in the same way, I think some of the things that Michigan should be really excelling at, I think that they’re you’re going to see improvement in that as the year goes on.

I will always take better five-on-five play though than than relying on special teams and in particular the power play for your offense. I will at any level at any high level whether it’s the NCAA or the NHL because as you get to crunch time in theory fewer penalties fewer are usually called less penalties whatever sorry proper English I’m not sure the whole thing but anyway I just think that if you can rely on a five-on-five and even-strength offense to get you to where you need to be it just benefits you so much better come playoff time.

It does. And I also think the teams are going to be scared. You know, they’ll crap their pants if they give Michigan too many power play opportunities. So, you know, Michigan on the flip side probably could continue to watch the amount of penalties that they take too. That’s the other thing because that could come back to bite them as well at times. And I don’t know, you know, overall I think this start has been of course record-wise, you couldn’t ask for anything better, but the fact that Coach Naurato and his staff have been able to get so many different guys involved.

I look at the numbers the other night and against Western as an example. Even I think if I remember correctly on the season, I think Michigan only has two players that are averaging under double digits of ice time, you know, and that game against Western it was only two players, Simand Muscutt, right, that played under double digits and everybody else is playing above. Meanwhile, Western had four guys that played less than 10 minutes. My point is Michigan’s getting everybody involved.

And again, that’s just something that only is going to benefit them to be able to legitimately play this. You don’t even have a defenseman averaging 20 plus, one guy in Robertson getting that type of minutes. Everybody else is under that. It’s pretty heavy stuff. And you’re going to but you are going to see that change as the as once you get in tighter games later in the year, you’re going to start riding your big dogs. But that’s I think just a testament to how well they’ve been playing this year.

So they’re able to get all these guys in the mix because that’s I mean that’s like half the battle with being a younger like a lot of fresh even though maybe they’re not all young guys. They’re all there’s a lot of guys new to college hockey. So it’ll get your get your feet wet and kind of get a feel for what it’s all like and play some meaningful minutes. But yeah, you’ll see those numbers shift a little bit. I think once you’re playing in tight once you’re playing in a 1-0 game at Munn against Michigan State, then you know, Perron and Hage are going to be out there playing probably 25 minutes a night.

But it’s no, it’s a good point, Billy. Like I like that they’re all kind of getting the getting a taste for it. And what trust that does show, right? This is a one-game weekend for this team. Coach Naurato could have easily rolled the top two lines for the better part of the second half of that game, no problem. But you trust these guys enough to get everyone in the mix. And I mean, we talk about what we’re, you know, calling quote unquote power play struggles.

But I mean, you like the balanced attack, too, because if there’s anything going on, right, I think the back end is sort of picking up some of that offensive slack, Nolan, and maybe to get your take on some of this, right? I mean, we got a defenseman involved in every goal this weekend, right? We touched on Drew Schock with the two assists. Rhéaume-Mullen getting on the score sheet. The way these defenseman get involved in the play, the pairings Coach Naurato’s got, offense, defense matchups among these two defenseman on each pair.

You know, talk about a bright spot just in terms of, you know, picking up this offensive slack that we’re kind of talking about, which of course doesn’t exist, but just the way that it’s five guys coming at you, five guys as a unit, all different kind of guys touching the puck, you know, whether it’s up and down the lineup or just shift by shift, all five guys on the ice.

Well, you’ve seen that since Coach Naurato took this team over. It’s the defenseman are coming in with reckless abandon. Rhéaume-Mullen scores on a rebound right beside the net. Like that’s that’s the style that they’re meant to play. They’re also mobile. It’s not a big a very big D corps. I was looking at like height and weights. I think their biggest guys are 6-foot-1, 6-foot, but a lot of guys under that, but the skating ability of these kids is just off the charts.

Like they compensate so well with their hockey IQ and their ability to move around the ice.

Do you think the lack of size not to get really far ahead of ourselves and I want to get back to a couple things that’s happened already but do you think this could hurt that could hurt them Nolan later in the in the season when it’s playing against in theory there’s going to be some real big teams out there some guys that can wear you down or do you think their skating is at such a level an elite level that it should be able to balance it out?

That’s a it’s a good question. I think I think it will. I think the games are going to get harder. I think having like an Asher Barnett back there, he’s a guy that plays a hard style even though he’s maybe not a huge body, but guys are going to get grittier as the year goes on. And I think you saw that like their two kind of main stalwarts back there last year were Tyler Duke and Luca Fantilli. Neither of them those guys are big, intimidating guys, but they’re both meand they played solid defensively, played their angles really well.

So, I think maybe their proof that you don’t need a guy that’s 6’5, 220 back there to lower the boom. I think you’re going to see the compete level is going to be much more of a factor than size. So, now that I kind of talk about it, I’m talking myself out of needing all that size because I think they have enough they have enough experience back there with like Rhéaume-Mullen and with Robertson. And then you have guys like Barnett who are just have that nasty mean streak to them.

And you have the skill to back it all up. So, yeah. Yeah, I think they move well enough and they can play their angles too so well, right? So, it’s you’re not going to get caught out of position. And as long as you’re out there competing, that’s all you can ask for.

Let’s talk about Horcoff who is a big man, right? Young. He’s a big boy and growing still. He’s going to fill out even more with that goal with 0.1 second the other night. He now has three goals on the season. Three goals, four assists, 22 shots on goal. So he’s number three in the sense of on that line behind Perron and Hage, but he’s a very important piece I think to that line. Just the difference that he can make for them there.

I thought the game when I watched it that was a bit of a up and down game for him against Western. It was some good and okay this not so great. But I think that’s the type of goal at least I’m hoping. Would you agree Shu? That’s the type of goal there that can catapult him to even more. He’s a he came on the scene a couple seasons ago. Absolutely spectacularly, right? Scoring every time he seemed like he touched the ice.

This is a guy big guys sometimes have a little bit of a harder time get going too, right? It’s it happens at every level. But if he can get himself going, again, seven points isn’t bad, but compared to his linemates, it’s nothing. But I think that this is a hugely valuable and important piece to the Wolverine lineup for them to have continued success.

There’s just no question about it. We’re talking about a 6-foot-5, 205-pound left winger. I mean, this is a classic power forward in every sense of the word. You just don’t see that anymore, right? I mean, the game is so fast that these big body guys often can kind of struggle to keep up. I mean, Horcoff’s not one of them. This guy gets in the mix, goes after it, and I mean, you mentioned it, Billy, some kind of up and downs throughout the game.

I mean, that’s sort of a microcosm of his season last year, right? I mean, he kind of hops on the scene. Everything he touches is gold, scoring left and right, and then it can get a little streaky. So, I think you got to like the start he’s off to this season. I think he scored each weekend now. You know, those seven points. It’s not just a, you know, five-point game with a couple others mixed in. And then, right, I mean, that line just carries each other, right, in terms of who’s doing what.

I mean, these guys are just doing it all. Jayden Perron, Michael Hage, I mean, what these guys are doing is unbelievable to watch. Been a ton of fun, right? I mean, we kind of touched on Perron’s goal, but for those who didn’t get a chance to watch or get down to Yost Ice Arena this weekend, I mean, this is like a Patrick Kane-esque goal coming down on the offside, ripping that backhand top shelf. I mean, the kind where you’re on the bench in my case often during the playing days, right?

I’m thinking of a Kyle Connor snipe here where you literally just start laughing and think, how did this guy do that? So, you know, those guys are carrying each other and you love that for Horcoff. I mean, what an exciting moment to score that goal, go celebrate with the student section. I mean, that’s literally what you come to Michigan to play college hockey for. So, all the credit to him for getting it done at the end of the game there and putting a smile on that building’s faces.

I think it’s going to be it’s going to be so good. I think Horcoff has been, like you alluded to, a bit of a streaky player for Michigan like beginning of last year. Had about I think he was about a goal per game up to Christmas. Same thing coming out of the gate his which I guess would be his freshman year which was kind of that half year he played. Yeah. Same thing. Came out totally gangbusters but having Hage and Perron leading the way gives him that breathing room to kind of find that consistency and kind of see what it takes to be that guy.

And being such a big lanky dude like he’s going to continue to develop into himself, grow into his body. And I think that’s to give him another year after this year. I mean, who’s to say what ends up happening and whether Pit wants him to go or what have you, but the opportunity to be in college and continue to be in the gym like he is and just continue to be this big hulking guy and eventually fill into a be 215, 220 at at his size, like man, what an absolute beast he’s going to turn into.

So, we he’s already showing it. He moves well. He’s got a bit of a mean streak to him. So, no, he’s pretty good. I think if he can actually develop that mean streak a little bit more sure that he I don’t even know if he understands I think how good he could be, you know, because there look you see in the NHL you don’t even see that many 6-foot-5, 6-foot-6 forwards. I’m thinking Tage Thompson Anthony Mantha right now Thompson isn’t mean but he’s kind of a unicorn and he can shoot as well if not better thanybody in the National Hockey League.

But you get yourself, you know, the Protas brothers for instance with Washington guys that can move well that are that big with soft hands too. But if there’s just a little element of that rough stuff just a little because then then it you know it just brings that makes the defense or the opponent think even that much more about it there. But I’m excited because he scored that goal. Let’s talk about the goal here quickly because I don’t know about you guys.

I’m watching and I’m thinking, are they just dumping it in and it’s going to be we’re going to overtime and I’m happy. I’m okay with it. You’re you’re saying, hey, so to speak, a good a good effort, especially in the third, which was a ton of fun to watch, at least I thought. And all of a sudden, the puck comes off a western defender inside the zone, a forward, I think it was, who blocked it, and the puck comes right off his body.

I think it was his elbow if I remember correctly, or upper body, and it bounces perfectly to Horcoff. What was he 30 ft? Maybe a little bit further away. And I think it was you, Nolan, that talked about not dusting it off. If it was you, Shu, sorry. Apologize. Regardless, he gets it right on his stick. And the goaltender, I watched it in slow motion a few times. It wasn’t like the goalie was sleeping, but it happened so fast that it must have caught him.

Miller, the goalie for Western, just off guard a little bit. He sizzled it by him. I think he was screened, too. So, it’s like a perfect storm. He sees the dump coming in. It’s hit by one of his guys. So his body’s in the way. So he can’t really anticipate where that thing bounces to. And in that split second that all of a sudden it’s on Horcoff’s stick and off Horcoff’s stick. You just don’t have time to adjust.

And I couldn’t tell. Could you guys tell on the broadcast? Was that thing rolling at all or did it come off pretty clean? Because that because once it looked like it was bouncing a little bit because that too could all of a sudden now you got a curveball coming at you. It’s like what are you supposed to do with that?

Hard to tell from Sorry, Billy. The lack of dusting it off. I remember this drill we used to do, right, which involved like a full cross-ice pass to a guy who would get it basically at the top of the circles and you’d have to fire it. So, whenever I’d get it right, I mean, this is a pass coming zipped across, right? This is a Michigan hockey practice. I’d have to kind of catch the thing and, you know, dust it off. To your point, Nolan, before I could get my shot off, I remember watching Zach Werenski do this drill.

I mean, the puck hits his stick just perfectly. Absolutely rips it. You know, that’s what Horcoff did. So, don’t be surprised if he’s out after practice kind of ripping some of those weird angles, getting the puck and just letting fly because when in doubt, that’s a lefty special. I mean, you shoot that thing low blocker in that general area because when the goalie is just standing there, you can’t get it. So, I mean, to your point, a little bit of traffic in front, some chaos going on, everybody’s in the building.

I mean, maybe players included think this thing’s going to overtime and Horcoff had other ideas. So, I mean, just the wherewithal to get that thing, let it fly, put it on net in that spot where, you know, the puck kind of had eyes to make its way through was great stuff from Will Horcoff and that’s why you play the full 60. The Wolverines end up also staying onside, you know, like the good fortune right there. Like everything came to fruition, you know what I mean?

Everything just worked out perfectly there because sometimes that type of play, somebody’s already in the zone. They’re onside and again with his stick on the ice and the puck hitting it absolutely perfectly. I mean, it’s your better lucky than good sometimes, but you got to be good to be lucky as well. And I know we said that earlier in this show, too. Like Barry, no pun intended. Yeah.

Hey, real quick. What is Drew Schock Nolan? What you mentioned last year 10 point this year 10 right he’s already and he’s a plus 15 what’s he doing what’s he doing so well is it just maturity I think that’s part of it I think also I mean I don’t want to discount what he’s been doing but being on the ice with the right guys sure helps I always found that I would get some I got a little bit luckier when I was out there with Kyle Connor and Werenski and Compher and Motte but no I think I think maturity is a huge part of it and he played at the US program so he’s a guy who knows is what it’s like to be around elite hockey players and kind of be part of this environment.

But it’s so easy to forget in this college environment now how young these kids are. Like you come into college, you’re playing behind guys who are so well established here. We talked about Fantilli and Duke last year plus you brought in Robertson and you had so much depth and now I mean but you look at this roster now so maybe I’m contradicting myself because you have a roster of Dupont and Rhéaume-Mullen and like you go down the list Cam Reid and Ben Robertson it’s like it’s kind of the same thing but I think the maturity is a huge part of it and you know he’s a good player he’s a I think he’s a what a fourth rounder or something to Anaheim so all the tools are there but again not a super big imposing guy.

I think he’s 6 foot, buck, buck 80, buck 90. But I think he’s just playing the game the right way, taking a lot of the tips and tricks from Coach Naurato and being surrounded by great players. A rising tide raises all ships and I think you’re seeing a guy his sophomore year just taking that next step. So, I’m excited to see not only him continue, but kind of see what he can turn into. I really like his he I think he reads the play well.

He anticipates well, too. I mean, I know being a defenseman is about shutting the opponent down more thanything. I get that and I think they he closes well, but I think offensively, well, I remember last year doing the game against Providence at Providence College and he was so good as a freshman even instinctively being where to be in the play offensively. He had that knack for it and I think it’s really allowing him this year to be even better and even more confident.

He’s playing three more minutes a game, Max, this year than he did last year. Now, that’s huge because the rhythm of your game, you go from 14 minutes, which is not bad for a freshman, but you’re up to 17 plus minutes now. Pretty darn good, right? And it means a heck of a lot just again for the rolling and the rhythm of it. And speaking of that, Max, the rhythm of the offense, we already talked about how everybody’s getting not equal ice time, but very good ice time, the depth scoring after after Hage and Perron and Horcoff, Moldenhauer, McKenna, Spence, Horcoff, all guys putting up points.

We questioned or we rhetorically asked about is there enough of one puck to go around everybody when we did our first show and everything. It seems like they’ve handled that, Max, that everybody’s getting their touches.

Yeah. And again, talk about good problems to have for this coaching staff, right? I mean, just a built-out lineup up and down, right? Us old-timers now, us 10 year plus guys look at this lineup and we’re going, how how would you ever get a sniff on this just with the depth? I mean, we’re talking about Drew Schock here, like he’s some nobody. I mean, this is a fourth round pick who’s fly the radar. I mean, it’s impressive. It’s good stuff.

And you just like what you see from Michigan with this 7-0 start, number one in the nation. I love seeing that. And we haven’t even talked about Ivankovic today at 7-0 at just a 2.00 goals-against average a .933 save percentage. Just, you know, doing his thing.

Shu and Nolan, I want to quickly talk about going into Ohio State for the first weekend of the Big Ten before we wrap things up with you and bring in Mike Grinnell. I want to I want to hear about what you think about Ohio State. This is a team that’s been average so far. Power plays been decent. Penalty kills been pretty bad. They’ve they’ve been outscored by two minus two 16 goals for 18 goals against. But just as far as just going into Ohio State as an opponent, give me your guys takes.

Shu, I’ll start with you.

Yeah, I mean this is one of the great things about Big Ten hockey, right? These built-in rivalries. I mean, you look at Ohio State’s kind of results to this point in the season and you might kind of say this is a throwaway game. It’s absolutely not. This is a big one. Starting Big Ten play for the Michigan Wolverines. The juices are going to be flowing, right? Michigan versus Ohio State. It’s the best rivalry in all of sports. So, these guys are going to have their hands full.

And you talk about Michigan being number one now. You’re getting everybody’s best game. No question about it, right? I mean, Ohio State’s going to be coming out with something to prove. They want to kind of get things turned around. So, it’s not going to be any walk in the park for Michigan to keep that record perfect. They’re going to have to come in here ready to play.

Yeah, on paper you see their record, but at the end of the day, it’s Big Ten hockey and you can just throw the records out, frankly. Like, not to be too cliche about it, but OSU is also led by like a lot of underclassmen. I think the top five scorers like they have some guys that came over from major junior, but a younger group of kind of their offensive leaders. So, I think it’s an opportunity for Michigan to just come in and kind of step on their throat and show them what it’s all about right right off the get-go.

That goes for not only the first game, but establishing like what this rivalry means to both teams, I think, is going to be huge. They’ve been it looks like they’ve been splitting their goalies like kind of 50/50. I think there’s one of them has like looks like Milota, Jakub Milota, his numbers are way better than the other kid. He’s a youngster. Yeah. Yeah. So, I’m assuming they’ll probably start riding the hot hand out here. But I’ve I also saw that OSU’s like some niche stats, but like they’re their faceoffs are pretty good.

Like they’re around 60% on the faceoff dot and they’re out shooting their opponents. So, it’s one of those things where it’s like maybe the puck’s just not going in right now. Like maybe they’re just going to keep kind of peppering it. But I mean, you got Ivankovic back there, too. So, I’m not I’m not pressing the panic button by any stretch of the imagination. But I think at the end of the day, Michigan’s just got to come in, play Michigan hockey, step on their throat, and show them what this rivalry is all about.

Well, I hope they do that. I’m assuming or I’m hoping that there’s a lot of Michigan fans there as well. It’s a big building. It’s a real big building if it’s not sold. Always always empty seats in that place. So, I’m sure they can get a cheap ticket in there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s huge. I don’t remember what the capacity is, but it’s 16 18 grand or something. Yeah. It’s mammoth. All right. Well, let’s see how the Wolverines do. They’re 7-0 heading into this one, taking on their rival, one of their biggest in Ohio State.

The Big Ten season is upon us. After this coming weekend, by the way, it’s a Saturday, if I remember correctly, right? It’s a Saturday, Sunday series. It’s it’s not Friday, Saturday, but the following week, the Wolverines have off. And so that’s it’s always interesting having a weekend off early on in the season like that. I know Coach Naurato and his staff will put the guys through their paces, and they’ll also give them a little time off to get ready for a big stretch.

All right, Shu Nolan, awesome stuff, fellas. Pleasure to see you. I missed you guys, too. I did. I missed you guys last week, but as he said, we had Naurato on, we had Coach on, and then we had Turks on. And so, don’t you guys worry you’ll be coming back regularly. Okay. Great to see you guys.

Look forward to it, Billy. Go Blue. Appreciate it, Billy. Go Blue.

All right. And as promised, after Shu and Nolan, we got Mike Grinnell joining right now. And Spittin’ Chiclets. But I’m going to say Chiclets U. That’s really where this guy has been making his mark. What a fun thing you’re doing there, Mike. It’s pretty cool how you’ve developed that. First of all, thanks for taking the time. I know you had some episodes to record today and what you guys have like 17-hour shows, so I can only imagine how long those interviews went.

Yeah, it was actually fun. We interviewed Blake Wheeler today, so it was it was pretty cool interview. But yeah, Chiclets U, it’s been it’s been really cool. It was something that, you know, really just started as it’s actually it’s crazy how it really all started is it started as me wanting to go to Arizona State and film a documentary about the hockey team. I played club hockey in college. So, I really was fascinated with the fact that, you know, Arizona State went from a club program to a Division I program.

So, I wanted to go film a full documentary on the program. And the day I was supposed to go, Coach Powers and basically majority of the coaching staff just couldn’t be there. And they were like, you know, why don’t you just do a tour of the facilities with Josh Doan. So I did a facility tour with Josh Doand Mullett Arena. It’s gorgeous. And it kind of took off. And then we were at like a sales conference for Barstool and one of the sales guys came up to me and was like, “Hey, like I think you have something here. You got some pretty good views on this video. If I can sell this, would you want to keep doing it?” I was like, “Absolutely. This that would be a dream come true.” Because growing up in Boston, college hockey is such a big thing.

Going to the Beanpot first two Mondays of February. That was that was like the biggest social event of the year when you’re a little kid in Boston. So, I grew up with such a love for college hockey. And I always say like if college hockey could just be one-tenth of what college football is, we’re all making more money. Everyone, NHL players, me, you, everyone is making more money if we could just grow the game. And I think that starts at the college level because it’s such a fascinating product, man.

Like with the, you know, the bands and the traditions and every every school is something different. The arenas all look different and they all have their cool wacky traditions and their cool chant. So, it’s been as someone who went to a small liberal arts school in upstate New Hampshire, it’s been very cool to get out and see all these big Division I schools.

How would you describe yourself as a hockey player?

Terrible. I was a I played defense. I was, you know, I loved Torey Krug. So, that was that was a guy I you know, Torey Krug was big with the Bruins when I was in high school. So, that was a guy I always modeled my game after. I thought he played the game hard. I obviously I’m a smaller guy, so I had a bit of an offensive touch to my game, but yeah, I was forward most of my life. Got to high school.

And then it was, you know, coach was like, “Hey, I think I see you as a defenseman.” Play defense. And then when I went up to Plymouth State, it’s actually funny. I went to I was a much better lacrosse player, so I went to Plymouth State to play lacrosse. Mhm. And I just I always would say like I’m a I’m a hockey player who’s playing lacrosse kind of like a Happy Gilmore would say like I’m day one of lacrosse. I went in, did the whole spring, did the captain’s practices, did everything.

Then we got to the first day of practice, and at the end of the first practice I just walked up to Coach and was like, “This isn’t for me. I miss hockey.” Went and signed up for the club hockey team and the rest is history. It’s funny because people ask me, “Do you regret quitting lacrosse in high school, in college, and I say it was the best decision of my life because it made me fall in love with the game of hockey again. And I don’t know if I’m sitting here talking to you today or or have the life I have if if I never made that decision my freshman year of college.” So, yeah, it’s pretty crazy the butterfly effect.

Yes. Was it on your resume when you went to Barstool that, you know, club hockey there? And so that’s where Whit and they were like, “Yes, get this guy to do it.”

Well, I think it was because at the time Barstool was such a small company, right? Like we’ve been doing this show now for over 10 years, which is crazy to say, but I emailed them and said, “Hey, I’ll quit my job tomorrow. You don’t have to pay me. I’ll work for free.” And I got all the equipment, which I didn’t have any of the equipment. And I was I wasn’t I was hoping to not work for free, right? But I stayed true.

RA responded, said, “You’re hired. You start tomorrow,” or, “You start Thursday.” I walked into my boss’s office and quit my job on the spot. And I

Where the hell did you go to buy the equipment?

Went right up to Guitar Center in Nashua, New Hampshire. Walked in, and this is before podcasting was a thing. So like even the word podcasting, like if I walked in there and said that, they’d be like, “What are you talking about?” So, I walked in there and I was like, “Hia, I need audio recording equipment that can, you know, XLR mics, that’s all I really know.” And the guy walked me through everything, taught me everything on the spot, which was really cool.

And Whit and RA were were very patient with me at the beginning. Like, I had no clue what I was doing. So, that’s the good thing. Exactly. And I think the cool thing is with podcasting, it was such a new industry, right? There was no blueprint and there was no really even metrics to measure success except the Apple charts. So like basically I could kind of just tell them like, “Hey, yeah, everything’s going great on my end. Everything sounds good. This is how it’s supposed to be.” And they were just they just went with the punches and they were they were awesome though.

It was we had some fun days. We were recording RA’s apartment in Southie and it was we had some a lot of a lot of fun times back then.

Memories like that are priceless because it that’s where I’m the same way with my broadcast career. I when I fell into it, I was in my late 20s. I got an opportunity and then the first three four years I wouldn’t change it for the world and I left the job. It was pretty comfortable and I ended up bartending at a hockey bar in Chicago. That’s what I did too. I tell kids all the time when they’re asking for advice. I’m like, “Learn to sling drinks because if you can sling drinks, you have all day to work. You have all day to do whatever you want and then nighttime you work three, four hours, make some cash and I did that and I worked by the way with a Boston College and I don’t mean BC. I mean a Boston College legend in Art Moore is his name. He was a bartender in Chicago too at this old amazing place which sadly isn’t there anymore. It was Stanley’s Kitchen and Tap. It was the hockey bar in the city of Chicago. Every we were all there. Everybody who was playing, everybody that had play. It was phenomenal for a great 15, 20 year run. Anyhow, I got a job bartending there and thankfully I worked with Art because people would ask certain drinks. I’d be like, I didn’t hear what you said. You want Bud or Bud Light? That’s all I would say. Or Labatt Blue. I couldn’t make anything. I was the same way. Unless it was like vodka soda or rum and coke. Tell me what’s in it or I don’t know. That was it.

All right, enough about that. Let’s get into the college hockey thing. I love this stuff. Make a talk about this forever. I know you went to Michigan. I know you went and you toured the facilities and you talked to coaches and you talked to players and truth serum here. How much fun did you have and how cool did you think it was?

Oh, I mean fun. It was it was one of the funnest trips we did because Ann Arbor obviously is one of the best college towns I think in the country. It’s it was a beautiful fall day and we also they we also got to go to the Michigan Michigan State football game which was awesome. We got field passes at the Big House. We got to march with like the marching band that was walk marching in. And like I said like I went to Plymouth State so I had never like that’s a school with 4,000 5,000 kids.

So to see all like thousands and thousands and thousands of people like marching over to the football stadium together. It was so fascinating to me and then it’s like there was the hockey game the night before which was packed. Yost arena the Children of Yost were it was so cool to see. And Yost is I’m I love unique arenas like I mentioned before like I just think it’s what makes college hockey so great. I even, you know, playing in high school, I loved playing in a smaller rink where the fans are on top of the ice and you really get that feeling at Yost Arena.

So, it was awesome. I think Coach Naurato is so impressive. Little intimidating I think just in a sense of like he’s cocky cocky, but he but he has every right to be because you’re just like, “Wow, like you know what the hell you’re talking about.” He’ll look you dead in the eyes. And I remember when we did the video, this was before the CHL the CHL rule changed in college hockey. And we had three cameras set up and I remember he dead pans looks right into the camerand he’s like, “You come to Michigan, it’s way better thany CHL school. It’s better thany AHL any AHL team, too.” And you’re like, “Whoa, this guy this guy’s a master recruiter. If he came into my house as a 17-year-old kid, he’d have me hook, line, and sinker.” But overall, I mean, I was I was so impressed with Michigan.

But this is the thing I talk about with Michigan the most is how impressed I was about the culture and how close the players were. It was cool because the guys took me over to the hockey house, which was cool to be able to hang out with them for the day and kind of just see what a day in the life is like. And man, every guy is like hanging out at at the house together. And not every team is like that.

Like I’ve been to a lot of teams that are can be pretty cliquey. You know, the seniors hang with the seniors and the juniors and juniors and so on and so on. But man, every guy had their scooter parked out front the house and they’re all hanging in the back playing die and it was just and then now you’re seeing all these videos after every game of them singing and dancing in the locker room and you’re just like, “Wow.” Like the culture that Coach Naurato has built there and all the veterans and the kids that have come before.

It’s just it was so impressive in an era of big egos. Yes.

Right. And not just the players but parents, advisors, everything. I think he has done a remarkably better than good, very good, a great job of keeping it as real as possible, as even as possible. And that’s something I mean, you know, as he’s the, you know, he’s the CEO of the team, right? And he’s got to be a GM now too essentially, right? Right. And they have a GM, which is impressive in their self. They hired, you know, Andrew Brewer, who we spoke with a few weeks ago, but yes, you do have to be a GM as well.

But he has to he’s the chief ego massager. He just has to be. And that’s got to be the hardest thing for him. And I’ve talked about a little bit. All right. Because these players, you know, they’re making money and that’s part of it now, but you know, they also have been told that they should all be playing 24 minutes a night. And he’s been able to keep them all pretty even. And we talked about it in the first part of our show with Max and Nolan about how they’ve done a really good job with that.

And that might change as the season goes on a little bit, but you still got to keep everybody, you know, getting a sweat, so to speak, to keep them interested so they’re not looking to transfer right away in the next year.

And the fact that he Yeah. Like he’s getting these guys to come back to school like in a in a day and age where guys it seems are so quick to pull the trigger just to go to the NHL. Like it the NHL is a young man’s league now. I mean you look at guy like Michael Hage. I don’t think anyone in the world thought that kid was coming back. Will Horcoff like these guys could go play in the NHL make a million bucks a year but they’re they came back to Michigand I think that’s a testament of Naurato.

There’s no question. It’s a testament to Naurato. It’s a testament to Michigan, testament to the culture. And there’s a couple of other places, you know, you can speak to it better than I can at at the NCAA level because you’ve been more in the weeds with them. I’m only seeing them from above and anecdotally hearing about things. You know more than I do. So, it’s not like that Michigan is the only program. However, because of everything that you’ve talked about, and I also think, and I’m going to tangent here a little bit, I also think it has an awful lot to do with the team that has drafted that player.

I do because if they’re real and they’re not just so worried about the here and now and look at the big picture in the future, what’s the big deal if Michael Hage takes one more full hockey season there before he goes to the Montreal Canadiens? He’ll be more prepared to play with the Canadiens when it’s all said and done because this is a really good team in Montreal, right? And how much is Nar working with those coaches and those teams though to like discuss the plan, right?

Like like Well, a lot an awful lot. Now, they’re going to have their say though, right? But exactly if they see what’s going on and how players are being handled and trained and put and what’s happening off the ice and if they’re good with that, that makes it a lot easier for them to say, “Take eight more months. You’ll be with us for 10 years instead of maybe six years or whatever.” You know what I mean? Be because of that. And that’s the thing about these teams.

I think too many of them at the NHL level worry so much that they’re not going to be trained. But Michigand a lot of other NCAA schools now are better off than the American League.

Oh, yeah. The facilities, right? The control of what players are doing, too. There’s something to be said for that. You know, that if you know what a player’s doing, you know, 12 out of the 24 hours versus just four of the hours of the day for a 20-year-old kid, it’s a big difference. Mike, I think. Yeah. And that’s like with Chiclets, that’s a big part of what we try to show off is the facilities. And every video I do after I post a video, usually I get a text message from an NHL player that played on that team or went to that school.

And they’re like, “Yeah, oh, I trained there in the summer when I was injured. I trained there over my NHL facilities because it’s just it’s better.” And when you hear like it’s not they’re not saying it’s better than their AHL facilities. They’re saying it’s better than their NHL facilities now, which it’s crazy. I mean, you show these kids get breakfast, lunch, dinner. They have they have a doctor for everything. Like, they have a trainer for every it’s insane the resources that these kids are given when you were in college, I’ll tell you that.

Oh my god. I was just happy to have you got your meals and then they would give you a card for a snack bar, you know. It was It was great. And we were taken care of well. We were the Cottage Inn is where we had our pregame and postgame or especially our pregame meals. I always loved it and I get an extra scoop of ice cream. That’s probably why I had an issue with the weigh-ins always and Red would get me and put me on the weigh-in scale.

He did it one time to me and because I had been sneaking not doing it because I’d been eating some extra pizzas. I’d been scratched a few times. I told him though I did I told him when he said get on the scale and I got on the scale and I think I was six or eight pounds heavier than I said I was. I said hey I’ve been constipated. I didn’t know what else to say. I literally, you know, and I was, needless to say, I was on the bike the entire next two weeks.

It was cool getting to chat with Red when I when I got when I got to Michigan. And man, I got to watch a practice with them, and he still knew every single thing about every single player, where they went to high school, how many goals they scored, what type of player they were, what type of player they’re going to be. It was it was incredibly impressive. He had a saying, and I think I told you this in the past. He had a saying that if you’re ready, I will drive you to the airport.

I will personally, he said, I will personally drive you there. If you are ready to go to whatever that next level was. Obviously, the NHL being the golden goose, but he said, I’ll personally drive you there. Needless to say, he never took his keys out. I don’t even think he ever got his keys for somebody like me. And the point was that don’t rush your time here. Don’t do that.

With that said, give me your take on this Michigan team. They’re seven games in. They’re 7-0. But where are you at with them and where you see them, you know, in your crystal ball where it’s all said and done with other with a couple of other teams that should be there with them? Who do you got?

So, I don’t want to be too hyperbolic because I can be sometimes, but I will say at the beginning of the year or the past few years, I’ve been very high on Michigand Biz said enough’s enough. If they don’t make the Frozen or if they don’t Yeah. If they don’t make the Frozen Four this year, I believe I have to drive to the Frozen Four with RA and then there’s an Ohio State component to the bet with and I don’t know if you know Rear Admiral.

Driving to Washington DC with Rear Admiral is a is a death wish. That guy cannot drive a car. He’s a psycho behind the wheel. But I like this team a lot, man. I’ve I they were my national championship pick before the season. It’s so fun to watch this team every night. I think like right now when you look like they’re getting a lot of points from the top of the lineup the guys Perron Hage Moldenhauer but once you get Horcoff still a point per game right now but once you get Horcoff going once you get Cam Reids the J.P. Hurlberts of the world once they get going a little bit too this team is going to be unstoppable and I mentioned Reid and everyone’s so quick to talk about Landon DuPont and deservedly so. The kid is special and he’s fun to watch and he almost looks like a Quinn Hughes Zach Werenski hybrid almost. But I love this Cam Reid kid. I loved him in junior last year. I thought he was very impressive. So, he’s a name I’ve been watching a lot and I just I go back to like I don’t know.

I think it was Ben Barr, the Maine coach, told us a few years ago like years ago, it’s it’s the older teams. It’s the older teams come tournament time that you have to watch out for. And you know, I put all my eggs in BC’s basket a couple years ago when it was Smitty, Leno, Gabe Perreault, Cutter, but they were all freshman, right? And then you get to the tournament and you’re playing against 23, 24 year old grown men and these kids are 18.

So, I look at this Michigan roster and it’s a one-game— it’s a one-game series. Exactly. That’s the other thing. It’s you can’t wear down an opponent. It’s a one-game series. Exactly. And when you look where they’re getting their help from, Jayden Perron, this kid’s a stud. I when I went to North Dakota, he was there. I got the chance to meet him there. I was very impressed with his game there. And now to see him finally taking off here at Michigan, it’s very impressive.

But Jayden Perron, senior, Michael Hage, junior, Nick Moldenhauer senior, Will Horcoff Jr., like Garrett Schifsky senior, like all like the these these are not only important guys in the locker room, but these guys are going to be contributing as well. And when you have older guys that contribute, that is a recipe for a long tournament run.

Yeah. And like you said, the Robertson back there, experience Dakoda Rhéaume-Mullen, you know, experience back there as a junior. It is.

And I didn’t even mention the most important part. Sorry to cut you off there, Billy, but Ivankovic like for years and years and years. Michigan hasn’t had that, you know, like every year Denver’s got this goalie that just steals games in the Frozen Four. Michigan has that goalie now. Ivankovic can be that guy. Yeah, I agree. He’s a he’s a difference maker. There’s no question about it. And he’s been great early on in this season. Last year he was excellent.

Got injured. They were still able to handle things, but when it was all said and done coming back, he was he was great. But I think this year he’s even better. It’s like anything else. It’s a year of experience. It’s a it’s a year opportunity. And you know, this is a team that has made what is it? Four Frozen Fours in the last what, five? So they’re it’s not like they’re they haven’t been there, but they have not been able to get past that semifinal game.

And so it feels like an all-or-nothing year. It just doesn’t.

My one worry—and it’s crazy that I’m even saying this—is it’s a bit of a down year for the Big Ten. I think I Yeah. And you look at like Notre Dame, that’s not a great hockey team. Ohio State, honestly, it’s not a great hockey team. They’re always going to play Michigan hard, but it’s not a great hockey team. Penn State this year, they’ve taken a massive step back. Minnesota, we don’t really know what they are.

Didn’t look like they’re going to be a great team and they had a great weekend last weekend against North Dakota, but I mean, this isn’t the Big Ten of the past few years where almost any team is a is a wagon. I mean, Wisconsin still great, Michigan State still really good. So that’s my one worry is, you know, few too many cakewalks. Like their next four games, Ohio State, Ohio State, Penn State, Penn State, those aren’t going to be the tough.

I mean, Ohio State, they’ll always play him tough, but I don’t know. I think the Big Ten, I know what you’re saying. It’s Well, we talk about that in the NHL or whatever about teams that get through. We remember we said this last year. We as in the overall media remember the Pacific was supposed to be and meanwhile Vegas makes it out of the Pacific. Yeah. People say about the Metro too with Carolina like they every team stinks in the Metro and then it’s a cakewalk for Carolinand then look what they did right.

So I do think a lot of it ends up being well we all know health is a major factor that’s whatever level you’re playing in any sport health is the number one thing because it just is obviously there. But then it’s also just about composition of your team and the way that Michigan is constructed this year in theory they are built for a run. Give me a couple of other teams that you might say in the end could be there should be there battling with Michigan.

I love this Minnesota Duluth team. I just think you know Max Plante coming back after winning the Hobey Baker last season. You got all three Plante brothers. It’s again that’s that’s a team where a lot of the guys came back from last season’s team. They’re they’re back for vengeance and I know Plante, Max is hurt to start the year here, but you know I’ve spoken with him. He’s raring and roaring and ready to go. I’m actually going up to Minnesota Duluth to film a video with them.

Have you been there before?

I haven’t. No. So I’m excited. It’s fine. It’s cold. It’s fine. And when are you going? When are you going? I’m going in two weeks. Okay. So it won’t be bitter cold. Yeah, it won’t be cold. Actually, it could be. But it’s it is fun. I’ve been up there twice and you’ll have a good time.

I think they’re a really good team to keep an eye out for. Providence like Nate Leaman is such a good coach. I think they’re a team you can you got to watch out for this season. I love Quinnipiac. I’m such a big Rand Pecknold guy. I think Ethan Wyttenbach is going to be you know he’ll he’ll be up there for points at the end of the season for most in college hockey. You know, they got Pelosi, Granall, you know, they have tons of returning players and they’re always mature.

That team’s always a mature team. Exactly. Exactly. They’re they’re experienced. They’re older. So I love Quinnipiac as well. I think a fun team to keep an eye out for this year, too, is Augustana in South Dakota. New program, obviously. I think they’re 5-0-1 right now. So, it’s always fun when, you know, a new program gets this new jolt of of energy here to start their Division I prowess here. But, have you been there yet? I have you I’d love to because I’d love to I heard the Sioux Falls team in the USHL has amazing facilities as well.

Yes, they do. So, it’d be nice to go out do Augustanand then pop over the Sioux Falls rink as well and see how they’re running their operation with the USHL because we’d love to check out that kind of stuff too. Dive into the USHL teams, dive into Quebec major junior teams, OHL teams, WHL teams, kind of show it all. And that’s kind of the goal for the next few seasons of Chiclets U.

Okay. Well, you got a lot of places to go. Is there So, what do you have on the docket this year besides Minnesota Duluth? Where else you headed?

So, we went and filmed with Quinnipiac 3 weeks ago. So, that video should be coming out in the next few weeks here. And then we’re going to go to Air Force at the end of

Oh, that’s nice out there. Yeah, Colorado Springs is gorgeous. It’s coach’s final season. They just he just announced that. So that’ll be awesome. Hopefully get up in a bird or something, fly a plane, something like that. But yeah, we’re I think Air Force it’s I love America so much. It’s I just I love our country. Especially, you know, USA wins the gold medal. There’s just so much national pride and I think it’s very important to show off that kind of stuff and especially with all the service members.

And I was able to go to West Point and film with the Army hockey team, which was an eye-opening experience. People ask me all the time like what my favorite Chiclets University video we’ve ever done is. It’s hands down it’s Army. It’s it was an eye-opening experience. I left there thinking I’m these guys are men. Like I am a boy compared to these guys. It’s just they’re playing for so much more than money and to go to the NHL and it’s just they’re a part of something much bigger there.

So to be able to see kind of the other side of that now with Air Force I’m very excited for that. So Quinnipiac Air Force Minnesota Duluth I think we’re we’re talking to Providence. Maybe get up to Moncton because we Keith Yandle plays Keith Yandle’s on the show with us and he played in Moncton and it’d be cool to get up there. They have Mc that Unreal Coach McDougall. I’d love to pick his brain, but yeah, drive up there. It’s not too far.

Yeah, that’s so that’s what we got on the docket right now. Okay. Well, that sounds like some pretty cool stuff. So, that’s Well, I’m also going to tons of Bruins games. That’s that’s you know, got to slip in the bees games as well. You know, this team’s a wagon. They are right now. It’s amazing what’s going on with them. It’s fun to watch. Impressive. They are. They’re a very fun team. They’re very tight team, which is which I know sounds like [expletive] Everybody’s No, not every team is tight.

It’s not. It doesn’t work that way. And that goes to Michigan. That was my one my biggest point about Michigan hockey is they every single year it seems like these guys are the bestest of friends. We at the end of last season we interviewed Will Horcoff on Game Notes and you had Michael Hage, you had Spence, you had all the guys like popping in and [expletive] with him and throwing stuff at him and you could just tell like these guys love each other and they love to play with each other.

That’s great. I mean, that’s what it’s about. That’s, you know, you’ve got a couple of years to be teammates. You got a, I mean, hopefully a lifetime to be great friends. I’m still very very good friends with a handful of guys from from my not even just my class, the two, three years around us, really. And so, that’s that’s what it’s all about when it’s all said and done. Well, this is fantastic. We really appreciate I really appreciate you taking time.

I’d hope that you stop by the NESN TV suite when you’re there on the fifth floor one day and come say hi at a Bruins game. It’s always open for you. You can come in there and enjoy, you know, the scene from there. Absolutely. Where do you where do you like to sit? Are you a 300 or do you like getting down? Are you now Because you’re with Chiclets, you know, you’re on the glass.

No, no, no, no. So, my parents have had season tickets with the Bruins as long as I can remember. We used to have them right behind the net, but once Patrice Bergeron joined the team, my dad moved them to first row balcony. I have three brothers, so he put them first row balcony, right behind the net, 323. We’ve always sat there and it’s he wanted me to learn the game and I feel like sitting in the first row balcony. I’ve always said best seats in the house.

I think you really can see the way the game develops. And it was really cool. And it was cool when we when we got to interview Patrice Bergeron. I told him that I got to share that with them like, “Hey, like my dad told me, you know, we moved our season tickets specifically to watch you.” And my dad told me every day, every time I’d go to a game with him, just watch 37, mimic 37. And for you, too, like it’s really cool for me, like I grew up a lifelong Bruins fan.

So to be even to receive the message from you that you wanted me to come on your show, it’s an honor and it’s a really cool moment for me. I’ve you know you’re a guy that I always looked up to and yeah this is this is very cool. So I will definitely take you up on that offer. Stop by and you got to take me up on my offer which is a beer at the greatest bar after.

We can figure out a way to do that. You could also there’s there’s also there’s beers in our booth too after the games which may even be that would that could be fun. I love that. Love to hear that. Yes. There there have to be. It’s a it’s a nightly thing just as a refresher. There’s nothing better than a post show beer, right? That is that is very true. Well, Mike, really appreciate the time and college hockey is fantastic. It’s something that I’m glad that you have passionately gotten behind and I know that as I had earlier, Max Shuart and Nolan De Jong, they talked about how much they followed you because of your passion for it.

And so just know that a lot of those guys are on board with you and keep it up, keep having fun with it and it’s really a great sport. I don’t know. You talked about if it could ever be one-tenth of of the football, right? That you know the interest that football has. I don’t know if it ever will be, but I still don’t give a [expletive] because love it, right? Because it is it is so great. And after seeing and actually coaching kids now that are committing to colleges, you know, that were with my son and seeing that and they’re all just starting at that age, 16 almost 17.

It really means an awful lot to be not part of it again, but a part of it with this with Hail Mediand this podcast, but in general, just part of being involved in it. It’s very cool. And I’m biased. You’re biased. Greatest sport there is. There’s nothing better. And college hockey, the greatest atmosphere that you can find. That’s the best.

And Billy, real quick, one thing, if I could just promote before I go, October is breast cancer awareness month. And at Spittin’ Chiclets, we every year we put out a bunch of merchandise to raise money for breast cancer. Right here we have the Shot at a Cure Spittin’ Chiclets breast cancer hat. My wife was actually diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago. So, it’s been a really big initiative for Spittin’ Chiclets to raise money. So, there’s still a few days left in the month.

Go to barstoolsports.com. Go to the store. We have shirts, hats, t-shirts. We don’t make a dime off this merch. 100% of net proceeds go to Move Over Breast Cancer, which is an amazing cause that provides wellness trips for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. And you know, glam trips, beauty trips, and wellness retreats for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. So, I just wanted to promote that before we before we go. And yeah, barstoolsports.com, go to the store and check out some of the Spittin’ Chiclets breast cancer merch.

100 million% do that. About 30 minutes before this episode was recorded, I got a text from my wife who just had a mammogram because she had early stages breast cancer during the pandemic. Thankfully just at stage one, barely, you know, but still a battle. She sent me the text that showed that she’s all clear.

Oh, let’s go. Let’s go. She’s been she thankfully she’s been clear but she hadn’t had a mammogram for a year and a half and had and said all clear, no signs at all. Oh, that’s that’s the best text in the world to get. There’s nothing better. Yes, that and I’ll have dinner at the house for you waiting. Yes, those two are great. So, absolutely go check out that on Barstool, folks. Mike, great to talk with you. Please, when you get your ass to a Bruins game, just text me and, you know, come by, all that stuff.

And, thanks for joining us. All right.

Thanks, Billy. Really appreciate it.

All right. Well, that’s going to wrap up this Maize and Blue Breakaway. What a show. Ton of fun. Michigan takes on Ohio State this weekend. We’ll be back with you next week with more hockey talk and more guests. If you like this kind of content, please like, share, follow, and subscribe. And as always, go blue!]