Beyond the Ice: A Candid Conversation with Sheldon Souray

Sheldon’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/sheldonsouray44/
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:29 Welcome Ollie Souray to the world
1:17 The Couer d’Alene Ironman
2:10 A hole in one with Wayne Gretzky
3:41 The Hammer Invitational, golfing with Gretz and Coop
4:53 Tattoos and Engagement rings
5:25 The bond with Dierks Bentley
7:07 Scott Stevens, assignment with Hershey Bears
10:03 Wayne Gretzky, making amends with the oilers
12:35 Opening A Pizzeria with Marty Brodeur
13:50 Rank these iconic foods from when you lived in those cities
14:57 The best burgers in Idaho and Fry Sauce
16:57 Peter’s Drive In, the best of Calgary AB
17:50 The players that impressed you the most
18:55 Being scored against by Messier and Gretzky
20:10 Balancing the emotions of the game
22:29 Importance of training staff
25:12 Buying cars in full with cash
26:48 The Ford Bronco
27:28 Car d’Alene car show
28:22 Costume parties
29:27 Which teammate had the best style?
30:45 Having your mom play goalie?!
31:44 Setting a Habs franchise record
33:37 The Darren McCarty fight
34:48 Saku Koivu returns from Cancer
37:40 Closing
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#oilers #letsgooilers #oilersnation #edmonton #edmontonoilers #nhl #hockey

Well I’m very excited as joining me today is Sheldon Sur nicknamed The Hammer he went on to have one of the hardest shots in NHL history LED both the Oilers and Habs in scoring he even holds an NHL record for most playoff sorry most Power Play Goals in a season

With 19 but it’s his time away from the ice that he’s found most rewarding being a dad being a husband you just put Olie down shelden thanks so much welcome thanks for having me buddy pleasure so we’ had quite the Whirlwind of the last couple of weeks couple of

Months actually Christmas New Year’s couple golf charity events and then obviously the birth of of OI what have the last several weeks kind of been like for you oh man um it’s been a long time since I’ve been a new dad you know my

Kids are 20 and 16 and uh my life is completely different than you know playing hockey and um not being around too much so I am I am just so great grateful that I’m able to do it at this point in my life with uh with my wife

And having a little boy and I never thought I’d be in this position talking about having a newborn but man I feel like the luckiest guy in the world dude that’s amazing and uh with that you and Tess you know you kind of found each other early on in your roads to recovery

And you’ve championed a ton of ghou stuff together a physical lifestyle definitely being kind of at the Forefront of it have either you participated in the cordelan Iron Man Triathlon yet these guys are animals I mean that whole Triathlon it um it shuts down the city you know uh the answer to your

Question is no absolutely not I’m way too weak for that um maybe something to not even something that I could you know set as a goal because they’re just such freak athletes um but I see them swimming you know in the lake and I see them riding their bikes all around the

Lake which is which is quite a hall and uh of course running in the city so I got a ton of respect for those guys that’s way out of my league yeah fair fair I mean even then though you become at least quite the Avid golfer um and with that can you actually

Tell us about the time where you scored an ace while golfing with Wayne Gretzky what was the whole what club did you use did you rub it in a little bit so we’re at a golf club up in northern Idaho and um it was July 4th uh

2016 my dad had passed away just a couple weeks earlier so um I wasn’t in the greatest of spirits and I was playing you know obviously it’s a holiday in the states and um you know greton a couple and John Elway was another guy who was in it and they said

Hey come on you know play some golf and I did and I scored scored I made a a hole in one on um a par three that was 163 yards uh I hit a pitching wedge and there was two other guys I was playing with there was five some one of them

Being my best buddy JJ and uh they got all excited you know I just I wasn’t over I I really didn’t think it’ gone in but the the coolest part about it is uh gretz was standing over by the te box and everyone’s kind of going nuts and he

Was cool as a cucumber and he looked over me goes son that’s in and it was a CO like I remember like it happened yesterday you know to get a ho one Wayne Gretzky and John Elway and uh and a couple other my closest friends was

Pretty cool I don’t think I’ve come even close since and that was what seven years ago that’s fair I mean you had your moment to shine so at least there’s that I think I know the answer here though um but we’ll ask what would you rank higher golfing with Gretzky John

Cooper and the Stanley Cup or having the very first and likely only Hammer Invitational of September 2021 you know know the hammer Invitational was the day before our wedding with my very closest friends including 99 um that was I was it a I didn’t win the cup so it was very

You know uh thrilling to be with Coupe and very generous from him and Tyler Johnson to bring it up you know when their their days when they could spend it anywhere they chose to spend it with us up at our you know our small little

Golf Club um to get a photo with Coupe who’s one of the greatest guys I’ve ever met and Wayne grety was that like you know the nine or 10-year-old me would be freaking out obviously um but having my closest friends around to come celebrate you know getting married to

The to the moment of my dreams um that’s you know that’s hard to beat what would you say is more stressful then designing a tattoo or going through and designing Tess’s rose gold oval engagement ring um there’s Professionals in both Industries you know I’m just I just

Throw out the ideas and they come up with them so not too much work on my part but um you know I get to look at a beautiful ring and a beautiful person and I also got uh tattoos that mean something to me from a close friend Luke

Westman who’s one of the best in the business what was it like having personal friend and country star Dirk Bentley sing during your wedding weekend uh so a funny story I met Dirks back in it must have been like 06 or 07 something like that and um we were at

These uh we were in Nashville at like an award show after party and I was in this bar and he came up to me and I’ve always been a big country music fan I grew up on it I love it musicians in my family so he came up and he said hey man

Sheldon sir I’m a big fan and I’m like dude who put you up to it he was just just getting going right he he wasn’t a huge star then like he is now but um we just hit it off he’s a huge hockey fan he loves playing he’s got a son now Knox

That plays and is a really good player in Nashville Dirks is the ultimate uh Family Guy uh there’s a lot to be to be learned from him um but I would say that probably one of the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life is he was

Performing a show in Edmonton and um just before he went on he said hey budy you going to come on you know I’m singing free and ease and you’re going to come on stage dude I almost I froze up and I I think I had six of the quickest beers

You’ve ever seen drank and I went out there and you know I tried to own it but I was so nervous um but that’s the kind of guy he is he just brings brings people along for the ride to celebrate his success and that’s the kind of guys

I want to be around you know especially as I get older um you know if you don’t have a circle of friends who are lifting you up then you know you got the wrong friends yeah fair enough well it sounds like it was a wicked day too so congrats

To the two of you on that you credit Scotty Stevens a ton with teaching you about professionalism during your early days in hockey and when you had to go through your reassignment in Hershey during your time in Edmonton did you take some of that of what he taught you

Um to kind of mentor and teach those younger players what it was like to be a pro yeah probably not necessarily you know Scotty in that instance but I had been you know in the league for quite a while by that point you know I think it

Was probably 13 or 14 years at that point and um I’d seen a lot I’d been through a lot by that point and you know at the end of the day it’s a business uh I learned that and you know I had known that but I hadn’t really you know fell

On my lap like it did during that but hey I was getting paid I was was playing hockey it was you know I really felt it was my job to go down there these guys are making you know 20 or 30 or $40,000 a year you know they got jobs on the

Side and I was coming down from the NHL and and I was still making you know the money I was Mak and and I just felt like I owed it to myself to be a professional um but also to these guys you know to see a guy that not necessarily me but

They watch guys on on TV and they want to play in the NHL you know every who plays wants to play in the NHL and I I just really felt like I was go going to go down there and um be a part of not separate myself from the team but be a

Part of it and it was a good lesson for me too you know it was it was a good opportunity to uh you know not just talk to talk but walk to walk and I had a I had a fun time though there wasn’t the best circumstances for sure but um you

Know great guys and a great management and you know they all pushed me to to get back up to the NHL you know I had a tough year with injuries and stuff down there again and it’s it’s the way it was but it’s not those guys fault either

Like that I I was coming down I was taking someone’s job you know what I mean so I I there’s no way I would have went down there and thought that I was bigger than a team um and yeah I learned a lot uh I learned a lot about myself

That year too you know the challenges that came from that was different than having an injury you know um so it was a chance you can always learn and you can always you know take your experience and maybe help someone else down the road so

It wasn’t all bad it wasn’t great but it wasn’t all bad for sure you you do go into pretty good detail and great length about talking about like hardships and the lessons that you can at least take away and and learn from there uh the one

Thing I was always kind of curious about is you know it’s you’ve also gone to great detail about the injury and you know the lack of communication from Edmonton to you and them not knowing the sever because they just didn’t take the time to reach out um have they ever

Tried to reach out since to make amends to at least kind of repair that relationship or is that bridge kind of over that road kind of closed you know I um well a couple things I guess I went and played in a charity golf thing an alumni charity golf uh event

In the summer of 2017 I think with uh with Wayne Gretzky and Ray Whitney we flew from gazer we flew up to B uh a lot of alumni guys a lot of EX Oiler you know Glenn Sader through it through this golf event so you know a lot of EX Oilers and Montreal

Canadians and um I was really hesitant to go I didn’t want to go and if there’s one guy in the entire world that’s the ultimate professional uh and ultimate human being it’s Wing grety he said come on we’re going to go and it’s going to be fun and

So you know I I had a chance to talk to Kevin Lo with that event and um you know a lot of time in passed you know there’s one thing I’ve learned and I wasn’t sober then but the one thing I’ve learned in in sobriety is you know

There’s no sense in holding on to like these things these resentments like my life went I played the NHL after that it wasn’t like it ruin my career um so you know we kind of turned the page on that and then um also last year when the Oilers were playing against the uh

Uh the nights in the playoffs I had opportunity to take out Keith Gretzky and Ken Holland and Steve stalos out to you know my home Club here and play golf and um yeah bygones are bygones right like it doesn’t affect me it doesn’t affect them a lot of times gone by and

If there’s an ultimate Matchmaker or uh you know guy who’s going to smooth it it’s going to be Wayne Gretzky and and I’m sure glad I’m his friend like I just never would have thought growing up that you know he’d be a friend of mine I could call

Him a friend but um he’s showed me a lot off the ice about what professional and uh uh how do I say it you know what being a professional is like but just how to be a really kind human being you know he’s the great one for a reason and

If you can’t when you see him integrate himself in any situation and he doesn’t even know he’s Wayne Gretzky well you know there’s no room for me to be or you know hold on to things that really don’t matter that’s fair and it was in your time in Montreal I’m also

Curious about this I think this was the second lockout of your career uh since you were drafted you and Marty Brer went on to open a pizzeria together being a dad I imagine kids are probably among the harshest and most honest food critics out there have you ever made

Pizza for Val and Scarlet and what was their kind of feedback for you no the they’re not going to eat their dad’s cooking you know I’m a I’m a craft dinner and hot dog type guy for cooking for them so they were never that spoiled

But man that you know I had my rookie party when I was with the devils in Montreal and we became friends with and then I got traded to Montreal we became friends with u Andre who owned probably the best Italian place in Montreal and as you know Montreal has some of the

Best food on the planet and that opportunity just came up we we lent you know we lent our names to it and we let the the guys who uh knew how to run a a restaurant and and cook food we let them do their thing and we just happen to you

Know slide in there and lend our name and it was it was something fun to do with friends you know anytime you get a chance to do something with Marty Broder and uh Montreal you know you do it and you spent a lot of time in New York when

You were in playing with New Jersey you obviously spent a lot of time in Montreal you’re born to a matey Reserve kind of grew up close to Edmonton where would you rank these three iconic food items the New York slice the Montreal poutine and the Edmonton Donaire where

Would you put them on the podium one two or three bro I gotta go with a super Donaire in emont with a little cheese I have to go with a super Donaire um every time I go back that’s on the that you know that that’s on The Hit List poutine is

Iconic there’s actually a place in uh La a couple Brothers I think they’re from Toronto but it might be monreal they have a food truck in La it’s called poutine Brothers um so they send me these kits through goldbelly uh so I love that it’s like a massive treat and

Then you know Pizza is obviously great but it to me uh that’s like a distant third nice fair fair enough I’m happy Donaire kind of slotted in that front though me person I’m a huge Burger guy and I’m curious if I were to visit northern Idaho where would I find the

Best burger would it be Hudson’s hamburgers Rogers or surfjack wow buddy you’ve done your you’ve done your homework my wife and I love Rogers uh some people would say Hudsons for sure and then there’s like a new place that does like the Smash Burgers I can’t think of it off the top

Of my head but it’s um it’s supposed to have like another world class Burger but Rogers Burgers dude you go through cordelane you’re stopping there milkshake little Huckleberry milkshake come on dude literally pay I’m gonna drive that right now I’m driving right now yo shoot me a message let me know

What you think I’d love to get a kind of first look at it with that though I’m curious then do you get fries on the side do you get a salad what’s a what’s a side option when you’re going to oh come on salad we’re not rabbits yeah

When we when I I there’s nothing that I love more than a good burger fries and a milkshake my wife’s the same way she’s just stays in tremendous shape so she can eat that whenever she wants I got you know I’m a little older now so I got

To be careful but um there’s nothing I love more than a good burger french fries and a milkshake with those fries are you getting the Idaho famous friy sauce with it or you a ketchup guy I’m ketchup I I don’t like my wife sauce uh and she’s not a big sauce

Person but she likes sauce and you know with the fries I just like ketchup but they’re they’re kind of old you know Idaho is known for potatoes right so they’re kind of the old school potatoes that still have the skin on them and they’re like cooked in duck fat so it’s

Yeah you don’t need anything but a little ketchup and you know wash it down with a shake at a boy I mean I’m starving now I’m starving I guess we know what your dinner plans are me too you were going to say strawberry shake guy right yeah

Strawberry shake dude for sure and it kind of started what Bor Emon grew up in Calgary but Peter’s driving don’t know if you’ve ever been dude in Calgary yep y when I was a kid we’ playing hockey tournaments and that was our reward like

That was my reward for you know if we uh I mean I would say if we played good it wasn’t that it was our reward you know our incentive to play good whether it played good or not driving through Peters was like uh that is there’s Wayne Gretzky and

Then there’s driving through Peter’s drive-thru for a burger dude honestly the thing the thing that I miss most about uh having moved out of Alberta all these years ago honestly it’s Peters there’s like nothing I hold to that higher standard Peters and donaire’s easy one and one a one B yeah yeah um

Now you’re a student of hockey as much as you are a mentor and a teacher and you’ve been very generous and humble when talking about the players that were there before for you and the players of today the players of right now um pound for pound Who was the player that

Impressed you the most during your playing days oh man um the you know the best player I gotta say Alexi kovalev was probably the most skilled player that I ever seen or played against I I mean uh Sergey federov was incredible uh Joe sack and forsburg in their Prime when playing against col

Like man Eric Lindros you know there’s so many guys that that when I was when I got to the NHL I seen a lot of these guys in their Prime and like I felt like I was so out of place like these are guys that I seen on TV you know as a

Matter of fact I’ll tell you a funny story uh when one of my first games I’ve played in the NHL were in Madison Square Garden and um uh we’re playing the Rangers Messier and grety come down pass it you know two onone obviously they pass it they score I skate to the bench

I’m sitting on the bench and I’m looking up at the Jumbo Tron and MSG and uh I just watched you know Messier pass it to Gretzky and he he scored on us you know and Larry Robinson tapped me on the shoulder and look back and he goes hey

Hey wases the game’s right out there and he used a couple other words goes the game’s right out there and um it was awesome you know it was like wow I I made it I like I’m here um but it was also like a I always talk about it

Growing up in the New Jersey Devils organization that’s where you learn professionalism so I also felt like even that was like a little bit of a backhanded like hey get with it it was also like hey you’re you’re playing this game so so get with it you know um but

Yeah I just I don’t know it just made me think of that story and uh yeah so many good players I imagine that um when you were playing there were a lot of games and a lot of days where you felt good you felt great but the

Results just weren’t there how would you B balance that how would you balance your emotion your your play how would you just balance all of that when you’re playing well but it’s just not going the team’s way well you know I think playing in good organizations uh and you you surround

Yourselves you know there’s coaches that have different ways to handle that um there’s teams there’s other players that you’re get close to that handle it a certain way um what I will say is in Montreal I really learned how to be a professional you know you have all these

Alumni that are around day in Day Out some of the greatest players that have ever played greatest stats that have ever you know uh been kept and so I really learned like like don’t think you’re all that because if you lose the next game you’re in every paper as well saying you know

They should trade you so you really have to learn how to like just uh keep an even ke you know my family was really good at humbling me like they always seen me as as who I was and not what I did um and think it’s important to have

That in your life where it’s not like people always hockey hockey hockey you know there’s uh there’s a life away from that and I’ve always been very lucky that my family has been super supportive and super down to earth my buddies that I grew up with you know they didn’t

They they didn’t I mean they cared it was cool that I played in the NHL but um they also knew me since I was a you know fat little 11year old so then they’d remind me you know so it’s it’s just that you know it comes with a little

Experience I think too you know when you’re young everything you know you get into one free Club where they buy you a drink somewhere and you know you think you’re Brad Pit and um so with with some experience you learn that it’s just and you you already mentioned an example of

Like going to Hershey like there’s life will humble you you know so you better be ready to to um if you’re going to take the good with the good you better be ready to take a little bit of uh water in the boat too well with that support system that you had especially

In Montreal you have a really good relationship with the conditioning coach Scott Livingston um what would you say is a position like a staffing position on a team that kind of gets things going maybe might be the heartbeat of that team but just doesn’t get a lot of

Credit wow what a great question um you know it’s it’s really it’s the trainers right it’s your stick trainers it’s the assistant trainers that you know you break a stick they got to run to the back if you break a skate leas they got to run to the back um those

Guys are just as important it sounds so cliche but those guys are the guys like you know giving you a pad on the in between periods the coach might have just showed a video clip that you just got you know walked by two guys um those

Are the guys that are tapping you on the pants and let’s go and smile I mean you just never know where where a little inspiration comes from you know and really the best organizations that I’ve been a part of um those guys those support guys that are around they don’t

Care who gets the credit they’re just happy to you know to be there and to support you Scott Livingston you know I had a lot of injuries when I was in Montreal there was a lot of days when you know uh we didn’t get along you know

There’s a lot of days where we swore each other and he kicked me off the ice one day told me I wasn’t working I mean that you know we see these games we see these players sometimes and you think that everything is just cool it’s not you know it’s just like a relationship

Behind the scenes stuff is going on all the time um so you have to be around people too that don’t take it personally you know es if we’re just talking about hockey um everyone just wants to win and they want to do what they can to win and

They’re motivating you in in in some way like an example is the assistant trainer or the strength coach isn’t trying to take my job right they’re just trying to make me better however they got to do that and you don’t see eye to eye you

Don’t see eye to eye with your your mom and dad you don’t see eye to eye with your you know your wife or your best friend all the time I mean um but you have to be able to let things go sorry buddy I apologize you’re good

You’re you have to be able to let things go no no it’s all good um yeah you have to just be ready to yeah you have to be able to let things go and realize that you know you’re all working towards one goal which in in if you’re a professional it’s winning um

But it takes everybody that’s a great question though but that’s a really good question thank you thank you for going into detail and you know sharing a lot of the Insight behind the scenes and what it’s like in between games and how much harder that can be so thank you for

Being open about that now with that with how often you would sacrifice you know your body out there it was also a job job that you got paid for you bought a Jeep when you’re 18 and you paid for it at the dealership with a brown paper bag

Full of cash have you since changed your ways when it comes to buying cars have you discovered the world of financing it’s you know I wish they taught financing in school you know what I mean we learned we learn uh algebra and we learned you know all these things

That really you never learn never really use in the real world um yes the answer to your question is yes I’ve I’ve learned financing uh some hard lessons along the way and I’ve I was really lucky though when I was in New Jersey I played with Doug Gilmore and then he came to

Montreal early 2000s and he hooked me up with a um a guy who took care of my financial stuff for the rest of my career and I mean I know not everybody has a guy like that but everybody should have a guy like that because you know when

You’re young like that for me anyways it was just easy come easy go you know spending more than I was making and um it just wasn’t sustainable but yeah yeah I haven’t bought a car with cash in a very long time look as fun as the Jeep

Probably was where’s the Bronco rank on your all-time you know most fun cars that you’ve owned uh which one the one I recently had on my Instagram thing the black one yeah the matte black one yeah yeah it’s that’s a that’s a cool car I love cars but I

Don’t really get attached to them I like bringing them to life and using them for for however long and I usually sell one to a friend or someone will stop me you know I people stop me on the street and go hey I want to have that car um but

It’s a really cool car it’s it’s a head turner for sure great for the with with all the cards then that you kind of cycle in and out is there a car in the fleet that you’ve participated with at the cardan no but they have a what you’re

Talking about cardan is like a car show down uh well it’s like a parade down the center the main street of cordan they call it calan like you just said but man you wouldn’t believe how many nice cars are there like these people have had original cars since you know the 60s or

The 7 for the 80s so you know we see like these big auctions Barett Jackson or meum or you know people there have had these original cars that they don’t drive in the winter um so you’re seeing some like really really cool cars so I’ve never put one in there but uh it’s

One of the highlights of my summmer is going seeing what’s uh what people are driving up there yeah I bet uh there was a moment where axis Hollywood called you the sexiest man in the NHL you’ve always had a great sense of style off the ice especially uh lately you Tess the kids

Have been doing a lot of like themed costumes themed parties and events and stuff like that do you have an idea of what kind of costumes you’ll all be wearing at whatever event throughout this year so what will our next event be it’ll be uh well really we get it’s

Either someone’s birthday party you know and as you get a little bit older people like you know we don’t go to the clubs um you know we’re not in Vegas with the sparklers and and pop and bottle so usually people when you get a little older having like some sort of themed

Birthday so that’s where you see a lot of that come from and my wife is really really good at getting created for Halloween so I don’t I don’t ask questions I don’t even have input because she’s so much smarter and she makes these things come to life so

Whatever it is I know it’s going to be cool and I don’t mind looking I don’t mind embarrassing myself for you know a day or two when you were playing who’s a teammate that other than you had the best sense of style and fashion uh the best sense of style or

Fashion would maybe be Saku probably uh KIU had he was very very uh it was very polished you know very polished I remember asking him one time how much his shoes were and I think he told me 12 or 13 $100 and you know I almost opened the door

And jumped out of the car I couldn’t believe it I didn’t know stuff cost that much um but he was always very very classy guy um he took me one time actually to get a soup made in Montreal and I said yeah of course we will get a

Superman you know I’m a big shot so we went and did all the measuring and had you know cappuccino when we were there and all this and the guy gave me the price tag and I walked out right I gave my credit card yeah yeah no problem I

Walked out and once I got in the car away from sack I called him back I said you know I’m just not going to take that suit I just had no clue what he got me into he was probably getting a commission on it or something there’s

Always a side objective for sure for sure um so that kind of leads me to my next point where as a hockey fan we hold a lot of certain moments and memories to you know a high standard we reflect on certain things as a fan that we’ve seen

That we really liked I’m curious though if I can rifle some of these career moments and highlights can you take us back to those moments in time on what it was like on the player side of things so first we’ll start with having your mom play goalie at that player

Parent Game way back way back when in the day uh so I was pretty young I do remember uh my dad had never played hockey he had never skated he was working he was a truck driver it was a um it was a dad’s against Sons game and so my dad

Wasn’t there so my mom said L you know I’ll jump in and she played goalie and uh I think they snuck a couple by her uh she wasn’t that good well I mean I guess that might have P paved the pathway for uh your NHL career because tell me what it was like

Setting a franchise record with the Montreal Canadians scoring six points in a game against a Pittsburgh Peng pins that was kind of surreal it wasn’t like you know I played some game that was uh I didn’t do any you know man I put a couple pucks off the glass and out

And I remember Chad kiler got a breakway went and scored you know what I mean like absolutely nothing out of the ordinary that game at all I wasn’t even really paying attention to it we we got up I think we won that game 81 maybe um

We had got up and I eight nothing it was eight nothing well see I wasn’t even I wasn’t even a minus that game so that’s good you’re cold man you’re good you know man um I just I remember the only thing I remember about that game the

Thing I remember most vividly is we were on the bench third period I must have gotten like you know the six point or whatever and Craig re who was one of my best buddies and my defense partner he said hey I want you to sign a stick for

Me after the game and I’m looking I’m like what are you talking about he’s like dude you just you know it was nothing I ever thought like that’s how un un um it was not a glamorous game at all um so I’m really surprised that even happened it

Surprised me I wasn’t keeping track of it you know I got a hatrick once and that like I knew exactly I could tell you probably the times I scored in that game the game where I got six points I couldn’t tell you you know I didn’t make

One good play that game I mean the stat sheet would say otherwise but fair enough this one’s from my buddy Jonathan he’s curious what happened and what went into the moment where you and I quote were beating the snot out of Darren mccardy um so it was the first shift of

The game we’re playing in Calgary and my dad had drove up for Edmonton and he brought a couple friends to the game and um I think I got kicked out of that game or I didn’t finish the G some something happened cuz my dad was not happy with

Me when I came up and I’d been in the league for seven or eight years at that point and I came up and he was like what are you doing dude you know I’m like what do you talk I thought you would be I thought that was more impressive than

You’re making it and uh something happened I don’t know why he was not impressed but I remember seeing him after and Darren is a great guy I had a tremendous amount of respect for him and um I think the both he wanted to come out and and set the tone and obviously

We were we were going to answer that and it just happened he he obliged me I remember after the fight he tapped me on the on the head and he said man I didn’t know you were Lefty I said only when I’m only when I’m really scared Darren and

Uh you know we never tussled after that we uh he earn my respect and I think I earn his too you went full Southpaw Rocky Bell Bo in that bout and it was awesome um the last one here take us back to 2002 April your buddy Saku has

Returned from cancer and you spent a lot of time recovering uh with them throughout your own injuries what uh what was that game like that’s the greatest moment my career you know probably a top five Moment In My Life um in September before that training camp uh sack had flown over he wasn’t

Feeling good and uh he wasn’t at the first day of training camp and craiger V called me and he said hey you know I got to tell you something he told me that sack was sick came over to ri’s house at night and I seen them and you know it it

Was just kind of normal right it’s like okay I no one I had never really been affected by cancer personally by someone that I that I really cared about and um the next time I seen sack was about Christmas time and now I was hurt I

Broke my hand that year and I had problems getting back surgeries and Sack came and he was in the hospital so call it December right so we’re about three three months he was probably about 160 lbs he was wearing mittens and he was wearing a toque and his his jacket right

Up and you couldn’t hug him you couldn’t he was giving you fist pumps like this and he was so frail and um I remember leaving the rink and I just wanted to cry I couldn’t believe that that was sack right and he started feeling better we started training you mentioned Scott

Livingston started skating us and and I was like if that guy thinks he’s coming back well I’m coming back too you know I remember thinking that and then we got to the night where he came back and I think they gave him an ovation for probably 10 or 11 minutes every time

They tried to tell the crowd to to settle down it got louder and I mean even talking board it makes the hair on my arms stand up it was it was one of the most incredible moments for sure in my life to be a part

Of that but I think anyone who was in the arena that night would tell you it was one of the most incredible moments to their life too so um sack is one of the he’s still one of my best friends um I love him I have a tremendous amount of

Respect for him him coming back that year from cancer and and playing and actually I think he let her team in the playoffs that year too in points but it it had a profound effect on my career it had a profound effect on my career watching him come back work his butt off

To get back and then to lead us I think we beat we beat some maybe we beat someone in the first round and we lost in the second round but anyways um what an absolute Warrior that guy is and one an absolute Warrior you were throughout your the entirety of your

Career Sheldon to close out they say don’t meet your Idols you truly are one of my all-time favorite people I can even begin to explain to you how much this means to me so thank you for taking away the time uh you’re a champion for mental health you’re a Champion for love

You love love and I’m just really proud of the man that you become since your days as a player so I really just want to say thanks again so much for carving out all this time where can people find you and stay up to date with you and everything you got going

On um I think my Instagram is s you know there’s nothing it’s going to be a bunch of baby pictures and and pictures of my family on there but um I will say thanks you know we met through Instagram and you asked me to do this I don’t really

Do them because no one wants to care no one car about listening to you know wash up old hockey player but you’ve been so kind and you know giving me this um this platform so it was a real pleasure to talk to you and I I wish big things for

You man dude I really appreciate that thank you again so much my man uh enjoy the rest of the night go get those Burgers go get that shake I hope you and test have a good rest of the night thanks Budd you come to C Lane Burgers

On me you got it you got it next time in Vegas I’ll hit you up too 100% thank you