WEBVTT - Vol. 8: Chris "Knuckles" Nilan 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.080 Charges. That's created by Portalais and Control Media. It's produced 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:10.760 by dB Podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. This 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.960 time a former Sons player who you might remember as 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:16.320 t Rex. More video in just a moment, But this 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.840 is Rex Chapman's mug shot and we are learning a 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.119 lot more about the charge up the charge. Okay, so 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:24.560 when did it swiss for you? From pills to heroin? 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.400 I end up sluting and I said I'll never shoot it, 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.040 and within a week I had a needle on my prawl. 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:33.240 You don't know what a prawling. You have been stabbed, 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:34.640 you have been a hit over the head with a 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.640 baseball bat. I don't think so. I grew up in 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.400 that culture too. You know you work on play on 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.040 work ond you deserve a poll one. I remember looking 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.920 at myself in the mirror and saying, I don't fucking 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:54.200 like you. Welcome to Charges. I'm your host, Rex Chapman. 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:57.520 Today We're proud to hit the ice for the very 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:01.680 first time. Hockey players makeup, especially in the NHL, on 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.800 and off the rink, requires a toughness seldom seen in 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:08.880 other professional sports. On the ice, you can actually throw 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.680 down your gloves and throw fist Mono Imano. Yes, there 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.680 was even a time in NHL when this was celebrated 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:20.399 and encouraged. Our guest today is Chris Knuckles Nyland, a 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.720 fifteen year veteran and a Stanley Cup champion with the 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:28.080 Montreal Canadians. Chris and I share the experience of battling addiction, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.640 specifically opioids, and again we want to remind any of 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.560 our listeners if you're struggling with addiction or know someone 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.240 who is, there is help out there and you can 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.200 and will beat this struggle. I'd like to welcome the 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:51.800 Pride of West Roxbury, Massachusetts, Chris Knuckles nine. Chris, thanks 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.040 for coming on, buddy. Yeah, thanks for having me. X 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.800 quite the introduction. We do have something in common and 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:02.400 obviously the opioids, and I'm glad that I have that 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.200 part of my life in order right now. So life 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.880 is good. You and me both, but you and me both, uh, 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.320 And I gotta be up front. I know very little 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.600 about hockey. I enjoy watching it. My first experience with 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.640 hockey really, you know, growing up in Kentucky, we didn't 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.280 have it, you know. I remember seeing it on ESPN 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.240 and thinking it was a brand new sport and I 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.400 was like twelve years old. But my first experience with it, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.919 I was playing for the Phoenix Suns and we had 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.680 a young rookie on the team and I was walking 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.600 into practice one day, young rookie named Steve Nash, and 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:41.880 he was out on the ice in his basketball uniform, 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.680 flying up and down the ice with the coyotes, and 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.640 I was just amazed. I thought, oh my god. Well, 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.399 first of all, you guys are so fast. I mean, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.640 it's one thing to be able to skate, but to 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:56.640 be able to do it like that. I can't imagine 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:01.320 playing basketball on skates. It's just beyond me. So kudos 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.120 for all the work it took to get to that level. Man. Well, 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.600 I gotta tell you, when you think of hockey, you 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.880 think it's Canadiana, right. And when you look at hockey 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:16.640 in the States, you know it's a regional sport. The Northeast, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.480 you know, New England, you look at Minnesota, the state 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.760 of Minnesota, big hockey town, the Midwest somewhat. And now 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:29.480 with the expansion in the NHL. Uh, when Gretzky got 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.560 traded from Medminton went to l A. More So in California, 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.240 we're seeing guys getting drafted kids out of California, I 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:42.120 mean Austin Matthews with Toronto maple Leafs from Phoenix, Arizona. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:47.520 The league has expanded somewhat, and um, you know, the 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.400 grassroots level, it's gotten a lot better in the States. 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.400 But boy, you need money to play that sport. It's 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.560 not like grabbing a pair of sneakers in a pair 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.480 of shorts. Go play some hoop now in the school yard. 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.400 Tell me about growing up in West Roxbury, mass And 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.080 how hockey and that type of neighborhood all come together. Well, 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.640 what's Roxbury is a neighborhood borrow in the city of Boston, 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:17.400 predominantly Irish neighborhood and growing up back in the sixties there, Um, 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:22.360 Bobby Or came to the Boston Bruins and man, that 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.320 city just went nuts for him. He took the city 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.599 by storm and everybody loved him. Every kid wanted to 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:33.360 be like him. And he had such an impact on 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.440 the area that the city of Boston, the mayor at 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:39.800 a time when he came was looking at ways to 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:42.960 keep kids off the street, keeping from the street corner, 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.720 hanging around doing nothing. And yeah, there were a lot 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.880 of basketball courts around the city in all the parks, 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.760 but there were no hockey rinks. It was one really 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.040 a couple of rinks Boston Skating Club in the Brighton section, 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.719 but they weren't a lot of rinks. So the governor 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.839 along with the mayor got together and they started building 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.440 these rinks that were called m d C Rinks Metropolitan 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.720 District Commission, and they built a lot of these ranks 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:13.680 in different neighborhoods South Boston, West Roxbury, Charlestown, dort Chester, 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:18.400 all the inner city. And it gave kids an opportunity 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.200 to get off the street corner. It gave families an 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.880 opportunity to do public skating, going around and just skating 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.600 to music. And then they started coming up with little leagues, 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:33.920 um like Little League Baseball, like uh they started Boston 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.880 Neighborhood Hockey League, which was a big thing for me, 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.920 but you know, that's what we did back in those days. 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.000 They had those leagues just to keep kids off the 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.520 street and give them, uh you know, something to do 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:48.760 and sports to play. So it was awesome. It was 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.559 it sort a big impact on my my young hockey life, 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.200 my young life in general. It's so beautiful uh. You know, 0:05:56.279 --> 0:06:00.360 in my research, what came up again and again was 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.200 that you were never really expected to go pro. You 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:08.440 played college hockey at Northeastern, great hockey school, but still 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:12.599 the NHL wasn't necessarily on the radar, right, No, it wasn't. 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.599 I played for um coach who happened to be a judge. 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.520 His name was Paul King, and Judge King was in 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:23.560 charge of one of the busiest courts, were the most 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:28.800 violent offenders in the state of Massachusetts. And he was 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.919 an authortic. He was hunched over and his brother was 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.719 the governor of the state, Ed King at a time. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.560 And the judge saw something in me that nobody else did. 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.800 I don't know what to this day because he's passed 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.240 on now, but he always had this faith in me, 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.440 always had something for me. He used to take me 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:50.240 off with PiZZ A Lott. He had eight kids of 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.960 his own, eight and he had one son who was 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.480 don syndrome. And he'd sit on the bench all day. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:06:59.240 You know, he get up in the morning and go 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.000 down kiro prack the co stit on the bench all day, 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.800 come down, get on the ice for hockey practice, all 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.400 hunched over in a cold hockey rank. Then he go 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.600 home do the family thing. But this guy was a huge, 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.800 huge influence on my life and he really helped me, 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:18.760 you know, get to the next level. And I say 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.920 that he helped me get into prep school. I played 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.880 Catholic memory, I played high school hockey. I was a 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:28.679 young senior. I didn't do that that great in school, 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.600 but um, the option came up to go to prep 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:34.880 school for year up and Lake Plastad, New York. He 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.480 wrote me a letter of recommendation. I went to prep school. 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.600 He told me, you go up there, you do three things. Once, 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:46.080 stay out of trouble. Two do good in school. Three 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.640 play hockey. Do your best in hockey. So I did 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:51.960 those three things. At the end of the year, I 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.080 was the most improved player in hockey. I was the 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.800 most improved student. And I did well in hockey. And 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:05.040 I stayed out of too kind but kind of not 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.400 the kind of trouble I get in. Back in Boston 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.120 as a kid, and he was friends with a former player, 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.480 Fernie Flamman, who coached. He was a former Bruins play 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:18.760 at Legend. He coached at Northeastern. Fernie came to see 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:23.440 me play one game at Northwood School and ended up 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.600 offering me a full scholarship to Northeastern. So it was 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:32.439 through the Judge, this coach, friend mentor of mine, that 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:34.800 I was able to go off to college, the first 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.880 child in my family to have that opportunity. Isn't that amazing? 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.480 I mean pretty much a stranger just saw. He must 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.160 have known something about hockey, right, I mean he had 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.200 to have been hockey to see something. Yeah, he knew hockey, 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.480 but I think he knew people better. And when I 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.559 say that, um, you know. I went to Northeastern a 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:58.600 couple of years. I ended up getting drafted by the 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:02.760 Montreal Canadians after my second year in seventy eight. I 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.000 come to find out after my career is said and 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:11.840 done from a former Montroal Canadians player who is a 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:16.560 Hall of Famer in a legend, Dickie Moore and Doug Harvey. 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.520 There's two of them. Well, they were friends with Judge King. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.920 So Judge Kane, when I was at Northeastern, approach Boltiman said, 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:29.800 here's a deal, do me a favor. Just have the 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:35.200 Canadians draft Chris Nilan and he'll do the rest. This 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.080 is what Judge said to these two Hall of Fame 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.200 hockey players. So Dicky said, listen, he has a deal. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.560 We'll send a look at him, but we'll draft him. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.559 We'll just pick him with our lots picking the don't worry, 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.959 we'll draft him. Sure enough, night comes around, I get 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:56.200 drafted by the Canadians. Now I'm thinking, well, someone scouted 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:00.920 being whooped? He do? I've found out and me I 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.080 was very naive, like I didn't know the difference between 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.599 the first round pick or a seventeen round pick. It 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.400 didn't make a difference. And I find out after the 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:15.560 judge passed away, after my career is over, and Dickie 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:21.800 Moore comes to the funeral um. We went out after 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.360 the funeral for lunch and we sat down. He said, 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:27.680 you know how you get drafted by the Canadians in 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.040 the seventeenth round. They said, yeah, yeah, it was a 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.680 late pick, but obviously doesn't mean much now the way 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.800 I turned that thing inside out, He said, well, the 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.760 judge never wanted me to let you know this, but 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.800 he's responsible for you getting drafted by the Canadians. He 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.839 called me and asked to do him a favor. So 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:52.040 that's how I get drafted and for him to say 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:56.240 to me, Chris, the judge said, just draft him. He'll 0:10:56.280 --> 0:11:00.560 do the rest. Like man, Yeah, you don't know how 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.840 emotional I got when I first heard that. I was 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.920 shaken and I was in tears when I heard it 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:10.320 because this man who was and turned out to be 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.360 a great mentor of mine. And maybe at the time 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.760 I didn't know it so much, but I always had 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:17.800 the time for him. We went to lunch, we did 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:19.880 a lot of things. As he got older and his 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.080 health was sotting to fail, we got together quite a 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:24.280 bit and he never let it out of the bag, 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:28.880 the bastard. But I absolutely loved the man. It's just beautiful. 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:45.280 Oh now he just turned through his inside out and 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.559 went to the back head and watch it. He had 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.719 a beat all the way. Chris, tell me about your 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.800 career in the NHL. What it means to be the 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.959 enforcer or what would you even call that position? How 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.480 did you choose that role and or did the role 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.319 choose you? I didn't. I wanted to be Bobby or 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.160 remember I grew up in Boston. I wanted to be Bobbio. 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:12.040 Now I could play hockey. I came into my first 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.600 training camp with Montreal they just won four Stanley Cups 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.760 in a row, and I'm coming to training camp with 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:22.040 all these future Hall of Famous I get sent to 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.400 the American Hockey League, which is a stepdown, and I 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:32.679 remember being um in an exhibition game and they all 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.040 these Canadian kids play junior hockey. In your fight in 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:39.120 junior hockey, I'm thinking, like, how difficult can it be 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.360 if I get in a fight. I fought on the 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.200 street all my life, and so what I've seen the 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:49.120 Bruins do it, you know, my whole young life growing up. 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.920 I'll be all right. I can handle myself. So my 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:58.240 first exhibition game, there's a big defenseman out of Ontario, 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:05.040 Davy Read Allison, and we had a tough coach, Bert Templeton. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.520 He loved tough players. They didn't know I'm from college. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.640 There no reputation of being tough out of college. So 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.920 I end up hitting one of these defensemen. His name 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:21.079 Bam Bam Belonge. So I run Bam Bam into the boys. 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.400 He turned around, chopped at me. I pushed him. The 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.440 revs get in break it up. We get back to 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.080 the bench and Allison looks down the bench he goes, hey, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.319 fucking college kid. Who the fuck do you think you are? 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.680 You know you have been in a brawl before, you 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.840 know what a brawl is. I said, hey, fuck you 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:42.600 a brawl. You don't know what a brawl is. You 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:44.440 have been stabbed, you have been a hit over the 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.800 head with a baseball bat. I don't think so brawl. 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.480 The next shift, I go out in the ice and 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.160 I kicked the ship out of Bam bam, Belong J. 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.040 He comes right after me, Belon J right, and I 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.840 give it to him. Now. I get back to the bench. 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.200 Red Zi took his socks off and stuck him in 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.480 his mouth. He didn't say one word to me. He 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:10.880 didn't know what to say. He didn't know whether the 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:16.800 ship or go blind. And I so I don't talk 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.880 to him the rest of the training camp. I don't 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.080 say a word, ignore him. I get a five game 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:29.840 tryout for two hundred dollars a game. I get a tryout. 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:34.240 I didn't have a contract two dollars a game. Nineteen. 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.520 I'm in Halifax. They play the first three games at home. 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.080 I don't play. We go on the road. We play 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.000 our first game in Maine, which was the Philadelphia Flyers 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.960 the broad Street Bullies. They have farm team. The first shift, 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:57.480 I go out a body check. I hit this guy Cochrane, 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.720 big defense and tough kids six four or five, like 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:06.480 two thirty five. Big kid on the ice, long arms, 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.960 down with his knees and anyway I run him. He 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:14.360 give me a shot. Boom, we dropped the gloves. I 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.880 cut him open with a right I come across. I 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.880 cut him bad. Boom. We get kicked out of the game. 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.440 The next day, the coach called me down the room. 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.720 He said, hey, knuckles, it's the coach. Hey, what's up. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.600 He goes, Uh, do you have an agent? I said, no, 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:32.760 I don't have an agent. I was a in seventeenth 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.800 round pick. Why would I have no who wants to 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:38.240 represent me and ain't making no money with me? Anyway? 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:40.680 He said, you better get one. He said, Montreal wants 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.640 to sign your contract. That's how it happened that one fight. 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:50.760 I signed that contract a week later, and then everybody 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.040 in the league, the American League, all the tough guys, 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.200 they wanted to fight me because I beat Glenn Cochrane. 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.160 He was one of the heavyweights in the league. So 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.880 that's how it began. That's how I became a fighter. 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.480 But I became more than a fighter. When I was 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:08.440 down there, I played games. I had fifteen goals in Tennessee. 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.840 I had twenty five points in forty nine games, so 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.680 I had a point every two games. And christ I 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.840 was fighting every night. Crazy to go back, you said, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.360 I've been in a brawl. We all growing up kids, 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:23.880 you get in skirmishes and fights and stuff. I know, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:25.400 if we got in a fight where I grew up, 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.680 you get kicked out of school. What were you fighting 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.920 for as a kid? And how early did you start 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.400 just scrapping in the streets? Wow, jeez, you know, hanging 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.840 around the street corner growing up in the city, everybody's 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.280 trying to get over on you. Everybody's trying to do 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:42.880 it a thing. Everybody's trying to be the big guy 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:45.360 in the neighborhood. There was a lot of that, just 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.120 stupid stuff that kids do growing up our street corner. 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.360 The kids I hung with went tougher than you guys. 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.320 Or we'd be out in a bos somewhere and it's 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.040 the you looked at me wrong. See you later? Uh 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.640 fighting all of the girls, you know. Um. I ended 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.520 up in a situation one night and bought some of 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:09.320 a couple of friends who we end up in a 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.400 really bad fight. We're out numbered, there were weapons involved. 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.320 One of the kids, uh that we fought, got hurt, 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:21.080 really bad crushes, skullar lost and I, um, there was 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:25.320 some bad things and um, you know a lot of it, 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:31.280 quite frankly, was around alcohol, you know, yea honestly you know, 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.879 growing up as a kid hanging the street corner with 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.879 your friends, guys are doing drug, Guys are smoking weed, 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:43.720 drinking and honestly, hockey the hockey rink, my hockey team, 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:48.440 who I was always accountable to, came before a lot 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.840 of that. It saved me in a lot of ways. 0:17:51.480 --> 0:18:02.159 I can see that two bustin boys I used to 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:07.159 do this everything turns it used to They had as 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:11.879 being proud too. These are two puss rusts you wouldn't 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.040 want to be. They didn't know either one of these. 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.359 Not often you can get two Boston boys playing on 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:21.359 two different teams fighting both benches. This is always a 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:24.800 funny thing. The Montreal offenses cheering they say now on one, 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:31.639 and the bus benches cheering they see now. You know, 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.120 hockey is a notoriously tough guy sport. As a guy 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:40.240 who once earned forty two penalty minutes, which for the 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:42.760 listeners who don't know, there's only sixty minutes in a 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:46.200 in a damn game. Uh So, as that guy, what 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.000 is that life like? Not only on the on the ice, 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.600 but you know, everywhere you fucking go. Man, you know 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:55.920 restaurants are people challenging you. You know, what is that 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.920 life like? No, you know, I'll be honest for the 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:04.000 most part, those guys who do that job, especially in 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.800 the city you're playing, people love you. They hate you. 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.000 In the other cities it's like, you know, Bill Mbia, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.119 everywhere he went they hate right, but they love them. 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.320 In Detroit, you're treated with a lot of reverence. In 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.160 your own hometown, you get the odd asshole who you're 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.360 if you're hot to buy drinking, he might say something, 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.400 but it's like, forget about it. Listen. I love doing 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.159 that job. I always loved. My father is a Green Beret. 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:31.440 In Green Beret, the motto is free those that are oppressed. 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.520 My father always taught me to stick up for weaker 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:38.480 kids or kids that got picked on. You always told me, 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:40.640 I ever get a call from that school and you're 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.040 picking on something, I'll kick your rats. You'll have a problem. 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.080 If anything, they call me and say you beat some 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:48.520 kid up because he was picking on something, Well, I'll 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:50.159 back you. I don't have a problem with it. So 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.360 I always stuck up for my my friends, my teammates. 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:57.240 So the job fit me really well and I thrived 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:09.920 on't sure about the cord Center up. Well, what's all 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:16.480 this whole thing? First the fasts? Will they get to 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:23.280 the second round? I guess this whole thing? Calbry five games? 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:31.640 What the so you won the Cup in u um 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.120 with Montreal? Is everything like it looks like on TV? 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.360 Do you think the legend of the Stanley Cups even 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.760 greater you know now than was back then? Or oh yeah, 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:44.080 it's incredible. Like when they say it's the hottest trophy 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:46.719 to win, it is like, man, and listen, I get 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:51.159 basketball and it's physical, but it's a different level hockey, 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:55.119 speed of the game, the guys, the macho pot of 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:59.000 it with man. If Joe hurt, there's no saying coach, listen, 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.239 I can't play, it doesn't happen. I I respect all 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.840 athletes that wait for what they go through, but when 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.480 you look at what you have to go through to 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.480 win that thing, man, I know at the end. I 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:14.960 started the playoffs, I was probably two oh two, that's 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.919 what I played at I was a hundred ninety two pounds. 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:20.680 At the end, I was all sucked up. I tore 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.520 a ligament to my ankle in the game before we wanted, 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.440 so I missed the final game. I had a black eye. 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.400 I was a mess at the end. But it felt good. 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.560 I bet it did. Yeah. What's the culture of drinking 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:38.760 and partying like in the NHL, especially when you're you know, 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.480 living and playing in Canada. Well, here's the deal. Back 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:43.960 when I played, it was a little different, right, It 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:49.080 was big culture. Every day we finished practice, we went 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:52.879 across the street a little tavern and we'd have lunch 0:21:53.520 --> 0:22:00.359 now lunch, lunch, lunch and have a few bit, you know, 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.320 he has how it was. They were the older guys 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:06.720 who have been around for a while would have a 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:09.920 couple go home to their families. The guys in the 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.840 middle there stay around a little longer, the young guys. 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:16.920 We had one guy in the team that didn't drink, 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.080 but he came every day and he was a born 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:23.080 again Christian. His name was Ryan Walton and as sweethet 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.480 of a man, and he will come every day, sit 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.879 there with the boys, big smile, have a tomato juice, 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:39.000 good on him. Yeah, the team, but the culture was big, 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:41.879 and I grew up in that culture too. You know, 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:45.720 you work odd, play odd, work odd, you deserve a 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.920 cold one. The neighborhood like that, my household like that, 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:53.280 And certainly in hockey and hockey it was big. You know, 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:57.000 after game, cold beer, do your thing, And it was 0:22:57.119 --> 0:22:59.800 huge in the NHL back then we played hot. We 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:02.439 I can only imagine a beer on the plane all 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:05.480 the time, you know, driving home from the airport after 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:08.280 getting off the plane. And I'm not proud of it today. 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:12.320 I did it. Thank God. I never killed anybody, hurt anybody. 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.960 I didn't, And um I never got a drunk driving 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:21.919 but I shouldn't. Chris Nyland, also known as Knuckles, had 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:26.040 an incredible fifteen year NHL career. He spent ten seasons 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:29.639 as a Montreal Canadian, then three as a New York Ranger. 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:32.480 His career ended in the city where he first picked 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:34.320 up a stick and a pair of skates as a 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:38.119 Boston Brewing for two seasons, six hundred and sixty eight games, 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:42.080 a hundred and ten goals, most penalty minutes by any 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:46.399 American born player, a record that still stands today. The 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:49.120 game gave him so much, but like many pro athletes 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:53.040 before and after him, it took its toll physically. That's 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:59.680 when the pain began to ring. So after you're done playing, 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:02.600 how hard was it to adjust? I know you you 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:04.960 coached and did some things, but just as a pro, 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:08.160 when you hung it up, what what was that like? Yeah? 0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:11.320 It was difficult. You know, my identity of being a 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:14.680 professional hockey player and doing the job I did. Like 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:16.520 I said, you can say all the money you want, 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:21.160 you can do well financially, but you think you prepare, 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:24.960 but you'll never prepare emotionally for what you're about to 0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:29.639 what's about to happen to you mentally emotionally, you just won't. 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:33.680 And I didn't. I thought I had it all going on. 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:36.920