SUSIE MATHIEU | Ice Guardians Ep 28

Kelly Chase and Brett Hull were joined in studio by former St. Louis Blues executive Susie Mathieu for an Ice Guardians watch party. The guys talk to Susie about how she started with the Blues and how she was able to stick around for as long as she did. Susie tells the guys about getting the team home after losing game 7 in Calgary in 1986. Chaser asks Susie about running the World Cup of Hockey and the Olympic hockey tournament and they all talk about their time together with the Texarkana Bandits. Chaser, Hully, and Susie all share memories of Ron Caron and Susie talks about the end of her time with the Blues.

Ice Guardians, presented by Siteman Cancer Center, comes to you from the Window World Studios.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:32

Well, ladies and gentlemen, you are in for a treat today from the Window World Studio brought to you by Seitman Cancer Center. It's another edition of Ice Guardians with my pal Kelly Chase and the wonderful glue of the St. Louis Blues, as there might not be a team if she was not here in the mid-70s all the way through the 80s until they screwed her over in the 90s, just like everyone else. Susie Matthew. The one and only. Suze, how have you been? I've been good, Jason. So good to see you. Grandma, five grandchildren. Listen to this. She'd only have three if it wasn't for me.

SPEAKER_07 1:21

I got you're right.

SPEAKER_05 1:24

Uh, I could hit that so far out of the park. Listen, I get so pissed off because when I hear, you know, I'm all for well, not all the time, but most of the time I'm all for you know, females being at the top of the uh food chain and talking about assistant GMs. You were the first female GM, assistant GM. And that was the title you were given. Female, she did everything, everything, including babysitting. Well, that was you. Well, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, well, we had to trade off. I couldn't stay awake for 24 hours a day every day. Jesus. We we did have some fun.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Oh my lord. We did have some fun. Me and Susie did a lot of stuff together.

SPEAKER_05 2:11

Yeah. Well, and well, you know what the funny thing of it is, like I was thinking about it today. I was laying there, I was going, you know, I'm gonna ask some questions or whatever. Do you remember when you you bought an autograph machine?

SPEAKER_07 2:24

An auto pen.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

I bought the autograph machine, but he kept it at her house.

SPEAKER_07 2:28

He bought the auto pen. It was at my house. And don't disparage it because the president uses an auto pen machine.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

Well, the dumb president, not the new good one.

SPEAKER_05 2:40

Well, I'm just telling you, so that happened.

SPEAKER_07 2:42

It did happen.

SPEAKER_05 2:43

Yeah, because I was I remember I remember stacks and stacks. Yeah, and I'd pay her daughter, Jenny, to do the auto pen?

SPEAKER_04 2:51

Yeah, to do my fan mail because we'd get like garbage bags full every week.

SPEAKER_05 2:56

It's unbelievable. And I I used to go in your office sometimes and you'd look up, hi Chaser, and then you you'd keep working, keep working. And I knew the times where you were just too busy, and then most of the time you just said, sit down, what's going on? Well, we wanted to do this little event over here. Okay, what do you need to do? Boom, boom, boom. And next thing you know, we were out in the community, you had sent us out. Oh, incredible.

SPEAKER_07 3:19

You never turned me down, Chaser.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

And he still hasn't ever turned anyone down.

SPEAKER_07 3:23

But Holly, you did. Well, of course. You told me your priorities were never say no to ESPN, never interfere with the golf game, and those were my rules. Chaser, you were willing to do everything, even when the arena said, We're not gonna buy the cops beer anymore, we're not gonna provide it. Oh, yeah, remember that? Who do I go to? Yeah, the two of you. Because they worked hard, and even though it was secondary duty, afterwards they needed to kick back, and you two started kicking back with them.

SPEAKER_05 3:54

Yeah, you know what the fun part about? So, for for those of you out there, listen, we had um we had a police room uh behind the medical room in the locker room, and the police used to go there after the games, and we used to buy the beer for the police, and they were gonna cut it off. And so we stepped in and said, No, you're not gonna be able to. Of course, because you know how much beer costs. Well, Jesus.

SPEAKER_07 4:21

It was just one of the nice things you guys did for the community because they took care of the guys. I remember end of year parties, there was an incident, I think, in Washington, with Scott Stevens in a limo went before he came to us. And there were all these accusations.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Courtney, Cicerelli, Stevens, all these accusations.

SPEAKER_07 4:40

And so when Rob Remage was the captain, I said, Rob, I'm going to Don Brown Chevrolet, he's gonna buy borrow vans, and off-duty police are gonna drive them. I handed each police officer a hundred bucks cash and the address list, and no incidents ever happened. No, they've been they were the best. They they took care of you because you guys took care of the city of St. Louis, too.

SPEAKER_05 5:06

Well, the funny thing, there wasn't any incidents until Walt drove the bus over on the east side, and the guy was running around chasing him in the lot, and he was driving the bus around. And and we were that we're long gone after it was in the big walls. Big Wallet. That that was after my time. But you know what?

SPEAKER_07 5:27

I do remember an incident though, when you called me and said, middle of the night, what's the phone number for the team dentist?

SPEAKER_05 5:34

Yeah, oh yeah, that was St. Paddy's Day. St. Patrick's Day Massacre. Everyone talks about St. Patrick's Day Massacre. Remember that? And I said, yeah, but not the one you know about.

SPEAKER_07 5:45

Is that St. Valentine's Day or Patrick's Day? St. Patrick's Day, because Jeff Brown was wearing a left.

SPEAKER_05 5:51

No, I'm talking about the one the brain in Chicago was for sure.

unknown 5:55

St.

SPEAKER_05 5:56

Paddy's or Valentine's? St. Patrick's Day Massacre. Well, they they call it, they were thinking about the game we had with Chicago, and we're talking about the one on the ice. And here's the one story I'm gonna give you that you about the police who's they you were like, hey, there's times where you got to just back off. I got done the game. I've been in a fight. I got done the game, three minutes left in the game. I can hear this screaming because I'm in this training room. I go through the medical room where the where they stitch guys, I walk across the hallway into the police room and open the door. And Sergeant Long was this great big man sitting in his chair. Yeah, he kind of looked like wild Bill Hickoff, but the big muscle bar muscle down. He goes, Yeah. I opened the door and they're just giving it to the Chicago fan.

unknown 6:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 6:47

And he goes, Chase, get the hell, get the hell out of here right now. So I just saw him at the door, I'm like, holy shit. And so they had this guy. Well handcuffed to the pillar. Handcuffed to the pillar. They had these big, like dungeon-looking hooks, round, you know, hooks.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

It looked either like a torture chamber or an SM room.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

Either way, he didn't want me in there. And so they chased me out of there. But they they they were great to us.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

Best. And and the incident with the uh I don't know how many times they got you going down the wrong way downtown and driving. Me. Me.

SPEAKER_05 7:26

That was that was that was time to call Suzy's if you caught me, because I knew how to handle it.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

Okay, Suze. Let's start. You're at St. Louis U. You're obviously just a college, a little after college, right?

SPEAKER_07 7:45

Working for the Billikins. I worked for the Billikins at St. Louis University while I was going to school there. Couldn't decide what I wanted to do. Got hired by the athletic department to be the assistant sports information director. Big title, small job.

SPEAKER_06 8:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 8:01

I got the two sports that weren't the glamour sports. The glamour sports, according to my boss Joe Geg, were basketball and baseball. I got hockey and soccer. That year we hosted both the NCAA finals and hockey at the arena, the NCAA soccer championship at Bush Stadium.

SPEAKER_06 8:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 8:19

Working at the arena, I got to know all the blues people. And this led to that. They had an opening and they hired me to be an assistant PR director back in 1974. Who hired you? The blues did. No, but who Mr. Solomon, no? Mr. Solomon. Yeah, oh yeah. I worked for the Solomons, um, and they were wonderful owners. Yeah, I heard that. But they were they were underfinanced and there wasn't a lot of community support. Uh I recently was talking to Patty Solomon about a situation that they had. There wasn't enough parking at the old arena.

SPEAKER_06 8:53

Right.

SPEAKER_07 8:54

And you guys know that. I mean, so the Solomons wanted to build a parking lot in Forest Park where they have the utility vehicles, a bridge over Highway 40, and then they would allow in the offseason Forest Park visitors to use it. And they were going to pay for everything. And the city aldermen voted it down. And I think that was kind of the signal to the Solomons that this wasn't going well. Lo and behold, I worked for him for a year. My boss was out looking for another job. His name was Alan Solomon, no relation. And um he, you know, let me do everything that I I needed to do. So I learned very quickly.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

Everything you had to do, too, right?

SPEAKER_07 9:36

Back then there weren't cell phones. Back then there was an email.

SPEAKER_04 9:42

Thank God.

SPEAKER_07 9:43

I mean, it was a different form of the colour.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

Pony Express had just retired.

SPEAKER_07 9:47

We were playing the Buffalo Sabres in the playoffs. Best of three back when this was a preliminary round series. Best of three. Memorial Auditorium was booked, so they had to open the series in St. Louis. We had to send every season ticket holder a mailed letter to inform that in case they hadn't heard about it on Camo X or read it in the poster globe. Sitting on the floor stuffing, Who Comes Down? Jim Cullen, the attorney, starts stuffing envelopes with me. Who comes down, Susan III? Starts. That's when I knew this was really a family organization. And it was where where we wanted to be. Turns out we beat him game one, Ed Stanowski stood on his head, and then we lost the next two. But it was a good lesson for me to learn. Um and it was okay. Yeah, right. It was all right. And and how much longer after that did they uh sell the team? They went another year and ended up putting the team up for sale, and it was a fortuitous happening. Amil Francis, who was the general manager, was in the men's room at Bush Stadium and met Arhal Dean, the chairman and CEO of Ralston Karina, and he told him what was happening. And Mr. Dean thought it was important to keep the asset in St. Louis. Right. So Ralston bought the team. And those years were okay, but they were very corporate. I mean, we had to follow uh, you know, purchase rules and all sorts of things. I don't think they really understood.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

Kind of like the way Lou Lamarillo kind of ran the devils. Exactly.

SPEAKER_07 11:28

Very corporate, very corporate buttoned up and I remember Lynn Patrick died, and we all helped with the funeral. I got to go to the airport and pick up Toe Blake, of all people to come to the funeral. And Amil Francis put out a memo and said, You all have to take a day of vacation because that's not allowed under the corporate structure at Rawlston Perena. It can only be your spouse or a child or a parent to get a day off to take a day off. But we didn't mind because you know Lynn Patrick was uh an icon in hockey.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 12:04

And that I got to pick up Toe Blake was pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_04 12:07

Yeah, I'll say you then the next guy you picked up was me. That'd have been a treat. That that changed my life, I can tell you that.

SPEAKER_07 12:18

Well, like you changed all our lives.

SPEAKER_05 12:20

I had to say, yeah, you did. You did. But I remember me being picked up by uh, first of all, I get I got two two bags, two hockey bags, one with my equipment, one with my clothes. And I have no clue what's going on. I I don't even know how to order a cab, never mind. Right, you know, and uh what was the little guy's name? Trammel. Jeff Trammel. Alan. Jeff Trammel. Jeff Trammel. Alan Trammell was the baseball player. Detroit Tiger, yeah. Jeff's Jeff Trammell's there at the airport, and he taps me on the shoulder finally and says, You Kelly? I'm like, yeah. He's like, come on with me and we're gonna get you. So he says, just load your bags on that. So I loaded my bags, took them up the elevator or the escalator, elevator, and then took them outside, put them in the back of this little car he had, and he drove me to the hotel. And he said, uh, there'll be Purdue money handed to you tomorrow. Um, you can go check in which one is your hockey equipment. I told him, I said, I still have some clothes and stuff in there. He says, Take out everything that's not hockey equipment, your bag will be at the rink tomorrow. I said, How do I get to the rink? He goes, just follow the herd of guys in the morning. There's a bus at, you know, whatever, nine, and another one at 9:30 or whatever. I had no clue. And so then when I came in, after getting to the arena and having our orientation with everyone, you were the first person that greeted me and said, Hey, welcome to St. Louis. You know, you're gonna love it. Now, I'm thinking, I don't know who you are, ma'am, but it ain't gonna keep me here. I know that. I'm going somewhere else. But you were the first person that I met, and you took care of me ever since then. But boy, we had fun.

SPEAKER_07 14:06

We we did have fun, and anytime I needed something done in the community, whether it be a kitten in the hospital, whether it would whatever anything, anything.

SPEAKER_04 14:19

Well, he would back then, he would have done anything for 500 bucks. I mean, we're honored. We weren't making anything.

SPEAKER_05 14:26

No kidding, I would have done it for free. I'm doing it for free, I guess I would have done it for free.

SPEAKER_07 14:30

You you did most of it out of the all of it out of the goodness of your heart. You both did. I mean, but he did turn around things for us a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 14:38

Yeah, it was. No kidding, it was pretty interesting. I want to go back a little bit because you got entrenched with the league and the team because of your trust. Okay? How in the hell did you deal with Alan Eagles?

SPEAKER_07 14:57

I mean, you can talk about what a prick he was. I I I can tell you this much. Um, during one of the ownerships, which everyone of your audience will know about, when Harry Ornesto owned the team, things were done very differently. Um payroll usually wasn't ready for anyone, players, staff, until the team took off on an airplane because they could accrue the interest on the money by not giving up paychecks and have them.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

That's just bizarre, eh, huh? It it don't get your checks and tall roads.

SPEAKER_04 15:29

That was basically the way every NHL team, except for the few great ones, ran it.

SPEAKER_07 15:34

But but there was also a required contribution by the team to the players' health insurance. And when those payments started coming in late, and I've never really told this to anybody except Rob Ramage, I would call Rammer in, and he was our captain, and he was the player rep and say, I think the payments are going in late. You know, and you had players who were wives were pregnant and going in for may, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of a lot of medical things. And he would get on the phone and call Sam Simpson, who was Alan Eagleson's underling, who would then call to the accounting department, and when they couldn't get through to the accounting department, call Harry or Ness and say that payment needs to get here now. Um, but it but it's the right thing to do. I mean, it's morally what you you should have done when things weren't weren't being.

SPEAKER_04 16:27

They never did anything morally correct.

SPEAKER_07 16:29

No, they didn't. Um, you know, I think of all the players that left here because of contract disputes or the possibility. I mean, Paul McLean was the highest paid player here at$250,000 a year under the ornament.

SPEAKER_05 16:44

It's crazy losing like Gilmore and uh Joey Muller.

SPEAKER_07 16:48

And oh, I'll never forget.

SPEAKER_05 16:49

So many good players came through St. Louis and they just 50 grand over Mike Lewis and they'd lose. Yep, Mike Liu. Mike Liu.

SPEAKER_07 16:59

What a what a shame. It it was a shame, but when it crossed the moral line, that's when I felt I had to step up and say something to the player rep to get things done correctly. Everybody remembers the Monday Night Miracle. Everybody remembers the great. You were on the other side of that one.

SPEAKER_04 17:19

That was I had just signed with Calgary. That was uh, I think it was my first uh my first game with Calgary. I went on the road with him and I was practicing, and uh I was like a black ace. And uh I remember the day of the game. I went up in the arch. It was like a thousand freaking degrees. I went up in the arch with uh like Tim Hunter and I don't know, maybe Jim Paplinski or someone anyway. Uh just the guys who weren't playing that night. And and uh that's the only time I ever went in the arch and I was playing for Calgary though.

SPEAKER_07 18:01

Well, it's funny, though we go to game seven in Calgary. We have a Canadian Airlines charter takes us from St. Louis to Calgary. We lose the game by one goal. I mean, it it was heartbreaking. And I got notified by Jack Quinn that the charter had been canceled and I needed to find a way home for all the players. Unreal. Jacques Demur. Isn't that unbelievable? Jacques Demur said to me, Susie, you take care of it. You know, Jacques was a good guy, and Bark was so sick. So what I did was I took the first group, you know, ownership, Harry and those guys, and put them on a flight. Well, Harry was the guy who canceled the charter. Calgary to Chicago, Chicago to St. Louis. The next group of guys, I'm sending Calgary to Denver, Denver to St. Louis. The third and fourth group went Calgary to Dallas, Dallas to somewhere, Dallas to St. Louis. Well, my credit card couldn't handle all that.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

I heard this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 19:01

You called Bernie and Sir. Well, I had to go to Bernie's room because he was on one of the early flights and make sure he and Sudzy and the veterans didn't get stupid and were able to get in cabs to get make the early flight. I said, I need to borrow your credit card. And Bernie, he had a higher limit than I did for sure. Oh, yeah. And we did get reimbursed, but nobody ever told me why the charter was canceled. You can bet if we had won that game and were going to Montreal, that charter would not have been canceled. Oh, no shit.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Oh, of course not.

SPEAKER_07 19:34

Yeah. But I'm in Dallas, get the last group of guys on the plane, and I'm so happy there's not a seat for me. I can go to the bar. Go to the bar, sit down, order a drink. Martini. It was a Roman diet, but Ruman diet. Yeah, always, right? Or clue and milk. Clue and milk, but they don't. You guys know from the nights in my office. Yeah. But Dave Barr and Bruce Bell come walking down the jetway. I said, You guys, you're supposed to be on that flight. We gave up our seats. We didn't want to leave you alone. And all I wanted to say was, I wanted to be left alone. But on top of that, I'm flying back with those two were the last ones. They said, Will there be anybody at the airport? I said, Will there be anybody at the airport? Yeah, to greet us. You know what? The fans of St. Louis were there for the last player to show up. See, that's how great the fans are. That speaks volumes about the community.

SPEAKER_05 20:29

I mean, people like and you you see every team go, greatest fans, and then everyone cheers at the game. Like, you're full of shit. You just come to St. Louis and see. We'll show you what it's like to have fans. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 20:40

I mean, no offense to Bruce Bell and Dave Barr, but there were fans. They weren't exactly that our household names. That our fans knew the two guys hadn't gotten off the plane yet. They stayed there all day to greet every player. And I think that is phenomenal statement about this community. Absolutely. Of course, then you changed the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 21:03

Yeah, but there's man, do we have some stories starting back then? Uh what was that? Um May? March? That was May. May 15th.

SPEAKER_07 21:14

March of 88? Oh. Oh, May? May May of 80. May was the Monday Night Miracle game.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

No, but when I got traded was gonna be March trade deadline, don't you? Right.

SPEAKER_07 21:25

It was that no, because there was only like 15 games left in the year. So I should have this ingrained in my brain, but I remember you came, and I remember Ron Carran telling you. But but telling, telling me the story that Cliff Fletcher asked each one of his scouts, each one of his coaches, each one of the hockey personnel Is this a good trade if Brett Hall scores 20 goals? Yes. Is this a good trade if he scores 40? Yes. If this is a good trade, 60. And then they started. Wavering, but he made the trade anyway. And you know, Cliff Fletcher's what 90 years old now and still in this world. Yeah. But that trade does not look good on him.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

Well, I don't know. They won the cup two. Now once you win, it doesn't matter what trade you made.

SPEAKER_07 22:16

It just but look what what it did for our the franchise here. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:21

But I'm not sure I would have been that player because Terry Chris didn't like me as a player. Uh they probably would have traded me the next year to somewhere else.

SPEAKER_07 22:30

Well, I didn't like you at first either.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

You did too. Jesus, you didn't like me later on.

SPEAKER_07 22:36

You you you when you came back from the Candic Cup. Remember this? The training camp. I got you got a week off. It was uh 89. No, no, no. You were you were on Bob Johnson was coaching. That was 80. No, it was when you were with us. I mean, sorry, 90 uh and he was so sick, and you you didn't enjoy it.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

And we had No, because Tim Taylor took over when Bob died.

SPEAKER_07 23:03

Yeah. But you had an appointment to do an Anheuser-Busch video for their wholesalers convention. You didn't have to do it, but you said you'd do it. Right. And you were late. And you were late.

SPEAKER_04 23:19

And you were well, it was probably at seven in the morning. I probably didn't get home till.

SPEAKER_07 23:22

No, it was a it was at game time. I had to get Rod Brindemore loosened up. He's too uptight. It was what the excuse you told me. You told me you had to loosen up Rod Brindemore. Now with I don't want to know what how that happened. All I know is you were late, and I said, you know what? We're either going to get along or we're not gonna get along. And you said, We're gonna get along. Yeah, we're gonna get along just fine. And we did. Yeah, we did after that.

SPEAKER_05 23:47

Well, let's take our first break here. Ice Guardians coming at you from the Window World Studios. We'll be back.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

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SPEAKER_03 25:44

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SPEAKER_04 26:05

Welcome back from the Window World Studios. Brought to you by the Seitman Cancer Center. Susie Matthew, Kelly Chase. Susie, you've seen almost everything with this franchise. The day you picked me up from the airport in '88. That was uh that changed my life forever. Because it could have been, I would imagine, almost anyone from the organization, but you were there, and me and you it was an instant friendship. You know, you were friends with my kids, my ex-wife, my now wife, like everyone. We became almost like you were my second mother, or maybe even my mother mother.

SPEAKER_07 26:58

No, I was friends with your mom and your well, I know.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

I was friends with my mom too, but and Bart Blake. She she didn't live in St. Louis.

SPEAKER_07 27:04

But no, and it was it was that way with with all the players. I remember Oh, it wasn't the same.

SPEAKER_05 27:10

You you guys had a special bond.

SPEAKER_07 27:12

We did have a special bond, but Chaser, your mom was absolutely one of my favorites of all time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:18

I mean, and well, I appreciate you saying that because she's a lot.

SPEAKER_07 27:23

She is, and look what she said.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Well, Joyce is a lot. Yeah, Joyce is a lot of things. What she's done.

SPEAKER_07 27:28

But we were a family. We were all a big family. It was very much that's what's special part of it, yeah. We we needed each other.

SPEAKER_05 27:36

Well, you know. Okay, let's let's get in some.

SPEAKER_07 27:40

You did the 87 6 World Cup and then the 96 World Cup and the 98 Olympics. And what happened there, not going into all the details, but why? We got time.

unknown 27:55

That's fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 27:57

That would take a long time. Um, you know, we were moving, we moved to Keel Center from the arena, which is where my heart was. Right. It's neither here or there. I remember when they were breaking ground.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

We're gonna get into that too.

SPEAKER_07 28:11

I remember when we were breaking ground, they wanted Brett to come down, shoot a puck into the parking garage, which would set off fireworks. And we get up I remember that we get up on the scaffolding, and one of the people that worked there said to me, Should he practice? And I'm like, What are you saying? Shouldn't he practice before the TV cameras get here? I said, You're asking him to shoot a puck from this platform to that parking garage? He doesn't need to practice.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

The girl had three pucks. I go, what do you got three pucks for? She goes, in case you miss, and I looked at her, I go, I don't miss.

SPEAKER_05 28:50

The beauty of that one was missed a but couldn't hit a barn door, couldn't hit a parking garage.

SPEAKER_07 28:59

Right? But but that should have been a clue to me that we were moving into a a different era of appreciation for, you know, sure, Kill Center was the house that Holly built, but things changed rather dramatically. There was a building side and there was a team side. Yeah. And the building side decided that we were going to have an arena football team. The Rams had since left St. Louis. We were gonna have, no, it was before the Rams came. Yeah, it was pre pre-Rams, but we were gonna have an arena football team. And you know, we're not gonna hire a new staff, we're going to use the blues staff because they don't have to work in the summer months. There's no hockey games. Oh my god. And so Jim Otis, wonderful person picked by Mike Shanahan, was the general manager. He came in and said, Well, I need to look at the video room, I need to look at this, I need to look at that. Mike Keenan's the general manager and coach goes, they're not using my video room, they're not looking at my video equipment. And Arnie Pappen, my video guy, is not working for the arena football team. So there was immediately this Well, of course, because that's the way he is. He just wanted to ruffle everyone's feathers. You know, the the this tension was real. Yeah, real. And you know, I would then take a break, go out in the parking garage, smoke my cigarette, come back in, and finally got to the point where there was so much tension, I decided I didn't need it. I called up Alan and said, Would you care if I resigned? I said, No. And so I did. And Holly said, Well, you can just come work for me. I said, I don't want to just work for you. Took the summer off, and the blues were playing in Buffalo. And Mike Keenan took the captaincy away from bread. And I know why. It was because Keenan chose to sit Dale Howard check while his mother was, grandmother was about to die. Last game she would ever see him play.

SPEAKER_04 30:59

And sat him out. Sat him out. That is the lowest thing I've ever seen in the history of the NHG.

SPEAKER_07 31:05

Dressed him but sat him on the bench. Nope. Nope. Didn't dress him. Didn't dress him. No. Anyway, I get a call from Bob Goodnow the next day. And I'm like, you know, Holly's fine. He's happy. He's happy. Keenan's not going to get the better of him. He goes, I'm not calling you about Keenan. I'm not calling you about Brett. I want you to come run the World Cup of Hockey because you're the only person the League and the Players Association can agree on. And this is going to be a joint venture. And I said, very good decision by them. I said, okay, I don't know what the World Cup of Hockey is. Because if you're the Canada Cup, I said, yeah, I've heard the Canada Cup. That's it. So my offices were in Toronto in the Eaton Center. I'd fly there every Sunday night, work Monday through Friday, fly home, sort of. Got to the point where you couldn't, but boy, did I learn a lot about Alan Eagleson. And my guy, Mike Lisko, who was helping with sales, we're selling dasher boards in all these countries. We had a game in Prague, we had a game in Sweden, Finland, uh Garmish Partonkirk in Germany, Vancouver, Philadelphia, selling dasher boards. And he said, Susie, come in here. And we're working literally 20 hours a day because of the time change. Right. And there's no email at this point. We're dealing by faxes. And I'm listening to a gentleman from Skoda who is a car dealer. And he said, Well, if the price is this, where do I send the money? And I said, Mike, we have two bank accounts. We have TD in Canada and one in the US because we don't want to pay the exchange. If he wants to pay in Canada, he pays here. If he wants to pay in the US, well, what about the other bank account? Isn't there another bank account? And I said, I don't know what you're talking about. He goes, Well, Mr. Eagleson, when he ran the Canada Cup, he had another bank account that I could pay into. It was Eagleson's personal bank account.

SPEAKER_06 32:58

It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_07 32:59

And I'm shaken because I knew I knew there was a lot that went on. But it's like the middle of the night. And the next morning I go down and see Bob Goodnow, and we get Gary Bettman on the phone, do a conference call. And they said, We knew all along you were going to run into this. Well, why not tell me?

SPEAKER_05 33:17

Yeah, my but but heads up for it.

SPEAKER_07 33:19

Yeah, it was scary the things that took place. I mean, the the the miles they paid, they the Eagleson personally took all the air miles that were accrued for the whole tournament, personally. I'm sorry, that's not right.

SPEAKER_04 33:35

No, but the blues did that to us as players. Yeah, they didn't. We never got our miles.

SPEAKER_07 33:43

Anyway, there was just a lot of malfeasance on it. So we got through the World Cup and the the monies raised paid for the pension fund. And we made I'm I'm I'm proud to say we made 25 million more than they anticipated.

SPEAKER_04 33:58

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_07 33:59

Which was great. You know, we had big gates, we had a little gate in Prague because it was important for the Czech players to get to play play at home. So then comes the Olympics in 98. And again, I'm hired by the League and the Players Association. Nogano. Nogano, and we have absolutely no authority. First, you have the IOC, and then you have all the national governing bodies.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

IIHF.

SPEAKER_07 34:26

The IIHF that you have to appease. Then you have the Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee, who didn't respect women at all, um, and we had a tough time dealing with them. And you know, the tournament ran well. It did. And a blot was made that the Americans destroyed the Olympic village. Well, the beds were made of cardboard. We knew it. It was no more difficult than my 10-year-old grandson going to a tournament now. And, you know, they get told by the hotel management, please don't play a little stick hockey in the hallway. It bothers other guests. That was comparable to what had happened in Nagano.

SPEAKER_04 35:06

Like the like I in my room, I was with uh Adam Deadmarsh, Big Joel Otto. How many beds did they have in the room? Well, there was there was more than there was more than one room. I think there was one big room and two small ones. There were bedrooms and a suite. It was me, Daddy, and Big Joel Otto. And Big Joel Otto's feet were off the end of the bed by about a foot. I mean, you used to try and crawl in with me every once in a while. I didn't think that's because that's because you would go in the wrong bed all the time. You didn't know what bed you were getting over. I was there two hours earlier, so I wasn't which bed it takes.

SPEAKER_07 35:53

I'm not getting in the middle of this one. But then after after I did the Olympics, I was like, you know what? I'm tired of flying to work. So I got involved with Chaser and Tony Samsung. Yeah. And the Texar can of bandits. And you were there. Yeah, we bought Springfield.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Still couldn't shake me. Springfield first. Right. And then moved the TV. Oh my god, tell that story about Springfield. Okay. That's one of my favorites. Which part of it? You were at the restaurant or and oh, in the fight? Yeah. What else? With Chaser and Sandstone. They're either fighting each other or fighting them.

SPEAKER_07 36:27

No, no, there was a wedding party that came that came in.

SPEAKER_05 36:31

That was completely disrespectful to you.

SPEAKER_07 36:33

And Chaser stood up for me. Tony stood up, and all of a sudden there's a problem.

SPEAKER_05 36:39

We just got done telling all these kids. You were there to sign the deal for the right. We were telling all these kids respect the community, don't uh be out in the public acting like assholes. Next thing you know, we're firing punches at a wedding party, beating shit out of guys. I gotta think these kids went back to their room and go, I don't care what happens, that was awesome. I will never talk back to either of those two. You know.

SPEAKER_07 37:07

I I thought I was in Springfield on 9-11, meeting with John Q. Hammonds, because John Q. Hammonds, who basically owned the town of Springfield, loved Chaser, loved me, thought Tony was an outsider. He thought he was an outsider just coming in to mark his turn.

SPEAKER_04 37:25

Like from New York? Hey, yo, you be guys.

SPEAKER_07 37:29

Anyway, so Tony said, You go see him. So I go there, and his secretary comes out, and the first plane hit. And John Q. Hammonds comes and come on in. We watched the second plane hit. And he said, You do what you need to do in this town. I'll talk to Chaser and I'll talk to you. Leave the Tony guy out of it. But I'm in Springfield, Missouri, thinking, Oh, yeah, this and you're stuck there.

SPEAKER_04 37:54

Well, I guess you could drive home.

SPEAKER_07 37:55

I drove home, filled up my car with gas and drove home. But that changed the whole complexion of our country at that time. Of everything, you know. Yeah. I mean, we we opened the building, dedicated the building, and it was a nice run. But we knew we were moving on. Moving on. It was always in the plans. Yeah, yeah. But but working with him that closely, and you you got involved when we went to Texas.

SPEAKER_05 38:22

Yeah, absolutely. So all of a sudden, I got, you know, I knew I was in good hands with Susie, so I would just ask the questions, it was gonna get done. But having Holly there, because you were in Dallas then, yeah. And then getting Coop to coach was it's game changer for us. He like can you just because he knew every 16 and 17-year-old kid in the country.

SPEAKER_07 38:46

But but he takes no credit for helping launch. Not neither of you guys do. John Cooper's coaching.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

Oh no, we we we told well it's I'm not taking any credit for anything. Chaser did it. He hired him, but he was a midget coach, right? Yeah. Before coaching midget hockey. Yeah. Well, you had to start somewhere. Ken Hitchcock. You know, he worked in a skate shop in Edmonton.

SPEAKER_05 39:09

It's true though. Yeah. But he did move from uh where was he coaching midget? In in uh Detroit, somewhere, right? Detroit, honeybee. Oh, he coached Honey Bay. So the so the thing was, is I phoned him about kids the year before, and he knew every kid. And I'm like, then I phoned him, I said, Coop, I'm firing this guy. Come and coach. He goes, You want me to leave my practice and coach a team in Texas? What was he? A lawyer? Yeah, he's a lawyer. I said, You should have freaking known that. I guess you should. Yeah, he he goes, he goes, I said, you call it a practice? You're fixing parking tickets and DUIs. I guess not a practice. But he had a judge that um there his kids uh coach quit on them. And the judge said, basically said, the guy in this that you're uh up against right now is losing this case, and you need some help with I'm gonna help you, but you're gonna coach my kids' team. That's what happened. That's how he started coaching. Well, from there, like some tier two team to be an assistant junior B coach, win a national championship, go to Honey Bay, they're first in the country, and then I steal, and he comes down to Texas, Canada. I mean then when we moved back up here, he won twice. Two national chapters. Oh, yeah, he won't he won everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 40:42

Yeah, he won everywhere he was midget, junior, junior, junior, yeah, minors, three and junior, Olympics, one in the minors. Yeah, it's a joke, yeah. And it just shows you that I think it's because of his personality, of course, right? Of course, he's he's got the ability to be every guy. Yep, he can be a dick, he can be the fun-loving jokester, he can be calm, cool, and collected, he knows how to deal with all the different personalities. I mean, he's very special thought, special coach, yeah, very, very well thought. And I he, you know, Scottie Bowman loved him. Herb Brooks, Brian Sutter, and John Cooper. And I never played for John Cooper, but I like him, and even though he's a coach.

SPEAKER_05 41:36

Well, the thing was with Brian and and and Herb, from what I understand, but I know I didn't never met the man, but they were very direct and they had their way, and that's it. Whereas, like I told somebody this the other day, we were talking about Coop. I got in his car a couple years ago in Tampa. I couldn't understand one thing this was being sang on the radio, rap, whatever it was. I said, What are you listening to? And he said to me, if I don't keep up to what they listen to in the locker room, I'm gonna lose the minds of this guy.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

Yeah, if I don't if I don't keep up with what's happening in their lives, that's right. Yeah, then I'm I I don't know them.

SPEAKER_05 42:20

I had to sit back, even though it's pretty that's pretty smart, powerful to you, you know. Yeah, no, he's a bright guy and a great hell of a coach. So that's no doubt. And they have a chance to win the cup again this year for that team. So that's that's the beauty of that.

SPEAKER_04 42:38

The year they're having it shows you the year Buffalo's having, because Buffalo's ahead of them in the standing.

SPEAKER_05 42:43

So well, in any event, we need one more break. Well, maybe two, but we'll be back. The Window World Studios of Susie Matthew at Ice Guardians.

SPEAKER_04 42:58

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SPEAKER_05 43:00

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SPEAKER_07 45:15

With Harry? Yeah, and even but everything else too was like but but coming on the the the tales of of Harry, I I remember that transition. Mr. Shanahan went down to West Palm Beach to the Breakers for the Board of Governors meeting, and he brought a bunch of us with him. And you know, Harry pulled shenanigans and said, Oh, I'm not gonna sell the team, you know, and went back. Something was holding things up. He did it again. We were supposed to have a reception in Mayor Shamel's office, and again he pulled the plug. It we it Mike Shanahan was a breath of fresh air to this franchise. And as the to the city, to the city, exactly. You're right, Chaser. He got a uh a small fee for being the managing director of the group. You know what he did with that money? He put it back into our PR but budget, and we went to every, and you'll remember some of these, both of you, every chicken dinner, every fundraiser. Oh my god, the rubber chicken circuit. He put us out in the community like nobody had before. And his philosophy, much like the Solomons, was you have to earn the respect of this community to have them support you. Right. And boy, did they support us.

SPEAKER_05 46:29

Oh, yeah. You just That's why when Alex Steen talks about there's a certain type of player that has to be a you have to be a certain way in order to be a St. Louis Blue. And I think that was instilled from Mr. Shanahan. Absolutely. I can't say enough good things about him. Like I love, you know, he talked about the St. Patrick's Day massacre and me phoning for a dentist in the middle of the night. That's a huge I mean, a huge story that we're gonna get Brendan because I want all the cast here when it happens, right? But Mr. Shanahan took me out of the boardroom the next day with attorneys and police and everybody, and I was giving it, I was like, I don't care what, you know, I lost four teeth. Well, he lost half his ear. I don't give a shit if he lost both his ears. You know, I kicked one off in a drain grate or something. Anyway, I go, I wasn't even looking at, I have no reason for the guy to punch me. I'm just getting out of a car, he's smacking everybody. This guy was all messed up. And then Mr. Shanahan says, Hey, hey, oh, and he takes me out of the room and he says, Son, the blood hasn't dried yet, and you want to fight again. Just let us handle it in there. Don't say anything, and I'll handle it. And he did.

SPEAKER_07 47:50

He did, and the police came and they wanted the team phone.

SPEAKER_04 47:53

That's the best. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 47:55

Because they wanted to be able to identify the players involved. Well, I guess people didn't know that we don't take a team picture until after the trade deadline.

unknown 48:05

Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 48:06

And that year it was a little bit later because when you you you just do it when you can do it. So Mr. Shanahan and Jack Billings and Jack Quinn said, bring us the team photo. I bring out the team photo, it's last year's team photo.

SPEAKER_05 48:21

And then these donkeys are picking guys out of the that were in it. Exactly. But and it was only Shani and I fighting anyway. Right. But honestly, they had it all wrong. Oh, well, you know what, you know what the beauty of that was? When we went down to the station, and they were asking like all these questions and they're videoing us. These two idiots got blues perf and they're behind their beds, and they're laying in bed like they're dying, and you know, looking for money. And then, you know, that's when they're asking us how many beer we had in Billings is behind the camera, going, you know, like two, two. So I go, two beer. I ain't even got to the party yet. My party was inside. I didn't even had, but I probably had one on the way there or something, but you never know. Anyways, two. Next guy standing behind him, three, the next guy, two. Gets Garth Butchers. I who was with me at a different place. Yeah, who was it down in Balabance? Yeah, we were at Balaban. He hadn't even got to the party yet. And he goes, How many did you have? And Butch said, A case. He goes, You drank a case of beer before this. The cop interviewing, and Butch he said, No, I was drinking wine. Oh my god. He wasn't that far off, by the way. No, I'll tell you what though, Suze, all of the times that how this team was built, how the organization was built, um, you know, I yeah, you used to get, and sometimes, you know, he he would be bitching about having to go to whatever, and then I just say, here's the good news we get out of there at 8:30, we could be at whatever bar by this. He's like, good point. Didn't have to explain it to anybody why we were out. Well, Susie sent us out, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:15

But that would when things really started to cook, you know, I started doing commercials for Coca-Cola and McDonald's and Midas. Susie was basically my caretaker. And Midas, yeah, and Noma snow racers and the lawnmowers.

SPEAKER_07 50:33

I got a lawnmower out of that deal.

SPEAKER_04 50:35

Yeah, because Noma was the second biggest company next to Toro in Canada for like lawnmowers and things like that. And uh, except for the things I had to do in the summer, uh, when I'd have to go up and do golf tournaments in Canada, you know, you were basically in charge of me in St. Louis. And once a month for Coca-Cola, we'd get on a helicopter and we'd fly to some distributorship. But it was opening Walmarts, wasn't it? When Walmart first started on the scene and they were opening these giant like you like it's nothing you'd ever seen before.

SPEAKER_07 51:14

It was funny because when Bob Goodnow negotiated that contract, and that could take a whole hour to tell that story.

SPEAKER_06 51:20

Right.

SPEAKER_07 51:21

But that Saturday, Mr. Shanahan and Mr. Quinn are there. Are we talking about Holly's contract? Holly's contract, yeah. I want to hear this. Okay. Shanahan's right. Well, they take you to dinner Friday night at Norwood Hills. I picked up Alice and took her home. She got home and the door was locked because the neighbor saw the cat out and locked the door. Anyway, so we went to the train wreck, Allison and I.

SPEAKER_06 51:44

Right.

SPEAKER_07 51:46

You go to dinner at Norwood with Mr. Shanahan, Mr. Quinn, Ron Karan, Bob Goodnow, yourself.

SPEAKER_06 51:54

Right.

SPEAKER_07 51:55

You agree to meet the next morning at nine o'clock. Ron Karan said, I'll drive Brett home. He gets to your house, the door's locked, so he takes you to the train wreck. First time Mr. Karan had ever been in the train wreck, ever. And we got to go. We closed down the train wreck. Then he took you home and Allison home. Next morning, you guys don't show up. Well, somehow the time got goofed up. I called you at the house and you said, Well, we just got up, we'll be there as soon as we can. Now they're discussing your contract, and Bob Goodnow would go from Mr. Quinn's office to my office and say, Book me the next flight to Detroit. And I'd say, Okay. And then you'd come in and say, Don't worry about that. And then they'd negotiate a little more, and then they'd come back out and say, Book me the next flight to Chicago. And I'm getting scared. My son, who's like, you know, I don't know, eight years old, said, Mom, don't come home if you don't sign Bret Holt. You and Bob go up to Emo's Pizza. Yeah, right on the corner of talking about the contract. Bob comes back, and you and Quinn and Gron and Shanahan make a deal, and you're tossing a football around in the office. And I'm typing up the contract. And Bob Goodnow says, here's what I want you to put. The St. Louis Blues will provide marketing, public relations, and logistical support for all of Brett's endorsements, public appearances, contracts, etc. Because he knew he was leaving to become the head of the Players Association. He knew Mike Barnett was going to take over, but Mike wasn't going to move to St. Louis to take care of Brett. He had Wayne. And I said, So what does this mean? And Bob says, that means you. And I'm like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 53:57

Oh, I get a job, no, another non-paying job. Job.

SPEAKER_07 54:01

Is this job security or what?

SPEAKER_05 54:03

But that's that's really when job security, the way his mouth ran, that's not job security.

SPEAKER_07 54:11

No, no, there were times when I just wanted to shut him up, but then I'd call you. Yeah, yeah. And he just you would be the voice of reason for me with him. Yeah. No matter what. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:23

You know what's funny, Seuss? The day they traded me to Montreal. Oh my god, another great story. So we're at Algonquin golfing. I've I've got into it with the coach. I should have shut my mouth, but whatever happened, doesn't matter. I know I feel like I can I'm getting traded because I was out of line. And I holly's like, you're not getting traded. Get on the cart. And I said, dude, I just got called, you know, and talked to Suzy. And she said, get down here. And I asked her, I said, Suze, did I get traded? And you just kept saying you just should come down here. And I said, Suze, did I get traded? You just come down here. You have to come down here. So I got out of the cart, said, Listen, I'll come back and get him. And I'll go, I'll come back and get you after I see what they want. You're not getting traded. So then I'm on my way. I call you. I'm like, Suze, did I get traded? And she go, You went, Yes. And I said, Where?

SPEAKER_06 55:26

Montreal.

SPEAKER_05 55:28

And I go, Oh my God, you gotta be kidding me. I go, I love that like the whole mystique of Montreal, but I didn't want to leave St. Louis. I knew he shot my mouth off. I go, I gotta go, bud. They traded me to Montreal. Oh, yeah, good one. You're not leaving. And he called, I get in the car and leave to go downtown. I get downtown and Mr. Karan goes, eh? You're lucky because Serge Chavard is my buddy, and he tells me that we can nullify the trade. And you're lucky because I don't know what the hell you're doing, talking like that, and doing trying to beat up the coach. And he, but your buddy called me, and he tell me that if you go to Montreal, he's going with you, and we can't have that. No, so you're lucky. I will call Serge and we will work this out. Oh my god. You better get downstairs and apologize to the coach. He was our assistant uh assistant assistant coach for a while, and then GM. Well, Bob Berry. Bob Berry.

SPEAKER_04 56:32

Bob Barry. Bob Barry. That's who you almost killed.

SPEAKER_07 56:35

Yeah. But but who do a pretty good Ron Karan there? Huh? You do a pretty good Ron Karan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:42

But was it before or after when you saved his life in the press box? Mr. Karan? Yeah. In the playoffs against Detroit. Yeah, that's a good thing. It was after. And he said I won't forget that.

SPEAKER_05 56:56

Because he always meet on the burner. Yeah, but he told me a hundred times. He told me a hundred times that I was not leaving while he was there. Told me that a hundred. I swear to God, he looked after me because it was it was uh it was Hanlon Hanlon, Randy McKay, who was a big tough guy, VL, Dennis VL, Primo, and someone else. Like Steve Chase on or somebody. Like somebody, there was good players and and bigger guys. It wasn't like it was why wouldn't they have been playing? Maybe they were hurt, I guess. And I'm telling you right now, they were he he was screaming and handling of all of the guys got up and got into it with him. And I it was me, Cujo, and I don't remember whoever the other guy was, all he did was run. And we got into in between. I mean, shit, there was only six feet of room to walk down that aisleway in the in the gondola upstairs, or you fall over. And I stepped in and got into a fight with these guys upstairs, and the next day he called me in. The league is going to call you. And he he told me the whole thing. I said, No problem, Mr. Karan. It's not the first time I've probably had a not the first time you stood up for somebody. Yeah, talk to the league or talk to an official over something that happened.

SPEAKER_04 58:24

But he was great. Oh, his best. I love Mr. Karan. Yeah. I just wish he didn't think his job was to just trade people. First job is to build a championship. Yeah, yeah. He fucking he lived for that trade deadline, Dave. He did. Oh my god, he lived for it.

SPEAKER_07 58:41

It was pretty funny because every time there'd be a personnel change during one ownership, they would fire his secretary so there was no one to answer his phone. So it always then fell to me. And during the trade deadline, there was also this big investment going on with American Barracks oil fields, and all the GMs were involved. And so all the GMs were calling. And I got to the point where I was screening the calls. I said, Are you calling about American Barracks? If it is, it went up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you're calling about something else, you can talk to Ron. But I remember that vividly that he was involved in a big oil investment in Canada.

SPEAKER_05 59:23

That's hilarious. The funny part about it was I get back to the golf course and Holly goes, see? I told you you weren't going anywhere. You could have played the back nine.

SPEAKER_07 59:35

You know, nothing interferes with golf.

SPEAKER_05 59:37

No, I know that. Well, that did. Jesus. Well, even now, I'll call him and he's got this stupid voicemail that says, if you're leaving it, don't leave a message, just text me. Like, yeah, goes on for and then you text him, he doesn't answer it anyway, so it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_04 59:53

That is not true. So sometimes I just don't want to talk to you.

SPEAKER_05 59:59

I I know, I understand.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:01

And I know there's times when you don't want to talk to him.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:04

Oh, I pretty much take his call every time.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:07

I don't think I've ever he's like a modern-day Ron Karan.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:15

You know, that's something that that amazes me, why neither of you went into management of an AHL team with all your knowledge, all your experience.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:26

Because you unless you're like a Mr. Karan, where you were you were tutored all those years in Montreal by Sam Pollock and those guys that were unbelievable, you couldn't just leave the game and become this phony. Like you either had that personality to be able to step in and be but like a guy like me with the with my emotions and the can't hold my tongue, it just it didn't, it wasn't.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:59

That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a GM. But when when I left the game, it was a like the lorries asked me to stay. But there Larry Plow just moved on, he just was moved on with me. And then Mrs. Lori said, You're not going anywhere, we're gonna sign. And I said, I don't think so. And I guess they had a little to do and said, Look, you told me I could run the team the way I wanted. That's right. So she went to Mark Sowers and said, I didn't say I run the organization. Went to Mark, Mark called Woodcock, Woody said, You'd be great in TV and radio. Come and work. And so Philly had offered me a two-year deal, uh, like$650,000, which is you know, for me, it was just perfect. Good money, yeah. And uh Paul Holmgren was there and he had me in Hartford. So I was going to, I told her, so Mrs. Lori called me and I said, Mrs. Laurie, I want to stay in St. Louis. I everything about me wants to play, but they don't want me on the team. I don't want, you know, I can't. She goes, No, I want you to work in broadcasting, and I'm gonna help you with ESPN. So now I go from should I play hockey or stop playing hockey or get into that? And then by the time it was time where I would go, man, I could really, I would really love a management job. Well, shit, I was making so much money, I was almost making the same amount of money broadcasting broadcasting as I was not playing. And so, or playing, and so I just was like, I never, you know, and once you missed out, I would have had to go to Peoria and been down there for a couple years, and my I had a family I'd started, and I was just like, shit, I got a pretty good job, you know, getting paid a lot of money, I don't have to fight. Yeah, you know, so that's how that got lost to me, or I would have stayed in management. I would have, I would have loved to have been sitting in there. Yeah, you would have been great. Yeah, sitting in the chair. Like I, you know, even now with Steener, like I I, you know, I've told him a few times, yeah, I don't want to be in hockey now because it's gone by me. Like I do want to be involved in hockey, but I can't dig in the way I should uh to be in the operations part of it and the way he would need somebody because this guy is you can't outwork him, right? Steener. Yeah, right. So for me now, I want to help, but I want to help. I think I'm more serviceable to the blues if I'm between hockey and business and helping in the you know, in the community or helping if we, you know, we're gonna need some amenities coming up here, locker rooms, so on and so forth. So, where's the 10 million bucks gonna come from that, right? So I think me out in the community would be a way better resource than than trying to be a scout, yeah, and going through that, you know, again. We're gonna take one more break here in the Window World Studios uh Cancer Center with Bret Hall, Susie Matthew, I'm Kelly Chase back in a moment. Now it's time for your get check moment of the game. And today we're talking about prostate cancer. Did you know that besides skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men, but it's very treatable, especially with early detection. Fellas, please speak to your primary physician about knowing when to get your PSA test done. A simple blood test could save your life. Typically, it's recommended you get the first test done around the age of 50. But if your family has a history of other factors, you may opt to get it done as early as your 40s. It's a simple blood test, and that's it. And if you're in Missouri or the Illinois area, you can go to get screennow.com or you type in your zip code and find a screening location near you. Or you visit siteman.washu.edu.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:55

Wow, nice hustle. The only time I get to see that much drive is when I feed my dog. Nugget loves every flavor of Diamond Naturals adult formula. Every time I fill her bowl, it's like a breakaway. I think she loves Diamond Naturals almost as much as she loves the blues. They both come from Missouri. Maybe it's local pride. All I do know is to step away from the ball, come feeding time, because she'll rough you up if you get in the way.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:24

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SPEAKER_04 1:05:29

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SPEAKER_04 1:07:18

Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. Ice Guardians from the Window World Studios brought to you by Siteman's Cancer Center, Susie Matthew, and Kelly Chase.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:32

If we had a shout-out yet tonight to uh to our guys behind us, the DraftKings boys, they're having a hell of a time in the watch room back there. We're gonna have to go and visit with them after the podcast.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:45

I think they're having a great time.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:46

They're having a great time. I bet you they are. And I'll take the over. And they love the fact that you love sitting there and taking a few bets once in a while. Absolutely. Susie, one of the things that I wanted to ask, and I was thinking about this today was you saw a lot of stuff that was shady. We talked about the Alan Eagles and stuff, we talked a little bit about Aaron Ernest. But what was the change that kind of made you go, that's enough for me? Because your integrity was intact.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:19

Thank you for saying that. And I always prided myself right or wrong, popular or unpopular was.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:28

We won't talk about drinking with the players and smoking in your office after games.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:33

There's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:34

No, that's absolutely probably against company rules. Well, I don't think there was. How do they never find the the milk crate full of booze under your desk that we would the Kahluan milks?

SPEAKER_07 1:08:49

Well, you know, but better you were in a controlled environment the way your mouth worked. Right? I mean better that he was there with you and Butchie.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:59

Yeah. And you know, not out at well, we had to take him out the side door every game because he wouldn't stand inside after a while. He's like, I can't do it anymore. And there'll be 3,000 people still waiting for you. Exactly. And so we would go out that side door by your office.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:16

But I I think what what really made me want to leave the blues, and believe me, there were many times, and I remember to this day, Barclay Plaguer saying, You walk out on me, you walk out on every player that will ever play here. I had a wonderful offer from Bud Sports.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:34

I had a lot of offers, one from the Minnesota Timberwolves. But there was something that kept me there until it happened that all of a sudden we were going to have an arena football team and our hockey GM and coach wanted no part of it. That year was a year of a lockout. And actually, it got so serious that fall that Jack Quinn came to us and said, Department heads, you're going to have to cut your staff. We can't keep paying them. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh. Well, who do you let go? Donna Cork, Jeff Tramble, Nice Caruso. Not. And so Bruce Affleck and I Tracy, we put a plan. We put a plan together.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:16

Now I'll get rid of Donna.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:18

Everybody takes a cut. And we'll keep keep the support staff there. Ron Carran said, I'll give my whole salary. Mike Keenan said, I want nothing to do with it. And that to me, oh, he was such an was something that he didn't recognize the value of what this franchise had, which were dedicated players, a dedicated community, and a dedicated staff. And so that was kind of the handwriting on the wall. He looked at the lookup list of player appearances and said to me, This is why you've never won a Stanley Cup. Oh yeah. We've never won a Stanley Cup because the guys were at children's hospitals, or they were at a learn to play program, or they were, you know, starting the hockey program for kids with disabilities. That's why we've never won a Stanley Cup.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:08

And I I knew it was it was not right for me. So I used the excuse of arena football and I used the excuse of not wanting to work a whole summer. But it was actually the best thing for me and my family.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:22

And I got to stay in touch with the people I cared about, like you and Holly and all the alumni.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:28

Yeah, because there was it wasn't fun being a part of it at that point. No.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:33

Well, he traded me. I asked if I could go to my grandma's funeral. Oh, there's the asked if I could go to her funeral. He said, Of course, we're family. That's all it's gonna work. We everything's about family. And then when he traded me, he said, we gotta have guys on the team that can't just don't just leave for the weekend for a wedding. I'm like, what? And I wanna, and I should have just punched him in the mouth right there, but I tried that once with a I I've heard he's changed, but who knows? He changed my change. Well, he changed because he's not involved in hockey anymore. Yeah, but as soon as he walked in the rink, he's yeah, he turned into like it's Dr.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:13

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yeah, there was there was a persona there that didn't jive with the way we were taught or way we were.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:21

I don't know how he looked at himself in the mirror and slept at night the way he treated people. It was it was unbelievable. And he finally met his match because I would I would stand up to him, I wouldn't let him bully head. I'm like, screw you, God. Wow, and then as far as which kind of screwed me over too, but well, I didn't I didn't care. I said I think it was worth it.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:48

He also sues, you know, look, you're in some you've been on some big stages, but the thing really, and it never by like I I said this before in meetings, like we're having these conversations, and I'll read something. First assistant general, I'm thinking myself, not the first, Susie Matthew was the first. Decade before, two decades before you guys. Like it's it was just uh I mean she basically ran the blues, she did.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:18

Well, I I I wouldn't say that, but I was there when I needed to be there, and I loved every minute of it, and don't regret a moment of the 20 years. Yeah, I mean, I got such great friends out of it, yeah, and that's what's important, you know, it's the people.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:35

Well, I I it is the people, and that's the great part about the organization.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:40

I cherish the uh memories that I had with you because you protected us so much, and you were always making sure that you know we were okay and make sure that uh, you know, we weren't in trouble in the paper and the media, and and and even with the even with the team and the and the and the coaches, you always were like, hey, just uh watch because this, but you never really put yourself on the bad side of anything.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:06

No, but but chaser, that goes both ways. I remember when my oldest daughter was babysitting your boys, yeah, and she was at that age where she wanted to go downtown somewhere, and she came home, she goes, Mom, Chaser told me I can't go to that club. And I was like, so proud of you. Probably I was there so proud of you because I couldn't say that to, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:32

Yeah, because she ain't gonna listen to you.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:34

Exactly. But Kelly Chase, she'd listen to.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:37

Yeah, well, like I like I said earlier, I'm the reason that you have two extra grandkids because we got in a we got in a fight. Well, you know, you got in a fight, I didn't get in a fight. No, we were arguing, yeah. And I I looked at you and I said, you know what? Why don't you just go home and get laid? And you did, and you and Alan had your third kid, and now and now she's got two babies, and then you got five grandkids.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:07

The truth comes down.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:08

He's taking credit for that, too.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:10

Oh, well, he takes credit for a lot of things, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:14

Well, it's been awesome having you.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:16

Man, is it ever? I mean, I miss being around you more. We got yeah, we gotta bring her back on so we can talk about the another three hours of stuff that we missed.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:26

We we can go through coaches and players and get all the dirt out there. Awesome. You know, speaking of technology, you know who gave me my first cell phone? Harold Snaps as a thank you gift. No way, and it came cha-cha-cha. And it came in a big bag, big bag, bag phone. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:45

Turn it over, pull off the phone, numbers over to the side. I wonder what old Harry's doing right now. Is he alive?

SPEAKER_07 1:15:55

Yeah, that I know of. Oh wow, but we all talk about technology and what was there and isn't there, and I see you conducting business on your phone and you seeing videos, and I got mine from Next Tel, and they gave me the 3939 number number, and I still got it.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:17

And I told him I need something I can remember. And when the guy came back with, he goes, I couldn't get it in the first three digits because it was already gone, but you got all four of them in the last digits, and I just laughed. I said, I wasn't really that serious.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:30

Also, because the area code is 314.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:33

Well, I found it fairly easy.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:35

I know, but they couldn't give you more on.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:40

Anyway, it's been fun. Thank you, Susie.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:43

Thanks for coming on. Love you so much. Yeah, thanks for being a part of it. Ice Guardians is better because you came on. We appreciate it. So we're checking out Ice Guardians here in the Window World Studios, brought to you by Seitman Cancer Center and a whole bunch more of our great sponsors to keep us rolling. Thank you again, folks. Good night. Until next time,