Welcome Dave & Wendy Tippett

From the bright lights of the NHL to the quiet moments that define a life truly well lived, this conversation with Dave Tippett and Wendy Tippett is a powerful reminder that true success is built far beyond the scoreboard.

In this unforgettable episode, we sit down with one of hockey’s most respected leaders alongside the woman who has stood beside him through every season of life. Dave Tippett’s career is nothing short of legendary. From captaining Team Canada on the international stage to building one of the most accomplished coaching careers in NHL history, Dave has become known not only for his brilliance in hockey, but for the integrity, discipline, and character he brings into every locker room and every relationship. His journey through the National Hockey League spans decades of excellence.  As a player, coach, mentor, leader, and ambassador for the game.

But this episode goes far deeper than hockey.

Together, Dave and Wendy open up about the foundation that has carried them through life’s highest highs and hardest challenges: faith, family, perseverance, humility, and service to others. Their story is one of unwavering partnership, deep love, sacrifice, and shared purpose. In a world that often celebrates fame and achievement above all else, the Tippett's remind us what truly matters.  They remind us that showing up for your family, staying grounded in your values, working hard even when nobody is watching, and using your platform to make life better for other people.

We talk about how Dave and Wendy first met, the early years before the spotlight, and the life lessons they learned together while navigating the demanding world of professional sports. Wendy shares what it was like building a family while moving through the pressures and uncertainty that come with an NHL career, and Dave reflects on the mentors, teammates, and moments that shaped him into the man he is today.

There is so much wisdom packed into this conversation.

Dave speaks candidly about leadership and what separates great leaders from merely talented people, how trust is earned, and why accountability and consistency matter in every area of life. He shares incredible stories from behind the scenes of the NHL, lessons learned from coaching elite athletes, and what it means to represent your country on the world stage as Captain of Team Canada. His perspective on resilience, preparation, and team culture is inspiring not only for athletes, but for parents, entrepreneurs, young people chasing dreams, and anyone trying to lead with excellence.

Wendy brings an equally powerful voice to the conversation. Her warmth, grace, wisdom, and compassion are felt throughout this episode. She speaks openly about the importance of keeping faith at the center of life, protecting family amidst chaos, and finding joy and purpose through serving others. Together, Dave and Wendy embody the idea that success means very little if you are not lifting others up along the way.

One of the most moving parts of this episode is hearing about their heart for giving back. Whether through mentorship, community involvement, charitable work, or simply investing in people quietly behind the scenes, the Tippetts have dedicated themselves to leaving a lasting impact far beyond the rink. Their compassion for others and commitment to helping people through difficult seasons is deeply inspiring.

This episode is filled with laughter, emotional moments, incredible storytelling, and timeless lessons about life, marriage, leadership, sports, parenting, faith, and legacy. It is a conversation about chasing excellence while staying grounded. About ambition without losing your soul. About building a life rooted not only in achievement, but in love, gratitude, character, and service.

Whether you are a hockey fan, a sports fan, a parent, an entrepreneur, a person of faith, or simply someone searching for inspiration and authenticity, this conversation will stay with you long after it ends.

Dave and Wendy Tippett are the kind of people who make you want to be better!  To be more disciplined, more compassionate, more intentional, more grateful. Their story is proof that greatness is not only measured in championships or accolades, but in the lives you touch, the people you serve, and the example you leave behind.

This is more than a podcast episode. It is a masterclass in leadership, resilience, marriage, faith, and living with purpose.

Thank you, Dave and Wendy, for your honesty, your wisdom, your kindness, and the incredible example you continue to set both on and off the ice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

I have no clue. And I'm like, did your friends borrow them and cut good? We're good. Okay. All right. So ready? One, we clap. Okay, ready? One, two, three, clap. Okay. Today we are joined by someone whose impact on the game of hockey spans more than four decades. Dave Tippett is a Canadian former professional player, award-winning NHL head coach, and respected hockey executive whose leadership has shaped teams across the league. An undrafted left-winger who built his career through grit and intelligence, Dave played 721 NHL games. That's incredible. Known primarily for his defensive awareness and team first approach, his journey began with the Prince Albert Raiders and continued at the University of North Dakota, where he helped capture a frozen four national championship. He went on to play for the Hartford Whalers. Is that right? Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Philadelphia Flyers. And he proudly represented Canada in two Winter Olympics. Dave's transitioned seamlessly into coaching, where he found extraordinary success and earned IHL Coach of the Year in 1999. In the NHL, he served behind the bench for the Los Angeles Kings, Dallas Stars, Arizona Coyotes, and Edmonton Oilers, collecting 648 career wins as a head coach. He won the prestigious Jack Adams Award in 2010 and led the Coyotes to the first ever division title in a memorable trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2012. Today, Dave continues to shape the future of sports as a senior advisor and consultant with the Seattle Kraken. With a reputation for integrity, calm leadership, and a deep understanding of the game, he remains one of hockey's most respected minds.

SPEAKER_05 2:00

That was very sweet.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

We are also honored to welcome someone who brings heart, perspective, and a lifetime of experience to this conversation, Wendy Tiffett. Wendy met Dave during his early playing years, and the two became engaged just one year later. They married shortly after the 1984 Olympics in a beautiful ceremony in Bismarck, North Dakota. For more than 40 years of marriage, Wendy has been the steady and supportive force behind Dave's remarkable career. Her story reflects the resilience, adaptability, and deep partnership required to navigate the constant moves, pressures, and unpredictability of life in professional sports. Together, Dave and Wendy have raised two beautiful daughters and their proud grandparents to four grandchildren. Building a close, grounded family through every chapter of hockey and life, Wendy embodies what it's meant to approach family, marriage, and career with grace, humor, and a sense of purpose. Her perspective offers a powerful and honest look at what it really takes to build a life alongside an athlete and a coach and to do it with such strength and genuine love. And she is human sunshine in all forms and one of my favorite people in the entire world. And thank you guys for being on my podcast. So happy to do it. Okay, now that the intros are over, we get to actually have a podcast. Um, well, I'm just so, so unbelievably grateful to have you guys on just because I look up to you two so much. And um, I just I love you guys so much. Love you, love you. And um it's so interesting because in doing this, I got to find out so much about your career. And I know you and I know you, Wendy and you as friends, and just um just sitting with you and how humble you are, and how kind and um yeah, self-controlled. So truly, like you're such a you're such a steady rock for everybody, including myself. Like anytime I've talked to you, I've just always felt like you've given me such great advice. And it was so interesting in researching you and finding out about your career that I'm like, that is so through and through true. And so that has been remarkable. But I um I just I have loved getting to learn about your career in hockey. And then knowing so much how much Wendy just is so in love with you and so in love with her family, and then to see the journey of how much you guys have accomplished in hockey. And at such a young age, you met. And so I really want to dive into how you both met. Tell me about how you met. I mean, I know how you met, but tell everybody how you met.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Yeah, you want to absolutely you. Well, actually, the first time we ever really, I don't know if we've really even met. I saw him at a party. A friend of mine told me you, you and Dave Tiffett would be perfect each other. And I was just thinking, some Canadian hockey player, I don't date hockey players, not gonna happen. I saw him, he was like standing neck against a wall, holding like beer, and I was like, I don't think he's probably, you know, he's a handsome guy, but probably not my guy. And then we met, it was right, it was right after the national championships, and I was studying for a test, and all my roommates were like, Come, come to this party that we're gonna celebrate this part, you know, the championship. So I went and Dave was there, and we ended up playing dice. We were playing Liar's Dice or something, and we were having fun, and he said, you know, hey, do you want to go for breakfast? And I said, I know what breakfast is. I said, I bet you there's lots of girls who want to have breakfast with you, but I'm not gonna have breakfast with you tonight. So have a good night. I bet you were. And so we didn't see each other for that long. And then and then later, it's actually that I think then I was calling the your room because he was uh his suite mate was a friend of mine, and there was a sorority party, and I was just gonna invite his suite mate to come as friends with me. But then Dave answered the phone, and then his voice, I was like, Oh, that voice. I still, if he when he comes home from any trip, I'm like, talk to me. Because his voice is just like calming to my spirit, and so I invited him to this uh sorority party, which got snowed out immediately. So I just said, Oh, what snowed out? So I guess we're not gonna go. And I was just gonna like, and then he said, Well, why don't we just go for a drink? And I'm like, Because I'm 18 and I can't get in any bars. And he said, I can get you into the bar. So he got me in and we just sat and talked and talked. And I came home and I was that night, and I was just like, like, I just really thought he was amazing. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Okay, I want to hear how you feel. Yeah, how did you feel? Yeah, so it's your story. It might be a whole different story. Wait, what's your take on the meeting of Wendy?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

No, I thought she was beautiful for starters. I mean, certainly catches your eye when she's there. And then the first night that we got together, we just talked, we just seemed to get along so well. We laughed and smiled, and and I'm not usually a laugh guy, and I I think I had a lot of fun. So it uh we we spent just about every day together after that. And it was the season was over, so we were kind of celebrating a uh championship, but went into the summer and uh I went back to Canada that summer for a little bit, but then right away I missed her and came back.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

Helicopters and fighting fires. He left that part out. Very scary. Yeah, that's what he that was his summer job to fight fires out of a helicopter.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

But but anyway, we uh we seemed to just click and we're still clicking. Yeah, that's three years later.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Right. It's amazing. Um, you say that you don't I know you as a laugher, so she brought that out in you for sure.

SPEAKER_05 7:43

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

That's unbelievable. Okay. Um can you tell us how you got into hockey? And I know uh some stories that that a lot of people don't know about you and what an exceptional athlete you are. So not not just hockey, but um just I would love to like go back to your childhood and just the stories of you um just as a kid. And I I think that it's gonna be so cool for people to learn how you transitioned from even soccer to hockey and kind of like all of that.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

So yeah, I want to well, I grew up, I was born in a little town called Moosman, Saskatchewan. And um, my my dad was a teacher, my mom was a nurse, and uh small town, and they had one rink, and um my grandmother lived close to the rink, and that was back before they had Zambonis or anything to clean the ice. They just had a barrel, a 55-gallon barrel and some water in it, and you had to drag skate around and drag it around and you pushed the snow to one end of the rink, and then there was a door that opened in the end of the rink, and you threw the snow outside. Well, my grandmother lived close to there, and she used to drop me and my brother off at the rink before we were old enough to go to school, even just put us in the rink in the morning and we would skate all day. Yeah, I was three. I've got a team picture.

SPEAKER_04 9:07

Or tell how you got into the rink.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Well, she just dropped us in this hole in the back. Yeah. Yeah. And when they push the snow out, I was talking about different times. I was three and my brother was five, and and we skated all. We just skated as much as we wanted. I've got a team picture when I was three years old sitting on Oh my gosh. So it started very young, but yeah, in Canada, every kid plays hockey. That's what you do, especially in a small town. And my dad played hockey for the uh senior team there. So and uh my brother and I were around hockey all the time. That's just the way you grow up. But um as as we lived in Moosman till I think I was uh boy was a seven or eight, and then moved to Regina. My dad took a teaching job there, played there for a few years, and then I moved to Prince Albert when I was eleven. And uh I had never played soccer before. I played some baseball, but they didn't have soccer in uh in Moosman and Regina. So all the kids played soccer, so I said I'm gonna start playing soccer to stay in shape for hockey in the summer. And um started playing soccer and I loved it, and and uh started playing very competitive, and then there's I had a couple buddies that were um they were doing training for this contest in Canada they had called the Adidas Skills Competition.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

This story blows my mind. It does I mean it's like they were just trained for us, so I thought I'd just try to. I know. It's like uh when you know you're an incredible athlete. Yeah. Okay, keep going.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

So this this contest was uh we all played on the same teams together, and and uh this contest was just testing your skill in in uh soccer. And it was like a football kick kick pass and punt or they have golf, they have the uh the chip and putt contest. Well, this is a a world contest that Adidas put on and it was you had to juggle a ball a certain amount of time and run through cones and stuff like that. So I ended up competing in it and you had to win first you had to win the city you were in, and then you had to win the province, and then you went one player from each province went to the nationals. So I ended up winning that a couple times.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Just like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

And then I went and competed in the worlds in Paris.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

And uh how much how many wait, they for reference, how many times did you have to juggle the ball?

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Well, when I went to compete at the worlds, uh the first event was you had to stand in the center center circle and you had to do 300 touches on your right foot, and without dropping it, go 300 touches on your left foot, and then 300 touches back and forth, and then a hundred times on your head for a thousand points.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

And staying in the circle. I mean, that's exceptional. Yeah. But his mom said he that he would just practice for hours and she would just sit out there with this little clicker, and she said it would be like thousand to without him dropping two thousand, three thousand, like she said he was.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

I think the longest I ever went was somewhere around an hour without dropping it.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Okay, so you end up winning, right? Yeah and then tell tell about where you got to go and how old you were.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

I was twelve, I think, and jumped on a plane in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan by myself and uh ended up in Paris where the competition was. And uh actually I stopped in Toronto. I went from Saskatoon to Toronto and I did a TV commercial for Adidas at the airport in Toronto.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

I wish I could find that. Yeah, yeah, but you have to say, like, how what did that feel like?

SPEAKER_00 12:45

I don't know. I was just a kid just having fun. And then I got on a plane, got to Paris, and uh there was somebody from Adidas who was supposed to meet me, and he wasn't there. And uh I remember just wandering around, and then I was going down an escalator this way, and he was going up an escalator the other way, and he looked at me and looked like he he was I was the guy he was looking for, and so we we finally got together and he took me to the hotel and everything. But uh it was it was an interesting experience, and the competition was it was hard. And uh I placed eighth uh over there. But uh actually the hardest thing we did over there, the competition was hard, but they had a game between France and Belgium, a professional game, and it was a hundred thousand people at that game, and there was about ten of us that were in the competition. We had to do the halftime show, yeah, and we had to stand in the center circle. We were all juggling a ball in our head, and it was pouring rain in front of a hundred thousand people. Oh my goodness, trying to juggle a ball in your head and pouring rain.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

At 12 years old.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

At 12 years old, yeah. But I just can't even imagine.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

It's just incredible. I would love for you to share just I think a lot of people would think that you were just like this incredible student. And you were just like because when you hear about that, when you hear the success of your career, you think like there's just so much self-discipline and also a ton of belief in yourself and drive. But I think for all the kids that maybe uh uh maybe want to be like maybe they dream of being a professional athlete or whatever it is they dream of, but maybe school is hard for them. I'd love for you to speak about that.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Well, school was like I had my dad was a teacher and then a principal, and my brother was very good in school. And um I I probably like soccer and hockey more than school.

SPEAKER_04 14:43

A's teach and the B's work for the C.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

So I uh I probably didn't enjoy school as much as uh as my dad or my brother did, but um I got through it. I uh I took my time getting through it, but I ended up getting through it. I moved away when I was 15 to go play junior hockey and live with a Billet family. So I went to school in a little town called Malfort, Saskatchewan.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Wow. And um how did you go from doing soccer to then back to hockey? Or was it ever either or? Were you just like so zoned in on soccer? And then all of a sudden you were like, wait, I want to be a hockey player. Like, how did that transition happen?

SPEAKER_00 15:22

I would play soccer in the summer and and uh hockey in the winter. And then I got to um when I got to uh I think it was 17 or 18, and I'd kind of I'd accepted a scholarship to University of North Dakota to play hockey. And um, I was playing for the Canadian national soccer team, and I'd hurt my knee a little bit, and I had a minor operation for a burst of sack on my knee. And that's when the coach in North Dakota said time to pick one or the other. Wow. And uh I always loved hockey, so I ended up playing hockey, but uh um, yeah, she did have a professional contract in soccer too.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

Wow, I didn't know that. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

I I didn't even really didn't even consider it because I was just hockey was my game.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

I've noticed this like kind of collective idea of that even with music or whatever it is, you have to be so like obsessed with it, you know, whatever that is. But I've noticed that in doing this podcast, everybody I've asked, it was just like their obsession. Did you feel that?

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah, I think the competition was obsessive, you know, winning, competition and winning and and you know, yeah trying to be the best at something, yeah, was was all as a kid, it drives you, you know. And that's uh you know, you got all your buddies that you're playing with and you're trying to win together, and you you know, it's uh it's a cool feeling when you have a group of people you can come together and win. And and Prince Albert had played for a junior team there that we won, played three years and we won the Canadian Championship twice. I mean, it was uh we had a great coach, and you know, when you're around people like that, between coaches and teammates that are just such quality people and and fun to be around, yeah, that's what you strive for. You want to repeat that over and over again.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

How old were you when you went to the Olympics for the first time?

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Uh what was it, 19? No. Oh, yeah, it was after North Dakota. So yeah, 21 or 22, 23.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

I think he was training in 21, and then I think when the Olympics you met Dave, and then he was like, I'm going to the Olympics, right?

SPEAKER_04 17:32

Yeah, well, we I met him when I was 18, our freshman year. Yeah. And then he was there for our whole sophomore year. And then um, at the end of our sophomore year, he was telling me that he was trying out for the Olympic team, and he went up there to try out. And you know, I was like, Oh, I guess it's probably gonna be done. I mean, you're gonna be leaving for a year to train. And then uh on my birthday, he proposed to me, and so we it ended up that we decided we weren't done. And so, um, which was really sweet. And we ended up uh being a part that year. I stayed at school and he was training, and then I ended up going up there the second semester for a part of the second semester. Um, and uh it was, you know, we just hung out and he was all over the world. He was in Russia, he was in, I mean, just all over the world. So for a whole year. Did you know about hockey before I I mean I was a figure skater, so I knew that hockey players ruined the ice when they played. That's pretty much what I knew about.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

And it works the other way too.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Yeah, I was and then I was yeah, you get a bad taste in yeah, there's these big grooves in the ice, and and then we I also um in high school I was a hockey cheerleader because I could get free ice time to skate. So to me, I became a hockey cheerleader and then I could just, you know, skate before school for free. So that was what but I never really watched the game. And I, you know, bite I, you know, that's kind of how much I knew.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Yeah, did you even know like people had a profession?

SPEAKER_04 19:00

Like it's it I mean, I knew I mean I knew who the North Stars were because I grew up in Minnesota, and so I knew that there was a team called the North Stars, and my dad would, my stepdad would kind of sometimes watch it. And and but I really had no idea of the rules of the game or anything about it at all until I went to college.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

40 years later, she's uh she's I know she knows the game.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

Oh, she could coach, huh? She could coach.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

I know just enough to be getting a lot of coaches.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

She knows how coaches think now.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

I do. I she's and the best cheerleader ever. Um you guys met very, very young and got married very young in his career. And I would say I I was wondering how the early stories influence the way you showed up for each other throughout his career. And then I guess also how did you continue to keep showing up for each other?

SPEAKER_04 19:48

I think that I mean, we were so young when we got married, I don't think we had a clue about anything. So all we knew is that we liked each other, we liked to be with each other, we trusted each other, we hung out together. And I think that's kind of still what we're doing. You know, I feel like it's, you know, we didn't, it wasn't so like serious. It was just more like, you know, let's do today and let's do tomorrow. And love that, you know, and we we just had fun doing it. And I mean, I always felt like his dreams were really important to me. I didn't want him to, you know, not get to live his dreams because he married me. Because, you know, because I know that a lot of people were saying, you know, when you get married young and she's gonna hold you back from doing all the things you want to do, because his the job that he had to do was such I mean, it's serious and it's a lot of work and it's a lot of focus and it's a lot of time. And I I felt like his dream became my dream. And I I wanted so much for him to have success and have and have his dreams come true, you know. So that was kind of what where we started, and we just kind of kept going from there.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

And and as it turns out, what she thought or other people thought help would help hold me back, yeah, ended up raising me more than I ever thought I could. Totally, you know, to have somebody that just is behind you all the way. Uh I can't say enough about in hindsight, what's that's meant to to not just the two of us together, but to my career.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

The importance of somebody believing in you and just championing you. And when you look at the players around you guys that were married and had that solid backbone, did you see a huge pivotal difference in people who had that stability? I think so.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

We had we had some, especially early on, we had some teammates that and a couple of older teammates that we're and we're still very good friends with today, but are had great marriages and really uh Yeah, we studied them like a sociology assignment.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

Yeah, because we came from divorced families. So we were like watching them and going, did they? Do right.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

But they they were, you know, they were not just for me good teammates, but good mentors. And, you know, they were a little bit older than us.

SPEAKER_04 22:08

So I And by that we mean they were 27.

unknown 22:11

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

Wise old people. When you're young, you're like, oh yeah, 30s old, 40s old. And then you hit 40 and you're like, wait, that's old. I know. I think you feel so. Oh, by chance. So sweet. And um, that's how we kind of became best friends. She's, you know, the godmother of my children. She was in when I gave birth to my children, she was there. I mean, she was in the room with me. Like, she's amazing. She was an amazing friend. And uh, I think that at that time, um, when I first met her, I called her Mrs. Liut. I called her like I because to me, she was this older woman I should respect, and she was 27.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

That's so funny. That's so cute. It just shows how young you were. There was obviously for you to say that, did people think that you shouldn't get married young?

SPEAKER_04 22:57

I'm sure a lot of people thought I'm sure a lot of people did.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Maybe, but but uh I I I don't know. I I think there was there was a group of the single guys that thought they had it right, but then there was a group of married guys that thought they had it right.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

To to reach their own. And yeah, and I think there was way more times when having somebody to to go through the journey with is better for you. Like way better for you. And and I'm just I'm so lucky that she not just jumped into that lifestyle, but was really enthusiastic about taking that journey. We were gonna take this journey in pro sports together.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Yeah, that's the yeah, that's I feel like that's life-changing to have somebody who's your champion and cheerleader. I mean, I I know you believe this, but it's so instrumental in probably you believing in yourself even more and having that success that you had. Um I want to ask you like lightning round questions. Okay. So hockey, it's interesting, like growing up in Arizona, we don't know a lot about hockey, but I loved coming to the games, the coyotes games, and uh learning about cop hockey. And then I became a fan of hockey because it's just such a fun sport. Like it's just truly so fun. I but I was not used to the fighting. So I was like, what is this? And why are they fighting? So I wanted to ask you. Um, I know that you didn't fight a lot, but who was your favorite fight with?

SPEAKER_04 24:29

Oh, I don't know. And pro?

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Yeah. Okay. Or just yeah, I mean, yeah, pro.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Uh there was a guy named Neil Sheehe that I fought. I ended up being a team with him later, and that was one in Washington. I didn't fight much in the NHL. Zero. We wanted to be number zero. No, I didn't fight much in in pro. I was a penalty killer, not a penalty taker.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

But smart spot. I've had my fair share in junior and a few in college, but okay, so give people who don't like me, who didn't necessarily understand hockey, what why are they fighting?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Well, it's hockey intimidation is still a part of the game, and a fight can happen off somebody just a cheap shot to you, or you have guys that know when to change momentum of the game, or maybe there's somebody that's gone after one of your star players, and you just have to make sure that they know they can't do that. So there's a there's a lot of different ways the fights start, but in in the end, it comes down to an intimidation, whether you don't want to be intimidated as a group, as a team, or you want to try to intimidate the other group. But but just it's uh hockey is a it's a sport where you gotta you gotta be willing to stand up for each other, and that's that's that's part of the part of the integrity of the game.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Yeah, I mean it's pretty amazing, honestly. And it also translates so much into who you are just because you're so loyal. I wanted to know um who is your favorite player to play against?

SPEAKER_00 26:09

To play against? Yeah. I don't know. I I had to play against some of the star players. I was a defensive player, and so I remember the first time I ever played against Edmonton when Wayne Gretzky was, you know, the best player in the world. The coach before the game just circled Gretzky's number and my number, and you go around and you follow him everywhere he goes. And uh so that was an experience because not only do you have to try to check him, but you got to deal with the other team really wanting to kill you.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Yeah, his enforcers coming up saying this isn't a good idea to share what you were sharing that. Um there's like there were guys specifically there to fight if anybody messed with Wayne Gretzky, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:52

I mean, there was every the star players had enforcers on the team, and it's less now, it's more a whole combination. But there was there was players that were on teams just to make sure that the star players were taken care of.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

When you saw your name circled or his number circled and your number, what what did you feel?

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Scared. I was I was he was the best player in the world, and I was just getting in the league. So you're you know, I'm going out to do my job, but it's wow, you you but he, you know, and since then I've got to know him.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

You did a good job at night.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Yeah, I did a pretty good job at night.

SPEAKER_04 27:27

I remember it.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

But uh uh Were you were you scared when you found out?

SPEAKER_04 27:31

I didn't know until I mean I I did, you know, a lot of times during the in during the Olympics, they they had to have this shadowing thing that kind of a new thing in hockey where shadow this star player or whatever. And Dave was really good at it. Like he could, you know, usually if he had to do that, then the other the other player would get, you know, no shots in goal or one shot on goal or no points or whatever. And so that was kind of a good thing. So I knew that he was good at that. But and then when I watch the game and I see that he is pretty much hanging out with Wayne, which I thought he's probably like, this is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Yeah, he's probably so excited to be with Wayne Gretzky. What did you learn from him in that game?

SPEAKER_00 28:08

You know what it was funny. I I always remember he was a unique player, like he was just smarter than everybody, and just as a normal player, the places he would go on the ice, I'd be saying to myself, What the heck's he doing over here? The puck's over there. And then I would kind of wander away, and then all of a sudden the puck would come there. And I just like somehow he had an anticipation of the game that you know very few players had.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

But he said he was going where the he would be where the puck was going, not with the puck already. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

That he would like like instinctually know. Exactly. Um, do you think he's the greatest player to ever have played?

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Well, he's got the most points. Uh I mean, he can make that argument. You can make a lot of arguments for for players. Uh Gordy Howe, I always thought was one of the greatest players ever because he was uh he was from Saskatchewan where I'm from. Uh like hometown vibes.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

Bobby Orr. Um, you know, I played a year with Mario Lemieux, who was an incredible player.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

He's also an incredible person, such an incredible, yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

And you know, and I think uh when Connor McDavid's done all said and done, I think he could be in that conversation too. So it's um Wayne was certainly of that era going through. Like it was it was incredible what he was doing.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

You coached Connor, is that correct? Yeah what was that like coaching him?

SPEAKER_00 29:29

He's a he's an unbelievable person, like a very good person, very, very quiet, almost shy, you know, around media and around fans. That but just uh an incredible talent. Like he his his skating, the ability edges and the speed he gets in his hands. I always laugh because most players, when they get the puck, they can skate fast without the puck, but when they get the puck, they don't skate as fast. It seems like Connor goes faster when he has the puck. It's just different. Yeah, it's just at a different level.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

But uh and he married an amazing girl. So I I knew when I met her that he must be an incredible guy. Yeah, because she is she's amazing, like a really, really good person. And I um, you know, I I came home and I told Dave when I met her I he must be an incredible guy because he picked a really amazing girl.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Yeah, yeah. And also smart of him because yeah, very right. Isn't that so important that the person that you pick is going to either make or break you? Genuinely.

SPEAKER_04 30:33

Yeah, can hurt your, you know, your wife can hurt your career and she can help your career. And I I think that, you know, there are instances of wives who, you know, you players were getting traded or coaches or whatever, and then they're like, good player, good coach or whatever, but bad wife. I mean, they'll she makes trouble, she causes, you know, mean to the wives or something. There's something about her. Like, I never wanted to be that girl. Like, I wanted to be the one who did the volunteer work, the charity work, the one to help him to look good, not to make him look bad, you know.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Yeah, absolutely. Well, um, the other thing I was gonna ask you was who was your favorite coach?

SPEAKER_04 31:10

That's why you have so many anybody.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

I had some, I had some the two coaches that I had before I turned pro. One was in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, a guy named Terry Simpson, who uh was a real when I was not doing well in school and you know, teenager trying to find my way, he was the guy that kind of grabbed me by the ear and said, Look, it you can play on my team, but here's the ground rules for playing on my team.

SPEAKER_03 31:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

So he and ended up being a great coach, like his and he ended up that was in junior hockey, he ended up coaching the NHL for a long time.

SPEAKER_04 31:47

And you actually played under him in Philly, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Last year I played under him in Philly. And then then the other coach I had in both the Olympics I played in was a guy named Dave King, who uh was a phenomenal coach, as known, is well known for one of the smartest hockey people in the world because he coached in Canada, he coached in coached the Olympic team in Canada, I think, three or four times, coached in the NHL a long time, he's coached in Russia for years and years. He just he's he's like the um he's like a genius in the hockey structure of hockey. So to play for him for as long as I did was really, really remarkable. Like really uh he was a wealth of knowledge. And then I hired him, he was actually that's what I was gonna ask you. Yes, yeah, for the coyotes, he was an assistant coach with me for a couple years. Brilliant, yeah, which I used to call him the mad scientist because he would come in between periods and say something just crazy. Like normally you play three forwards and two defensemen all the time. He would say, Maybe we should play two forwards and three defensemen for the rest of the game, you know, or just something, yeah. He would just make you think like he's also just was such a good man.

SPEAKER_04 32:53

Yeah, his wife is amazing too. They're really I mean, you know, I met them during the Olympics when I was, you know, 19 years old. And then they ended up, you know, coming when you know they were in their 60s, I think at that time. And it was just like such a you know, like full circle moment.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

Yeah, exactly. Did do you feel like looking back, did those two coaches help you define what you are as a coach?

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Oh, very much so, yeah. Both tactical and and just the way you look at things. Like Terry Simpson was the guy that he teaches you, he taught all of us young players how to win. Yeah. Like the price, the price you had to pay to win, and and the work ethic and and just uh the determination it took to win a championship. He was he was front and center with that. And then Dave King, the the biggest thing with Dave King was just the tactical knowledge he would as a player, yeah, you know, I would soak that ale in, but then to have him as a on a coaching staff with me was incredible.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

It'd be so fun to hear what is it like playing hockey at a professional level. If you were to give advice to a younger player right now that really, really wants to break in. What is your biggest advice on how you can make it in NHL?

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Well, I think you have to have all all the the what do you call the the essential uh the talent. Talent. Yeah. You have to have a work ethic, a determination. Uh to tell you the truth, there's some of it is a luck thing to get into to get the right break the right way. Yeah. I mean, I was a player that was never drafted, but ended up becoming a better player the next couple of years after my draft year that I signed as a free agent. Um so at 18 years old, I was small and never got drafted. And then at 21, I was I was just coming off being the captain of the Canadian Olympic team. And and then a couple different teams I could have gone to and ended up choosing Hartford.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

When the draft happened, were you devastated when you didn't get picked?

SPEAKER_00 35:14

No, not really, because I don't I didn't have any expectation of getting drafted.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 35:18

You know, and it was uh just because I was even though you were like one of the leading scores in the whole team.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Terry Simpson, the coach, then we had, I think, three or four players off our team drafted, but they're all bigger guys and a year younger than I was. And and uh um I asked Terry one time, do you think I'll get drafted? He goes, uh, I don't know, I'm not sure. And that's when there was a lot more bigger guys getting drafted. You had to be a certain height.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

I really hadn't even thought much about it until uh my first Olympics. I played for North Dakota for a couple of years and then went to the Olympic team. And we were playing all over the world, and we were a bunch of young kids just traveling around, and and Dave King came to me and said, Tip, have you got an agent? And I said, No, I don't. He goes, You should get one. There's people starting to ask about you.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

And that was a he was the captain of the Olympic team, too. He doesn't mention that part.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

I know that's absolutely extraordinary.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

So so that's when I I um a friend of mine had a guy from Saskatchewan that uh he was it was his agent. So I hooked up with that agent.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

And how old were you when you were the captain of the Olympic team?

SPEAKER_00 36:27

21, I think.

SPEAKER_04 36:29

21 when you call the two.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

That's unbelievable. And that you didn't have an agent that you that's incredible. I mean, so but you just had the drive. So the talent, obviously, you had, but you had the drive.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Yeah, it's I think to get to that level, there has to be a a dedication and a drive. And uh, you know, you you can rely on coaches and parents and everybody to push you, but in the end, you're the one that has to make it happen, you know, and be open to all the advice and and take all the information you can in. But in the end, you've got to you're the one that's gotta get out there and do it. And then you Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

How many hours would you practice?

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Well, back in Canada in those days, like we were lucky. We had a lot of outdoor rinks. And after school, you just went right to the outdoor rink and you played on the outdoor rink until you had to go home for dinner or it was bedtime, you know.

SPEAKER_05 37:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

So uh between that and then road hockey, we used my you know, every kid that lived on your street, you used to play road hockey till till dark every night, too. And you know, the old there's been some old movies, hockey movies, where they when you yell car and then you had to, you know.

SPEAKER_04 37:44

Move the nets and all that.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Yeah, a lot of times our nets were just piles of snow on the middle of the road. You would that was just a pile of snow. Yeah, and then the car would go by and run your goal post over. You had to halt the game for a minute and rebuild the rebuild the goal post.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

I think it it's interesting because you see you could obviously so much of hockey, you're seeing parents spend so much money and putting so much money into their kids. You did not have that.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

No, no, but I and nobody in, you know, hockey was just you just played with that. I think that's one of the things that's missing in the game right now. Like uh hockey is an expensive sport, not just the equipment, and you know, it's uh it's not when you can just jump and run around on it. You gotta have skates, you gotta have sticks, and but it's not just that, but it's ice time too. Yeah, and that's what's driving. And especially in in you know, southern cities, and that you can't have an outdoor rink. Like in Canada, you could still have some outdoor rinks and stuff. Um, but that's and that's where kids go, and there's there's no coaching. You just show up there and you just play. You just have scrimmage games or you just you do what you gotta do. And that's I think that's where real skill comes out of. You know, you can practice all you want, but when the ice time is limited for a team, a coach gets you on there and he just wants the team to learn how to play together. And they miss some skill development, you know, individual skill development. So the players who push themselves to in that skill development side of it and get ice time whenever they can get it, whether it's with their team or alone, those are the ones that are getting ahead these days.

SPEAKER_02 39:25

Yeah. I know it because it's got to be interesting for you to watch you looking at it from somebody who didn't have the privilege to do it and still kept doing and then seeing what it's like now. Cause it's I mean, how much has it changed?

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Well, it's really changed, but like I said, it's uh it's become an indoor sport now, not an outdoor sport.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

You know, and uh, you know, when you when you're growing up in Canada or in a cold place, you had way more ice time outside. You know, and it's uh I I think I mean the it's like all sports, they've evolved. You know, the the players have evolved, the athletes have evolved. They're you know, it's uh to become even on a travel team in in these cities, you know, these young kids are there's nutrition, there's weightlifting, there's skills coaches, there's skating coaches. We didn't have anything of those, you know. We our nutrition was whatever mom put on the table.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Yeah. You know, yeah, that's so interesting. Well, so what was it like then going from juniors or college to then being a pro?

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Yeah, it's that that's a big step because junior, you're still playing with teenagers. College, you get to where you're playing with some players in their early 20s and everything, but you go to pro, you're playing with men.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

And they're playing for keeps.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

And I I always I used to tell this story to young players after I was coaching now. When a young player comes and they think they got a great chance to make the NHL team.

SPEAKER_03 41:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

And, you know, everybody thinks they're a great player, and their parents think they're a great player, and their agent thinks they're a great player. But when you get to an NHL training camp to get to a spot on an NHL team, you have to take somebody's spot.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

And I always talk about, and we we used to laugh about this all the time because I was one of those guys at that point too.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

Later on in your career, where you have a family, this is what you do for a living.

SPEAKER_03 41:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

You live and die for this for a living, and that's your job. Yeah. So sorry, guys.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Hold on. What's I don't know what's going to happen?

SPEAKER_04 41:39

So we can just wait for a minute. I think we should wait.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Oh, yeah. I'm gonna plug that one in real quick. I I don't understand. Okay, what is your favorite movie?

SPEAKER_00 41:50

My favorite movie.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

I probably, as an old hockey player, I probably should say Slapshot, but that's that's the funniest movie in history, but probably Braveheart would be my favorite movie.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

Why is it your favorite movie?

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Well, because I'm Scottish for one. I think it's you know, the it's a love story, it's uh about freedom, you know.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

It's and you have a tattoo of it.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

I have a tattoo of the saying in there of all men die, but not all men really live, which was William Wallace that said that. So that's awesome. It's kind of a motto now.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

That's it's when you spend as long as I have in on a schedule and just driving, it's time to sometimes it's you're on autopilot, you're not living. But your wife and your kids and your grandchildren are that's what really makes you happy. Not winning, not winning on a Saturday night that you gotta play Sunday and you get to you got to be happy about what you won for five minutes and then you gotta worry about Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 43:03

Yeah, so I'm sure it's like now it's on to tomorrow. Yeah, as good as your life.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

It's just it's it was fun, but it but it was a grind.

SPEAKER_04 43:09

And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

You get off the schedule and to really live life with your family, and that is it's better.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

So good. What is your favorite movie?

SPEAKER_04 43:20

Um I don't even know what my favorite movie is. I have so many that I love. I love the movie French Kiss, which is an old movie. Yes, I love that. I love, I mean, there's a lot of them that I like. But they're usually like rom-com stupid ones, but that's the ones I like.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

I do too. I love rom-coms too.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

I love, I know every every this time of year. I'm always like, Will you watch a Christmas movie with me every every night? And he's like, Okay. But I want to watch like a Hallmark Christmas movie every night. It's only one month a year. We just need to be happy and stupid happy.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

My favorite um rom-com holiday movie is the holiday.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Oh, so good. Um, okay. What who's your favorite artist?

SPEAKER_00 44:03

Musical artist?

SPEAKER_02 44:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Oh, yeah, lots. Um always been a big Bob Seeger fan. Eric Clapton. Um Stevie Ray Vaughan. Uh who else do I listen to all the time? Milton John.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Oh, you have such good taste in music. Grandpa Rock.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Chris Apleton is uh favorite too.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

Just the best.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Toby Keith.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

We have that in common. We have had a relationship with him that uh he was uh he was not just a great artist, but a good man.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

Such a good man. People don't, I don't even know if people know the gravity of just what an exceptional man he was and how good he was to his fans.

unknown 44:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Such a good man. Wendy, who do you who are your favorite artists?

SPEAKER_04 44:55

I mean, you know, I mean I call a Christian artist.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:58

Yeah. I love Zach Williams. I love Brandon Lake. I love, I mean, I'm, you know, my friends call me like the Christian DJ because I'm like, I have a song for that. You know, but and that's what I mean. If I have my choice, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

We do send each other Christian songs that we love. It's so cute. Okay, so But I always say, I want to hear you sing this.

SPEAKER_04 45:19

Oh, I love this.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

That's what I always want to say. It's so sweet.

SPEAKER_04 45:22

Um like the blessing. That's when I heard that one.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

And I want to hear Aaron sing this song. That's genuinely one of my favorite worship songs. I actually have the part about the family and just God blessing your family and the and your children and your children. I have the entire lyrics um printed off in my house. Do you?

SPEAKER_04 45:40

And that's the one I always think about that. You know, I wonder if Aaron's in her course singing this song.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

Yes, I am. Yes, I love that. Yes, I am. I am so much. And hiking and crying and praying.

SPEAKER_04 45:51

Yes, I I love that song. That's one of my very favorites, right now.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

It's so moving. Um, you coached for the coyotes for how many years?

SPEAKER_00 45:59

Uh eight years, I think. Eight, eight or nine years. I think one was a lockout year there or something, but yeah, I think eight years.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

And then you moved to Seattle, and then you moved to the Edmonton Oilers.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

Yeah. Seattle, I I was, I hadn't planned on coaching anymore after uh left the coyotes. And Seattle reached out to me about helping to bring the new franchise to Seattle, and the people I was working there were with there getting him Todd in the wiki, uh, Jerry Bruckheimer, and uh some of the huge movie, Jerry Bruckheimer. They were they were and I went up and met with them and they had just an incredible vision of what that team was gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:44

Building uh redoing the arena there, building a practice facility. And um so I went there, I was gonna be part of the hockey operations, the management team there. And um as it went through, I was one of the guys that was talking about or supposed to look at who the general manager of the team was gonna be. And I talked to some people, and and um then one of the people that we were talking to ended up going to Edmonton, and he called me and asked if I would come and help turn Edmonton around. So chance to a I had never coached or played in Canada, you know, never been on a team there. So I thought that was interesting uh to work with a guy named Ken Holland. The general manager was was uh he was I didn't know him before, but he was you know well-respected general manager, ability to coach Connor McDavid and Leandre Seidel and that young team. And it was uh I really enjoyed the time going up there. Yeah, COVID put a kind of a twist in it that just uh before COVID, like that first year, Dave and I were like, this is amazing.

SPEAKER_04 47:58

I mean, first of all, the city was amazing. We were loving living there. We were I was loving the beauty of the river. We lived right at looking over the river, and yeah, we were hiking out in the by the river, and we were like, this is really amazing. We loved it. And then COVID hits, and it's a whole different game. Like it's just all of a sudden restrictive. You're in your hotel, you're in your apartment, you're in you're not allowed to go anywhere. You're you have to, you know, jump through hoops to get on a plane, you have to do all these tests, you have to, it was just like all of a sudden it just turned into all we're in an apartment, like this yeah, and that was it.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

And then also having to be not together too, right?

SPEAKER_04 48:36

Yeah, well, we were apart for a long time. Yeah, yeah. Because uh, and you know, and then I ended up getting I didn't want to really get a vaccination. I ended up getting one just Johnson Johnson just to get over the border. Yeah. And then um, so I didn't, you know, that it was just like then going back and forth was next to impossible.

SPEAKER_00 48:53

So Yeah, it was it made it made made it hard.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Yeah, I can't imagine when you made the decision to retire. How did you both feel? And how did you know how did you know it was time?

unknown 49:09

Me?

SPEAKER_04 49:10

Yeah. I I mean, I would have always just said, even with playing or coaching or whatever, when you're done, you're done, but I'm not gonna have a say in it. You know, I don't want to have a say in it. I don't want you to come back and later be like I wish I would have done it. So when he was a player and he decided he wanted to retire, he came home one day in the middle of training camp and he's just like, I don't want to do this anymore. My body just hurts. I'm just and I'm like, okay. And he literally started coaching the next day. So it was like there was no break then. Yeah. And then this time he was just, you know, that when he got let go from Edmonton, you know, he came home and he was just like, really, you know, he was kind of done thinking he was gonna retire after Phoenix. And I think that after the Edmonton one, he was just like, I I really want to just spend time with the kids and the grandkids, and I really want to, you know, we were building a house, we were building this house at that time. And, you know, I want to, you know, go there and be part more part of that building thing, which I think that he would have been a builder if he wouldn't have been a hockey player because he loves the process of building. So I think that he got up here and he started being that part of that process, and it was another thing that he loved to do, and he was happy. And he, I would just say every day you can do whatever you want to do. Like, so he's like, What do you want to do, Dan? Like, whatever you want to do. Like, you are not on the schedule anymore. You can sleep till you want to sleep, you can you do whatever you want to do because you deserve some freedom. Yeah, you have been yeah on this tight schedule for your whole life, right? And so, and I think he's kind of found a like a rhythm. He's never bored, he's got so many hobbies and things.

SPEAKER_02 50:41

How does it feel to be retired?

unknown 50:44

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

Freedom! Tell it, say it louder for the people in the back. Retirement's amazing. Exactly. Were you serious?

SPEAKER_00 50:52

It's not like it's you know, uh consulting, I guess. I'm not right. Retirement. I'm I'm as busy or busier now between us, whether it's hiking or yeah, we're redoing our lake house uh like doing, and yeah, and but you're doing what you want to do instead of what you have to do.

SPEAKER_04 51:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:12

Like every day I can think about a project. Okay, I'm gonna do this today, or um you know, it's just it's just having the freedom to not have to be on a schedule, not have to deal with media and stress of winning and losing. And you know, you my winning day now is getting through a 10-mile hike.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

And it's beautiful though.

SPEAKER_00 51:38

Um and I haven't done that very well. I had to get a new hip this summer.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

You're doing you look amazing, by the way. Cannot believe that you build your own motorcycles, and it just you you can build anything. How did you think? Oh, I can just build a motorcycle.

SPEAKER_00 51:55

It was a lockout year, so I wasn't coaching, there were locked outs. That's when I first built one. But no, I I had one uh one of my grandfathers was an auto mechanic and the other was a carpenter. So we grew up. My dad used to fix and build everything, and his brother owned a uh auto body shop that we use as kids we used to hang around at. So you just kind of grow up tinkering and uh in both carpentry and mechanics, and and that to me it's uh back then like building it was not just keep you busy, but it's it makes you there's a creative side that comes out. There's uh you know, uh figuring things out comes out. I mean, there's all that. I'm I don't even ride my motorcycles much, you know, now and then I'll fire them up, but they're more pieces of art than they are, you know, thing that I but just having a I like hanging around the shop and sometimes I do nothing in there and it's still a good day.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Yeah, that's amazing. Um in starting this podcast, my goal, like I've shared with you guys, is just that I Wendy, you know, you were raised by a single mom of four children and a single mom, and their life is grief is not linear, and life is hard at times, and there's definitely a lot of pain. And I um I wanted to really start this and have conversations and let people know that they're not alone. And so I want to transition just into seasons of grief or pain for you guys. And what do you feel like those seasons taught you?

SPEAKER_04 53:35

I think it's I think it teaches you, I mean, perseverance. And you know, they always say that you know, marriage is 10% love and 90% perseverance. I mean, because you you have to be able to persevere through, I mean, hard times. We moved 19 times. We had, I mean, you know, kids and we, you know, I meant when Allie was born, I think by the her fourth birthday we had moved like four or five times. Like so, I mean, it's just like that part of it that is exhausting and hard and starting over and meeting new people and doing all those things. Like, I think that was a really hard, a hard time. Yeah, but we, you know, I don't know. I I just never thought that there was I never thought of another option because I didn't want another option. So it was, you know, you do what you have to do, and that's just exactly what you did. You do what you have to do. You wake up in the morning and you do what you have to do. And I love my life. I've loved my life since you know day one. It's in all the moving and everything. We've met amazing people, we've, you know, seen amazing places, we've traveled, we've done things. And I think if we had, you know, just sat still and been safe and had it had been easy, we would have missed out on a lot. So I don't, you know, I don't regret anything.

SPEAKER_02 54:46

What I love that I think that you always have just such a beautiful way of turning everything to good.

SPEAKER_04 54:53

The heaven second. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 54:55

That is so you. You are the sunshine, the heaven second. Um what is your biggest advice for somebody who's facing heartbreak, betrayal, pain right now?

SPEAKER_04 55:07

I think that it's the biggest thing is that I think you just have to keep going. You have, you know, you can't uh you can't live in that in that place. Like you have to decide either you're gonna go some leave whatever's causing that, or you're gonna stay. And if you're gonna stay, then you have to just keep going and and fight for whatever you're fighting for. And if it's, you know, obviously if it's a betrayal that's like you know, that you have to leave, then you have to leave, you know. So it's like you have to be strong enough to know when it's right to stay and when it's right to leave. And but I mean, heartbreak is part of life, you know, and it's like we sometimes you have heartbreak and you have hard times, and then you know, later you look back and you say that was the best thing that ever happened because from that came this beautiful time in our on in your life, and we would not have this if we hadn't gone through that. So it's you know, it everything is for a purpose. And if you look at it as that, instead of you know, becoming a victim and you're it's always gonna turn out better for you. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

That's such good advice, Dave. How about you? Um, like I think about injuries, you know, it's like just in life, there's a lot of setbacks. And how do you feel like you have been able to power through setbacks and pain?

SPEAKER_00 56:29

Well, I think first and foremost is her and my family. Because and just what she's saying, the there's ups and downs. Like one of my biggest regrets of of all the years we played is the emotional roller coaster I put everybody on because you you would just you live and die with every win and loss. And when you lose, you're grumpy. And when you win, she used to laugh all the time. The kids would check to see what it would happen. If we won last night, everybody's happy in the morning. If we lost, everybody's quiet. Yeah, and and to go.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

They said when they went to college that they were like, you know what the best part was, Mom, that every day was like we didn't have to worry about. And I said, Oh my gosh, that broke my heart. Because to think that they were thinking about that.

SPEAKER_00 57:15

So the so having those ups and downs are are challenges, but Wendy is really the one that that had to take all that in and balance it when was really hard to balance.

unknown 57:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:29

When I'm sure I was really hard to balance, you know, but the injuries, the injury stuff, you just that's part of the game, you know. And I the regret now is I wish I probably should have taken care of my injuries better when they happened when I was playing.

SPEAKER_04 57:46

I re remember me telling you that at the time. Yeah. Men, listen to your wife. I said, when you when you get old, it's a good thing you married someone who loves you because I'll be pushing your wheelchair.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

So I love you. So yeah, do you you do have regrets over that?

SPEAKER_00 58:01

Some of it, you know. I mean, just um injuries that you, you know, it just at the time, like I've broken my thumb 12 times.

SPEAKER_04 58:13

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 58:13

I don't think I missed hardly any time with it.

SPEAKER_04 58:16

He broke his neck and still played with a broken neck.

SPEAKER_00 58:19

So and so after now, after I've been done, I've had lots of surgeries. I've had three surgeries on my neck, one on my low back. I just had a new hip put in.

SPEAKER_04 58:30

Yeah. Probably the other one's gonna have to get done soon.

SPEAKER_00 58:32

Yeah, I've only got two fingers to really work left of my one hand. So there's lots of regrets later.

SPEAKER_05 58:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:39

Now, that being said, there's you know, we've had a great life. Hockey's been a great living for us. And it's there's so many blessings that way.

SPEAKER_05 58:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

But it does take a toll. And and you I think it in the end, it builds character in you because you're you have to go through ups and downs that um with our family and with hockey and with injuries, and there's all those ups and downs that the old saying adversity makes you stronger, and if you have patience and the will to work through it together, it's uh can really turn out to be something wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 59:18

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

I think that's part of where we are.

SPEAKER_02 59:20

That's good. That's so good. What would be your advice to I guess uh uh somebody wanting to play hockey um and also juggling a family, all of it?

SPEAKER_00 59:32

Well, I think I think the balance is the key part, and sometimes you can get, especially with media, social media, you know, the amount of the amount of pressure put on athletes now, it can tip that scale one way or another. Just make sure you know where your priorities are, because after the game's gone or after your career's over and and that your family's still gonna be there.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:00

And so hopefully if you make the right choices, hopefully how did you see social media change the sport?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:10

It's just changed, it's changed the world and sport. I mean, there's just there's so much information out there now that is becomes relevant to the mindset of a player or a coach or a fan that didn't used to be there. You know, you used to be able to just a fan is a fan, you loved your team, and whatever you read in the newspaper give you a little clip. Now it's like there's instant gratification of everything and what happened and and second guessing, and you have people that you know don't know a sport and they have a great they have a repeat an opinion they think is is gospel and it's not.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

You know, but but their message gets out, and you know, that's that that part is hard when yeah, especially when you're a player or a coach, when when social media starts affecting your family and your kids. It's I've seen coaches that have you know had to take their kids out of school because they're or put them in private school because kids can be so mean, and it's it's incredible how it's yeah, it's changed the lifestyle of and it's it's probably entertainers, it's probably but athletes are in a you know, you're in a uh unique position. It becomes very visible, and uh, you know, you have a lot of people that are that are fans of of sports that take a great interest in it. And yeah, but then also it's gone, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:40

The pendulum can swing so uh far to the hate side. They just like they love you or hate you.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:46

Yeah, they can't wait to knock you down.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

Yeah. How did you in your career, both of you, drown out the noise of people, critics, Twitter or all of that? I mean, when I remember when Twitter and just all the stuff that was going on and you getting hate mail.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:02

Yeah, and messages funny because I have social media and Dave doesn't. So they can't get a hold of Dave, so they would, you know, send it to me. But he he could care less about what some random guy in some random little town that doesn't know anything about anything thinks. He doesn't he doesn't care, it doesn't bother him right because and because he's not on there seeing it, it doesn't feel personal to him, you know. But he didn't like it when I would get something wrong. But remember that guy that did the drunk Dave Tippet on Twitter or whatever? Yeah, he he started, yeah, he started, he started called his his Twitter thing was drunk Dave Tippett. And he would write like the stupidest things after every game. But I mean, some of them were really funny. And I followed him and he he was he would write funny things like you know, some guy that played badly, he'd be like, I don't know what that guy was was smoking tonight or whatever. He would say something funny, but then one time he went too far and he said something really bad. And I wrote under there and I said, Too far. And he said, I shall delete my queen. And it was just it was so funny. I mean, he had a good sense of humor. So that to me, that's funny. You know, he's trying to have humor. The ones that are harder are the ones that are like, you know, just so mean and personal and and you know, writing to our kids and stuff like that. And I mean, I just block and delete. I don't even, I don't answer, I don't listen. I don't, I have never answered one of them back ever. I never would. I just block that person and delete it and just pretend it didn't happen.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:24

I I can't even understand it or grasp it. I've never even wrought a bad review. I can't even imagine doing that. So it really is very interesting. But it's like, get out of your basement, stop with your Cheetos on you know, keyboard. Like you need to get outside.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

Touch grass, touch grass. It is it is a thing. It is a thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:43

But you but you were able, I you're able to just be like, I don't care. I don't care what they say.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:49

I've never, I've never had any, I wouldn't even know how to work. I've never been on Facebook, I've never had you're protected, yeah. Anything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:56

Yeah. Do you feel like the social media when it comes to athletes and women, has that changed?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:05

I mean, that had I think it changes them both ways, though, because I think in one way it's like all these girls can DM these guys, and another way they're they can also DM the wives and say, hey, I just saw your husband with some girl. Yeah. So it's like it's a it's a double-edged sword because I don't think these guys are definitely getting more opportunities, but they're also gonna get caught every time.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:24

There's also there's there's women doing the Lord's work and then there's women not exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:29

I mean, they're gonna get caught, and there's no way to not get caught because if you know, at some point in time that married guy is gonna break up with that girl, and then that girl's gonna be bitter, and then she's probably gonna, you know, write something to the wife. And right. So I mean, you're it's a double-edged sword. In one way, they're getting more opportunity, in the other way, they're getting, I mean, it's almost impossible to not get caught in this in this world right now. So I think in that way, maybe it It's a blessing.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:54

It's a blessing. Yeah. Um you being a coach, it's I find this so interesting. These players are the best of the best to be in the NHL. You, I, you know, I was looking at statistics in order to make it in hockey. It's like 0.01% of people trying to do it professionally. So not just people playing hockey, not men playing hockey, but just in men who are dying, bleeding to play. And so you have the very best of the best, the scouted by agents and making millions of dollars. And yet when they don't play well, everybody comes after the coach. And so I I mean, I can objectively look at that and be like, that makes no sense. But people really, I I I don't understand it. So I'd love for you to explain it to me. I don't understand it either. Did you like being that role?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:51

Well, I mean, I like leading a team as you know, trying to the chess matchup, trying to find a way to pull a group together. And win together is that's that's fulfilling. It's very fulfilling. But there is some times when the old saying is you can't fire all 23 players, you know, might as well fire one coach. So it's it's that's part of the business. You you know, you get in there and you do your best.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:19

I just this makes me think of the story that the his his first head coaching job was with Dallas Stars. And he, you know, he got hired and it was so exciting because he really probably, you know, he had he had a lot of opportunities that year, like three different teams. And he, you know, Dallas asked first and he was excited to go there because they had a really good team. And after his first practice, he came home and he said, one day closer to getting fired. And I'm like, your first day. Because he he said you are hired to be fired as a coach. Oh my god. Every single there's only one way out of coaching, and it's fire gateway.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

I genuinely think you have to be built different to want to do that job.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:54

Yeah, it's a I was pretty lucky like I said, my first end, I went eight years.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

I mean, yeah, that's which is so rare.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:01

It's like two years is normal for a coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:03

But okay, but the stress of that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:05

No, it's it's it's not it's not for the faint of heart that's not.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

No, but uh that's unbelievable to know, okay, one day closer to getting fired. One on day one. I mean, like, really, we can't even have one day. That perspective is incredible.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:18

Well, and I really felt like it was so much pressure because so many coaches get fired, you know, so fast. That that first year, I remember just like waiting for his first, I think your first game was a tie. And then I think the next game was a win. He ended up like they were, they were like second place in the league at his first year. So he did great his first year. But the first couple of games, I remember thinking in my head, it was almost like if you lose a game, we're gonna get fired. You know what I mean? It's like, it's like it was like just that much fear. That's how much fear it was with that. Because your first, until you kind of get your feet under you as a head coach, oh yeah, and and make a name for yourself and have some success, you could just be a one and done coach one year and then never coach again. I mean, that can happen, happens to a lot of guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:00

But to get to get to that level too, it's it's like when I first started playing too. Like uh you were scared to tell anybody you're hurt. My first training camp, I broke my thumb and I wouldn't even tell anybody. Yeah, because someone who takes it because you're like spots are so limited. Yeah, yeah. You you can't give them an excuse to get rid of you.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:20

Yeah, you don't want to let them to know that they can live without you because as soon as you get hurt, oh yeah, and a couple weeks goes by and they win every game, then they don't need you anymore. Oh yeah. And as soon as they know they don't need you, you're gone.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:31

So it's it's and that's another reason, like 40 years of that is not all 40 as a coach or a player, but after a while, that just enough is enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:42

Oh yeah. I can't even imagine how no wonder why you got the tattoo you did.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:46

And your love the other what the other side says no pain, no gain.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:50

Oh, I love it. Let's go. He's just like the gun shows around the tattoos.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:54

It's like who gets that's when I get sour when I'm aches and pains and this and that.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

And just lift up your arm.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:00

Yeah, and flex.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:02

That's where he has a torn bicep. So it's his biceps, like torn. So it so it's his bicep.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:06

It's like, yeah, that's where I bought that. That uh oh, I love that. That bionic that's that's my hand right there. I have too much metal in my hand.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:15

Yeah, no joke. Um, that's the thing that people don't know is these guys in the like you and I've talked about this, but the playoffs, so you're there's so many players playing so severely injured. And then people mad, and it's like they're doing they've they're doing the best they can.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:31

Yeah, exactly. But they and they will be, yeah, they're so hard on him. They're like, he's playing like crap, and I'm like, and that's like, you know, with Connor, he has a torn abdominal or something, like a really severe injury, and he's trying to still play because he is the best player. Yeah, and even Connor at 10th of percent, if you mean he was probably more like 40 percent, he's still probably better than any other player on the team in the league. I mean, he's still right up there with one of the best players. So it's like, how do you not play him?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:55

Yeah, you know, it's it's changed now. I mean, players take care of themselves better now. That's good. Yeah, the the players' associations have stricter rules about concussions and I think that's important. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:08

You have done throughout your career, both of you, so much philanthropic work. So much. And I wanted to know where did your heart for giving back and helping others come from?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:22

I think when started it, we were both young in in Hartford, and there was a there's a uh it's called the Whaler's Walt for the Children. It was for children's cancer. And uh that friend that she was talking about that we ended up living next door to, uh they both got involved in it, and it was a wonderful charity. They ended up over the years, we were in Hartford there, they raised enough money to build a uh bone transplant. Um bone marrow transplant bone marrow transplant at Pediac. Yeah, so and and so that was and that was the thing. It really Hartford was a small city, but that that was there was a big ball and a gala and when uh uh and Marianne Lee were the the chairwomen of it uh a couple years in a row.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:06

The first year I did it by myself, and I was like, I mean, I was 20 years old. Yeah, and they asked me to do it. I'm like, sure. I had no idea right what I was doing, or you know, it was so overwhelming. But you know, it was also like an amazing experience because we, I mean, we got to know some of the kids, and I mean, some of the kids that were, I mean, they would call the players on Hartford and they would say, Hey, there's this little boy in the hospital, and he's terminal, and all he wants is to meet you guys. And I would be like, Dave, you can spend, you know, two hours and this is like make his whole life. And you know, you just and I think the first time that he went to the hospital and did that, it was so impacting on him. Right. And I mean, we were invited to this little boy's funeral, and they buried this little boy with all of the things that these men had brought him. I mean, it was really touching. He was a sweet kid, and he had to be in this iron lung every night for his whole life. He had to sleep in this iron lung and he had had such a hard life. But Dave got to be friends with him, and and you know, they he would talk to him on the and it was just like those kind of relationships are the ones that make you remember that how blessed you are.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:12

And how, you know, when you are given much much is expected for you to give back. And I think that there was, I I always thought I also wanted to, you know, for my girls, I wanted to show them that you need to give back. And so I would always try to do, you know, tutoring or I mean, my kids tutored. We did, you know, made meals at Ronald McDonald's house. We did, yeah, um, we did all sorts of things like that. But it was it was great for them to teach them, yeah, too, you know, to teach them that you know you give back that's right in this world.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:42

Yeah, right now, what is the charity that you are most involved in?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:46

I think Frank's uh the ballers, uh and then um uh we have a good friend out in Connecticut, um Connor Zeke Foundation. Connie's Connor Zeke Foundation is a young man who a good friend of ours, but it was uh one of four brothers that they lost one to fentanyl. Oh and uh so we go to his golf tournament and and it I I also set them up so moving.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:11

I set them up when we were in Hartford, so you know they were um she was a you know, she was a girlfriend on our team, and then they broke up, and then I'm like, we want to keep her. So I set her up with one of Dave's friends, and they've been married all these years, and they're and they're a wonderful, yeah, happy couple, and they had, you know, just heartbreak. And they um this was you know, a very special kid that they lost. And so they every year a lot of the players come back and they do this big golf tournament for him. And and um, this was the first year we had to miss because Dave's for a long time because Dave got a new hip and he couldn't golf. Yeah, so we couldn't go, but we'll be there next year.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:48

Oh my gosh, I know the fentanyl pen epidemic right now is just horrific, so scary.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:54

And I think the other one is chances for children. I've I've done support of them for many, many, many years. I love that. And um, so that's I went to Haiti with them.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:02

Yes, it was incredible. Oh my gosh, Kathy is just exceptional. They are I've noticed that like when I give back to the community or I get involved in a nonprofit, I feel so much better. I can't even believe the difference of how much it makes me feel. The kids and I, you know, we are really active in serving our community. And so I would love for you to share your thoughts on um just to peep people might be scared, I think, to also like where do I get involved? And sometimes I think charity stuff can be kind of intimidating and scary, but what would be your encouragement to get involved?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:36

Um, I just I I think that you have to kind of find out what you know, where your gifts are, right? Like for you, you know, you're you have this huge heart and evangelism are you know your things and and so you know, with your feeding the homeless and doing all the things that you do for them. I mean, it's like to me, like giving back is a fruit of grace, right? I mean, you were given grace and then you have this desire to, you know, it's the fruit of that, right? It's the fruit of what what God gives you, you want to give to others. And it just it's just a natural thing that comes from that. And it's um, I I feel like it's it has to be something that you love, something that in order for you to stay involved with it, something that you really have a heart for, and that, you know, and I feel like children's cancer was always one that we did a lot with and and in diff in many different ways. And one of our really good friends in Hartford, who's passed away now, but he had a daughter who died of childhood cancer, and then his another daughter got it as well. Oh my gosh. So he he was the one who started that foundation, and so he taught us a lot about, you know, because we were just young, but he taught us a lot about giving back and about you know, just the process of it and the everything, I think. You know, he was he was an amazing man, and so he kind of started our career off that way. So then we just we just thought that that was normal to do that, you know, at that point.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:01

One thing the NHL and you know, every team has their own foundation kind of thing. Yeah. So you really when you're you're with a team, I think that's one of the things that bonds, like not just the players have a bond together and the players and coaches, the people that are in the dressing room, but there is people in those organizations, the sports organizations that do a great job in the communities, and that helps bond a whole organization. Yeah. That was in Hartford. Uh the whole organization was was kind of bonded together through that charity, but you know, in in everybody working together. Our general manager was a guy named Emile Francis, and he was huge in the community and and brought our team together, and and it was we were that was a responsibility of being a player that you had to give back to the community. And and sports teams are I think they do a great job of that. I do too. And every team, I know that's a that's a critical hire for all these organizations is to have somebody that makes sure that they can do that the right way.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:12

Yeah, and I was on three of the boards. So I was on Dell Stars and Phoenix and Edmonton's foundation boards. So I I think that that's one of the things that they teach you so much, right? I mean, you're just a young woman going in there, and then you're with these, you know, a lot of people on those boards. Like in Dallas, there was a lot of like heads of corporations, and I mean, really big, and they taught you so much, right? So you learn from every single experience and of how to best do that. And but I always like the real personal things, but like for me, that's what I'd rather do, like tutoring or cooking or things like that, that is like right where you're right in front of the person. I like I love that the most.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:50

So I think what I'm loving about my nonprofit right now is just we're starting to work a ton with schools and getting to see like having this really fun packing events and getting to share what's going on in the community, but getting to see the younger generation see that they can make a difference. Yeah. And just the way they light up. It's just so incredible because, like when I was growing up, and I'm sure you guys too, we had like canned food drives and dare and all these things that we got to participate in. But because schools have changed so much, that's not really very accessible to the kids. And so uh, we're trying to change that.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:22

And so that's just crazy to me because that was always like I know my kids went to school mostly in Texas, and that is it's a thing in Texas. Like you, you know, you every like National Charity League for my daughters, and they were, you know, there you have to do a certain amount of hours, and it's just a big thing. You everyone does that there.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:38

Yeah, it's been so it's been so cool. I I just love this younger generation so much, and they don't necessarily know how they can get involved to make the world better, but I feel like we're giving them that opportunity to get a taste of that. And so I think it's true. It's like just getting the opportunity to do it, and then and then it's like it just becomes part of you. But exactly I just love you both so much for your heart for others and how much you've done. And I just know all the ways that you've helped so many people and just so thankful for just your heart, you know, to give back. What do you feel when you look back at your life? What would you want your legacy to be?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:22

I think that I love my family and my friends and my children and my grandchildren. And that and I love God. I mean, that would be that love, I guess, would be my what I would hope people would remember for me because that's all I really care about.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:38

That's so true of you, by the way.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:40

That's all I care about.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:41

What would you what do you want your legacy to be?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:46

Well, hopefully that I think I was a great father. I can be a great father. I want to be the best husband I can be. And thank my wife for her patience and I'm just to be to have a part of a wonderful family. Uh I was blessed to have a great career in sports, which I was very thankful for and enjoyed, but now it's uh to have balance in life and freedom and uh enjoy life.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:26

Yeah, I love that. Um, you both are so incredible, truly. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful that you agreed to come on my podcast.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:37

Oh, you know we would. We'd do anything for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:40

I love you both so much, and I'm just so thankful for you. And thank you for being such an inspiration in my life. And um, I know we're gonna have another podcast, and I shared this, but um, you've just been such a gift in my life and such a wonderful friend. And um, I'm so thankful for you. I think I I love that I can call you with any news. Yeah, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:05

And you know, you usually get perked up.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:09

Noah, you are sunshine. You you know that you are sunshine, you walk in every room and you're sunshine, and everyone who knows you says that. And it's like the and it's the light of Jesus that comes through you in a way that I don't think I've ever seen in anyone else, really. And it's like, and it's and I remember we used to watch her sing before we knew her. She would go to church and it would be like Easter Sunday, and I'd be like, Oh, that singer's gonna be there. We gotta go for sure. We have to be at this service or whatever, and we would just look forward to it so much. And I would just, I could just close my eyes and I can just feel that, you know. And and that's why so many times when I hear a song, I'm like, oh, I want to hear Erin sing this song. I want to hear Erin sing the song. I love you, you know, because you you have a special gift, and I think that this is gonna be a really wonderful format for you to use that gift, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:53

Oh my goodness. I hope. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:55

Yes, I pray for that because it the world should get a little of your sunshine.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:59

Oh my gosh. I um are they all like shining down? We are showing us all. Okay. Okay, yeah, then we'll finish it up. Sweet. Thank you for what you said so much because you are. I always say you're just such my inspiration and also just sunshine on every single day. But you have been such a uh just powerful place of a friend giving you so much love and wisdom. And I think it's so important for other women to have other women to rally around them. And um, I think especially when your paths are different, or maybe your morals are different, or uh you like I feel like I'm on a different path than the maybe some of my friends. And I feel like, and whenever I call you, you always are like, No, you're on the right path. And I think that's so important, you know, to have a person, to have a girlfriend say to you, I really believe in the path you're on. And you're on the right path. And keep it.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:55

Well, I think that, you know, we are as women, you know, of God. I mean, we're it's a different, it's different for us sometimes, and other people don't always speak our language. Yes. And, you know, I say that to friends that I have that are, I'm like, I'm so glad I can talk to you and you understand what I'm saying because you think like I think, and you and that's how it is with you and I. I can tell you things and you understand what I'm saying. And it's like you're not speaking Swahili and I'm speaking Greek, you know. I mean, it's like, what? I don't get it. So it is nice to have that we speak the same language, yeah, and we can support each other in you know our goals for that, you know, which is about really all there is.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:30

I know. I just love you so much. So I'm so thankful for the friendship that we have, but the friend you are to me. And I feel the same. And Dave, I just love you so much. I love being around. I love it when we go to dinner together and I get to hear stories. I just love it. I know you hear you hear some of the really good stories. I I hear my I hear the best stories.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:49

Yeah, I hear the best stories.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:50

You guys hear the best stories too, though. Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:52

We all hear the best stories.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:54

And um, just I'm so thankful for our beautiful friendship. And thank you for loving me and my kids so much and for letting us spend the night. Of course. Beautiful place. Yes, my pleasure. No, Dave, thank you so much for um doing this. This was so fun learning.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:11

This was easy. Yeah, being patient with me. Yeah. My my job.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:17

That was cool to see. I love it. I love learning about like I just love hockey now because of you guys learning about you in your career was so fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:26

Because you just know them in such a different way, and then you're like, oh, wait, all this stuff I didn't know about yet.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:30

It was so fascinating. And then also just like the gravity of how much you moved, because even like reading that, it was incredible. And I think um, I don't know, I'm just so inspired by you too. I I pray one day to have a marriage like you guys and to have that, you know. And it's I'm so grateful to be around couples like you that bring me so much light. They it really does give me a lot of um hope for the future. And I think that's so important. I think it's so important to surround yourself around people who you want to be like.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:01

Oh, it's true. It's like they say that you are your group of five closest friends, right? That's who you are, and so it's it's important to have that. And I, you know, I feel I feel blessed to, you know, have have had this life with him, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:16

He's you guys, I love you so much. Thank you. Thank you for being so like awesome on this and sharing your stories. And thank you for being who you are.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:26

Anytime we love you.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:28

I love you so much. Yay! We did it. We did the podcast. Let's go. Thank you for spending time with us today. The heart of the podcast is to highlight incredible stories of hope and the gift of giving back. I'm truly loving learning about each guest nonprofit and the impact they're making. If you'd like to learn more or get involved, you can find links to every charity mentioned on my YouTube and my Instagram under each episode. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next week.