Hockey Has Taken Over My Life

Letterkenny 11x03

Andy closeups from the first four IIHF Hockey World Championship games.

Bonus:

"To endear yourself to your teammates, I had to do what I'd done to get to this point. And that's playing a feisty game," Friedman said. "I know I'm not the biggest guy out there. But I like to mix it up. And I like to get in guys' ears and play a fast, speedy game. I feel like when I when I got out there and I was just playing, that's what I was doing."

That feistiness quickly became a noticed aspect of Friedman's game. The night he scored his first goal against Philadelphia last season, it wasn't hard to realize that half of the Flyers roster was looking to take him out. The more he's become engrained in the Penguins roster and seen steadier time this season, the more he's let that element of his game become advantageous for Pittsburgh.

"I was always a pretty feisty guy growing up. I wasn't the biggest guy and I had to stand out somehow, right? So, I feel like that's been a huge part of my game and obviously knowing when to get under a guy's skin. Got to pick your spots. And I feel like the coaches have sat me down and talked to me about that. And that's definitely helped knowing when I can do that because I feel like when I do, I'm pretty effective and I get some guys off their game."

Given his quickly-gained love for the organization, city and his teammates, Friedman had a very Friedman-like response after hearing the news from his agent.

"It actually happened during March Madness. We were all getting together to watch Illinois versus Houston at PPG Paints Arena and I got up to head to the game in the morning. We had an off day and around 10:00AM I got a call from my agent, Ian Pulver, that I missed. Then, he sent me a text saying, 'You have an extension in Pittsburgh if you want it'."

"I said, 'Hell yeah, I do'."

Jake gets pushed by Oliver Bjorkstrand (and dont even get me started at skaters pushing someone into their own goalies - i’ll never understand that mentality) and Jake i’m pretty sure recognizes the situation immediately and picks his toe into the ice to have somewhere to push off against to try to evade the goalie, only he smacks into the goal post. but, mission accomplished, goalie avoided, albeit be it with a little help from Elvis. but still, thats remarkable. 

after teh whistle is blown Elvis comes over and checks on Jake, which i think is absolutely commendable. its a rare thing. Jake was ultimately fine, he kept playing -

Q: Is there a moment in one of the Stanley Cup celebrations that was a standout to you?

Ian Cole: There’s a lot of them. What rating does your podcast have? (We’re triple X, so go for it!) Well, I probably have some of those too to be honest (laughs).

But it was a lot of fun. Kinda the Penguins tradition is to take the Stanley Cup into the pool, right, whether it’s at Mario’s house or Sid’s house. And the first year, we were at Mario’s house and Sid was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go take this in the pool’. And the cup handlers were there… They were like, ‘No, we’re not going into the pool this year. Don’t even think about it. We’re definitely not going into the pool. We can’t have it filled with water at the bottom of the pool again, Sid’.

And Sid’s like, ‘Oh, totally. Yeah, we’re definitely not doing that’. And they’re like, ‘No. Seriously. We’re not going into the pool’.

And he’s like, ‘No, no, definitely not. I’m just gonna go and grab a drink’. So he grabs the Cup, went in, grabs a drink. A couple of minutes later, he walks out in his bathing suit. And he walks straight to the pool and jumps in. (laughs)

So they were just like, ‘Oh god *facepalm*. What are we doin’? We’re back in the pool again with the Cup.’

But luckily everyone was still coherent enough at that time to not let it sink to the bottom of the pool. Because the bottom on the cup isn’t airtight, so when that thing fills with water, it’s full of water, and the water’s not coming out very easily. So that 35 pound cup turns into about a 100 pounds when filled with water, and it’s tough to get out.

It was just a ton of fun in the pool. Mario was bringing out cases of Dom Perignon. Guys were spraying it everywhere. That pool was probably like, half-Dom Perignon by the end of the night.