Kevin Hayes On Walking Away From Hockey & His Wildest Johnny Gaudreau Stories | Wingmen

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Kevin Hayes (0:15)

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Matthew Tkachuk (0:33)

Yeah, and then obviously want to throw a quick thing out there for Barky. We're obviously thinking about him so much. Hoping for speedy recovery. Obviously, don't know how long or even what exactly.

Kevin Hayes (0:44)

I'm like, John, we get free seats to the Knicks and we're always courtside in LeBron's in town. Do you want to go? He's like, yeah, 100 percent. So I'm like, all right, sounds good. The game's probably at like 7 or 7.30. He texted me like 6.45. He's like, hey, Brian Burke just texted me and said, if he sees you out with Kevin Hayes tonight, you're not playing in the game. Just felt like my hockey game itself wasn't really where it should be and started questioning like, what the hell am I doing? And just decided to call it.

Matthew Tkachuk (1:22)

Welcome back to Wingmen, season two, episode three. Today's episode is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet, the official sports book of the Florida Panthers and Florida's only legal sportsbook. Like and subscribe to the Wingmen channel.

Your future self will thank you. Brady won't have to fight you. We're going to dive into opening night, a little bit of our road trip, and some of the big news around the league. So Brady, let's get into it.

Opening game against Carolina Defending Cup champs. What was going through your head now that you lived it?

Brady Tkachuk (1:57)

I mean, I knew it was going to be a tough game. I think it was just like, you know, we played them in preseason, played a couple of their NHL guys, but it was still a hard game, you know, the way they play, but knew it was kind of going to be a different beast. So, you know what? Honestly, I wasn't really like nervous for it until we stepped on the ice for warmups. I was like, all right, here we go. Like now it's go time. But what was great is that, I know we're going to touch into it, but we didn't have much time to think because we're already on the ice, just wait for the game. So it wasn't much, you know, locker room time waiting in the room to figure it out, but it was just out there. And but honestly, it was good. It was a good day. It was honestly, I keep saying honestly, but it was perfect for, you know, have a five o'clock game that, you know, still got a nap and just everything was pushed up in the morning, but just able to wake up, had a good day, had a good preparation day and then play. So it was a big win, big match.

I think after that game, that was just, I feel like the most tired I've been because just what the game was like. There's no room out there. I think our bench was celebrating, like pucks going over the red line and dumping it in, just little things like that that we did. So that was a really fun first one. I know it wasn't probably entertaining for everybody, but I think that was one of the most fun games I've played in.

Matthew Tkachuk (3:22)

To see that, to me, that was a very entertaining game because like you said, every little play mattered so much. That's just a man's game. It's a man-on-man game. You've got to beat the guy you're lined up right next to.

Zero room on the ice. Nobody, no plays to be made. The deer up in your face on both teams, let's get it behind them, get it in, try to hold some pucks, try to get it to the net. The shots were under 20 for both teams and it was an overtime game with a few seconds left. But I thought for me, before we get into, I want to get into your preparation before a game like that and what you're doing before the game leading. Because I think it's pretty interesting to see what players do before a five o'clock game. Because most guys, let's get into that first. So what was your day looking like before that game with a five o'clock game? What did you do from morning to puck drop?