Johnstown Escapades; Vegas Moves; Taylor Hall in Buffalo
Dear diary welcome to episode 9 of beers and the lot podcast this is John writing to you my friends day were really mean afterwards while I was cutting the intro but anyway let’s talk about the Vegas golden knights and how they are shaking a lot of stuff up in the desert we touch
On Taylor Hall in the gorgeous City of Buffalo and what it means for the NHL’s best fan base we think and then also us touching more on our Johnstown escapades as the tournament is fast approaching can’t wait for that it’s a big time please remember to rate subscribe to the
Podcast and follow us on all socials at beers and a lot welcome to episode 9 goodbye diary all right I’m I’m ready to get rolling here I’m ready For goodness gracious bottle just doesn’t make a satisfying crack that’s why you have to pour it into a glass I need to get myself a glass Oh Aaron is that a is that a Devil’s Backbone that is a Devil’s Backbone I’m up in my beer game this is an October Fest from DB
It’s delicious I’ve already had one today only one just one so far since I went out and got them yeah what are you drinking Daniel I got uh Lieutenant dank from Wicked Weed Brewing I almost just did a spit that’s great I knew that name would get some laughs Forest Gump gets me
Every time thank what you get tonight Rigo so I uh I picked up uh another one from old mother Brewing uh called double impressionist IPA it’s a double IPA um they made impression heavy before and uh it was you know just your regular old IPA so this is the double
Version so it’s pretty good A stay loal awesome can artwork I don’t know who does this stuff but it’s it’s got like a little bit of a horror theme to it so perfect for uh the spooky Seasons mid to late October yeah spooky season so yeah pretty cool
Hell yeah what’s going on over there Mr Johnny Walker I have a flying dog Thunder peel so I’m gonna have to step up you’re the new Aaron yeah I’m the new Aaron here I have a unlike unlike Aaron though I don’t have like a cash of them you know
Sitting in a bunker you know I just had I just had a 12pack I’ve been slowly working on the last couple of weeks so you don’t have 2,000 Bush beers and moose head Rattlers in your safe room well he probably has another thousand now he has like a thousand of those
Devil backbone Aaron just Buys in truck loads I only got a six pack of these I only got a six bulk they’ll be gone by they’ll be gone by next week guaranteed they’re good nice nice nice nice well speaking of people that’ll be gone by
Next week who El is going to get traded before uh we talk next I feel like we saw some trades you know since free agency started and everything sounds like not flow not flower yeah that Vegas I’m I feel what are they doing I feel so much I feel so much more
Negative after my bet last week but I still feel confident so there there are two things flower is not gonna move I believe it’s due to his salary and also leoner is having Soldier surgery it’s somewhat longterm term so I think that kind of stalls a little bit
The other thing Vegas got Petra but they got rid of Nate Schmidt in the process uh to Vancouver and Vancouver who lost to Foley stetcher markstrom they got kind of a gift for a third round pick in Nate Schmidt so that’ll help them out on D I’m happy for Vancouver an emerging
Younger team in the west Vegas like they’re getting this reputation now I mean I was listening to Elliot Freedman talk a little bit about it agents and players are not happy the way that it’s being managed they’re really churning through players they several guys I got
Rid of in the last couple of like in the year really where they signed him to a two or three four-year deal and then they’re getting rid of him in year one two or three and it’ll be interesting especially this upcoming season because it’s season four for them the first
Season they had that you know they could go around the locker room and everyone can point who didn’t want you and they could say it really easily well now it’s kind of like who didn’t want you and you could probably Point upstairs to the management team at this point so it
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Vegas in the next coming months or season or two who’s who’s actually left there after the Petra signing because he got all of his money later in the deal as well through signing business so he won’t be bought out which I guess is
Good for him and he also has a no move Clause has there really been that much more movement since uh MC left well MC is now Presidente of hockey operations and McMan oh so he went up there’s there’s something weird there because McMan was gonna go somewhere else and then
He MC moved up to that president of hocky Ops and McMan stay yeah that the whole the whole Vegas thing right now is just there’s something going on right like yeah like the whole Allan W Walsh uh Alan you know flurry agent thing I was going to say it all stems from the
Picture right I’m telling you I think that leard that got stabbed with the sword now he needs the soldier shoulder Sur and like like there’s it’s just all this weird stuff that’s Happ and there’s the story like you mentioned John that came out that the players are pissed off
That they’re involved in uh trade rumors uh you know they they tried to move Nate to Florida that fell through uh then they end up moving them to Vancouver obviously that makes room and they can sign petrangelo and they give him a huge deal um pretty significant deal when we’re
Seeing like most of the deals in free agency being signed right now are one or twoyear deals I mean is petrangelo really the guy that’s going to get them over the hump and then longterm keep them successful I don’t I don’t know like maybe but and then I I still go
Back to like the whole goalie situation and dor and all that stuff that was going on during playoffs like I’m a I’m a where there’s smoke there’s fire kind of person there’s enough going on there that there’s something going on in that organization right now that it just
Doesn’t make any sense I I don’t know if they got better I don’t know if they got worse but but it the moves don’t make a lot of sense to me the petrangelo contract is insane to me that the length of that contract makes no sense for that
Organization well the other thing too that’s kind of interesting and I forget where I heard it because I listened to like five or six podcasts and read a [ __ ] ton of Articles the last couple of days doing you know after the Vegas situation because I I like the team and
Clearly I’m financially invested to that team have money on them I have money on this now I got a little more skin in the game than normal but so where I was kind of you know mentioning that George MC Brad McMan or Kelly McMan sorry um you
Know and then they mentioned how the players feel like they’re you know just churning them out they don’t really care it’s more like a numbers thing Gerard Gant fits kind of that where like they brought him in oh yeah didn’t work out bye and they got Peter dor they got kind
Of where they needed to and then I mean just I mean thinking of it too Peter dor is now kind of attached to this team what happens if next year they take a step backwards so sudden so kind of going back to a theme last week around Pittsburgh and Jim Rutherford are they
Overreacting to a disappointment in these last playoffs You know despite all the situation and the bubble and return to play and everything that went on are they overreacting now to you know hey they were probably the cup favorites Beyond a certain point in the season and then even you know in in the
Return to play Bubble playoffs um and so they didn’t do it and now they’re like oh we have to make all these changes um when maybe they didn’t have to um I think I think the goal tending situation is is different than like defense uh with Schmid and Petra Angelo
Um but did they have to make any of those moves on the back end I don’t think they did I I’ve always liked Nate Schmidt I mean I know Danny does too like um I just I don’t the moves don’t make any sense to me I don’t know what
They’re doing like what’s the plan it doesn’t seem like they’re trying to get better in any like area as a team it’s just like well let’s get this guy and try this now like I also wonder too if there’s there’s an element of we’ve got to get
Done stuff done fast because we this is not it’s not a normal offseason let’s just maybe the business aspect is starting to to Really spill over into uh the personal aspect that some of these players are see like we saw with hornquist like maybe maybe there’s more taking things personally than there
Normally is right now because things are being done in a very different way because everything’s turned upside down like maybe maybe that’s part of it too I mean that doesn’t answer the question of how like what is Vegas doing because it’s not really cohesive to to make
Cohesion so like what are what are they doing that’s the thing like it’s it’s so hard to make sense of it because like they’re like okay petrangelo is a good player like yeah maybe you want to sign them but so many years and so much money
I mean that’s it just uh you know I think his a what is his AV it’s like8 something 85 or 88 88 yeah I mean it’s like that’s a ton of money and then the the deal is uh seven years seven years yep seven I mean no move clause for the
Duration that’s like that’s like saying okay we’re going to build the next like five to seven years of the franchise around this one guy that’s a central player contract right like did they really need to do that after Peter Angelo Peter Angelo basically just said he wanted to move to
A new city and wanted something new like what if he thinks that in a year after moving to Vegas like well the one thing V Vegas has going for them and I saw a lot of this on on the Twitter today was uh apparently around the league like most
Free agents consider them as an option like guys want to go there um and even petrangelo said and you know of course this is after he signs but like when he made his visit there with his family uh to check things out and to meet with you
Know people from the team that’s what really sold them was when they were you know on site in town seeing how it was um you know that he he said that’s really what kind of pushed them over the edge um and he even mentioned that uh their their first priority was staying
In St Louis um so you know maybe there’s something to that that you know guys want to go to Vegas and they’re looking at it as a destination you know for their career um but also I’m not a player so I don’t really know well we are going to be players in
An upcoming uh turn tournament what tournament is that that no I’m talking about the slapshot cup that’s what I want to talk about because that’s coming up in a week and a half are fast approaching close to Halloween always close to Halloween time makes it much more fun more interesting yeah sometimes there’s
You know Halloween parties in town yeah which that’s uh something we’ve wanted to talk about is you got to find the spot yeah you have to find spot that party is going down and the spot is not the same every year always different so like the
First year we went up there we didn’t know like we didn’t know what the deal was we didn’t know you know very few of us had actually been to the town uh so you know we get up there and you know Johnstown has the their nahl team North American Hockey League League
Team Junior Hockey uh the Johnstown tomahawks and they happened to be in town that weekend which was awesome because we got to go to the games on Friday and Saturday night uh so small town Junior Hockey can’t beat it um had a great time at the games so on Saturday
Night after the game uh you know bunch of the guys you know all the teams from the the tournament are basically there um and everybody’s like Hey we’re all going to this place called The Freight station afterwards so uh we’re like Yeah The Freight station they’re like yeah there’s this
Band there uh cheap beer cheap drinks you know loud music they got fire pits outside it’s like really cool so yeah let’s go so we go and it was a country Rave it was a big big Warehouse with this like country cover band a million people all everybody from
The tournament was there uh and then everybody from the town seemingly was there uh just really loud lots of people dancing singing to the songs that they knew uh great time uh so going into the next year um I don’t know of you guys who was there the second year we were all
There there was only one year like Aaron wasn’t there Danny wasn’t there 2018 I wasn’t there yeah so so the second year we’re all there right sry 2017 and we’ve been talking about the country Rave all year 340 days leading up to like every week every week on Sunday night old fat
Ball guys hockey we’re talking about the country Rave right for like hours every Sunday night okay so we get up there and we’re like uh you know after our games Saturday night we’ll you know get cleaned up maybe find something to eat or go you know check out a happy hour bar or
Whatever and then go to Freight station later right what happened when we got to the freight station that year were the only ones there I think we tripled I think we tripled the capacity it was absolutely dead right because that wasn’t the spot that year yeah the cover band wouldn’t even Play
Freebird right we yelled at him for a long time and what song was it we knew the lyrics There was an STP song that was playing yeah it was STP and they a different guy come up and sing it was probably G or something like yeah it uh
I forget which one it was was it a Sex Type Thing maybe it was sex type it it was off core I know that it was off core I just the only thing I know was we were singing the lyrics to them louder than
He was and he like tried to skip a few like whoa and also yeah he didn’t know the words he was the lead singer and he didn’t know the words so so it was dead right dead absolutely dead forget where did we end up that second year I think
We ended up back at Scotts uhuh I don’t think that’s right no we went up the hill we went up the hill an actual Johnstown in weown in that’s right and that place was Jord yeah that place was they were having was full Halloween party everybody was dressed up we weren’t cuz
We didn’t bring costumes cuz we were in a hockey tournament all we brought was gear and like two pairs of underwear and like an extra pair of jeans because you can still smoke in some bars in Pennsylvan like certainly right right you certainly can smoke in the bars so
That was the spot right that year and then the next year it was not the Johnstown in nope no right or the freight station or the frade station because we tried to go back there we’ve tried to go back there a couple times and it even up to last year and it was
Dead I think we went in for one beer last year and walked out yeah last year we didn’t even get to go into the same place it was a different part of that we didn’t get to go out the warehouse part we had to go into like the restaurant
Bar area and it was set up like like where the band was it was like this Lounge it was like real weird vibe it was like fish type stuff yeah they’re playing the wrong kind of music too yeah not our type kind of music that we
Needed it it was like a it was a fish ripoff Tri band or something yeah like it was not the right vibe there was a guy lunging or something in front of them yeah he was doing he was doing callistics was very strange to the tribute I’d rather listen to the guy
Forget where’s the STP yeah yeah where did we end up after that though I forget was this last year should we even go there last year last year last year should last year we ended up at uh we ended up at Lucy’s which for all of you who are not aware of
Johnstown it is a bar you would probably see in a lot of uh you know bigger towns because it is a gay bar and we had probably one of the best nights in said gay bar just because we drank every single Miller Light they’ve ever gotten
You got to tell you have to tell the story though like like when we when we got there we got there it was what was it it was like a was five5 cover right and we had walked you know couple blocks to get there we’ve
Had a few drinks it’s and we had to meet up with several several factions of our part when we get to the door and everybody’s like oh you know I don’t have cash just have card it’s like okay who has cash we’re going in had cash
We’re going in this is the guy remember the guy the guy who actually was like taking the cover he was a Johnstown he worked for the tomahawks like a ticket Usher or something too he had the Johnstown tomahawks jacket on so so this was the Halloween party so so to set it
Up there was like a Zombie Crawl all all day or like all afternoon evening or whatever and it ended up there this is the town like Halloween party for for that year last year so we get there the place is packed uh the DJ is dressed up spitting
Image of Freddy Mercury perfect cospl like perfect incarnate man like that dude at live a keep that in mind microne you’ve seen the original footage or the movie like he looked just like Freddy Mercury at live a so we get in there and the place is packed it’s nuts Freddy Mercury’s dejing
I don’t even know how to describe some of the people but but so you know we are how many of us were there like eight 10 maybe straight with like we again we’ve been we’re at a hockey tournament we have jeans jeans sneakers hoodies qu quarters zip jackets ball hats like
Typical uh you know beer league hockey players out on the town right yeah we’re really dressed to the N we’re we’re definitely dressed for the occasion we’re dressed to the sevens yeah to the sixes and so so we kind of are hanging out and we’re just taking in the scene
And we send somebody to go get beers from one of the they have two bars one in the front one in the back and they go and they bring a bunch of beers back and then somebody goes to the other bar and gets a bunch of of beers and this goes
On for a while and uh eventually somebody goes to one of the bars and says I need another round of like eight beers and the guy goes you can’t have them you drank all the Miller lights so the the 10 straight dudes straight guys drank all of the in the in Lucy’s in
John but uh but as we as we approach oh crack Kracken what going on what you getting into Dan looks like a four loo chameleon chameleon IPA pounder pound I just saw I just saw the green can and I was like is that a for Loco that shit’s banned dog they changed
The recipe oh what is it like less alcohol now I guess caffeine less cocaine less plutonium well isn’t it yeah it’s like manufactured in like a Three Mile Island right isn’t that where the bottling plant is or something Gees can we talk about can we can we talk about Taylor
Hall and buffalo I really yeah let’s get on that bandwagon now let’s do it why Buffalo why why not Buffalo that’s the question I’m going to ask you now it is a good hockey town right I mean yes I think I think he stated that everybody roots for Buffalo right everybody wants
To see them do well I tend to agree yeah I was a fan of uh a fenov back in the day oh that’s going way better I was he had a very good he had a very good hype video I used to watch all the
Time and uh isn’t that why you wear 61 yes it was it was I had to change it too many people wore 61 so I just change it I wore 36 because of Matthew Barnaby he’s my boy so he was a saber penguin for a hot minute too so why Buffalo tell
Me I think kind of what you said where you know everyone around the league does roof for Buffalo I know I like watching the Buffalo games I I want to see that team do well they’re a great sports city I always love seeing the bills Mafia
Stuff I would like to see like I would I would love to see yeah I would love to see a Sabers Mafia at some point even yeah they need they need to transfer that over but I liked Ralph Krueger years ago when he was in Edmonton and I
Always like what he said the message he brought and then he was with Team Europe for the World Cup of Hockey then he worked with Leeds United for a little bit Barkley’s Premier League which is kind of interesting like what a in football exactly or soccer what an
Interesting path path he’s taken back to the NHL but I I like the message he has where it’s like Player Development and he wants to get the most out of every player and he wants to make sure everyone’s maximized and their talent MH if you’re Taylor Hall too like
Everywhere he’s kind of been it’s been on a team where if they’re winning it the city explodes and they love it and it’s great but really like has it really worked out for him anywhere I I like Taylor Hall as a player he seems like a
Really good guy a lot of people around the league have good things to say about him what a better place in Buffalo to like really kind of cement something and then as a one-year deal he’s going to put up a ton of points with Jack eel he
Really is so for him it’s almost like he’s banking on himself if he does help turn that team around I mean even if they improve a little bit maybe get a sniff at the playoffs or even like kind of late season run to it that just improves his value so um the structure
Of the deal is is really interesting and and actually Taylor Hall like commented on it you know it’s one year 8 million right um he actually said that uh he had multiple offers for multi-year deals on the table uh but they weren’t you know the right situation probably not the right money for
Him um and he he was also concerned about like how the League’s going to progress in the next season um through Co and how things turn out uh going into into you know January when they’re they’re supposed to start um which I thought was interesting he actually specifically mentioned that
Players and people around the NHL want buffalo to succeed which I thought was really interesting um and is in line like with what you guys are saying uh I love Buffalo sports fans they’re some of the coolest people like I’ve met personally so there was a group of
Buffalo Sabers and I’m assuming Bill’s fans also of course uh so Sabers fans that uh a buddy and I whenever we would go to uh caps Buffalo games when Buffalo was in town we would always run into this group of people at the green turtle
When it was still open down at um at at that point it was Verizon Center still but now it’s you know Capital One so we would run into them before the game at Green Turtle getting beers and then we would see him after the game of green
Turtle getting beers and stuff and it was the same two dudes and then like a different it was like another group of like four or five people that were there like rotating through uh but the the same two dudes were always there one guy wore uh old
School Pat La Fontaine uh Sabers Jersey so I called him uh fake Pat La fante yeah and I never I I still don’t know what his real name was I have no idea but he was fake Pat LaFontaine and he always introduced the other dude as drunk Dave drunk Dave and they all
Called him drunk Dave and those guys were you want to talk about like bills Mafia and buffalo fans those guys were insane they would they would be standing on tables and bars and green turtle and yeah like they were doing the whole thing right they weren’t jumping on the
Tables and all that stuff but they were like they were crazy and but they were also awesome they’re the best visiting fans that I’ve ever encountered at caps games and we like we loved running into them when we would get tickets to those games we were we were always like we
Hope we run into fake Pat LA fantain and drunk Dave and and because of that like I I love Buffalo sports fans and I hope like you know Hall going up there helps out this year unfortunately it’s only a one season deal when he comes to the end
Of it does he like it there and want to stick around or like you say Johnny is he using it as like a platform to the next deal that he gets from whatever team that he actually wants to go play for I’m really interested kind of
Because it’s a big year for the sabes I mean they don’t really you know they’ve had a few years under the Jack eel era they’ve switched coaches managers the whole scouting department has now been changed up the the entire front office is totally different now as well because Kevin Adams is now the
General manager and I’m really curious to see what happens to that organization because Jack eel is making a lot of money now too what I mean this is almost too like a jack eel thing like you need to elevate your game because now you have a Winger on your side who is of
Elite Talent Taylor Hall is in that group maybe that’s what iel needed though I mean that could be it maybe he never had the right people around him do you think he compared centers when when making the uh the contract think that came into making the decision or for a
Guy who’s like who’s who’s a top tier Talent like that who I’m going to play with has to be like Paramount almost we talk about that in men’s league too right yeah I don’t want to be on that team I’m going to play crap players yeah yeah but Taylor Taylor Hall yeah
Taylor H appar yeah yeah he had he had offers from you know Boston apparently there was rumors that Vegas was potentially in it they had to figure something out with the money and I think the one reason he signed in Buffalo was the money was like he his kind of offer
Situation was cleared no team had to go hey we we got to make some money things work or do this or then even kind of like we’re willing to do longer term but less money so I think this is a good fit because a knows where he’s playing B
He’s getting his money in C you know he can kind of figure out after this year what happens with the NHL landscape and also himself their goal tending situation it’s Carter Hutton I just about to ask yeah I was just about to ask about that is like I think they
Still have issues and and the whole idea that like this one-year deal that Hall has with them is going to somehow like uh be a a a progressive step for them to you know become a playoff team and become a contender eventually like I
I don’t know if that really is it I I think this is just kind of a hey this is a piece that we can bring in uh it’s relatively low risk for both sides he makes a good chunk of change uh for his skill level um they don’t have to commit to multiple
Years um and then at the end of it maybe they decide that it worked out and you know he stays in Buffalo or he could just walk right um or maybe maybe he’s a good um he’s a good chip to have come uh trade time trade deadline right
So once they get to that point he’s going to be most of the way through that that contract so the money’s not going to be an issue um he’s a good rental at that point right the second get moved what about the expansion draft well he’s
A UFA so he can’t go anywhere yet yeah I think I think there’s some protection on both sides uh from that but um from his perspective too though he’s got he’s got a great bridge deal here essentially yeah so he can go into Buffalo and if he
Impresses and buff say he helps that team get to the playoffs like guys are saying if they get get like a shot in the playoffs he’s going to get paid it doesn’t matter who it is he’s going to get paid next year like he’s making 8
Million now if he helps that team out in a big way if he say he’s he’s the team’s MVP and scores the most points with Jack eel I like they’re gonna he’s gonna get paid he’s going to make a lot of money next year and and buffalo still has
About $13 million in cap space there’s a lot of guys still unsigned yeah ton of guys oh are they at the Flor on a goalie they currently have 67.9 which are they at the floor which is the floor it’s like 68 so they’re already set so maybe this deal too was
Just to get there yeah that’s a good point because I’m I’m looking at it now like if you look at like their back end I don’t mind it so you have rist lining Colin Miller Brandon Montour Jake McCay Rasmus Dalene that’s kind of like your top five I
Don’t mind that all those guys are decent um on the front end you got Cody Ean he’ll be okay the other the so we don’t have video but the the other three of us are all making faces why because you’re like oh the D is actually pretty decent uh like who
Really I I heard one guy I heard one guy I mean I know I think they’re okay I think they’re okay I think I think it’s more I think it’s more Goten wise with them I think I think maybe it’s the systems they have in play I do think I
Think their Decor is really young that probably doesn’t help either yeah but still like I is this this is Krueger’s second year okay so yeah you come in the first year usually right doesn’t go well on average remember remember Buffalo was tearing it up the first part of the year
Last year they were yeah they were they were they were playing really well they were shot out of a cannon yeah and kind of they severely fell back to Earth in a big way so I mean I don’t know I I don’t mind that D compared to some teams I you I
Mean it’s not like they have Jack Johnson I’m surprised you didn’t uh go off on Jack eel though I I know me too I was like waiting for it I was waiting for you I kind of want I kind of wanted to set him up well cuz I I set it I said
It our group text and I 100% mean it if if Taylor Hall comes out and has a great year after what he said publicly I hope they I hope they don’t even do a ceremony I hope the trainers just take the crudely cut the SE off Jack igles
Jersey and put it on Taylor Halls like I I’m not a jack eel fan for the stuff he says like I I get it you’re a captain you don’t like losing you’re unhappy with it but we’ve kind of said it for years and I think people in NHL media
Have hinted around it it’s not all management there’s something in that locker room it’s going on passionate John say whatever you want sounds like a little baby I don’t like it there it is there it is there it is all right that’s going to be our show thanks for listening everybody don’t
Forget to uh subscribe rate and review on uh your podcast Outlet follow us on the socials at beers in the lot be sure to tune in next week and catch episode 10 we got something special for you you guys and as always thanks for Listening
This week, the Beers in The Lot crew tell some stories about previous fun at the Slapshot Cup hockey tournament in Johnstown, PA including where “the spot” is each year; the Vegas Golden Knights making moves in free agency; and Taylor Hall signing with the Buffalo Sabres and how their fans deserve some success.
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