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Bruins legends Al Iafrate and Tuukka Rask join!
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00:00We have to interrupt right now because we're joined by Al Iafredi.
00:03Al, good morning.
00:04Good morning.
00:05Thanks for having me.
00:06I brought you up earlier, and Curtis was practically giddy.
00:11Your slap shot saved my childhood.
00:13Loved it.
00:13Nice.
00:14Great to meet you, Al.
00:15Like my wife says, it's the only thing you're good at.
00:18You know what I say?
00:19I'm like, well, at least I'm good at something.
00:21There you go.
00:23What was the fastest you ever got to?
00:26The fastest I ever shot.
00:28Clocked.
00:28Clocked.
00:29106.7.
00:30Holy cow.
00:31Pretty good.
00:32But the record that Chara broke that I had for whatever, a long time, was 105.2.
00:39But before, they used to have a skills contest for every team, and then the top guys, like
00:47in the fastest skater, breakaway goalies for the breakaway, sharp shooting, which Ray would
00:53always win.
00:54You had to qualify.
00:55So they would do a skills contest in each city.
00:59And then the top four guys in each category would go to the all-star game for the skills
01:03contest.
01:04And you would truly see the hardest and fastest shooters and skaters.
01:09But then after a while, they just, the guys that were on the all-star team, they would pick.
01:15So when they first started doing that skills contest, it was, there'd be 70 guys, you know,
01:21maybe 10 of them were true all-stars and won whatever event that they participated in at
01:29their team's skills contest.
01:31And then the top guys would go.
01:33So there'd be guys there that weren't all-stars, but the fastest guys in the league.
01:38So I like that format better because you're truly seeing the best of the best instead
01:42of a coach that thinks that that guy's fast, but he's not.
01:46You know, Wiggy wants to do away with all all-star games and skills competitions.
01:52And he thinks it's a waste of time.
01:55Yeah, it's different.
01:56It seems to be different just watching it as a, as a fan now.
01:59Cause when I first, my first all-star game, it was like a black tie dinner and it was something
02:05that like you were really excited about doing.
02:10And, you know, everyone wanted to win that car.
02:12You know, it was, it wasn't fun being a defenseman because everyone was trying to win the car,
02:18but, uh, or a goalie, but you know, now it just seems like guys, they don't even want
02:23to do it.
02:24Right.
02:24It's every sport.
02:25See, to me, it's more the game and the competitiveness that's gone.
02:29I, I, the only one I do watch, I do watch the skills in hockey cause I enjoy that.
02:34I remember as a kid watching Mike Hunter, who used to be considered the fastest skater.
02:38Pavel Bure.
02:39For the, uh, um, for, for Washington.
02:42And what I would say the difference back when you did it, we were using those wooden two
02:47by four co-hosts, uh, sticks now compared to these sticks that these guys have where
02:51the flex is ridiculous.
02:53What do you think you'd shoot now?
02:54One of these sticks?
02:56Uh, I get asked that a lot.
02:58It would be, I guess my big advantage was I was a big guy.
03:04I played at two 30 and, uh, I was always in, I'd qualify for the fastest skater.
03:09I was always in the fastest skater and hardest shooter.
03:12And all the other guys that were in the fastest skater were probably 190 to two.
03:17Like I was the bigger guy in a fast skating competition.
03:21So look at that as I'm a bigger guy.
03:25That's just equals MC squared.
03:27Right.
03:27So I'm a bigger guy taking a slap shot.
03:30And, uh, my big advantage was I could get a really stiff wood stick to flex a lot.
03:38And my advantage with these new sticks is gone.
03:42Cause now they can, they can design sticks that'll flex a lot for guys that can't flex
03:47it as much, but it doesn't necessarily, I don't think the graphite personally, I'm a
03:54contrarian cause I worked in the stick industry for 15 years.
03:57I don't think that personally that you shoot the puck, especially with a slap shot harder
04:03with a composite stick.
04:04Oh, wow.
04:06Snapshot.
04:06Definitely.
04:07Everyone's snapshot increased, you know, on a bigger percentage, but it's kind of like
04:13a guys that run a four to 40.
04:15It's really hard to get down to a three, eight 40 cause no one's ever done that.
04:19Right.
04:20Right.
04:20So four twos like, yeah, that's, that's like the pinnacle of being fast where once you get
04:26over 105 miles an hour, trying to get a big percentage gain is going to be very tough
04:31to do.
04:32Cause you're at the tip of the spear, right?
04:34You're at the, the highest.
04:36Probably hard for you to say, but I'm going to hold you.
04:40109 is the answer though.
04:41109 is the answer.
04:42109.
04:43Cause Chara's record is 108.
04:45So I wouldn't know.
04:47Five toughest guys you played against.
04:50Oh, geez.
04:50That's a great, great question.
04:54Mario Lemieux.
04:55Wow.
04:56And I look at when I, when you say tough, I look at it as just a guy where you've
05:01got
05:01a gauge when he's going to turn, make his move, how, uh, how hard he is to defend because
05:08of his offensive skill.
05:10So there's guys that are really hard to play against that are skilled.
05:13And then there's guys that are hard to play against like Cam Neely, right?
05:16Yeah.
05:17Yeah.
05:17So Cam Neely, Mario Lemieux, um, Ray Bork, I mean, God bless him.
05:27Claude Lemieux was a really hard guy to play against.
05:29Yeah.
05:30Yeah.
05:30Um, and I look at hockey as when I watch teams play and they're, and they're, uh, they say
05:38this team's great.
05:40That team's great skill.
05:41You know, that's the big thing now in the NHL.
05:43Everyone's like skill, skill, skill, skill.
05:45Skill is great, but you can go back.
05:48Cause I was a skilled player.
05:49I was a big guy that didn't fight a lot.
05:51I would fight, but it's, it's very, very hard to, uh, it's very hard to, you know, figure
06:00out what, what's harder to play against skill or toughness because of, you know, how a guy
06:06is going to punish you or you're going to try to punish him and what, what the repercussions
06:10are going to be, you know, but at the end of the day, you can go back through the history
06:15of hockey and the teams that win the Stanley cup are the teams that are the hardest team
06:20to play against man for man.
06:23And, you know, you've got to have it.
06:25You can go back to the fifties.
06:26The teams that win the cup are the overall toughest teams.
06:30We, uh, we had you, we used to have you on the old show, uh, with LB.
06:35Um, last week we, um, we talked a little bit about LB and, and he, he and his wife donated
06:44his brain to science.
06:45Um, and, um, they came back with a, uh, CTE diagnosis, uh, like level three CTE diagnosis.
06:54Um, and you brought up Claude Lemieux is, should, does the NHL need to do something when it comes
07:01to, to guys and protecting them?
07:04Yeah, that's a, that's a great question.
07:08I don't have an answer for it.
07:10I mean, it's cause it's the repetitiveness.
07:14It isn't like the one time when I got knocked out and broke my cheekbone in a fight, it might
07:19not necessarily be that occurrence.
07:22It's the repetitiveness of it, of it happening more than once, more than once, time after
07:27time, after time, every time you get hit, you know, when your head gets jarred, it's,
07:32it's doing damage and it's, it's kind of the nature of those, that sport.
07:37Right.
07:37So what can you do?
07:39What do you do turning it?
07:40You know, it's, uh, you know, it's the beauty of the sport.
07:45And so to change it, you're going to completely alter the game.
07:50Yeah.
07:51It's like, how can you make it so you don't hit?
07:54I don't think you can.
07:55Yeah.
07:56But I think like, you know, from talking to Chris, uh, how do you say his last name?
08:00Nowitzki.
08:01He said, you know, in football, it's about the unnecessary practice hits.
08:05I know in hockey, you probably got, you guys are probably not banging and hitting each other
08:09as much in practice where in the games, like, you know, you, like you were saying, it's
08:13just part of the beast.
08:15But if you can eliminate some of those hits and practices, which we, which they've done
08:19in football is obviously going to help you.
08:22But I think at the end of the day, it's more of the players knowing, and then that player
08:26making the decision, if this is something that he wants to do, or, you know, as when
08:31he first gets into the league, I've seen a couple of guys in the NFL retire early or
08:34walk away.
08:35So it's, it's really more based on whether or not the player wants to, you know, roll
08:39the dice.
08:39And Al, would you change anything?
08:41Would you have not played knowing that what happened to LB and others that were, are you
08:45concerned that, you know, in hindsight, you may have made a decision or the game has done
08:48so much for you, you're happy that you, you, you took that risk.
08:53Yeah, it's, I don't, I would do it again.
08:56I mean, I'm, it's a, you're chasing a dream, right?
09:00There's a, you know, you're on the road together every, every day, the, the skates, the games,
09:05the training camps, the training in the summer, you know, the, just that way of life, you
09:12know, I, I didn't know what it was like before I made it, but then when I did make it,
09:17you
09:18know, the sense of urgency and everything you do is, you know, maybe it's just me, but I've
09:24done a lot of things and I've been successful after hockey, but nothing, you know, I make,
09:30you know, I day trade stocks.
09:32I make a big hit on a stock.
09:34It's not, it doesn't feel anything like.
09:36It's not the same thing.
09:37No, it's not.
09:38It's because you're competing against another human being and you are both trying to achieve
09:43the same thing and like the rush of.
09:46So you don't make a good trade and then go run and check your neighbor or something?
09:51Hey, Bill.
09:52Cross check over and cross check.
09:54No, no, I'm like a, I think to a lot of coaches dismay, I'm like a, a guy that looks
10:00way more
10:00intimidating than he is and more serious.
10:03You were, you were pretty intimidating when you were here.
10:05I'm pretty laid.
10:06I'm like the dude on the big Lebowski.
10:08I'm just, I abide.
10:11The dude abides.
10:12The dude abides.
10:13The dude abides.
10:14Yeah.
10:14Don't want to give you a hard time.
10:15Greg made a bad bet on the metaverse.
10:17It was great.
10:18It was, did you enjoy your time here?
10:20I loved it.
10:21Unfortunately, I loved being a Boston Bruin, you know, when I was 12 years old, I lived
10:27in, I grew up in Detroit, hockey night in Canada, Borea Salming was like the first European
10:34superstar.
10:35So I wanted to be Borea Salming because we'd always see the CBC games because it was hockey
10:41night in Canada on Wednesday and Saturday nights.
10:44And in Detroit, you'd get channel nine from Windsor.
10:47So I'd watch Borea and I was like, man, I want to be Borea Salming.
10:51And then I got drafted by Toronto and he was my partner.
10:54We were roommates.
10:55It was like a dream come true.
10:57When I was 16, I wanted to be Ray Borea because Ray Borea was the hotshot rookie, you know,
11:04defenseman in the NHL.
11:05And, you know, Ray Borea, it's Ray Borea, right?
11:08And then I got traded to Boston and got to play with Ray Borea and it was like, you know,
11:13am I the luckiest guy in the world or what?
11:15But, you know, and then, you know, to answer your question, it's being at Boston, Bruin,
11:22unfortunately, my body was, when I got here, I was pretty, I was on, I don't know, my sixth
11:28knee surgery.
11:28I hurt my knee quickly after I got traded here and, you know, had to have surgery.
11:35And then things happened with me because you can use a team doctor or you can go outside
11:43and use another doctor.
11:45And I went down to Health South in Birmingham, Alabama, Clancy Andrews, everyone, you know,
11:51the guys who do the arms and knees of all the athletes.
11:54Yeah, Dr. James Andrews.
11:54And, and, uh, Harry didn't like that and, uh, you know, went to arbitration and I, I won
12:02and that was the end of that, but I loved being at Boston, Bruin.
12:07It's like, it's the, it's an unbelievable, what a great sports town and how the, the fans,
12:14the culture of the fans in Boston, I, it's, it was awesome.
12:18Unfortunately, you know, I wasn't the man I once was when I got here as a hockey player
12:23and I, uh, you know, I, I felt like I helped the team and stuff like that.
12:28They traded a great player for me.
12:30They traded Joe Juno, right?
12:31Yes.
12:32For me.
12:33Joey Juno.
12:33Yeah.
12:33Well, you'll listen, you'll be able to redeem yourself out here on the course at Granite
12:38Links today.
12:38That's right.
12:39Yeah.
12:39So, um, how, what's, what's your handicap?
12:42Um, I don't know.
12:44I'm just good.
12:45Okay.
12:47The opposite of Sean.
12:50All right, Al.
12:51Well, it's really nice of you to take some time with us.
12:53It was awesome.
12:54Thanks for having me.
12:55Yeah.
12:55What do you got?
12:56Dip or Zen in the pocket?
12:57I'm a dip guy.
12:58Are you a Zen guy?
12:59Uh, I'm a rogue.
13:01I guess.
13:02Oh.
13:03Yeah.
13:03Yeah.
13:04I'll either one.
13:06It doesn't matter.
13:06It doesn't matter.
13:07Whatever's there.
13:08Whatever's free.
13:09It's for me.
13:09Okay.
13:11All right.
13:12Al, I afraid you.
13:12Thank you very much.
13:13I wanted to, before we leave, we wanted to say hello to our old friend, our old dear friend,
13:19Tuka Rask.
13:20Hello.
13:21Hello.
13:21How are you?
13:22I'm great.
13:23I was driving in.
13:24I was listening to you guys and I was speeding so I could make this broadcast.
13:28How do we sound?
13:29You sound great.
13:30The show sounded good.
13:31Yeah.
13:31You definitely have a face for radio.
13:32It was good.
13:32It was good.
13:33You were, were you upset that Curtis wasn't here for a couple hours?
13:36I know.
13:37Yeah.
13:37He's my best friend, isn't he?
13:39Bergeron was definitely upset.
13:41Well, I mean, it actually wasn't Curtis that was all over you at one point on the show.
13:45I was definitely all over Tuka.
13:47Believe that.
13:47Okay.
13:48I'm on the media side now, so I'm chirping guys too.
13:50Yeah, yeah.
13:51So he understands.
13:51I mean, it's the nature of the beast.
13:54You don't take it personal.
13:55No.
13:55Yeah.
13:55I have high expectations for those guys.
13:57I wanted to see them win Stanley Cups, you know?
13:59So when you, and I think it's interesting that you are on the side and you understand, you
14:04kind of see, you get to talk about it and you start to hold these guys to a higher standard,
14:08you know, from the view of, you know, being an outsider now.
14:13Yeah, that's true.
14:13You kind of, you still look at the game from a lens of a player and you kind of, you
14:18know
14:18what, you know what to expect, how to, how to perform out there.
14:22And then, you know, you don't want to get overboard on criticism, but it's fun.
14:26And I feel like I have a right to do that too.
14:27Of course you do.
14:28Like a sermon shit when I was playing.
14:31Excuse me.
14:32Excuse me.
14:32We're on the people's airwaves.
14:35Sorry.
14:35You dropped the S-bombs.
14:36Sean, did you dump out of the Tuca S-bomb right there?
14:39I did, Greg.
14:39I thought S-bombs are fine.
14:42Yeah, S-bombs, S-bombs.
14:43Goes in the tie-law money jar anyway.
14:46Did they over-exceed this season?
14:49The Bruins?
14:50Not in my books.
14:51Okay.
14:52I think, I think a lot of people didn't expect them to perform that well, but I, you know,
14:58you have pasta, you have Chucky, you have Sway out there.
15:01That's the core group that, that are proven players.
15:05And then I think Sturmy got them playing a real solid hockey and play for each other.
15:09That's what it looked like.
15:10That's half the battle.
15:11You, you have to, you have to look like you're trying and you want to win.
15:14And that's, you know, that's what they did.
15:16They accomplished that.
15:17But obviously I think they, they hold themselves to a higher standard.
15:21They want to be in the final playing for the cup.
15:23Hopefully that's happening in the future.
15:25But, um, they were, they were, uh, you know, a fun team to watch.
15:28That Sunday blowout at home hurt.
15:31It did.
15:32And, you know, I was sitting next to Bergie actually in a suite.
15:34And I, as a former player, I kind of felt like it was my fault again, because I, I barely
15:41sat down and it was four, nothing.
15:42I'm like, should I just leave?
15:45And I'm just like saying, Bergie, like, hopefully they don't put us in a jumbotron.
15:48So wait, you have like, what do they call that?
15:51Uh, moms have that Munchenhausen thing where they, they feel, or there's something where
15:58if your child is sick, you feel sick, is that the way you felt?
16:01You're kind of, yes.
16:02You had like sympathy pain.
16:04Yeah.
16:05Tuuk, you know, it's funny.
16:06We, we talked a lot about it and it'd be cool to get your perspective.
16:10When Swayman went off on the bench, like in that moment and seeing that kind of like
16:15that leadership that we talked about, about when it happened.
16:19Have you ever been in that situation where you don't really hear much from the goalie,
16:22but then it's like, he's cussing, look like he was dog cussing everybody out on the bench.
16:26Have you ever been in that situation before?
16:29Yeah.
16:29And you know what?
16:30I think the game's changed now.
16:31Now there's so much that there's no privacy anywhere.
16:34Even we saw pasta going off in the locker room.
16:36Like that used to happen all the time.
16:37Right.
16:38Like even I did that a couple of times, I think, but there was no cameras in the room.
16:41Right.
16:41Uh, I mean, doing that on the ice, uh, Hey, whatever, do whatever.
16:48I thought it was good because I come from the world of football where that happens all the
16:52time where guys are, you know, you know, hold me accountable.
16:55If I'm not performing well, I think you kind of have to be that guy all the time.
17:00You can't, I don't think you can't like, I mean, Troy Brown, who didn't say anything
17:04when he barked like that, you kind of were like, Whoa, we really must be playing crappy
17:09here because that's coming from somebody who normally doesn't do that.
17:13Yeah.
17:13You know, it's just for me personally, it was always like, I was very cautious of doing
17:18that because like you're under a microscope as a goalie.
17:21So if you do that and then you let in a couple of softies, now you're screwed.
17:26You know, it's like, what is this guy yelling about?
17:29He just let in three goals.
17:31Yeah.
17:31In three minutes.
17:32The guy, he, you know, he, he really doesn't listen to the outside noise.
17:36He kind of says what he feels and that's a good quality to have.
17:39And, you know, he played a heck of a season.
17:41So, uh, good for him doing that.
17:42I think you, you want to hold your teammates accountable and that's, that's what makes a
17:46good team.
17:46All right.
17:47It's great to see you.
17:48Thanks for having me.
17:49Everything.
17:49So, uh, you'll be back doing some stuff for Nesson next, next season.
17:53Probably.
17:54Okay.
17:54I'm asking for a raise.
17:55Oh, you need a cost of living 2% or do you want more?
17:59Probably a 10%.
18:0010% raise.
18:00Those guys are winning Emmys all over the place.
18:03We can negotiate for you.
18:05Yeah.
18:05Yeah.
18:05Start high.
18:06All right.
18:06Hit them.
18:07Hit them straight.
18:08I will.
18:08All right.
18:08Good to see you guys.
18:09See you next time.
18:09That is Tuker Ask.
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