The ’NHL on TNT’ has been a huge success, and the crew can’t be praised enough for how well they’re doing and how fun they’re making their broadcasts.
They’re growing the game with their interesting and hilarious anecdotes, and their interviews before, under, and after games are a breath of fresh air.
Everyone’s favorite in the panel is former NHLer Paul Bissonnette. His podcast Spittin’ Chiclets has been taking the hockey world by storm, and he’s brought that energy with him to TNT, and his constant chirping with active players is a treat to watch.
When the Colorado Avalanche played the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this week, the TNT crew interviewed Avalanche’s Jack Johnson postgame.
At the end of the interview, Biz asked permission to share a hilarious story of when Johnson and his opponent for the day, Sidney Crosby, got kicked off a high school baseball team following a big fight.
Jack Johnson gave his permission, and we’re glad he did because this story is hilarious. Everything happened when Johnson and Crosby went to Shattuck-St Mary’s and were forced to join a summer sport.
”They have a baseball game, and the pitcher from the other team starts brushing Jack Johnson out of the play,” Bissonnette said.
”Well sure enough, Crosby is right behind him in the batters’ box getting warmed up, and Crosby is like, ’Yeez, he’s kind of going at him a little bit here.’ Throws one, brushes him off again, and Jack’s a big guy. He’s competitive. He won’t get off the plate. The next thing you know, one more comes in tight, I think it might have clipped him. Jack Johnson runs right out to the mound then, boom, boom, boom that guy.”
”First baseman comes over—boom boom boom. I don’t think the second baseman wanted a piece of it, so he threw his glove to him.
To be fair, Bissonnette claimed that he might have told the story a little bit differently than what really happened, but what we do know is that Crosby and Johnson were kicked off of the team.
”The best part of it, Sid ends up drop-kicking the catcher when he was coming at him too. Although I might have put a little salt and pepper on that story with Crosby drop-kicking the catcher. But sure enough, both of them got tossed off the team, and that was the end of their baseball careers.”
It worked out pretty well for them both, though. Both Crosby and Johnson have Stanley Cup Rings, and perhaps it was a good thing that they were forced to focus on just hockey.