[Laughing]
- [Nate] I'll be sliding.
I might be a lefty on this side.
- [Aaron] You might be a lefty.
- [Nate] Man, I might be a lefty on this side.
- [LaVar Ball] Big Baller's back, baby.
- Teach me how to shoot.
[Laughing]
- [Nate] That was loud.
[Growl]
- Oh, what the -
- Oh yeah, that's how quick it is.
- Oh, you're going to be a cowboy, Nate, after this.
- [Nate] I'm learning.
- Houseguest, lets get it.
- [Nate] As you guys can see,
these aren't ice skates,
but they're the closest thing
that I could find.
So I'm pulling up
to my boy Aaron
Ekblad's house, man.
Professional hockey player.
I don't know how you guys do this.
That ain't hockey,
but I look good doing it.
[Knocking on door]
- [Nate] My brother, Aaron.
- [Aaron] What's up, baby?
- [Nate] How you doing, man?
- [Aaron] Come on in.
- [Nate] Thanks for having me, bro.
- [Aaron] This is it, man.
This, uh ...
this is the life, out here, for me.
- This is beautiful, man.
So, man,
[Hand clap]
You was the No.1 pick?
- Yep.
- Defensive guy at that.
So can you please, you know, touch on just, you know,
like how it is being actually a defensive guy
to be drafted No. 1.
I mean, that's -
that's a little different.
- Yeah, you don't get a ton of the glory,
um, being a defenseman.
I mean, it's not a lot of scoring goals and
and, you know, making the big plays.
It's, uh ...
it's more keeping pucks out of your net, so....
Usually the last line of defense,
you're getting blamed a lot more than
you're getting the glory.
But it's all worth it.
- You're a hockey guy.
Did you watch "Mighty Ducks" growing up?
- Oh, absolutely.
- O.K., cool! We're good.
Aye.
We're good.
Just making sure, 'cause, I mean,
I never skated before like that,
but when I was....
how the Mighty Ducks made me feel like
I could skate, and I wanted to be a skater.
- But have you seen "Slap Shot"?
- No.
- No, you haven't seen "Slap Shot"?
Well, oh, O.K., that's a whole different movie.
- I gotta watch that one?
- Its, its - I mean,
"Mighty Ducks" is great, no doubt about it,
but if you wanna -
you wanna really step it up, you gotta watch "Slap Shot."
- I'm a movie guy,
so that's something I've never watched.
I'mma have to watch that.
- That's a family tradition.
- All right, bet I'mma watch that then,
just so I can be a part of that tradition.
- Absolutely.
- Yeah, gotta watch that.
- [Nate] You play?
- [Aaron] Yeah, look. They're right here.
- [Nate] So how often do you come out here and do this?
- [Aaron] A lot, actually.
- A lot?
- Ease your mind?
- I mean I like -
I love to golf.
- So what's the technique in how to putt?
Let me see.
- I mean, wait -
you haven't played before?
- I mean, I play a little bit.
Not like that.
- I mean, its pretty easy.
You just pull the club back and push it through.
- Let me get this going right here.
- It goes heavy left.
It goes hard left.
So you gotta aim right.
I like to, uh, come out here and relax.
- Oh, there it is.
[Celebration grunt]
Tiger who?!
Nate Woods in here.
Y'all crazy?
Y'all saw that.
Nate Woods, baby.
- [Nate] So how often do you come out and just
enjoy this scenery right here?
'Cause I would be here every day.
- We have our coffee in the morning and relax.
- Man, this is nice.
- Try and take our mind away from, uh,
from all the bullshit.
- Ain't nothing wrong with that, man.
Telling you, you doing it.
You're living like a king, brother.
- Thanks, man.
- [Nate] Being from Canada, man,
like talk to me a little bit about home.
You know, homeland.
What is it like?
- It's cold.
And we live just, uh, just across the river from Detroit.
- So were you always able to skate?
Like from out the gate?
Was it like a natural thing?
- I mean, in Canada like
two years old you got skates on.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah, it's just what you do, right?
I was always playing with the older kids and
nobody ever pushed me to do it,
so it made it a lot easier for me
to want to do it myself and be good at it,
and, uh, here we are.
- [Aaron] This is my recovery room.
- You got the whole thing in here.
- [Aaron] Message table.
Sauna with the bike
for when I need to keep the body fat down.
- [Nate] Talk to me a little bit
about the load management, bro.
- [Aaron] Uh, its not a thing in hockey.
You don't really take games off unless
you're seriously injured or
there's something preventing you from playing.
- [Nate] Right.
- Like preventing you from playing.
And, you know, no joke -
my dad used to say you better have two broken legs
if you lay on the ice.
- I'm glad - my dad was like that too.
If it ain't broke get out there and play.
You all right.
You suck it up.
Like, "No dad. Like literally my ACL is just torn."
"Not it's not. You can still run.
You standing, ain't you?"
- Yeah.
- One of those.
- Yeah.
I mean, that's how - pretty much everyone I know in hockey -
that's how it's always been.
- [Nate] Who's your top five?
- [Aaron] I mean, for me it's, uh,
it's defensemen.
I mean, I focus on defensemen a lot, but
I grew up watching Detroit Red Wings, so
Nicklas Lidström's my No. 1.
My agent
is, uh, Bobby Orr -
who is definitely the best defenseman of all time.
Best offensive defenseman of all time for sure.
Drew Doughty's,
you know, a friend of mine,
a guy I play against
on a yearly basis,
and he's a lot of fun to watch.
One of those guys that if I'm
in here working out I wanna be like - and four, five,
you know, I don't even know who to put there.
Probably Steve Yzerman -
you know, like I said, growing up watching Detroit.
And then,
who would be five?
I don't know, have to call it a top four.
- Top four?
- Yeah, top four.
- So now that we talked about your favorite players,
can you please show me how to -
I never hit
a puck before, so....
- We don't call it "hit," we call it "shoot."
- Shoot?
- Shoot the puck. Yeah, gotta shoot it.
- O.K., let me get that right.
Let me go shoot this puck, 'cause I'm used to
I'm used to shooting thangs.
If y'all ain't know I'm used to shooting
shooting thangs.
We gonna shoot this.
We gonna shoot the puck.
Let's go shoot the puck downstairs, guys.
- O.K., so
is there technique?
What's the technique in shooting?
- So, are you a lefty?
- I'm a righty.
- If you're right-handed, it's your bottom hand.
You just ...
shoot.
- Oh, you can pick it up too.
Oh, wow.
- The puck rolls from your heel ...
- Whoa.
- That's easy.
A lot of goal scorers'll tell you -
I'm not a big goal scorer -
but a lot of goal scorers'll tell you
it's all about deception.
So, like we pull
and then shoot.
To change the angle. Or like -
or you push and shoot.
You just change the angle
so that the goalie has a hard time.
I mean, that's kinda
where you're shooting for the most part.
[Laughing]
- That was loud.
So since you're a defensive guy,
how do you stop
a person from scoring?
That's my question.
So if I'm skating
and I'm doing my moves,
what are you as a defensive guy - what are you aiming for?
- I'll put my stick right in here.
- That's where you want your stick?
- You can't bring your stick to the other side.
- Right.
- If you're trying to go that way,
I'll put my stick
right up in here
so you got no chance of kinda going anywhere.
There's a lot of little things you can do
and then you start pulling.
- Aw, sneaky.
Oh, that's how you make 'em whoop?
- Oh, yeah.
- O.K., cool.
Let me see if I can get this.
- There you go, that's right.
- That's - hey, for a....
- Y'all better stop playing with me.
First-time shooter, baby!
- Yeah. That's pretty unbelievable.
- Shooter.
Aw.
I need to hit one of these, uh -
how do I pick it up?
- Put the puck -
put your stick there.
Put the puck right here.
Start it there
and then let it fall to that side of the stick.
[Smacking sound]
- Oh, okay, yeah.
- Go more straight. Don't push out like this.
Don't push that way.
Push this way ,like kind of on that angle.
You'll lift it.
- Ohhhh.
- There you go.
I can be a coach.
- Hey, I wanna hit that -
I wanna hit the top.
[Loud smack]
Ahhh.
[Laughing]
- That's pretty good, man.
Most people can't do that.
[Loud scream]
- Right in the hole, baby.
- Let's go, man.
Y'all better stop playing with me.
Man of many talents.
C'mon, man.
- Can you take me back to your first goal
of your NHL career like and how that made you feel?
- It's crazy, man.
I mean, it's not like, uh,
not like the NBA where, you know, you're -
well, I'm sure your first bucket's pretty unbelievable too.
- Yeah, well, my first shot - I air balled my first shot.
- Did you?
- Yeah, I remember clearly.
I shot my first shot and air balled
I was like, "Oh, close the window.
Close the door."
In college it wasn't like this.
Yeah, but next shot, a shot made.
A little floater.
A jumper.
Something, I can't remember.
- Yeah, your first goal -
your first goal as a defenseman - is pretty special.
Especially because, you know, defensemen
don't score a ton of goals.
So my first goal was against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Steve Mason was in net,
and it was a pass from
my defense partner, Brian Campbell.
It was just a slap shot from the point
that went, uh, low glove.
- So who's the toughest player to guard on the ice?
- Uh, well, there's a few guys
that you definitely don't want to get front of their shot.
Shea Weber and Ovechkin.
I mean, they're both right handers so on the -
my penalty kill, their power play -
they're basically taking their hardest shot
right at me.
- You ever had one that was so fast
you just - "Hey, Coach, I'm sorry I just couldn't."
- Oh, I don't block the most amount of shots.
I mean,
when it comes down to it and its a,
you know, one-goal game with two minutes left,
I'm gonna block the shot.
But, you know, you're not blocking in preseason
or anything like that.
[Laughing]
- Not in preseason.
You gotta save it for the regular season and postseason.
- Absolutely.
- Facts.
- But no, if it's Sidney Crosby,
we play zone or man-on-man.
I mean, there's obviously different variations of it,
but in the past we've played man-on-man,
and when you're playing man-on-man against Sidney Crosby,
it's game over.
You know, he's so strong,
and he gets so low,
kind of underneath your knees, like where
you know you can't stop his fastest.
Like you're playing kind of a reaction game,
to like where he's going, and
he's such a good passer.
He sees lanes that you can't see, and
you know, trying to guard him is almost impossible.
- Man, I want to thank you, bro, for having us.
I appreciate you.
Y'all know what it is.
We signing out.
Peace and love.
- "Slap Shot." You gotta watch it for sure.
These guys, the whole movie
they just beat the shit out of everybody.
- Are they triplets?
- Yeah.
You'll actually love it I think.
- We gonna have to get you a "Uncle Drew"
movie thing to put you in, man.