Transcript: Player's Own Voice podcast with Nat Spooner

Canadian hockey forward looks ahead to Beijing games

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Caption: (Theresa Warburton)

Natalie Spooner on Player's Own Voice transcript
Anastasia:
Is there a person on this planet who isn't fed up with pandemic talk? At least we've got an unusual angle today. Canadian forward Natalie Spooner is convinced that the isolation of COVID has actually given new strength to the national hockey team. The way she sees it, nobody wanted time alone, but when it happened, she and her teammates all got to work on individual skills, on ice and off, like never before. When the Beijing roster comes together…each separate member is stronger than ever.
If that sounds like she's saying "there is an 'I' in team", so be it.
One way or another everyone agrees, Spooner's who you want in your corner, now that Team Canada is taking on the world in Beijing.
It's Player's own Voice.
I'm Anastasia Bucsis
[Music]
Your folks are originally from England. So I'm going to assume they still call hockey 'ice hockey?'
Natalie Spooner: I feel like they've been around the game now for a while... I think they call it hockey. Yeah.
Anastasia: Now when they call it ice hockey, you're going to be like, Aha! You'll catch them.
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, for sure. I didn't notice before.
Anastasia: How do you get into hockey? I mean, again, immigrant parents from England. You started when girls weren't always known to play hockey. Tell me that story.
Natalie Spooner: Well, obviously I don't remember the moving because I was not born at the time, but they moved like 45 years ago now. So they got married and my dad decided they he was going to take a job, I think it was in Thunder Bay they moved to first, actually.
Anastasia: T-dot!
Natalie Spooner Yeah! they said there wasn't much around there at that time, but then they eventually made their way to Scarborough. My dad worked at the power plant in Pickering and my dad was a rugby player in England. So when he came over to Canada, he said, I'm not putting my kids in any physical sports where they're going to hurt themselves because my dad had like dislocated jaws and shoulders and the whole mix of rugby players, whatever they have.
So my oldest brother got into soccer because it seemed like most people in the summer played soccer here. And then all the kids that he played with, though played hockey in the winter. So my brother was like, well, I want to keep playing with, you know, my friends. So they didn't even know what hockey was or what equipment to get. They literally went to the store and bought the equipment off the mannequin and like, forgot about the long johns. They didn't know he had to wear a jock because it was not shown on the mannequin. TheI didn't even know you needed socks over your shin pads. So my brother probably looked like a mess at the first practise, but they eventually figured it out. And then by the time I came along, I just kind of followed my brothers and wanted to be like them, so I played soccer and hockey.
Anastasia: How were your soccer skills?
Natalie Spooner: Well, I tried out for Team Ontario.
Anastasia: oh! You were good!
Natalie Spooner: Well I never made it up. But I played the I like high level soccer. Rep soccer.
Anastasia: What position?
Natalie Spooner: I played striker.
Anastasia: wow. goal scorer.
Natalie Spooner: you know, I tried! I tried my best.
Anastasia: What did you learn in soccer that you've put towards your hockey game?
Natalie Spooner: Oh, warm ups. Warm ups, for sure. Because we play like keep ups or Shouldies or Sewer Ball.
Anastasia: I've heard that about hockey. Players are actually better at juggling than actual soccer players.
Natalie Spooner: I wouldn't say, like, maybe not better, but we get quite a bit of practise in.
Anastasia: How is it growing up with three older brothers? What did that do to your hockey game?
Natalie Spooner: I think it helped. We'd always have a backyard rink that my dad would make in the winter. So we were always out there battling. My mom always jokes because I always hurt them way more than they hurt me. I would stick them in the face and give them a broken nose or a black eye or something by accident. Totally by accident. But yeah, no, it was always good getting to like, compete against them, and we were always super competitive. Like my oldest brother is 12 years older than me. And so when I was seven, he went away to play at Wisconsin. So that was huge for me just to like, see him go, on a scholarship to the states and get to,kind of have that similar dream that that he got to go pursue for sure.
Anastasia: You're a pretty physical player, though. Like does that stem from your upbringing or do coaches just say like: "Hey, Spoons like, you're big, you're powerful. Let's go!"
Natalie Spooner: Probably more than the coaches!. I think I've always gotten away with like probably like be able to skate around people more so like with my speed in the past. But yeah, now, just learning to use my body more and obviously our team. Like if you watch World Championships, like we love to be physical and play a physical game. So I think I can use that to my advantage and kind of really embrace that power forward role where I'm like driving pucks to the net and getting in the paint, getting in front of the goalie. So my size has definitely come in handy for my game now.
Anastasia: Do you enjoy it? Do you enjoy like a little bit more of a physical game?
Natalie Spooner: For sure. I think I enjoy it because like I'm bigger than most people. So it's it's nice. Like, I get it kind of feels good when you can just push people around for sure.
Anastasia: Gee, see, I would be scared.
Natalie Spooner: You know, sometimes it is kind of scary that like, Oh, what if I hurt someone? That does go through the back of my head sometimes.
Anastasia: So I asked this of Erin Ambrose. Obviously everyone on the ice is competitive and they are competitors. But if someone has a cheap shot or you get someone in the corner and you know that, that must have hurt. Do you apologize?
Natalie Spooner: Hmm. I've had people apologize to me, actually. I don't know. I don't know if I do, but my dad, I remember my dad told this story when I was growing up and I was probably 12 or 13. And l wouldn't say I was a physical player, but like, I would just skate and he's like: "That girl's like taking advantage. You just rub her out on the boards, if you get a chance". I guess I hit this girl so hard. It was where the Zamboni door was, and that made like the loudest noise, and I got kicked out and I was like, "I'm hurting people Dad!" So I was kind of afraid to, hurt people. So I still kind of think it's in the back of my head. Still that, if I really hit someone like I could probably hurt them. So it's kind of like finding like a good balance of rubbing them out, holding them up, Separating them from the puck and taking the puck…
Anastasia: Who hits the hardest on Team USA? .
Natalie Spooner: Oh Probably, Bozak. She's strong. Yeah, she got me off the face off with a good slash, and I was like, hoooo! She did apologize, though, she did apologise,.
Anastasia: I hope so! She's your friend! This will be your third Olympics. How have you changed? I mean, that's wild. Sochi Pyeongchang Beijing 2022.
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, I mean, it's crazy to think like all the Olympics are so different and Sochi being my first one, like you just go in bright eyed, bushy tailed getting to play on a line with Hayley Wickenheiser. I was like, What am I even doing here? But just taking it all in and kind of, I think like that innocence in a sense, can really help you. Just having no expectations and then Pyeongchang, you know, then having those expectations. But also the journey to Pyeongchang for our team was like, so smooth. We didn't really overcome much adversity, but obviously going to a shootout and losing is not one you want.
So I think since then, we've really been able to kind of redefine our team and, you know, be closer than we ever have. So I think it's an exciting time for our team, especially after World Championships. Just looking forward to this Olympics, and I think one of the main thing our team does is we have fun and I think that this Olympics is going to be fun, like even if fans can't be, family can't be there. Whatever happens, I think we have such a tight knit, strong group that like we'll have a blast no matter what.
Anastasia: It's funny that you say we had very little adversity before Pyeongchang, because I think women's hockey has had the most adversity out of any sport in the history of sport in the last four years! So how has that helped you then? How has the adversity of not having, you know, a professional league to play in? The pandemic of course your team sport, you haven't been able to be with teammates. How has that helped you?
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, I actually think it's helped our team a lot for us to kind of be able to step back in and take that maybe, not time away from the team because we still have been in our small hubs, but to be able to focus on all the individual things we each needed to improve on to still connect, whether it was over Zoom or, you know, other ways we still been able to to stay close and, you know, feel like we were still connected. But I think just being able to really step back as individuals and focus on whether it was like off ice training something we need to work on or on ice skills. And I think it really showed when, you know, we obviously hadn't played that many games coming into worlds, but those all those little things, they just added up, into a team that I think was faster than we've ever been. You know, we played our systems great. We were able to execute.
So yeah, I think the time off actually probably did help us just kind of have that time to reflect that you don't normally get because you're like one thing to the next, the next, the next, and there's not really any downtime.
Anastasia: And it looks like you're having fun, too. You know, usually you can tell when a team is having fun, and that's what it looked like for Team Canada at Worlds.
Natalie Spooner: It was nuts just to be able to play again. I think we were just so pumped up. And then once you get rolling in the tournaments and getting scoring some goals and celebrating the little things it's, it's so much fun.
Anastasia: You are very vocal. You're charismatic, you're fun. You laugh. You're all these good things. Knowing you debuted in Sochi with people like Caroline Oullette and Wick(enheiser) and you know, Jayna Hefford, Jillian Apps, the list goes on and on and on. How was your extroversion changed throughout your career at this level?
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, I mean, I think obviously when you come in as a rookie, you're kind of a little bit nervous to be yourself. You've been in. I mean, those were the girls that I looked up to and I wanted to be like when I was younger. So I think I was definitely a little bit. I mean, they may still say I was loud, but you're probably quieter back then.
Yeah. But I think now like just being comfortable in my own skin and knowing who I am. And I think for me as a leader, it's really helped me take those younger kids under my belt and help them be who they want to be, whatever that is, on the team. And I think that they feel comfortable around me because I'm an open book and I'll chat with them, and I think it's helped my leadership skills in that way that, you know, I can connect to those younger kids and just kind of make sure that they're feeling comfortable and confident and to play the game that they can because I think that that only helps our team like if you see, you know, young players like Sarah Fillier, Emma Maltais who were out there at worlds, you know, doing so well. And I try to think back to my first worlds and I think I was a bag of nerves, but they were so great. So I think if you can make, you know, those young players feel confident and and feel like they belong right away, I think it's huge for the team.
Anastasia: All those kids are Gen Z, hey?You are such an extrovert, and I think to a Marie-Phillipe Poulin who is quite introverted, but she's a captain, like, how do you balance that?
Natalie Spooner: I think if anyone saw Mary, like, you could just see her leadership skills right away, like she gets on the ice, you want to follow her and you want to be like her, right? So I think there's… I look at our team now and there's so many amazing leaders and I think that's the beauty of this team is that on any given day, there could be anyone that would speak up, anyone that, you know, maybe has to take the reins on the ice. And whether it's, you know, a Blayre Turnbull making a hit, whether it's Mary scoring a big goal, Jocelyn Laroque making a big stop on the point….There's so many different components to leadership on this team and it's…On any given day, It could be anyone that steps up. And it's just such a great dynamic that it doesn't matter whether you're wearing a letter or not, there's amazing leaders on our team.
Anastasia: I like how (just for our listeners) when she says Mary, she's saying that like she's not mispronouncing her name. That's Pou's nickname. Aside from pou, yeah
Natalie Spooner: Yeah,.the more mature Mary. She's graduated.
Anastasia: How have you balance, your off ice leadership, I mean, right now women's hockey is in such a transition, you have been vocal about needing a professional league, of course. How have you found your voice in that?
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, I mean, I always think having a voice is kind of weird. It's like when you when you're young, you never think, Oh, I'm going to have this voice to be able to make change in the world. You always think, Oh, I'd love to leave an impact on the world, but I think it's really cool when you do have these opportunities and we have a voice. And right now it's such a critical time for women's hockey like we're at. Really a crossroads where it could take off into something that we hope this is what we're, you know, that is going to be something that's around for years and years and years and that we've been fighting for.
So anything that I can lend my voice to to help women's hockey, I know the players that came before me and all the work that they did. I watched them in awe and all that. So hopefully, you know, I can just leave the game in a better place than where I entered it. And, you know, get that professionally going so that all those little girls can play in it when they're older, because I think we just have to be really grateful that we do have this platform and that we do have this voice and we're able to share and to work towards that goal of getting that league.
Anastasia: How much pressure do you feel being one of those voices, though?
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, I guess it's kind of a lot of pressure like I try not to. Put too much pressure, I guess, on myself, but I think that what makes it feel less pressure is that there's so many girls in it together. You know, it's not just me, it's, you know, all the Canada players, all the U.S. players, we're all fighting for this. So to know, you know, you look around and you see 60, 70, 80 other girls that all you know are pushing in your direction and wanting the same things.
I think it really just takes the pressure off and know that you have unity in these women and you have such a stronger voice when when we're all united.
Anastasia: That's one thing I respect about you so much is that you have always used your voice and I don't even know if you remember this, but after you lost in Pyeongchang. You had to do a few interviews with CBC, and I had to coordinate them. Remember,or was that all just a blur?
Natalie Spooner: It's probably a blur.
Anastasia: And you stood there in the freezing cold in Pyeongchang and it was obvious that you had just been bawling your eyes out. But you, you faced the music. What was that experience like?
Natalie Spooner: Obviously, not a good one. I think, you know, when you train that hard, you want to bring back gold for your country. And we had had so much success in the past. I would have been in our fifth straight gold medal. So I think it's definitely a hard pill to swallow, especially when you come so close to a shootout and knowing that I shot in that, and I had had so much success with my shoot outs, you know, in the season and then not doing that for my team, it was really hard.
At the same time, I realised that, you know, we do have to keep sharing about our sport and to do those interviews, so I would have stood there if I could shed a little bit of light into just how awesome our country is and our team is and how awesome it is to play for Team Canada. You know, there's so many little girls out there that, who knows, maybe they watched that interview, maybe they got to meet someone else on the team. And say like: Wow, I want to play for Team Canada.
And I probably didn't realise, and it wasn't put into perspective until I came back home and I got to meet a little girl she was five or six years really young, but was with her mom and I said: Oh, do you want to see my medals?, So I was showing her them,and she took the silver one and she's like, Mom, I want to win one of these, and I looked her like: Girl!! You don't want to win that one. That's not the good one! But to her, it was still something so amazing that was like such a great accomplishment. And I think sometimes you don't think in the moment we don't think about that because it's like you just lost the Gold Medal. And, you know, obviously, gold is always, you know, the dream and what I push for. But in that moment, it kind of did put it in perspective. Wow, we're so lucky to be playing this sport and to be able to win a medal period.
Anastasia: Did Pyeongchang reframe your understanding of your leadership role in any capacity?
Natalie Spooner: I think after Pyongyang, I think I definitely sat back and reflected because I think Pyongyang was a. tougher journey for me personally and finding where I fit in and what my role was on the team. You know, I went from playing with Hailey Wickenheiser, Megan Agusta and scoring all these goals to kind of finding that third or fourth line and figuring out what, what am I bringing to the team here? You know, and now I've kind of found that, I'm playing whatever role it is, but and I'm going to be a great net front presence. If I'm on the power play, I'm going to be tipping pucks in, bringing that big body. So I think it was just kind of figuring out what my role was and being comfortable with that and being OK with playing whatever role. I think after Pyeongchang, I really was able to kind of embrace that and embrace that challenge of being that power forward that they needed me to be.
Anastasia: What role are you going to play in Beijing?
Natalie Spooner: Oh, boy. I mean, I'll play whatever the coaches want, but I hope it's a similar role to worlds where I mean, I got to play with Melody Daoust and Sarah Fillier, and I thought we did a great job at creating a lot of offence and scoring some big goals for our team. So I think if we could just keep up that consistency and I have, you know, most of my goals I had a lot of success was from being a big body in front of the net and screening the goalie, getting some tips on pucks. So hopefully I can keep doing that because I think it's been bringing the team a lot of success.
Anastasia: You know, I got to call you out because you just said 'tips on pucks' and I'm like, No Spooner, 'no pucks in deep' . But wth the younger, younger players, you really have brought so many people up going into Beijing. What are your hopes and dreams with them?
Natalie Spooner: Oh, I hope they just are breakout stars. I mean, I even look, you know, like Sarah Fillier, who I get to play with, I got to train with her like all summer, pretty much all year because she didn't go back to Princeton. So just seeing how much more comfortable she's got being around us and being around the team and the amount of fun that she too brings, you can just tell when she's having fun, she's playing well. And I love to have fun playing too. So I think that we just make kind of a great trio, me, her and Melo and we have we had… I think anyone who watched worlds saw the huge smiles on our faces.
So I think I just really embrace her in a sense. And just obviously she, you know, she is a big time player and loves to play in those big moments. But she also hasn't had so much experience. So she's just seeing it all with fresh eyes. And for me, it's so refreshing. And then if I can just help her feel comfortable and to play her game and make sure that she goes out there and knows that we trust whatever, you know she's going to do, as a centre man, I think it's only going to help her.
Anastasia: We are fifteen minutes away from the Olympics. What keeps you up at night?
Natalie Spooner: Oh, boy.… Leg pain?
Anastasia: Restless leg syndrome? I've got that too, girl.
Natalie Spooner: Tough workouts?
Anastasia:. No…do you know, like, are there certain teams? Of course. I guess low hanging fruit would be USA, Finland. But you know, the closer you get to an Olympics, the more you're like, whoooo, this is a stressful situation.
Natalie Spooner: I think the best thing about this team is that we're really in our focus. We really focus on our team and what we need to be doing, which I think is great. So it's not other teams that are keeping me up. Maybe COVID, just thinking of families, aren't going be able to come to the Olympics or what all that's going to look like. But at the same time, we thrived through World Championships and having no family there, almost. So I really feel like this team can, like face anything that comes at us. So I don't think there's…. I havebeen sleeping pretty good, I have been pretty worn out from workouts and skates, so this is working out prtty good, luckily.
Anastasia: And you play your best when you have your family around you?
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, I love seeing them in the stands. They are the first ones I look for every time I come out for warm ups and just give them a little wave and then I can, you know, refocus on the ice. So I mean, it was tough not having them at World Championships, but I think it really actually brought our team…our team was our family then. And that's who we relied on and who you chatted to. So, you know, I think either way, we will be good.
Anastasia: So your your husband, Adam, of course. Total beauty. He's out east. You're out. West, centralising in Calgary. Yeah, how does that work? Is it just like lots of face time or?
Natalie Spooner: yeah, he was able to come out for Thanksgiving. Our wedding was July 7th and we moved out here July 23rd for World Championships. So it was like two weeks later I was gone. So but he's been super supportive and just, I mean, he's so supportive of my dreams, and I'm just so thankful for that. And you know, he's a hockey coach and he gets it and….
Anastasia: Does he try and coach you?
Natalie Spooner: Not too much. He'll give his two cents, like every so often. But yeah, yeah. If I ask him to pull some clips or something of me, he will give me a few tips. But most of the time he's pretty supportive.
Anastasia: He doesn't give you the same advice as your dad, did? Like, just rub her against the boards?
Natalie Spooner: Not quite. I mean, yeah, sometimes I'll say, like, you can just body through people. But. No, I mean. No, he's pretty good at specific advice he would give, on specific plays,
Anastasia: I'm feel like I'm picking on Ambrose simply because she was just on, but she was really candid about the rivalry with Finland and so often the media really just goes Canada, USA, Canada, USA. But it's it's almost refreshing, like they've really come up super fast. Super talented. How about you? I mean, where is that rivalry sitting with you right now?
Natalie Spooner: I mean, it's there. I went to university with one of the girls on that team, so we always have good chats. But I think it's a testament to women's hockey and just how fast it is growing and not only growing in Canada, and the U.S., but in Finland and even those other countries coming up like we have to bring our A-game every game or else teams can beat us.
And I mean, we saw that two World Championships ago. So I think, you know, with Finland, they're so talented, they're so skilled. They love to play the gritty game and it can be frustrating. Sometimes I'm like, I'm not a player that really gets frustrated and normally, I'm pretty even keeled. But you know, you can sense they're sticking around for a while. It can be…. It can get frustrating for sure.
Anastasia: Why is it frustrating?
Natalie Spooner: They just like to clog up the middle and not really try to give you too much. And they have normally really good goaltending. So just if you keep getting chances and they're not going in for you, and when you let them hang around, that's when they'll take advantage of like one opportunity and try to win, right? So yeah they can be a frustrating team hard team play against.
Anastasia: So, so when you're up against Finland, what leadership style do you?
Natalie Spooner: I always think back to like 2014 Olympics, we were down two nothing against the U.S. I was nervous for my head to my toes like maybe almost about to be sick. I remember looking back and Jillian Apps looked so cool, calm and collected, and I was like, How is she not freaking out?
That's how I thought about in this worlds. We may be down, but Jillian Apps wasn't worried one bit. With this team, especially,we know what we can do. And we've, you know, had those times when we've been down and come back. And I think that that has really proven to ourselves that if we stick to our, the way that we can play into our game plan, we can come back and win any game. So I think that that's kind of my, I guess, my style on the bench.
Obviously, it's energy, but it's bringing that energy non-stop, like realising that there's no need to, you know, freak out if we get down one goal or, you know, feel any kind of panic. Just stick to the game plan and keep doing what we're doing because we're good enough. And you know, we can score four goals in a period, whatever we need to do, right?
Anastasia: When Jenner scored that first goal in 2014, the final, I haven't admitted this too many times, but I I knew Canada was going to win that game. Just the momentum totally shifted.
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, it is crazy how you can feel momentum shifts. And I would say that's one thing with our team now is there's not so much energy shifts up and down. We're pretty even keeled, which is which is a nice feeling.
Anastasia: And how did you get there, though?
Natalie Spooner: Took a while
Anastasia: did it take a loss of the Olympics to retool that?
Natalie Spooner: Probably for sure. And just even over the World Championships, figure out like how do we react when we go down? How do we react in big games? And you know, we always talked about before like, you know, a threat versus a challenge and thinking of things more as a challenge than of a threat. I don't even know if it's that or just really having the trust in each other and the belief and knowing that, you know, whatever it is, it's thrown at us. We're going to conquer it and be OK because we've conquered lots of other things by this point.
Anastasia: So many teams say that, though, the trust in each other, but there does seem to be something really special with this team centralized in Calgary, you know, training and prepping for Beijing. What is so special about Team Canada right now?
Natalie Spooner: I think it's the openness. The friendships that we've created. I don't know if it had to do with COVID and not being able to see each other. But like, I just think this group is so close and maybe not having our families at worlds and becoming each other's family that we needed, whether it was, you know, a shoulder to cry on, a shoulder to laugh on whatever it was?
Being there for each other. I think this is probably one of the most open teams I've ever been on and one of the closest teams I've ever been on. And it really does feel like a family. And I think that that is what makes our team really special. It doesn't matter who's going on the ice, it doesn't matter who's going to get the big goals. It matters that at the end of the day, we're standing on that blue line together with that medal together, and we're singing the national anthem and we're all happy for each other.
Anastasia: I'm pumped to watch you.
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, me too. Now I'm all pumped up, is it the Olympics yet?
Anastasia: What Natalie Spooner will we see in Beijing 2022?
Natalie Spooner: I think the same one you've always seen. I mean, I'm just me and I think it's my, you know, my personality, maybe my positivity, my energy, whatever it is, that I bring to this team. And I think that that's the same thing I need to bring. I mean, we always say, I think it'd be boring if there was twenty three Natalie Spooners on a team. But if there's one, if I can bring something special to the team, it's going to make, you know, a lot better of a team. So just be myself and play the best hockey, hopefully I've ever played.
Anastasia: You guys are like the Spice Girls this time around. All just personalities, hey?
Natalie Spooner: Lots of different ones. But it makes us great.
Anastasia: Yeah, there's space for everyone. I do find like certain teams try and emulate a certain mold, and it seems like there is space right now for some creativity on Team Canada.
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, I mean, I think back to when I was younger too, and you come into a team and you want to fit in, so you just try to be like everyone else. Maybe it's the way the world is changing or just the way our team has been able to be so open. But everyone can be themselves and bring their unique personality. And I can say there's some other pretty loud voices and personalities in our team this time, which is so fun to have and we have so much fun and great laughs. But yeah, I think it would be boring if you had 23 of the same players.
Anastasia: What's your pump up song right now in the in the locker room, just to give people a little, pull the curtain back…
Natalie Spooner:. You know what? I'm not the deejay, but I normally go with whatever. But sometimes if I'm, I've listened to the same song on my phone, before most big games and it's unstoppable. By Kat DeLuna. Yeah, like an oldie, really old. Like, I don't even know if you can find that song anywhere, but that's the one I would listen to most of the time, but I mean, I listen to, like all top 40 pop too now so… and country.
Anastasia: I like country.
Natalie Spooner: Yeah, I like a mixture of everything.
Anastasia: 90S country for me. That's the golden age.
Natalie Spooner: That's like Adam's kind of music.
Anastasia: Adam's a beauty. But I already said that.
Natalie Spooner: I said that I like anything I can sing and dance to. I'm good with that.
Anastasia: Thank you so much for your time. Uh, seriously, it's always so nice to see your face, especially in Calgary, my hometown. It's like the good old days. I know
Natalie Spooner: it's crazy. Like we're just going in Calgary, back out East Toronto, Calgary, Toronto, Calgary.
Anastasia: I'll see you in Beijing, my friend. Yeah. Peace.
There you go, a trip to Calgary, and a check- in with Spooner, in one swell foop.
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