By @MichaelCaples –

Evan Gizinski is a sophomore business major at Oakland University.

He’s also a viral video star.

Gizinski – perhaps better known ‘E.G. Slayer’ – stars alongside childhood friend Dylan ‘D-Boss’ Larkin in a now-famous YouTube video of two young hockey players shooting pucks in a basement and having fun for the camera.

The popularity of the video certainly isn’t for their acting abilities – had Larkin not become a NHL All-Star at age 19, ‘D-Boss’ and ‘E.G. Slayer’ would hold no significance to the rest of the world.

Yet someone found their hidden gem of a YouTube video, and despite it being deleted in a hurry, the legend of their ‘snip show’ will live on for quite some time.

Larkin is used to things going viral, but the last week has been a new experience for Gizinski.

“Well, I mean, it was pretty crazy,” Gizinski said. “To be completely honest, I kind of forgot about the video. I saw it online, I think it was Saturday night, maybe early Sunday morning, and the first thing I said was, ‘oh crap, I hope Dylan is OK with this.’ We kind of panicked and took it down, but other people got ahold of the video and put it back up, so we ended up putting ours back up, and that’s kind of how that went.”

The original video was shot in the Gizinski family’s basement, a.k.a. ‘The Dungeon.’

“[Dylan] was over one day, and I don’t know what happened, we were just looking at videos online and we saw these kids who were making videos of them shooting pucks and we’re like, ‘what are these kids doing? Why are they doing this?’ So we just jokingly made a video, and it was kind of just for us and our closer friends. We never dreamed that this would of happened.”

And how did they come up with ‘D-Boss’ and ‘E.G. Slayer?’

“Honestly, I think we just kind of made [the nicknames] up on the fly. The video I’m pretty sure was just one take, we didn’t do any takes or anything like that, we just kind of rolled with it, and it turned out pretty well I guess.”

Fans shouldn’t expect a second edition of the ‘hot and spicy snip show’ – they only produced a single video.

“No, you know what, there were talks about it a couple years ago, making a D-Boss and E.G. Slayer Reunited video, but that never happened.”

The nicknames remained in use over the years, however.

“Yeah, jokingly, we both call each other that kind of stuff,” Gizinski said. “On Instagram, there was a time I tagged him in a picture that I took with him when I went to The Joe, and I used the hashtag #DBoss and #EGSlayer, and that’s before anybody knew about it. As it turns out now, it’s a whole nationwide thing.”

Gizinski and Larkin have been friends since they both skated with the Detroit Bordercats roller hockey program when they were 6 years old.

“He’s a good kid,” Gizinski said of his viral video co-star. “He’s been a good kid for a long time. I’ve been friends with him since we were probably 6 years old. We used to play together, and then we grew up playing ice hockey together. I’m good friends with his family and all that. They’re all good people, and good for him on where he’s at.

“We started playing roller hockey together for the Bordercats when we were about 6. We did a couple tournaments, and then he went off and played AAA at a pretty young age, and I played AA for the Mt. Clemens Wolves, and then I think it was maybe Bantam Minor that I started to play for Belle Tire, and we played for about four years together, won a national championship together, pretty exciting stuff.”

A head injury forced Gizinski out of hockey for a few years, but he returned to roller when he was cleared to play. He currently plays professional roller hockey for the Shelby Surge of the National Roller Hockey League.

Different hockey paths led to less time shooting pucks in the basement for Larkin and Gizinski.

“We kind of stopped talking, not completely, but when he was playing for the NTDP and I wasn’t playing as much, we didn’t really talk a whole lot, but we still kept in touch,” Gizinski said. “Now that this whole thing has been going on, I think I’ve talked to him almost every single day. It’s kind of reunited that friendship a little bit, I guess.”

As for the video, Gizinski has been taking things in stride, just like Larkin.

“It’s been pretty exciting,” Gizinski said. “I never expected any of this to happen. My mom’s kind of freaking out a little bit, but at the end of the day, she’s loving it. My dad’s loving it. I don’t really know how to describe it; we just kind of can’t believe it. We don’t know how this happened or why it’s happening, but it is.”

He’s thankful that while the video may be a little embarrassing, there isn’t anything negative within the 3:25 clip.

“I think we’re both thankful that it was a clean video,” Gizinski said. “There was no swearing, nothing inappropriate. Its just good clean fun, and everybody’s loving it.”