Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Boomer Absolutely LOSES IT — Maloney’s Comments Expose Flames MESS 🔥 | BB Clips

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Boomer, Rhett and Pinder react to Don Maloney’s intermission comments from last night, and Boomer absolutely GOES OFF, voicing the same frustration so many Flames fans are feeling about the direction of the franchise. With the team sitting in last place and upper management offering no clear plan, the guys question whether ownership is delusional and what future—if any—this organization is actually building toward.VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/FJqKsXQzYno#nhl #nhlshorts #nhlplayoffs #nhlpredictions #nhlhockey #nhlpicks #stanleycup #stanleycupfinal #calgaryflames CHECK OUT OUR STUFF ⬇️BARN BURNER MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

don't take what people say in the media to be the gospel. They're coming out, they know they're going on TV or radio or whatever, and they're speaking to the fans, they're going to say some stuff, whether they actually think it or not. So you just always, I think, a little bit of grain of salt you got to take when you hear some stuff. But I feel like some, we've seen Flames Management over the years. They're kind of batting over a lot of times. When you, because I remember John Bean and Don Maloney were on camera.

Press conference after Tree left, yeah. And they should have just, they just should have take the day, boys, because that they did more damage than good. And I feel like for Don Maloney, whenever he's on camera, they should just turn the fucking camera off. Because it's just. The mics too. Sportsnet, I, hey, sport, ever, because everybody's talk about it. That's, it's great for parks. It's great for sports net.

But man, if I'm a flames fan, I'm having a hard time taking the, it's just don't, don't take everything you hear as gospel kind of thing that I throw out. Because this whole, we don't want, we're not going to re-biggle. We don't use the R word. We're a good team. You know, last year, we, yeah, hey, yeah. Dean, did you say rebeggle? You missed the playoffs.

last year. This, this, this season from a year ago, the way you played your team from a year ago, you fucking miss the playoffs. So while you've got them on a mantle, let's just start there. And I don't, honest, I don't want to be, I was so aggravated for fans. Like, I don't give a shit, but I felt aggravated for fans who buy the tickets and go to the dome and because we talk to them all the time. Yeah. We were just in Nashville with diehards. They had pictures in their phone. Look, this is me and Commodore from the 04. They love this team. And I feel like when I hear the people that are running things talk, there's no fucking hope. Because they're geniuses. They've been around the game their entire lives. Don Maloney has been a GM forever. He played in

the National Hockey League. Murray Edwards is a billionaire. They have minds galore in there. But as I sit here today. If I'm a Flames fan, I'm, I have no confidence. Conneedinfinance is waning? I have no, I have conifidence. I'm not sure what my conifidence level is that he's got the freedom to do what he wants to do. That would be my concern overall with the whole take. I don't give a shit what Don said, because he has to say something. And the questions were good and they were put to him and he gave an answer and whether you want him to come out and blast the team, sure. I think there's, there's other ways of saying what he wanted to say.

But my concern is, is there this side of what half the management groups trying to achieve? And then there's this side that's like, are we all in lockstep? Because it doesn't feel that way. There's no way that we're a long ways away from it. Granted. But there does have a bit of an inkling of, wait, are you, are you all on the same page at least? least because I'm starting to pick up that maybe it's not quite that way. I think that, you know, to Dean's point, like these guys, you've got three guys in your front

office that have been GMs. You've got Jerome, who's one of the greatest players of all time, and you've got a guy that's owned a team for decades that's in the inner circle with Gary Betman. How does that group come across as so aloof or, like, disconnected? And I think nothing that Don said was like this smoking gum and like this proves you're a moron. It was more just like, why would you let him get in front of a camera? This is not what he's good at. Like go watch some junior kids, go scout. Don't let him in front of a camera.

This is not going to help you. It's only going to hurt you. That said, let's take a look. Now it was a full intermission segment kind of thing. This is the part regarding the path and future, I suppose, of the franchise that we're mostly alluding to, I think. How would you assess the first quarter of this season? for your club. Well, it's been terribly disappointing. You know, we, the way it works in the summertime,

we review the prior season. We go to ownership with a plan to move forward. When we looked at last season's team, we had a good finish the last three months. We thought we could come in and build on that. Unfortunately, it hasn't gone our way so far. Again, I look at the period we played. The way we have to play all the time is that intense, hard to play against. That was our reputation last year. You know, we're hard out. And this year, we haven't been able to come. kind of, we've seen flashes of it, but there's certainly not enough. But we're not throwing a towel. We know we've got a lot of work to do.

There's three quarters of the season left, and we just have to keep working. And we know we've got good players here. We've got a good veteran group. We've got some younger players, of course. We've got a great young gold ending and goal-ending tandem. But we have to put it all together. We talk about it, but at the end of the day, there's no red, you don't get medals or red ribbons in this league.

winning or losing and we haven't done enough winning. So in a vacuum, if you listen to that, you know, we're a hard out, we play hard at. So this is, this is an effort level. This is a try level issue. Because that's what he's, that's essentially what he said. Hey, you know, last year we were this and we come in and we're a hard out and we just, you know, we have it's, again, I, I, there's just no, there's just no way that. I think Maloney can look at that and feel like, okay, I'm happy with how that, how that went. But I just, there's, there is part of me that worries, though, that there's, there's more

truth than fiction. There's more fact in there that they truly believe that, you know, we, we could go out and make a trade. Oh, we just need to start playing a little better. If we get another save here and there, we're going to be, we're going to be okay. They're dead fucking last. I just, it's, there's, that there's, that's the thing is the gulf now from what we think that. are and what they think they are feels bigger than ever. If he's speaking truth, two things I want to say. I already forget the second one. But the first one is, how do I word this?

Because I'm forgetting it, too. You need a pen of paper. I do need a pen of paper. Are they really a 32nd place team? As far as talent, if you walk through, I know they are. But they're 32nd after 22, and I'm not making excuses for them, they've been horseshit. They deserve to be where they are. But if you look at the talent level from the goaltending to the defense,

I remember being an idiot that started the year going, these guys are terrible one day. And then the next day going, actually, Rasmus is good and Uighur is good, and Perak can play, Wolf's good. I mean, yeah, they don't have difference maker up the middle, and they don't have a hundred point guy. but if they all combine and chip in and Sharon Golvich, like, are they really so talentless that they should be 30-second? I don't believe that.

Who's worse? Who's worse? Yeah, who has less talent outside of the net? Wow, that matters. Do you know what I mean? I think they're in a group of four or five teams that are the worst. And that's what they could finish 28th, 29th, but like. And that's fine.

I'm not trying to make an argument. That's you answered it. Are they? Okay. If that's, we can believe whatever we want. If you guys believe that, absolutely.

Have I done a deep dive into it? I don't know. You've sold the sabres on being better. They just kicked the shit out of the sabres. And I don't think the sabres are very fucking good. No. And we can have a difference opinion on that. Okay.

Yeah. But regardless, I don't think they're a top 10 team either, Sabers or Flames. But the other approach to this is, what is Bill, what is Armstrong done in St. Louis.

Everyone's for sale. Why is it such a, because there's backing up your people that Maloney and all the people in management where the flames might want to do, right? There is that side of it where it's like, we're not selling these guys down. The river, we're not going to, we're going to back them up. We believe them. We don't want to go down that road. But the other side of it is two things that Armstrong has done.

he's made it known to everyone. Yeah, we're open for business, which I don't think is a bad thing. And the other side of that is the players on a team can take, I don't know what, not solace, but it can feel empowered by management backing them up and play better. Or the players on a team can go,

holy F, my ass is on the line. I better pick it up, which is what Armstrong's, doing. I don't know what's a better approach. I'm just saying that those are two different approaches that they can, that manage. And obviously we're seeing

both sides. Well, neither teams doing well, but those are two different ways of approaching this thing. Yeah, and neither teams have a deal. And I think to your point, like the flames don't feel comfortable shopping guys so much as listening at this juncture,

while the blues are saying, hey, I got some vets and aren't playing well enough. They're all for sale. Like, give me your best offer. famously did this in 2019 or 2018, whatever year they went to the cup final, everyone for sale. And then last year did the same thing when he ran the coach in November and they got on a heater and squeaked into the final spot. Murray, Craig, the rest of the management team, collectively the organization is not comfortable with the for sale sign yet. See, the thing with, with calling it. They better be comfortable with it because if it's coming.

Behind closed doors, they better be really effing comfortable with it. because if they aren't, then it's going to be hard to find a belief in them as fans. I agree. And I think that they will get to that point, but I also think, especially with this organization, there's a very, very keen eye on not saying things that would deter people from buying tickets to go to games, even though I think the fan base would be receptive to it, right? You could say whatever. I don't care what, again, I've said, Maloney's got to say something when he's getting interviewed.

I don't agree with it. And I think there's ways of saying it in a better way than he did. That's not his gift speaking to the public. No. No. The thing about it is, if you want to do the Doug Armstrong, like you say, and it's like, hey, we're going to be open for business. We don't turn it around.

I think you can play that card. If you believe that your team is better to quite a bit better than how they're playing. So you want to shock the room and kind of, you know, booster cable, give them that jolt. If you don't think it's there, you're like, oh, we might be open for business. But if you honestly believe that you're not a very good team, then it does fall a little bit flat. But I just, I do. I think, I think they think they're quite a bit better than what they're showing.

And at some point, I don't know what the number is, probably it's all subjective. Your record is who you are. You are what your record says you are. We talk about, and they are last. And yeah, they scored six last night against Buffalo. All right. And you beat San Jose, who has been very good, but they're still kind of, They were terrible.

They were terrible in that game. San Jose wasn't even in the building. Yeah. I just, I do. I feel for fans who hear this stuff thinking, okay, well, finally, the team is at a level where they, there's going to be no confusion over what they are.

There's no, we can't trade guys at the deadline because we're four points out of a spot. We're this close. Ah, we just had save here or there. They're not a save here or there. They're not a couple of points. They are where they're at, because of how they've maintained a roster in the mucky middle for so long without and I fuck it's like we say rebuilding like it's a bad thing I just look again billionaires these these guys know what they're doing if you lived in a house and the the fucking shingles are flying off the roof it repairing the roof does not mean it's a failure it just means it's time to

fix the fucking roof. You may have a, you may have a beautiful home. It's like, oh, no, it's, you know, we think the roof's pretty good. If we could just put, maybe put a tarp, it gets some, you know, get some tar and some paper and we'll patch it up. Be smart. It's, I just, I, I, I get frustrated when I hear the messaging that continues to come out because you never, you're, like you said, you never hear it from this team.

It's a fireball offense if they believe it. It, well, our backs are against the wall. We may have to do something here. You never hear. No, we're going to. we're going to go to work today and give our golly, gee, our very best, like, holy Christ, enough already. This is how you've gotten to be where you're at.

And even now in a year where it's clear what you're at, I do worry that behind closed doors, they don't see it. And I think time will bring clarity to everyone. Like, look, they got four cup contenders in their next five. They got Dallas on Saturday and then they do that old Southeast Division run, Tampa, Florida, Carolina. Like, if you want to go ahead and win five in a row, prove us wrong, sure. But like, if this is Christmas and you're in 32nd, the whole, you know, speech we just heard

last night does not fly and you have to look in the mirror. But I also understand them saying, we're not publicly going to throw in a towel right now. I understand why that might be. You know what this is this year? This is the most important year that they've had. had in 20 years. They went to the final in 2004. There was a lockout. They came back.

They thought, okay, we're going to pick up where we left off. And then they chased it with some older rosters. And then they got young and all. Right now, this is a pivotal moment for the franchise. Not because a fucking building is coming up. Not because Zane Perak is, this is a touchstone point. This is a turning point.

Fork in the road kind of a moment in a way for this team. If the season goes the way it looks, it's going to. Can you secure a superstar for the next decade and a half is what's on the table this season? That's right. The Buffalo Sabers, who is everyone's poster child for, don't do that. Yeah. We just played them. You want to remain Mucky Middle that you're, you need a superstar.

Now, the Sabers got screwed. They screwed themselves because they didn't get McDavid and then they traded Ico because they mishandled it. And they're afraid to be in Buffalo, but I think the fears are so misguised. guided. Like, are you going to be as dysfunctional as Buffalo? And are you going to hire people that have never been GMs to be GMs? And are you going to rip through coaches that shouldn't be in the league? No, you're not. You're smarter than Buffalo. If you're not by then that you deserve and the fans will get 14 years of pain and misery. The fear of being Buffalo is ignoring all the idiotic decisions they made. Just don't be as dumb as Buffalo. Don't go bring a guy from business ops and make him a GM for the first time he's ever worked in hockey ops. And the other thing you have going for you is you play, you have the team in a city where people, care where it's a hockey market, it's Canada. If you go through some non-playoff years, which people, again, it's like it's a fucking newsflash to those guys.

You've not been in the playoffs. It's not like you're going from presidents. Jeez, I don't know. Like last year we were, you're not throwing away a division banner to maybe try and pick high this year. You miss the playoffs more often than you make it. At what point do you learn from your mistakes? But the thing is, fans here are going to get it.

they're still going to buy tickets if the team is young, if they're going through some tough times, but there's a first overall, there's a second, they've never picked in the top three. Like goodness, gracious, it's just,

it seems to plague this team. And again, I don't know why I'm all wound up about it today, but it just feels like we say it all the time. Finally, it's clear. Finally, this team is just,

it's what they are. They're not underachieving. Maybe they are a little bit, but what's the max output? It's still, well back of those teams that look to be in a playoff spot. And it's a gift that they are getting. It's a here, look, look how it's like, here's a Rubik's Cube that's one fucking

slide away from finishing it. Don't start over. Don't like, don't, don't, it's right there for you. Be smart with it. And it just, I, you're frustrated. It's annoying to the fan base because there was an opportunity. Again, Ryan, you're not. wrong.

No one, that he has to say something and it's not that they don't want to be public about throwing in the towel. But it was also an opportunity to give some honesty. And so provide some hope to the fan base. Yes. They missed that. That was not done.

But the thing is it comes what two to three weeks. And again, it's not after Eric Francis had the thing about, uh, Nossum-Codry from. Yeah. There's a bit of smoking. It's like,

no, we know, we love, it's just, just frustrating to watch because the fans, we talked with fans last night. We were at an event with fans. And they were talking about what they would do the night of the draft lottery. Like we'd get together the party that guys, fellas, losing sucks.

I get it. And it's your business to win games. but this fan base is not going to deteriorate if you finish near the bottom and pick first or second overall. They're going to be more engaged in what's happening. You will have given them reason to have hope in this franchise. If you bring back 34-year-old Hanley,

you don't trade 35-year-old Nazim Kudra. You don't move 33-year-old Blake Coleman. Like, why would it get better? They're a year older. There's less reason to believe in this franchise long term than if you're starting to sell hope in the form of, you know, a guy that's put up more points in junior at 17

than anyone since Mario Lemieux or as the youngest defenseman in NCAA, who's 6'4 and could play both ends and he's 220 already. And you can sell hope if you actually allow the fan base to say, we know we have a chance to add an impact player at the draft. There is, like there is Buffalo. And Buffalo has been a failure for sure.

But you showed yesterday on the top five, Our top four scores in the league were all acquired by teams who finished at or near the bottom and picked first. First. Yeah. How's Schaefer doing? McKinnon, Celebrini, McDavid, David, Bardard, all went first overall. And I would say, it's the way, it's the way to do business. And it just feels like they're, they're so loathe to do it.

Yeah. I mean, God, you can tell, even I'm sick of hearing it. I feel for fans that have heard, no, you know, hey, one more, we're going to go out here in the last 40 minutes and give it our best and give it the old college try. Get out of here. So the way that if you're, you know, if you're running this team, the way that you, like, what's he supposed to say?

Well, I'll tell you what you do. You don't put them in front of a camera. If that's the speech you're going to get, sorry, Brendan, we're not doing that chat. And that, you know, we like to hear from these people. But if it's that, you're not. adding confidence to the fan base, you're eroding it. Don't want to talk to the media. He's not good at it. Maybe he's good at it.

No, we've heard him twice. It was a disaster both times. Well, we just don't, we don't like what he's saying, I guess. No, it's a disaster. You can come out. How are you in a better spot as a business today after that than you were yesterday? You have a riled up fan base. Yes. You've eroded confidence in your front office with that. That's what you've done. What it felt like is just

again, it's the tone and tenor and you can read too much in. But instead of it, you know, we're very disappointed with where we're at. We come in. It doesn't, it doesn't feel that way. It just feels like, oh, we're going to go and try and win. So you're just going to stay the course, despite what we're watching. And it's very clear what's happening as the results keep going down. That you're on the right track, this path that you're,

that you're recommending and putting forth to ownership here after year to just try and maintain, but probably miss at the end and then not have high elite players. Yeah, I don't think him saying anything last night means they won't trade Nassim, or they won't trade Blake. But he certainly didn't give confidence that they were. That's the thing is because there are two things there at play. One, the team's going to finish where they finish. And a trade of Rasmus or that, that'll have an impact.

But at the end of the day, what you say, what you do, the roster is mostly going to be what it is. And the team will finish where they finish. What can be affected is what they do with the roster, to game 82 to your point. A Raspus trade, a Coleman trade, a cadre trade. Are you going to, again, it's Murray's money, it's not mine. Are you going to eat some money on a cadre deal to maybe hit a home run?

Get more, a better pick or better assets? And you know what that does? And again, I'm being an asshole. What it does is it speeds up your fucking rebuild if you do it. You don't want to go through five, 10 years. Then trade the guys that have market value and get more young assets. so you don't have to spend that much time doing it. Yep.

And look, if NASDA Coucher is 35 and he's playing good hockey, at some point he's not going to be an NHLer because no one plays forever. Father time is undefeated. Everyone hits the wall. Most guys hit it before 35. You do not want to be caught holding the bag, whether that's next year or the year after on a guy that right now is a valuable asset that can help you better, help better your team down the road.

Like it's not complex here. And I understand they don't want to say, we're throwing in the towel, yard sale, because it's like, shoot, what is it? What messages that send to the guys? But then don't come on TV then if you're going to spin that. Oh, don't make it worse by giving us a bunch of it. Correct.

Yes. The people have heard it before. So if you're just going to spin the same old yarn, then don't bother. Yeah, you want to win fans over. We like it. And if you're that, if that's what you truly. believe. That's what I'm saying.

And that's what I'm saying. Now you're just lying to the fan base. Like you're, if I'm a win, if I'm a fan last night, it's like, okay, they've got the president of hockey ops. Don Maloney coming up. Okay, well, this is, they're off to one of their worst starts ever.

I want to hear what. I want to hear what's going on. And then you hear, oh gosh, you know, we, uh, we got to do what, uh, you know, come out here in the last 40 minutes. We're going to get a win. We're going to try and go and play Dallas. I'd be, turn the fucking TV off.

I lose faith. I lose faith in not just the guys running it, but almost the team. Do you all believe this? Because if you do, it's hard to get behind you. If you came out last night and you were just a little bit of their more honesty, if it's in fact what you feel, we're disappointed. This has been a tough start to the year.

We do feel we're better than this. But we're going to have to maybe do some serious. Our goal is to make the playoffs every. year, but maybe we may have to look at doing some other, like something. It shouldn't be as hard. It's an easy disclaimer. The easy disclaimer is, look, we think we're better than this. They've only played a quarter of this season. There's runway to get back in this. But if it doesn't happen, we have assets that we can turn into future pieces. That's the only disclaimer he didn't add. It makes it seem like everything's great. This is the group we're going

to run with for the next three years, which is insane. Now, and again, I'll kind of go back to again, I think that the teams play. And I'd feel bad for, I don't hang any of this on the players. The players are who they are. And we give it to Sharon Govich. Like, yeah, he should probably be, they're just not a very good team. I think they do play hard and I do think they care. And I mean, it's been a tough year for Weiger.

But you watch him, he's pissed off. He's embarrassed. You can see it. I don't think anybody is mailing this shit in right now. So I don't, I think the coaches are trying to coach their asses off with these guys. I think Conroy is working the phones. I know he is. So I don't really hang any of it on on the players because their effort more often than not,

we don't have a problem with. But this team will end up being a near near the bottom. And it's, it just feels like it's such an important, it's like you're being handed some currency. Yeah. It's like you're, you know, you've got all this debt. and somebody comes in to help you, consolidate you, we're going to help you, by maybe this,

it looks like you need some help here. Don't mismanage your funds. Don't, don't fumble it. Use it. Yeah, like the opportunity you talk about, it's interesting you said, like the last 20 years, it's like, wow, I hadn't thought about it that way, but you could make a compelling case because if you can get one of these top two or three

picks, you've got a franchise altering player, a new face of the franchise, a reason for hope, bottom line, focus, like a reason to sell tickets in a new building at double the price. But on top of that, like what if you could add, let's call it two firsts and two seconds, just by clearing out vets? Coleman, Rasmus, Cadry, Fairby, Joel Hanley, think about that pile of assets that you would have moving forward to choose as you wish, whether to wait until those drafts arrive

or to turn into players in the form of trade. to miss that opportunity and or miss the opportunity to pick in the top three, that's how you turn into Buffalo, Frank. That's how you turn into Buffalo. That's how you turn into Buffalo. And you know how you turn in?

And what is everybody, everybody we bring guests on and we talk to people. The talk of the league right now is the young guys. How about the sharks, the ducks, these young guys, Schaefer. You could be that. You could be.

And you haven't been fucking ever in my lifetime that I could recall. But you could be the team that when other teams come to town, you go to the rank, it's like, boy, what's happening? What's going on in Calgary? That's, like, they're a young, exciting team. They've really, like, that's a team when they come to town. I want those tickets.

Since the 80s, when they were really good, won a president, won a Stanley Cup. The only time that there was any excitement about being young was Godro and Kachuk and Mornay. They tried to sell the young guns, but the team was no bloody good. Jerome was a star and everyone else was a role player. In the history of the franchise, the 80s, we went to the finals, but it wasn't a well-built team. We got Kimmust off and Gindler was a star and we worked her asses off and Cinderella did it. Right? This was not a...

It's not a plan. No, that's not a plan. They had a plan with Kachuk and could drove and Bennett, Bennett not being what Bennett is now was a major setback, right? Like all those And Moni being hurt. And when is the fan base being more excited?

Yes, the finals run, of course, but that's not excited about the team. That's excited about what's happening. That was a young team that was really good and it fell apart. Because those guys wanted to go somewhere else. And that's fine. That's their right. But that's the only time that they've,

done it. Yeah, and they didn't choose to rebuild. They were forced into it because they were forced into it. Yeah. Except to begin and quit hiding from it. You had a great group of kids and you had the top line in the NHL almost. Like there were some real happy moments that came out of that.

Yeah. You pissed your pants against the others, which is too bad. But there were, like that could dro go all against Dallas. It's a top moment in the last decade. Yeah. It's legendary. My kid brought it up last night at the dome. He's like, I was at the game.

I was so cool. And maybe we get there. Like maybe we get there. But it feels like the, I'm trying to think of like, was it Charlie Brown when he's like walking with his head down and like kick it? It's like at some, maybe it's in December.

Maybe it's in January. But you know what? You can come to, if you were, come to the dome and be excited about the prospect of what the next five, 10 years can be as opposed to, geez, how are we going to beat,

how are we going to beat Tampa tonight? No, how are we going to, How are we going to turn this shit around? It's exciting to have the potential. And you're not starting from scratch. You've got some young players already. Pender talks about it.

I think there's some good players already that you've drafted, but you're missing the studs. And finally, you get a chance to maybe get one. You have a massive. So look at the two, two are probably the most surprised. I mean, Anaheim, who? San Jose in Chicago. Those are the youngest, most exciting teams, I think.

Yep. So what did Anaheim, I don't even, who's the goaltender there? Coastal, yeah. Young good? Yes. Yeah. Chicago.

What did they go out and do? They were horseshit last year. What did they get this year? Spencer Knight, goalie. Spencer Knight's been good. It's been great. San Jose. What did they do last year?

Got Ascarov from national. You have Wolf. Yeah. You got the one piece. You've got the one piece. Get the other one. Yeah. It's exactly that.

Like, when you look at this roster, everyone is on one line too high. Cadry and Huberto and let's say Coronado is a good second line. Those are your best three forwards. Rastor San Antonio and Kevin Ball is probably a fine second pair. I'm like, they're your top pair right now. Everyone is overslaughter by one line because you do not have stars.

Your goalie was a star last year. He's been about league average this year. He'll have many seasons ahead. where he is a star. Don't screw up this opportunity to get a franchise altering star, maybe even a superstar. Don't screw it up. Yeah. Would you rather go watch this team of veterans lose three to one or a group of 22-year-olds lose three to one? I'd rather see Matt Vigridden in the spring and Hunter Bristevich up with the big club and Zane Perrek running PowerPlay one than watching 35, 36, 33, 31-year-old you should have traded. You know,

know, slumping down the home stretch after they didn't get moved to the deadline. It's not even close. And I think they will. I think they will too. I'm not freaking out about last night. It's just a bad PR look because I think they're smart enough that if they're last in December, they are going to do the right things. It's just when you come on TV and say that, you're crushing yourself.

What if, what if that's what he thinks? Well, you argued last year to if you wanted to be really bold and brave that they should have traded Anderson if they wanted full max asset value, right? And they didn't. So I get what you're saying, but the argument is that they've not fault, right? Like they, oh yeah. No, look, if they don't trade Nazim Kadry this year and there's good offers out there, if they resign Rasmus Anderson for the back nine of his career, if they don't move like a guy like Coleman to a contender where everyone's looking for that checking third line winger that's got rings, like they'll get double barrels. It's just that now is not the time to trade them anyway

and hopefully they'll come to their senses if they do believe what they told us last night. Is there any party of though that thinks there's more? I could see them holding on to cadre for another year. I'm not even talking about the trades. Just that that's, that's, and I don't know what we don't ever hear from Nonas

and we don't hear from Jerome and I don't know how. The owner does not speak to the public. Pike said it last night. He's never said a public word about the two. But what if, if you're Craig Conroy and you and Pascal and you go and you sit down, I mean, those are,

the owner is obviously above you and Don Maloney is, I mean, he's the, like, poho. What if that's, those are the marching orders and that's, that's the directive is we're, no, we're good. We're just a couple wins away. We went three, four, five in a row here. We're right back into it. Look how many points we're at. We'll be right back by Christmas.

We can be in a wild card spot. Is there too many chefs in the kitchen? Because you just named a bunch of names there. And I just out some. Left some out for sure, too. It's challenging because we were just, we're kind of guessing at backroom conversations that we don't get to hear. Do I have some concern about it?

Some, but I also think it's good, the writing's going to be so clearly on the wall that looking in the mirror, they're going to have to do this. But how are you misguess? I don't disagree with you. I think they will have to trade guys and Conroy will just do it because it will end up in that position. Yeah.

You and you and a whole bunch of people that we know that would be knowledgeable hockey people. Not last summer. Even the summer before we're like, this team is not designed well. And even this year was like, last year was a great year for everyone, but I don't know what makes you believe. They believed in it. Is it their job to believe in it just because they have to believe in it? Right? Like two years, two summers ago, we were screaming from the rooftops.

Dismantle this bullshit. Start over. Now, they had one heck of a year last year. So we looked like we ate crow and we were wrong. Well, they've brought, they've rolled them back out and now they're no good. So why do we believe that they really have this willingness or plan to change? I think, yeah. So their plan A was 97 points.

We get it. I'm just having a tough time believing there isn't a plan B. I don't think they're ready to publicly talk about it yet. But the conversations I have with people around there is like there's absolutely a plan B here. It just might, you might have to sell plan B to a lot of people, right? like Murray trust us this is the right move moving forward it's hard when you have to sell it up the ladder right that's how the start is you have to sell it up the ladder but you might not even be able to deliver who's delivering it dawn i would like how many people do you need to convince

yes like just going to we don't know three of us argue about shit all the time and it's fine but we're not making decisions that are going to impact every fan that shows up at the dome like the buck stops with Murray but if you got to okay so now I got to go through this guy so you spend time convincing it so here's what I'm thinking oh I don't know well I yeah you know what maybe I'm coming around to your way of thinking okay well now we got to go upstairs and do this whole process over again that's going to take some time I just

you know what this you talk about Godro and that the team that beat Dallas in the playoffs and then lost the Oilers exciting young team and then it all went away Kachuk leaves. Goodrow leaves. Everything, you know, Oof, okay, pivot. Hubert O, Weiger.

Coach out, GM out. Right? So you tried that. That didn't work. To use, to use a, like a, like a business analogy. You know what this is? So you were there and then you tried to maintain,

but now you've, buy the dip. You're in the dip. don't like don't don't be fooled when you're too high because you do that a lot you get fooled by what you think you are when you're not don't be fooled by what you are this time don't be thinking you're better than you are buy into it it's right there for you and i like i say we we can move on we're just kind of talking circles but i think the team is ultimately just going to be what they are and i don't think it's going to be i don't think they're going to get out of the bottom

five of the standings in terms of points. No. And to further it, somewhat change it, but back to what has come up, the best approach is what you guys brought up is that convincing the owner to chew on some money, you don't want to rebuild for six years? Speed it up. Speed it up. Retain some money on.

You have that like, you have that power. Yes. Speed it up. Like Kent, I wrote that article for the. Harold, Ken Wilson, it is afterburner with us time to time. And he said, the flames, this ethical tank, like, let gravity do its work. And I really believe that is going to happen. Like, the stupidest thing on planet Earth they could do is go trade like a pick

or a young player to get a veteran right now, right? Like, that's idiotic. The good news is they're just going to sit and let this play out for a bit longer. And that's kind of the message they had. They're not ready to say, we're bad, we're throwing the towel in. but at least they're not like quick move out of that first we got from Vegas and we got to bring in another center. Like no, they got a waiver claim like whatever. They didn't spend bad money on July 1.

Like it's not a team that's convinced they're a contender. That would be the dumbest take on this team. That would be the thing, right? If you put your Conroy hat on and say, hey, we're thinking, you know, is there anything out there that can help us, you know, get a little bit more scoring? Is there anything out there? I mean, even if you've been talking. No, there's not much. going on out there. Sorry, no, I asked. I've been trying. Oh, okay. But then you flip it. It's like,

you know, though, while I was talking to guys, there's, there's a market there like there for some of our guys that we could trade. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I don't know. I like our core. I think we're a good team. Oh, my God. And anybody have a hammer hit me in the head with it. And you started off the conversation with the perfect context. Don't take what teams say publicly at face value. Look for the messages they're don't take their words literally. And that's an important thing to remember when you watch that chat last night. There's a bunch of supercats that have come in on this. I feel like now might be the time to hit it.

Dino, otherwise we're doing this chat again. You know, it is, but because I mean, I'm the one that says it all the time. Is what else are they going to say, don't take everything you hear, or most of what you hear. But at some point when that message is the same over and over, despite all the signs in the world indicating certain things should be. the opposite. As a fan, you have the right to be frustrated and say, what is going on? Are these

guys the right guys to be running this? Because I'll say it again. This is an important time in this franchise. Right now, the next six, eight months are massive for what this team's going to be in the next five to ten years. And if these guys, if this is what they think, if this is truly, oh,

we're good and all, get them the fuck out and get some people in there with a little bit more creativity and forward thinking and are actually paying attention to what the other 31 teams in the league are doing to get better. Intellectual honesty. That was the Jay Feaster coined phrase, right?

Or it was just like, look in the mirror. Be honest. What are you looking at? Because if Conroy's going into work every day and he's talking to teams about cadre or Rasmus and doing all this and he's just constantly budding up against the wall, well, no, I mean, we're, we can beat Dallas. We got two wins in a row. And then if we win on the start the road trip, that the three, that's a, that's a winning streak.

Hand in your goddamn resume and like your resignation. Resignation. Because you'll get a job somewhere else, Connie. If you're dealing with that, I feel for you every day. And I hope it's not the case. So anyway. You want to hit these supers? They're all topical.

So do you want to wait till the end. No, I can do it now. Sure. Jack was saying they're all topical. So let's just hit them. Yeah, there's a couple topical. Let's get into them now. All right.

How many times has the flames finished strong just to miss the playoffs? And guys like Maloney think all is good for next season too often. Didn't they go like 801 one down the stretch there? They were under that heater to get some of the net to 96. Yeah. It's happened. Joe Colburn, every fourth shot went in and he got to, what, 1920 goals one year in a meaningless season. Daryl refused to play a backup and ran Markstrom out for four in a row and it cost them two draft slots.

Like they've done this before. Don't do it this year. that guy isn't earn a start. And I, you know, I guess I see why I see why coaches would be that way. It's like, I don't give a shit about your draft pick. I'm not going to be here when that kid, if he plays, does actually play. I'm going to be judged by my win loss record as a coach. And I just as soon get some wins.

So I do kind of get that. But that's why there's people above coaches that run the business. But that's bad business. When you're not in hand in hand on this. Sure. I get your take on that. But I guarantee you, there's other organizations. where it's like, no, you're not playing that guy. We're trying to get a draft pick here.

This is a mean. You're mathematically eliminated. Stop playing your number one. Yeah. Now, that's Daryl, and he would throw a shoe at you in his office if you went and said that. In Moneyball, Billy Bean, he traded Pena, right? So they couldn't start him at first. Hattaberg.

I wanted to see Hattabberg at first. Scott Hattabberg, yeah. I need Cooley in net. Yeah, you want to play Mark. I traded wool. Harold, sorry. I put Markstrom on personal leave. He's going to attend to some family business. Go home early to Sweden.

All right. Next one. Big Bear, $699. Who is Maloney trying to fool? Season ticket holders? Other GMs will up their offers because you're delusional. I don't know what that. Felt less like smart bluff, more like stupid truth.

That's how this whole thing started is if you're a fan, I feel like just reading body language. and everything. Does he really think this? It felt like you're treating the fans like they're dumb. It's not a dumb fan base. It's not. So good, yeah, good, good text there, Big Bear. Big bears tend to agree with you.

Uh, hashtag fix the fucking roof. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Matt. It doesn't mean you have a shitty house or you're living in school. House is great. Just needs a little, you've got a great house. People love coming to it. People rave about, they will rave about your house.

Good bones. But before the foundation starts to rot because your roof's fucked, fix the fucking roof. Yes. Stop putting pots and pans on the floor to catch the drips. Fix the fucking roof. It's not like we don't like nice things. We love nice things.

Well, pay for them. Pay big money for them. Just fix it. Deer Liza. That's it for now. Okay. Thank you, Jack. Very good.

Thank you. Um, if, uh, if, so big flames win, everyone's happy. Yeah. Yeah. It would be interesting, though, not honestly. I'm sitting here thinking like, what are they thinking about this? Like they were, they're back in Calgary. And they wake up this morning.

They're like, holy Christ, this is quite a shitstorm we're in. Like, is it? And are they going, what's the big deal? I answered a couple questions. I don't know. That's like, again, when we're trying to analyze how. a management team works, we don't, we're guessing at everything. Do they know?

Are they like, whoops, that was a mistake? Are they now going to go and like do some PR can like tamp this down? I have no idea. I don't know. Like there isn't a lot of transparency as to the owners never said anything publicly. And we really don't,

you know, and we probably shouldn't have a look at how front office works in the sense that you're best to keep a lot of those conversations behind closed doors. But you just can't let that guy. But we can. Yeah, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I don't disagree with you.

you don't need to be behind the closed doors, but you need to understand how the front office worked. Do you not understand how the Tampa Bay front office worked? Oh, it works well. I mean, how is the Bill Zito, Florida Panthers front office works? Yeah, real sharp, yeah. Right?

Like, I get what you're saying. Yeah, you don't have to. I'm just saying like organizationally, don't let that guy go in front of a camera last night if that's the messaging you're going to. But as a fan, like, we're free to speculate and to have an opinion on how they're doing it. No, no, I'm not saying, don't speculate. it. I'm saying from like a flames PR perspective, don't let that guy talk last night. Nothing good came from it. Only bad.

No, no, no. It's both sides again. He should be able to deliver a better message. Yes, he should. It should be a, this is a great opportunity for your front office to deliver a message. Yeah. It's a town hall statement in a way. That should be part of what. you're capable of deliberate. That's the job of the media in the world is to relay the message from the people in power to the people in the public. That's why Don Maloney went on.

It was not to hang with parks for eight minutes. It was to talk to the fans. The fans want to hear from management about this team that's 32nd in the league. And what they heard was, we think we're good. We're going to come out and play hard here. And then we're going to try and beat Dallas. And we're going to give it a good old fashioned try. and if it's complete smokescreen,

then give the Oscar, the Academy Award to Don Maloney. But it's like that second text removed there, there's just, there's some truth in there, which is, if you're a fan, it's right.

And even if there's not truth, it's just a message that didn't need to be delivered in that way. So yes, Ryan's right, don't go on there. But on the other hand, don't say what you did

and try to BS the people that are watching you closest. and you missed a great opportunity to be in front of everyone and go, listen, we understand. Yeah. We understand. We can watch.

We can see. We like our guys. We had a great seat. Like, there's so many ways of saying it. You know what it is too retro? And you would know, and we all know.

Just in, from over the years, if you're in the media, you're around the team. And if you were to suggest or just say, oh, this team is no good. Or, man, God, I'm happy

watching them lose so they can turn things around. The thought behind is, oh, well, you're not a real flames fan. Because a real fan, a real fan, they just want to win all the time. The 5% that still believe this team's coming back. Oh, I mean, you always want your team to win. You're not a real fan. Not true. Real fans are smart.

Real fans want exciting hockey. They want, that's, and if, it just, it just drives me crazy. it just you pay attention to fan bases in the NFL and you hear what's said about ownership and that it's like so the

like Calgary's pretty tame when it comes to media and fans being up in arms but don't mistake that for being naive or dumb because they're not. They know what's going on and they see it. And then which you talk about

mansplaining like whatever you want to call It's like, get out of here with that. That's how you lose fans is when you're ignorant to them and think that they're dumb. And that's what it felt like. Yep. And all he had to do is add one nugget. If we are where we are in two months, we've got assets to turn into young players. That simple sentence would have changed the entire tenor.

There was no acknowledgement that where they are is real. Well, you just, I'm, but I mean, so who's your favorite team then? Well, you're not a, well, I guess you're not a real fan. You're not a flames fan, then. want to win championships and they are so fucking far away with this roster. So yes, I do want them to be bad because a real fan would want the superstars that you see on every single Stanley Cup roster. And this is going to sound like I'm backtracking it.

But I like, how Murray's got to sell it. Murray doesn't need to sell the team. Murray's a billionaire. You want a billionaire to run your team. You don't, you don't want to have Barry Shankaro or whoever in Winnipeg that couldn't afford to pay. You don't want what happened in Arizona where they can't give guys. game day per die per die and can't feed that you don't want that you want the billionaire who loves

the team and murray does he loves the team he's got all the money in the world so don't sell the team he they they go up to the cap every year if the money like they're there that's fine it's just the mentality of how to get to the top yes to me needs to change yeah the plan whatever the plan they've had for 20 years hasn't worked fellows sorry you're dead last And it's, you got one win in the second round in the last, yeah, 21 years. Whatever, whatever philosophy you've had, you need to tweak. Didn't we bring it up? And I don't know it to be true.

And I'm, I'm maybe making bullshit up. Don't the Sabres have more wins in a playoff? Yeah, since the lockout. So we hate the Sabres because they are the example of futility in the NHL. Yeah. But they actually have more playoff wins than the Calgary Flames since the run. you're stuck in peak pain. You're missing and you're not picking high.

Here's your one chance to actually pick high. To your point, when's the last time the team was, say like a Carolina, a team that just, oh, they're going to make the playoffs. It's just a matter,

are they going to have home ice in round one? And who would, round two, who would it be every year. It's a, Jesus, I don't know if they're getting in. It's a slog.

It's a scrape every bloody year. You're not, I do believe you're not that far away time wise or effort and transaction wise from being a team that's like, yeah, we're up and we're in the middle of the pack in the West, maybe a little bit higher. We're a playoff team every year. And when the playoff start, we got just the good as shot as any. I think they're three way. I think they're three years away from that if they do it right. Now, they could lose the lottery balls and they could finish like even if they play poorly. it doesn't mean they're going to finish dead last.

Like they might finish fourth. You might not. I don't care. You can manage this. The assets that you have allow you the ability to be back in a great position in three years. That I believe that. I really, really, really, really believe that. Yes.

If you make the, like we said earlier, if you could trade those four or five vets I mentioned and add another two firsts and two seconds and picking the top two, it's a way quicker turn, fellas. Don't fall in love with the 35-year-old moments before he goes off a cliff. Hearing loss, clinic. Is that go ahead? No, that's right.

And if selling those assets means that you're terrible next year, even better. Perfect. Because that's only going to speed it up more. Correct. Oh, we got to have guys that have played me. To a call. What do you mean?

To what? There's lots of those left. Don't worry. Yeah. If you want more of them. Remember Mantha last year? You can go pick him up in August. Yeah.

Yeah. And again, it's like you want to go even a little bit further down the road. You're also not far away from being a team and a city that could be a real fucking great destination for players. They got a new barn. The city is great. It's close to the mountains. They got young, they got a young superstar up the middle or on the blue light. Why not Calgary?

Yeah. You're not far from all of it. It seems good. They bring in a titanic shift in the image and the, just everything about the team. It's such an important. The hole has been dug for the building and you're 32nd in the league. Rejoice, guys. It's actually a perfect season.

It's a fucking, it's a great gift you're being given. Don't fuck it up. Smarten up.