Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Brent Krahn (FULL INTERVIEW)

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

Brent Krahn joins Boomer, Pinder and Rhett on the Insider Hotline, and this one goes off the rails pretty quickly. 😂 The guys catch up with Krahn for some classic Barn Burner bullshitting before getting into his work on Calgary Flames broadcasts, Dustin Wolf and what he's seeing from the young goaltender early in the season. Krahn also shares some stories about NHL fitness testing, the atmosphere around the Saddledome and the overall vibe surrounding the Flames. Plus, the conversation somehow finds its way to Thanksgiving, because of course it does. A little Flames talk, a few hockey stories and a whole lot of nonsense with Brent Krahn. Video Link: https://youtu.be/bWvjkie5Jx0#nhl #nhlshorts #nhlplayoffs #nhlpredictions #nhlhockey #nhlpicks #stanleycup #stanleycupfinal #calgaryflames Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The analysis that you get between the periods say, well, I think I know what I saw, but what did I see? Then you sit down and you let the experts chop it up for you. We go to the Crystal Waters guest hotline and say, hello and good day. Oh, she's one way, boys. Pretending to work. Frank Dron. I got every day grinder. Go back to the full shot.

That whiteboard's empties, lined up lunch. She's doing hits on podcast. This is a racket. I cleaned it all off. There's a lot of private information on there, guys. I'm a full-time professional, right? Don't want you guys to get into my little network there and scoop my deals. That's right.

Right. Yeah, we wouldn't do it to you. Crotter, how are we doing? Oh, man. I'm great. I'm so happy to be here, boys. I tell you what, all three of your ugly mugs, I'm pretty jacked up. It's, it's been a long time.

I've missed you guys. You know, it's when you text boom the other day, like, hey, you know what, I'm ready to go. I messaged Crod a while ago. Hey, what's happening with you? What's going on? And I'm in Victoria whale watching right now. What? But I will, I'll reach out when I get back to Calgary. Whale watching?

Well, yeah, we went out there for, my daughter had an evaluation for rugby. And I'd never been to Victoria, ever in my life. It's better. I played junior. Part of the league? You played the W.H. They didn't have a team. And I didn't play the 80s and I didn't play in the 2015s. You know what I mean?

I was kind of in that 40 to 50 year gap where they didn't have the team in Victoria anymore. So I played in Seattle, right, which is pretty much the same thing. I've been to Vancouver a thousand times and watched you play a lot of hockey ret well, I sat in stands and looked down and said, wow, this is, this would be a fun place to be at the old Weston Bayshore there. And so we went, went whale watching. You know, it's like you spend a lot of money to look. look at the spine and blow hole of a whale. Really? I mean, like, it's cool. Everybody's like, well, you saw a whale.

And I'm like, I got a lot of other jokes that go along with this. I'm not sure how far we can go, but at the end of the day, it was cool, you know, like, oh, look, the whale is like eating a bait ball of fish from the side. It's like, look at this. And they're like, that's pretty awesome. Turns out we actually had to save somebody's life. There was a Mayday call right off the bat. And so our whole trip got derailed for the first hour.

They didn't give us the hour back, obviously. We had to. Ah, May days, or yeah, you can't mess, right? Did you have to jump in the water and? Well, Walrus don't get cold in the Arctic, buddy. That water is about 10 degrees, maybe 8 degrees. I was ready to jump in there. They said, please, stay inside.

Don't even a second May Day. Yeah, exactly. I swim like a stone, but the four people, they made it out safe and that we carried on our journey, didn't see any killer whales. They told us. There's a horror movie out right now that has, a whale swallowing a guy, so you be careful of it. That doesn't look good.

That's a sperm whale rat, hey? That's a sperm whale right there. Are you, are you, because I know you're big with aquariums, like just all aquatic species? Oh, I'm, you know what? I should have been a marine biologist is really what I should have been right out. From Manitoba, the elder in Manitoba marine biology. Did they not have wetsuits big enough or what was the issue there?

Oh, buddy. I, it's a shot. Hey, listen, I know I've been on the show and a lot. I'll get caught up here in a second. I actually put my very first wetsuit on in my life. I was in Florida, um, swimming with sharks.

Well, careful. I put the wet suit on backwards. I had no idea how to do it. I came out. I was going to kill somebody. They're looking at me like I'm not all there. They're not wrong.

But I got this. My whole chest is wide open. My arms are behind me like this. And I'm just, and the guy goes, you got the suit on backwards. And I don't even have the suit on. It's just around my ankles and my shoulders.

It was the stupidest look ever. But I got it figured out. And, you know, we swam with sharks in a controlled environment. And for 15, 20 minutes. And that was it. Pretty cool. What do you mean by controlled environment? I don't know how many pet sharks are.

We're not all marine biologists. Well, they're, you know, they're little black tip reef sharks. There's a little wobb gong sitting down there. There's a, there's a Goliath grouper, right? You just got to look down. They, you know, they, you know, The dorsal fin, you know, touches your belly if you're just floating on top and they carry about their business, right?

So they get, they got us in, got us out real fast. Whereabouts was this? In Florida. Well, that's a big state. Like, they're played there. What do we talk? Orlando? On the land.

Yeah, it took me a little while there. Sorry, I thought you misheard me when I said Florida. But yes, it's in Florida. Orlando. Yeah. Correct. Landlocked Orlando. That's where the sharks there.

They'll get you. Did you do a lot of scuba when you were in? You'll Kipper into scuba now? Carmen or Steinbeck? You know, scuba scares me. You know, I've gone for my, you know, it shuts off. It means it provides you with air under the water, right? Correct.

But I've gone through my H2S course before. When you put that mask on, it takes your air out. And then you've got to figure out how I would panic, full on panic. I guarantee it I'd be dead in about three seconds. I wouldn't need a, you know those weight belts the scuba divers used to help them sink? I wouldn't need any of that equipment whatsoever. And I would literally just sink to the bottom and die. So I just stick with snorkeling and that's as far as I go.

This is odd. The world's an odd place because I just listened to a book while I was driving all over God's Green Earth called Shadow Divers. The fellows that they found a U-boat off the coast of New York. And a lot of people die doing this. Yeah. It's not a good idea. It's a terrible idea.

And the risks are immense and they're obvious, right? And I don't understand why you'd go down. that road. And they kind of are like, yeah, as soon as you get down there under that pressure, you're going to start to freak out. You just have to, it's like like every time. Oh yeah, every time. Yeah. And then it's like your reaction

when you panic is like, I got to get to the surface. Like, no, no, no, you got to take your time coming up. Otherwise you get the bends. You got to come up. You're like, what? I'm freaking out. I need to get up there. Like take your time. I can't freak it out. And you don't know up from down, left from right, in the dark. And you're just going to go swim through this stuff where you're, you're not

built to breathe underwater. You run, you do run out of oxygen. Sounds like Jack talking to a chick. Croner. I have an idea that you and I should go to Florida again, but we should get floaties and my ties and umbrellas. Yeah. That's the aquatic life I'm looking for right there.

Just, you know, one toe in, one toe out, drinking each hand. What about, I've heard of snoobach, where you've got the hose attached. Oh, that's dangerous. You got a lot of morons doing that. They'll flip upside down. Like it's a lot of simple people go down there and they think it's a piece of cake and a lot of bad things happen. It looks cool. I mean, they put dogs in it for crying out loud.

But can you imagine the poor dog doing that? He's like, what the hell am I doing down here? Well, I've never been able to have this point of view in my life and it doesn't look like something I'd want to be hard. And who are you going with? Because my buddies are cutting that cord. Oh, absolutely. You're dead. And they're not going to play.

Ha, ha, ha, gosh. Hilarious. Or they're going to pour like beer down it or they just, you know what I mean? They're going to be forced to drink like 30 beer. five minutes to save your life. Like, it's not a, it's, it's riddled, riddled with problems. Yeah. How are your dogs by the way? Well, one. Stanley's dead. Thanks for asking. Oh, shoot. Sorry. Yeah. You know, I fixed a week. I have, I have, um, poor Stanley. He's 18 years old. He's a great dog. He's with us the whole whole length of my career, plus quite a bit more

than the length of my career. So more than a period. Well, wait, well, whoa, whoa. So nine, nine years, you pile on, nine years of blood, sweat and tears. One sweat and tears, Stanley was there. And to tell you what, when you go in that grieving room with a little dog, there's an ATM machine in there. Did you know that? Oh, dear. Yeah.

That's so cold. It's ice cold. And they like to pick as much time as you need. And you get about, would you like just to bring in the blanket? And you're like, yeah, we'd like the blanket back. that'd be great. And then you take it and you're like, well, this is combo number one if you want this. This is combo number six.

And do you have a form of payment? Would you like an ATM or a debit or would you like a credit card? So we went through all that. But Rocky, on the other hand, the guy's a menace. He's an absolute menace. He's a complete. He means well. He means well.

I got a kid like that. He's a good guy, but, you know what I mean? We have a lot of those guys where it's like a great guy. but, but, uh, mismanored and that's not normally my M.O. I'm a pretty with, with, with, I grew up in a small town. There's a lot of mangy dogs running around. You see him for two or three days. They'd be gone for a week. They'd come back. It's like, hey, Bob, how you doing? Checking in for work type thing. Rocky on the other hand is he, uh, he's a, he's a handful. He, he, he likes me. He, he searches for my affection. Um, I do not give it very often. But when I do, it's like,

You just see the happiness in his face. It's amazing. And then I shut that right back down again and hurry on about my day. And, I was going to say something. Well, that's good. I didn't mean for it to get morbid.

You had mentioned dogs and snoop, I knew you had two dogs that you could kind of take or leave. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm not a dog guy. I never have been. Not that there's anything wrong with dogs.

Right. Yeah. I prefer more. I'm allergic to cats. Can't have a cat, but I prefer cats because they're just, you know, they can just, you know, they don't need your, your acceptance.

You know what I mean? You know, they just kind of go about their business, do their thing, pee in the dirt and carry on. That's about it. I've gone the other direction. I could take everyone else in my family and just have them move out and keep the dog. Really? Really?

Well, that's good. That's good. I mean, we all need that too, right? I mean, he understands you, right? You know, dogs love you to pieces. And I would imagine you'd be a great doggy dad. Less judgey. Yeah.

Less judgey. Yeah. That's judging. So it's the avalanche and flames and you will be on these Sportsnet broadcast tonight. Yeah. Can you imagine that second year in a row? Isn't that something? That's because you're crushing it and everyone loves you.

Everyone loves crying. Absolutely. You're the only reason people watch that. You know, you got to be positive, guys. That's by M.O., right? You got to find the diamond and the rough, right? You got to find the sunshine on a cloudy day. I had a ton of fun last year.

that was great with Parker and Francis and doing it again. Tonight against the avalanche, I know the way the season's gone. I don't know about you boys, but I could see the flames actually playing way better tonight for some odd reason. Colorado was in Winnipeg last night. They won three, two.

When you're playing against one of the best teams in the league, I'm being optimistic. I doubt it. But I'm just sitting here at things. I know I played on some crap teams in my life, and it's like, well, when the best team comes down, everybody's going to be their A game at the very least. But boy, have they had their struggles

and their schedule doesn't get any better. And the other team maybe takes their foot off the gas if they're up against the... Oh, for Christ's sakes. Nice try. You can do it on the broadcast. This is a reality show here. Well, you know, and defensively too, right?

We've got three new D-pairings. You got you got Nemich, you got Perek, you got all the guys trying to, you know what I mean? There's no... You just better be careful because if the season goes poorly, they're going to have you doing like circus tricks in between periods. Like can you juggle? Can you put on this wetsuit?

Like they're going to have you doing stuff to keep the ratings up. Yeah, that's the bad. Right? I'd do anything, boys. I'd absolutely do anything. This is, are you trying to sell me that it's the D's fault that the goaltender can't stop a beach ball? You know what?

I'll tell you what. It's Kate, I hear you. I hear you. We can have this argument all day. It's, it's not the goalies. Wait a second.

I'll back up here for just one second. Once one second. We'll wait. We'll wait right here. Hold on. Hold on. You have to be able to trust your defenseman, right? And your defenseman has to be able to trust your goaltender, correct?

Retro, you've had some unbelievable goaltenders that you played your career with. Well, it's silly reason I had a career. And when you have a young goaltender and Wolf, there's a book on him now. He's played 130 games in the national league. His first season, there was no book on him, right? He's a smaller, he's a smaller goaltender, super athletic. unbelievable talent. He's got a drive that just wants to prove to people

that he can be the guy. Second season, I thought he played well too. Everybody says he took a dip, but the team wasn't as good either. At the start of the year, he's given up 12 goals and two games. Rush chances are gross. Like, that gap between the D and the forwards too and that neutral zone, like it's been

bad. But the big concern I have right now, it's two games in, so I'm not too worried about it. There's not a high expectation with the flames this season? Well, for Wolf's story, three games total. Yeah, I barely watched the Vancouver game. I thought they were. Cool it was good.

You coolly wasn't. All right, don't get distracted. Tell us. But the pucks that are going through Wolf are the, or is what concerns me. Because you're going to struggle. It's, I'm not like I'm not worried about it, but for a smaller goaltender who plays tight, low to the ice, seals ice low, he's had two breakaways against and they'd both gone through his five hole.

If you watch his stick on the replays, I don't know where it's going. He's had a, he's had a, albeit, uh, kind of a one, timer from the top of the circle and I think game one against Seattle and Calgary where it just kind of blew a hole through his glove. At that point, the game was over. Like, this is all excessive stuff. If he, if he makes two or three saves, they still lose three one. I get it. Like, that's, at the end of the day, he's not going to steal these games. But do you not think, too, that the weight of that, he's always been an underdog his whole life. He's had to punch up his whole life. He's had to prove to people that he belongs. And now he's got a contract that he belongs in the National

Hockey League. So what does that do for his mindset? He's making a lot of his mindset. He's making and seven and a half sheets this year. Good on him. I think he's a great goaltender. It's going to take him a little while to grow up. Honestly, it will. It's adversity again, which he's not familiar with. Now people know who he is. Now people understand that he's the number one goaltender for the Calgary Flames. He's had to prove it to people all along.

Now he's like the flames have bought in saying, we believe you, go out there and carry on. And that's a bit of a different focus for him. I'm sure he'll feel, he'll figure it out. But it's been a bit of like, holy smokes. Like I'm here now. Now I've got to be consistent. and you know the biggest thing about goaltending is just consistency, knowing what you're going to get from them night in and night out.

Well, I hope you're right. He's not terrible because it's going to be good. Serious question. Yeah. They changed the rules. The CBA and the union got involved, and they eliminated fitness testing. For you and I, would that be a good or a bad?

Like, do you know what I mean? Like, great, because I don't have to go fail the fitness test, and they know, but bad, because I'm sorry. so out of shape I can't, you know what I mean? Like, it's a fine line. Like, sit and reach for me was excellent. I got unbelievably flexible Hanford. You have long arms. You have extremely long arms. It's like, it's somehow that tests your degree of fitness. I'm all for it. Yeah, that leads to more goals. Yeah. You're right. Um, I just don't like fitness. The guys are machines now. It's a 12 month of year job. Like they don't take time off. Right. They, they don't. The fitness testing

part, what they're trying to sell is the fact that we don't take our foot off the gas pedal. We're going 12 months a year. We don't need to test us. I think it's important because it's just a mindset that you get in and you get charged up. I'm a bit older in that regard where it just you get to camp fitness testing is the first thing. That was a scariest part for me at any training camp I went to. It was terrible. It was so stressful. Like I would be, I would starve myself, literally starve myself and I would still get like 10.2% body fat and like, oh, hey, fatty, back to camp. I'm like, you have no idea how hard it took me to get down to this just so you know, right? Like, there's a lot of work involved in this. I just think for me, it's a trigger for

training camp. I don't know how you get there and just start practicing. I don't. Like, I like the fact that you have to yell at the people from the University of Calgary when they're screaming at you to push harder. You want to knock them all out. Like, I know they're doing their job, but they're, give it hard and go more, do more. It's like, shut up. I'm doing the best I can here. It's over. It's over. But it's done. It's done. Like, I mean, you think you have to, you think Nathan McKinnon's upset that there's no, no fitness testing? Do you think Connor McDavid's upset? I don't think.

I doubt it. Right. We're going to need you to get the vibe down at the dome. I'm worried that we've been selling this, at least from our stupid studio in Martin Loop, that we need to rebuild. We need to bring in youth. We need the kids to play. That's what we want. And we've got everyone's on board.

This is great. And we're three games in. And for some reason, even in Mardaloupe, I'm getting a vibe from Saddle to Em Rise Way place that maybe they're stressed out. And I'm concerned that it might get to be too much where it's like, fellas, patience, let's calm down. Let's make it a fun place to be. Because if we get all worked up, make for one hell of a long season.

So you get a feel for us. And it's the idea, people. Everybody's got an idea. This is what they should do. This is what they should do. Everybody in this whole city too says, tear it down. We've always been in the middle of the pack. Let's really see what happens.

But now you have to pay for it. Now you're paying for it. And this is exactly what you want. And I get it. If people are wondering, oh, do you really tear it down to the studs now? Like look what that looks like three games in, the sky is falling. There's more pain to come. There is.

You have to be prepared for it. You wanted this. I wanted this. You're going to, you're changing the direction. There's been, they've been hanging on for a while, just hoping that there's, They're going to get a bounce or they're going to get, you know, they're going to get into the second round or they're going to get into the playoffs. And they've had some great performances from individual players throughout this time where they've gotten close.

But at the end of the day, they've always ended up in the middle. And what is everybody bitching about? Oh, the murky middle. They can't get the first overall pick. They can't get into playoffs. What are they? Well, they're pretty damn close. Three games into getting the first overall pick.

If that damn lottery wasn't getting in the way, they'll, they will get better. They will. There's a ton of new faces. What that better means probably won't translate to a ton of win. but they will look a little bit more cohesive, right? They'll be chemistry on the back end. There'll be chemistry in the four lines. You know, you know, Zari's taking a lot of heat.

Now he gets sent down, like, this team's going to, people are, oh, what's happening here? Didn't give him a chance. Sam Bennett, like, these are the decisions that come along with it, whether you agree with it or not. You are now limping along. I remember being, are playing with the hitman in 99, when Ken King would come down to the dressing room

and say, hey, like, there's no, coming to the hockey game tonight. Here's 50 tickets or 100 tickets. Like just give them to your billets, give them to people you meet at them all, given to people on the street. We just want to kind of pack the Saddle Dome. And you know, Calgary fans got to stick by this. This is what we want. You got to support the team. Yes, it's not the ideal scenario every single night and you're not going to win and you're getting beat out of the building, which is embarrassing. It's not good. But this is what this is part of the pain, unfortunately, and hopefully it doesn't last

longer than it needs to. Yeah. I think. that you think about a silver lining like everyone wants to get into that new rink that's going to help put ticket sales. Where's your office down there? That's right. You got a nice aquarium in there? Something to jump into. Did you pre-order?

No, no. I get to sit in my truck, my old 2012 F-150 in the back and eat a hot dog and then fly up to the to the concourse, do my hit and get the hell out of there. Do you like being in the concourse? Would you rather be up in the press box for people

can't mess with you? You know what? I've been messed with Dean my whole life. And I have zero problem with people coming by to give you their opinion on that panel. You know, they come by, there's a lot of them. There's a lot of them. Mostly it's positive. Sometimes it's like, you know, it's a lot

to take. You got to swallow it, right? Just park it like right there. Push it down. Right, push it down. It gets up and I'm like, hey, wait a second. You're a professional on TV. You're wearing a tie. Right? You're wearing a crisp, double Windsor tie. You can't act like an animal out there. You got to be, you just got to say, thank you, sir, enjoy the hockey game. Go plane's goal, right? That's right. It's good to see

you. Oh, it's good to see you boys do. We've missed you. I'm happy to be back. Just, we've had this conversation before. Just, it happens to come up. Just, well, this, I'm doing this thing. I want to do this, but I'm also doing this. It's just, you know, just. You're in charge, Cron. No one's pushing you around. No. That's true. I refuse to be pushed around. That's it. Yeah, nice. Self-top.

Nice. Big plans for the Thanksgiving weekend? Oh, man. Thanksgiving is the best because it's Christmas without the expectation of gifts, right? If you can eat the same food, you can do the same thing. You know, there's one hockey practice, maybe two. And everybody's just a giant ball of grease and turkey and nobody cares. Oh.

And the best part about Thanksgiving is the day after when you can put it on a nice, delicious bun and you can put a little bit of dressing on there and you can eat your side fixings and you just sit there and you wear your favorite robe that now only comes up to halfway good beats me between my wrists and my elbow right it's a checkered one that doesn't fit me that well anymore but i do wear shorts underneath and a nice is he shirt preferably dark in case you get a little drizzle down the gym that that hits the top of the barrel and you just sit there and you just enjoy yourself turn your phone off and you relax it's the best ever it's honestly it's I am so jazzed up for it it's unbelievable the bills play yeah yeah football right oh jeez top of the barrel to you britt yeah

happy thanksgiving good to see you buddy take care of yourself thanks for having me on boys you bet you got it