Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Catching Up With Andrew Walker | FN Barn Burner - December 29th, 2023

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

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As you can probably see, a very special guest joining us on the show today. Barry? It looks like you've got some butter on your lens. This is the big leagues, folks. Yeah, that looks good. Andrew Walker. Oh, or maybe not. So it's been a while since we've spoken on or off the show or anything.

I'll let you do the reveal. Walker joins us from... I'm in Davos, Switzerland, home of the Spengler Cup. I think your listeners and viewers will recognize that name. Davos, Switzerland, covering the tournament? No, no, not covering anything. Just hanging out, just hanging out in the mountains. And I'm basically a private chef for my hockey playing fiancé.

That's basically the extent of my life. Freeloader. Yeah. is what it is. There's a lot of questions. People will be, but it's, uh, it is, it is legit. You're in Switzerland. When did you essentially, now for the, if the Canadian government happens to be watching, are you all good? Or are we going to be going to be some federalis banging on your door here? So how about those flames? What a crowd at the dome the other night. They were really into it. I've been here for a certain amount of time and, and, uh, I, I'm not sure how

much longer I'll be here and and yeah. There's some details still to be working. We'll assume that, we'll assume that Trudeau isn't watching. You, so I guess walk us through your 2023. Let's start in January and move forward. Yeah, 20203. You know, I was, as you know, we were, we kind of made appearances on each other's podcast.

I got into the podcast game for a little bit. I was doing a head. Big guest. Big guest of yours. It's pretty much the reason why I wrapped it up after a year because, you know, I did my best to have some big names and had a lot of fun with it. And I think my three top viewed shows were all you. So I was like, okay, this isn't, I got to quit this. This is what you're talking about.

So I did that for a year and it was a, it was a really fun experience, but it was a little eye opening in the sense of, yeah, you know, what, what, I'll be honest with you. I started it believing it would be my parlay to get back into media, to get another job, you know, figured I was, you know, young enough, good enough, whatever. And during that year, I had a lot of fun with it, but it just really, it just really hit me across the forehead that everything has changed. The world has changed. The media game has changed. And, you know, it was, it's just kind of over.

So, you know, I was able to walk away on my own terms. had a lot of fun with it. I did it for a year. And I had been doing a kind of a normal person job, a sales job on the side. And I just hopped into that full time. And so that's what I've been doing for the last year. And, you know, my girlfriend now, fiance, buried the lead a little bit. We got engaged over here. A little bit, yeah. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. She, thanks to your, thanks to your jewelry sponsor for.

Yes, that'd be Vinova. Calgary's exclusive home of lab-grown diamonds. Of course. Vina Nova. Give them a ring and they'll give you one. Ah, it's not it. Pretty sure that's it. But anyway, my fiance, Angie, plays hockey.

I mean, she's an engineer first and foremost, but she, but last year, she played her first year pro in Switzerland. And we decided to, well, basically I came over at Christmas to visit her and we made a trip into Davos to watch the Spengler Cup, right? A bit of a bucket list thing. And while we were here, we met kind of randomly the executives of the first year Davos professional ladies team that plays in the Swiss League. And they basically put on the full court press to sign her and didn't let up, good on them. And anyway, long story short, you know, she was only going to do it if I could come over here for a year with her.

and, you know, everything in life kind of worked out. So we decided to do it. So it's been a fun little adventure. I've been here. You know, my favorite thing in the world is watching her play. And Davos is, I mean, it's, it's, it's, you got to see it to believe it. It's just incredible. I know you see some of the, some of the pictures on, you know, every year from the Spangler.

But the rink is, it's like field of dreams for hockey, basically. And it's a, it's a winter. It's just, it's perfect. It's not the wooden, the wooden. and Rafters. It's unbelievable. And they treat it like a kind of a community rink, too. Like, of course, H.C. Davos plays in there and the ladies' pro team plays in there.

But I'm playing on a men's league team here and we play in there. Like, it's insane. So it's been pretty awesome. And our apartment is right across from the arena. And so they're all setting up for the Spangler Cup already. And we're going to be here for the whole thing this year. So it's pretty cool. And she's having a great year.

so it's just been it's been awesome so won't be here forever it's probably going to be one and done and i'll be back in canada in the spring and uh you know back to the grind but it's been pretty awesome so you now she's not from there your fiancee no she's a st albert girl okay yeah yeah so how long yeah how long had she been playing over there how did that all kind of her path through hockey it's interesting she like she was a um a high end player growing up you know did all the, you know, the AAA stuff, the travel stuff. And then, you know, right, she got basically weeded out of the national program at, you know, 15, 16.

You know how that is. We just like, we live in a insane country for hockey. And even, honestly, even just playing like men's league and rec, like you realize how fucking good we are at hockey in Canada. Like, it's crazy. You want to feel humble? Just like go up one division in wreck, right? Where in Switzerland, you feel like you're like the best player out there.

and we're just so deep. So anyway, she is in a very high percentile for women hockey players in the world. But, you know, she was basically told, yeah, you're not national team material, you know, a long time ago. And so, yeah, so when she was playing, you know, midget and stuff like that, she got recruited to Ohio State, Harvard, you know, U of A, all these great schools. and she just decided that she wanted to get her engineering degree. And if you know anything about, you know, high-in- The U-V-A in with Harvard there, Ohio State, Harvard, U-A, all these great schools? For college hockey, for right up there, for sure, yeah.

You know, it doesn't quite have the name value of Ohio State for sure. Or you decide. Yeah, but she decided she wanted to get her engineering degree and you just can't play a high-level NCAA-S-W-W-A. sport like taking that type of degree it's impossible so she just took time off you know she spent basically you know 10 years getting her schooling and meanwhile just played beer league and um that's where i met her we were just playing beer league together with the guys and then um you know after covid or whatever she just had this she had this itch that she wanted to scratch she wanted to prove a little something

to herself and she decided that she wanted to try to play a high level somewhere and she had an opportunity to work and play in Switzerland. So that was last season. And it was a, you know, she had a good year, but it was a big learning curve, learning process, you know, you know, getting out of the beer league type of thing. And it's really good hockey over here. Like, you know, all the Olympic team plays on, you know, different teams in the league. And, you know, she learned a lot and signed in Davos this year.

So one more year. And she's having a great year. She's leading the team in scoring and has to wear the flaming, helmet and the flaming jersey. Yeah, that's a thing, right? It's the, it's a Switzerland thing. Yeah. Yeah. I was over in Finland. It was a long, long time ago, and the leading scorer had to wear what now are the Vegas Golden Knights gold shiny helmets. They all wear them, except back then, the leading scorer wore it. I don't know why that is. It's like, here's the guy you need to slash across the wrists. I'm not sure what it was intended for. She hates, her and other girl are

kind of they're close. So they kind of trade it back and forth. And they, they both like it when the other one takes it because it is a target for sure. But it's all, I mean, the teams here, it's, I love the hockey. It's so fun. But it's not the NHL. Like even the Swiss National League, it's not the NHL, right? You carry your own bag and there's, you know, NHLers littered everywhere in this league. You know, but they need ways to generate revenue. And this is the, it's the post finance top scorer, right? So they pay big money. And every team Switzerland, whether you're a kids team or their version of the NHL, the top score, where's the flaming helmet and the flaming jersey. So, you know, it's kind of fun.

I don't think, well, never say never. I don't know if Gary Bettman is going to bring that over to Canada, but it's... Let me get some jewelry, but hey, Vina Nova, maybe even sponsored. I'm not sure. Give them a ring. Yeah, there you go. So what's the time difference? Because I'm just wondering, how close have you been watching hockey or sports? Because you've been there a while now. It's difficult. It's eight hours. So, you know, noon, your time is 8 p.m. here. Hockey is in the middle of the night, two, three, four in the morning. I will get up once in a while if I'm Joneson for some hockey. We, you know, we subscribe to the NHL TV or whatever. So I'll pull an all nighter once in a while. My work schedule isn't crazy over here. But what it's great for is still NFL Sunday because NFL Sunday starts at 7 p.m. So I can still sit down and get all my screens and go through. that. So that is definitely like a taste of home. I can still do NFL. Every other sport is really difficult. And you flip on the channels here. Like it's so weird. Or you go to the bar and there's sports on, but it's like cross country skiing, like, or biking. Like people go nuts for it. Nordic

stuff. Oh, like, that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, I wasn't sure because you talk to the Eastern time zone, what's the best time zone for watching sports? It's not the Swiss Times. zone. No, definitely not. Yeah. So how, aside from sports, what's, what's some of the things that were kind of tricky to get your head wrapped around or just your lifestyle with that kind of a time change? Well, you know, it was, the timing was good.

Uh, because, you know, Angie and I had spent, you know, the better part of a year apart, right, aside from a couple of visits. And, you know, with all the changes in my life or whatever, it was a, you know, I was a bit of a stress ball. So coming over here, I knew it would be a little slow and it has been, but I've tried to embrace it. You know, I'm still doing, you know, some work back in Canada, but I work when I can, right? It's kind of half hours, half pay kind of thing. So it's pretty slow. This is a ski town. And so, you know, my first number of months here, it was kind of off-season. So there wasn't a whole lot happening. Now it's starting to get going, which is kind of fun.

fun. So yeah, you know, my days were, and Angie works and plays hockey and practices every day and everything. So there's a lot of time by myself. There's a lot of time to kill. And it's a little slow sometimes for sure, but I'm just kind of, you know, enjoying spending time together and get to watch her play hockey. And it won't last forever. I'm, you know, I get a little bored sometimes, but I'm just trying to embrace it. And I'll, you know, I'll be back in Canada soon enough. So are you a, are you a skier? Because, you know, Warner, he's a mountaineer. He always talks about how he's a big downhill skier. Do you enjoy the slopes?

No, I don't. I feel like, I feel like it's such a waste. I don't ski. I don't snowboard. Oh, okay. I thought you were saying skiing is a waste. Yes, that you are in Switzerland and not skiing. I feel like you're missing.

I look out my window, it's dark right now, but I look up my window and it's like the Alps and like, you why people are like walking around with their ski boots. And I'm like, yeah, I don't ski. You look out your window and it's Mount Crumpet is right outside. your door. It's a mountain called the the Jacob's horn. Like, it's right there.

It's like world class. Yeah. And I just, yeah, I don't. I don't know. I'm not going to learn like with a month to go or whatever. However long I'm here before the government kicks me out, you know, like. You could. You're right there.

You have this time in your hands. But you know, as I get older though, like I've had this conversation too. It's just like I love, I love playing hockey. maybe it's because I didn't play enough as a kid, but like, I'll play, I'll play every, I'll play every day. I'll play three, four times a week. I do back home. I go on as many skates as I can. And I love to golf. I love hockey. I have my things, right? I love watching football. Love watching hockey. Like I have my things. Like I can't do everything, right? Like when we, like, when we work together, I played competitive baseball for years. But I eventually, like, gave that up because, like, you can't

do everything and maintain our relationship and whatever, right? So I don't know. I have my stuff. You know, it's just skiing's not one of those things. And what am I going to do? Fall in love with skiing. Then I moved back to Alberta. Now, what, every weekend I got to drive to Banff and pay for lift tickets and hotels. And I don't even want to tempt it, you know?

Yeah, it's, it'd be the damnedest thing if you fell in love with a sport. I don't. I don't. I don't have to move to Alberta where those mountains are right there as well. Like, shit. Well, it's, you know, it's kind of one of the reasons why, you know, we took a little trip into England a while ago and we went to an Arsenal game. And it was really cool. But I like, I'm like, no. Like I'm not getting into this. Like I'm not getting up at two in the morning back home

watching the gunners. Like I'm not going to do it. Right. So I have too much stuff. That's, it's why like I would fucking love college football. I would love it. I can't watch football all day Saturday. I already watch. You have too much stuff. You're talking, you just told you. all this how you don't have stuff going on. We do a little bit of work and then you just kind of cook. Yeah. Yeah, here. So when you come back here, you have too much stuff going on to have hobbies.

You're too busy. Well, I just, I just know, I just know how I, how I do things. Like, like, I watch, like, I, I've literally watched every NFL game for 10 years, like every game. And, you know, like all, all. watch so much hockey and like my fantasy football league and say i just i take things to the next level golf like i love it i want to do it every day the only thing stopping me is price sometimes same with same with like rec hockey like i'll play every day and i just don't need more things like that you know

this is maturity this is this is yeah i was going to say it's not so much kids or or that sort of thing it's i i just watch so much football man i don't have more i don't have time for more football Let's take a look at what's on the menu for DoorDash. DoorDash is more than just restaurants. It's also grocery stores, flower shops, pharmacies, whatever you need. DoorDash can go grab it for you. Also, they've got double dash, multiple stops, one trip, pay for one delivery. Love that. All on one trip, have it arrive right at your door and left safely outside with their default contact list delivery setting. Also right now, check this out. Limited time off. Our listeners can get 25% off and zero delivery fees on their first order of more than $15 when you download the DoorDash app and enter the code, Nation 25. That's 25% off, up to $10 value, zero delivery fees on your first order when you download the DoorDash app in the app store and enter code Nation 25. On the menu today, we've got a little midday special for you.

1130 today, Canada, Sweden at the World Junior Championships. that is the host Swedes against the Canadians. It does not get much better than this for your holiday season hockey viewing. Love to see it. Later today, 530. Raptors and Celtics from Boston. Great history between these two clubs. So we got some hockey.

We got some hoops. That's what's on the menu for DoorDash. Don't forget that promo code, Nation 25 for 25% off your first order with DoorDash. Offer valid in Canada. Subject to change, terms apply. Dash that for the win. because I knew obviously you were you were going over there. You haven't talked a ton as I got, I got so.

I got. I can't. I can't. I can't wait till like nine months from now when you send me pictures from next year, Spangler Cup. You're like, oh, it's great here. Like, yeah. Have you ever been to Switzerland? I just off chance decided to go check out the Spangler Cup.

For those that don't know, my, my, my joke was. And Walker moved to, walking, you got to come out for a visit. it you got to come out to Toronto you got to see me here I don't really I whatever and then he moved to Vancouver and I think I was in Toronto about a month later after what two how long were you in Toronto four years four years yeah and then you left Vancouver and I was there weeks later so well we'll always have Vegas what date are what date are you leaving just so I know when to plan I should start looking for a flight I don't know that's not up again that's not up to me I've

revealed, I've revealed too much. You really have. When I think of you over there, I think of that fat kid on the Simpsons who has all the chocolate, I've had too much chocolate. You know, that, that loser kid, I figure, you'd be big and chubby by now. That's the way I think you do. Yeah, I think he's German. I'm sure it is. It's just, you know, same thing. Swiss chocolate, Swiss Alps. Do you own lots of army knives? Do you have a lot of watches? There's a, there's a lot of chocolate here, and it's really good. Like it's trouble. Yeah.

The beer is good. It's like Switzerland is, it's so expensive. Like it's, it's, it's, it's like, you just have to like suspend disbelief. Like, it's so expensive except like, like, like the best wine in the world because it's like France is right there. Italy's right there. Germany's right there. It's like super cheap.

Like everything is mind numbingly expensive except like, like, boo. booze. So that's pretty good. Yeah. That sounds awful. So is there an opportunity for Angie to stay with the club or stay over there? Is there a chance that you could be long-term Europeans? Or is that even kind of something you entertain? Yeah. She's having a great year. Beyond playing, right? If there's a hockey job for her or something. Yeah, we'll be back. Again, like I said, she's a pretty high achiever. She's a superstar. So she's anxious to kind of get her engineering career back at home going.

She had a lot to prove to herself, I think, hockey-wise. And she did. And the team desperately wants her to come back, right? They'd sign her to a new deal tomorrow. But, you know, she's not going to want to do it by yourself. I don't think legally I'll be able to be in the country for another year. And so, yeah, we're kind of, we're kind of planning to to be back. And, you know, like her first year playing in the other city had its ups and downs.

And, you know, she wanted another kick at the can, you know, because she wanted to be in a spot, you know, where she's playing on the top line, top power play. And that's what Davos has been for. And, you know, so she's done that. And I think we both feel that, like, if she signed for another year, it would be, it wouldn't be quite as good, right? would be just a little, be like a little different. Like, you know, they're playing a big game at the Spangler Cup next week or in about a week and a half, which is going to be unbelievable. There's going to be a couple thousand people there. They play an outdoor game and in a town called Stod coming up on the second, which is going to be unbelievable.

I love Stam. And yeah, I mean, so you do, you do all these things. And like next year, it's like, it might just kind of be the same, right? It's like, okay, it's another four-hour bus trip to Lugano. Like she's done that already, right? So I think she's decided that, that, you know, she has nothing left to prove and we'll go back home, you know, with friends and family. So in terms of just keeping a focus on things,

whether it's hockey or the old business that we used to be in or, you know, podcasting or whatever, how closely do you monitor what's going on in the landscape? Or have you kind of, I guess you talk about the hockey, which is a hobby and watching NHL that that's different i suppose just professionally are you in tune with what's happening back here digitally and terrestrial life a little bit i it's almost like um you remember the moment for you like when you like you're still a hockey fan you still love the game but you remember the

moment it changed a little bit like you were you were too much on the inside you saw too many locker rooms you saw too many millionaires uh and so you just knew that like you're never going to be a fan like you were as a kid, right? Like there's a little thing that changes. And for me, on the media side, it's kind of the same deal for me. And so when you got to that point as a fan of the game, you kind of stop cheering for teams. You start cheering for players, right? Like, you know, guys you know or guys that you cover or guys that you like.

And I think with consuming media, and I've consumed so much for so long and produced so much for so long, I root for you. I root for a couple guys that I work with in Toronto. You know, I hope good things for their career. But I'll admit there's a pretty big sourness. And I try not to let it consume me, but there's a big sourness, a big, a lot of bitterness. When I look at the state of media and I see all the frankly just shit, talent. and shit people and shit management and like, you know, corporate this and corporate that.

It's frustrating because I've dedicated my whole life to it. But there's not a spot anymore for me. And so I'm over it. I'm happy with my new life. But I'm never going to be. It doesn't sound like you are because I guess the point I was going to make is you sound eerily similar to how you were near the end here. And kind of getting on taking a break from really everything.

North America, you were taking a break. I wondered how if maybe the pot had, you know, if the boil had come down a little bit, but it's still bubbling. I don't think that'll ever change, but I dwell on it less. I'm talking about it now because I'm talking about it with you. I don't lay awake at night or anything like that.

But, yeah, like, you know, I'll forever be, I will forever feel like my career. or something I was good at was kind of, you know, pulled and, and I was robbed of it. Like, I'll never get over that. All I can do is go on to the next thing and, you know, be as good as I can at it. But, but yeah, I don't, like, put it this way. I'm not, I'm not subscribing to, you know, again, I watch you guys all the time. I, you know, your friends, but I'm not, I'm not subscribing to people's podcasts.

Like, I'm not, oh, it's a new Leaf's lunch. Like, fuck that. Like, I'm not consuming any of this shit, right? Like I just don't, I just don't do that anymore. You know what we are? I was trying to think of who else would be in that category. We're, we're Dary and Hatcher. Remember there was a time when Dary and Hatcher was a big prized free agent making all the money.

Goes Dallas to Philadelphia's this guy's, these guys, this is a star. And then almost overnight, it's like the game doesn't need Dary and Hatcher anymore. Well, yes, but he couldn't, but he couldn't move. right i don't think derry and hatcher's like i'm still good it's like no like you can't do it anymore i can still do it yeah yeah i guess fair i don't know i just think about uh it was it was going so well and then very quickly it uh it shifted i mean do if you can i don't want to get too deep into it but i would be what else do we end up talking oh it's fine i'm kind of fine to talk about it. Yeah. Like, do you,

do you miss it, I guess? Because I, people will ask me, you must be so, they'll say, you must be so happy, you're so happy. I'm happy to not be getting up at three in the morning. First and foremost, that is, it was the, it's what I was leery about at the beginning, and it was the main reason I left at the end. It wasn't the coworkers or the job or the content or that it was

none of that stuff. I just hated getting up. and you must just love it. It's so great. And things are great. We've done very well. You know, knock on wood, everything's going great. Very fortunate. But it's not the same. It's when you were finished the show at a radio station, there's people milling about, you know,

there's the secretary in the office, and there's salespeople, and there's promotions, and there's people from the news department. and everybody's kind of here you finish the show. You just kind of shut the laptop and you look at each other. Or right, because I've been doing a lot of stuff from home, just kind of sit here in the room. I guess that was a thing.

I don't know. We talked for a couple hours. I don't know. Was it good? Because even the way you do this is different than the way you do that. I do kind of miss there's a bit of a, there's a bit of a buzz that you would get from being on the air, so to speak,

isn't there with this. There's there's other things that make up for it, I guess, but it's not the same. Yeah, I think like probably like, I don't know, midway through my career, like when I, when I kind of hit a new plateau and I was working in bigger markets and doing bigger shows and covering bigger teams, I would always, like work is always work no matter what you do. And I'd always have to kind of remind myself, you know, it's like, hey, like this is pretty, this is pretty cool. Like you could be, you know, working, you could be like installing insulation with your brothers, but not your cover in the Leafs and Habs on Saturday night.

Like, it's, you know, it's cool. You know, so I would remind myself with that a lot. But I would say what I miss is kind of, like, I never had to think about it. Over time, like we, you know, I did what I did for almost 20 years. You've done it for longer. And, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that'll say, Walker, you suck. but I was good at what I did. And I do miss, I miss having a purpose.

Like I miss being just naturally really good at something. Like I didn't have to, you know, like people will be like, how do you do that? How do you talk for four hours? How do you like come up with opinions? And it's like, I don't know. It's just, I'm a pro. It's what I do. It's like the same reason I can't figure out how to some guy, you know, fixes my car, right?

Like I don't know how you do it. And people can't do what we do. And, you know, I, I, I, I, I miss. I miss just being, like I worked a lot. I put in, you know, a lot of years to be good at something. And then I had to start over. And, you know, I can be good at something else. But I do, I do miss that. It's not like I loved every second I was on the air. But I miss being just good at something, right? In a high percentile of something. And so I, I do miss that. I feel like, I do feel like it was, you know, my calling and my purpose and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, we're, we the world the world changes. It's time to take a look at some flames history for McLeod Law. You know Peter Klein at McLeod Law. He's the personal injury guy.

But also, did you know he's the go-to guy in Calgary for your disability insurance claim? If your long-term disability insurance company is refusing to pay insurance benefits to you, contact Peter. He'll get you the disability benefits you paid for and that you deserve. I'll get you your peace of mind back. The peace of mind you paid for. Also, McLeod Law,

very proud of their Calgary roots, entrenched in this. community. It's a big part of their long-standing client relationships. They understand this city, the people in it, and the way things work here in Calgary. Like the communities they serve, McLeod Law, very diverse, and they share a commitment to making a positive impact on the city of Calgary. I'll tell you what, December 29th, pretty quiet for Flames history. It was on this day in 1998 that Andre Treflov was added for a seventh rounder, pretty minor on the scale of deals, but I tell you what, yesterday, a huge day in Flames history. Not only did, but it's a lot of

did you have a Phil Housley extension, a multi-year re-signed deal back in 1999? But December 28th was a big day in 2002 and 2010. Both involved Daryl Sutter. In 2002, the flames were struggling and Daryl was brought in, hired as an interim head coach. That was a big turn for the Calgary Flames. Daryl and the club started playing some great hockey down the stretch. And of course, we all know what happened the next season, 0.3, 04, Daryl's first as the head coach of the hockey club a trip all the way to the Stanley Cup final.

Now, fast forward a bit, 2010. Daryl was now the GM of the hockey club, no longer the head coach. Sutter resigned on that same day, December 28th in 2010. Jay Feaster then took over as interim general manager. An eight-year run for Daryl starting with the coaching position in O2, wrapping in 2010 as the outgoing general manager. That was Daryl Sutter 1.0 back yesterday. 2002 to 2010, December 28.

Busy day in flames history for McLeod Law, whether your challenge is business or personal, they're in it with you, professionals with a common goal, helping clients meet their goals. MacLeod Law, check them out online at macloud dash law.com. One thing for me that is always,

it's still awkward or whatever you want to call and people understand, is when you meet new people, oh, so what do you do? well I have a podcast um and you almost feel like I used to be do I used to do something like there was a time where I used to be a professional like you say I used to had done pretty well raised got through the ranks I was hosting a morning show on a radio station that was oh hey real oh wow that's pretty I host the podcast never kind of gets that reaction so everybody yeah everybody in their dog

has a podcast so what do you do to make money what what is your job. No, it's the same thing. Well, it actually took me a while and I stopped doing this with people like, oh, what do you do? And my natural instinct was like, oh, I used to work for SportsNet. It's like, no, I sell industrial stuff.

Like, that's what I do. That's what I do now. My buddy beef, it was the same thing for him. So what do you do? Well, I run recreational hockey leagues and I've got a hockey tournament that I run in the summer. He would just people I work at the jail. Oh, really? Yeah, I, I shoot birds at the airport. He'd come up with

something just ridiculous and stupid every time just so people would just stop asking him. So he had not go into details to. I run a, I run a raffle. Yeah, I run a pig draw. I have a pig draw that I read. Hog draw. Yeah, hog draw. That's what it was. Yeah. Still haven't found that winter. I'm sure he's out there somewhere though. Yeah. I mean, what? So when you, like, Do you feel like you're done, done? Because I know that there's some people. When they're done, the bitterness gets to a point, it's like, F that, I am done.

I don't need that ever again. But it's kind of like Brooks in Shawshank. Almost don't know anything else. Yeah. Just trying to get back into the jail somehow. I don't know. I mean, you know, it's funny. So the Angie and the ladies team here, they're off.

Like they're going at their break now. So tonight they did kind of a friends and family game. And so we played with them tonight, which was a lot of fun. And the GM of H.C. Davos, his name is Jan Alston. And he's a Canadian guy actually from Quebec, but he played. Didn't play in the NHL, played national team and then played for years in Europe. Nice guy. And so I texted him and said, hey, I don't know if you still put on the scale.

but, you know, we need players to play against the ladies. And he's like, I have not put on the skates since my last game 15 years ago. Like done. Like not even at a little twirl at the outdoor rink, right? Which is bizarre to me, but some people are like that. So no, I don't know. I'm not actively looking to get into it. You know, I think the media world, I mean, I obviously tried the podcasting thing,

which was, by the way, it was going all right. but I looked at it from the, you know, the big lens. And, you know, is this is, is this what I'm going to be doing for 20 years? I just didn't see it. You know, and I look back at that. And again, I don't know if anybody cares about this conversation. They probably thought we were going to talk about the flames and oilers. And they're just bored to tears right now.

But I kind of look, not that are similar, I suppose. You tried to kind of do everything. You didn't really have sales help. You didn't have internet help or if you did, you had to pay for it and it was beyond what you could afford. You just, you needed some support that you didn't have. If you were able to just focus more on doing the show, kind of like what we've done here. And there's drawbacks to it, right? It's, it's our, we have creative control over the content and it's our company and it's our thing.

but there's it's not free range but the same time there's there's some things that we don't have to worry about yeah and i think also you know i i tried to just force content right like every day probably should have made it twice a week um i probably shouldn't have gone all in it probably should have been a side hustle kind of thing but uh but it was kind of a go bigger go home thing and I had some wins and it was and it was paying the bills but again for me it was you know how sustainable is this um you know where's my where's my RSP's like where's my health care like I don't know you know um so I just it was a little unnerving and and plus I had this other thing you know sales thing that it was going pretty well and and I just thought it was I thought it was time

but I wanted to give it a good year You know, I, I, I, I, I, you never, you never, right? Like, you know, maybe media changes again. And, you know, it's a couple years and everyone wakes up. It's like, hey, like, how about we get, you know, some talented people doing things? Like, you know, I worked with a lot of guys like you have too. It's just like, how does that guy keep getting jobs, you know? But I don't know.

The world changes. There's someone else news in charge. So, you know, I'm not, I'm not waiting by the phone. Um, I think it's, uh, you know, I tell you something I'd love to do. you know, we live in Evanston when we go back and, and, you know, this is just, you know, as an aside, but like I love what, you know, Jason Greger and those guys have done. They said, fuck it, they opened a new radio station, like an actual AM signal, which I think is great. I would love to get a call to guest host for a week in a summer.

Like, I'd love to do that, right? Just no pressure. Get behind the mic. Just talk some sports. I think it would be a lot of fun, but that's as far as I've thought about it. Well, I mean, you know where Gregor's home is. It's the Nation Network. It's all, I know a guy.

Oh, yeah, because they shut, they again, the shut the doors on TSN and Edmonton. And then you were left, well, what are we going to do? And you know what, kudos to both he and Nielsen up there are kind of doing their own thing. They found a, there was a struggling radio station. They had a signal and a transmitter and a whatever you call and a CRTC certification. And I love it. I don't even know if it's like the right long term call, but I just love that they went back to AM radio.

Like, I don't know. Maybe Evanthin's a little different like, you know, blue collar, more people driving around, but just like it needs an AM signal. Like get that sports talk on. I listen every day. And it's in with Tascoen, right? I don't know.

I have no idea. The radio station, I think, is with Tascoen. So it can't be worse. the frequency of 1260. No, I was back. That was just, it was so hard to listen to. Down, you couldn't get it. See, that's the one thing. That's the one thing. I know because, you know, 960. It's not what it used to be, but it gave us a lot of us are our big start, our big breaks. But like that signal was borderline illegal, man. You could get it in New Hampshire. Oh, yeah. The skip. You get the AM skip. They'd call it. Oh, I could hear you in, you could hear you in Toledo.

Toledo. You would be like in Ladoque and you couldn't get Edmonton stations. You get 960 clear as a bell. Yeah. I remember when I was working in Edmonton at Ched, you would be able to, because you had 630 Ched 1260, it was exactly double the frequency for like, and you could sometimes hear 630 bleeding. This technology is ridiculous.

So I'm with you to a point. I guess there's some nostalgia there. but aside from going into a station and sitting in front of a microphone that's got a mic flag on it or something, I don't know that it's, it's all what you make of it. It's what you treat it. I don't know. Everyone's like, I don't know if what we're doing is the right thing either. We're going every day. We're doing a live show. We're talking about how to incorporate different things moving forward because if you sit still, you're falling behind, especially in this technology, in this day age.

I don't know if we're doing the right thing or not. This goes back to, you know, we, you and I had lots of long talks when, you know, you guys were starting it up. And it's different than me because I bounced around. I went everywhere. And you guys just have one of the great brands in the country, truly. And it would have been such a shame, such a wasted opportunity. I mean, there's such a big listener group and people love the flames. And I think that was one of my problems too.

It's just like, yeah, I can talk about everything. and I like to think I'm entertaining, but I don't really have that home base of people. Like, who am I talking to, you know? And that was one of the problems. You guys know exactly who your audience is. Yeah. And when you start doing,

because I've talked to other guys, right, I'm going to do it. It's going to be a national show. It's going to be broad general. If you're doing a broad and general, that focus becomes wide, you're in the pool with everybody. Yeah.

How do you separate yourself from everybody? where, yeah, we're not going to get as big as some of those shows if we continue this way. But in our little pocket here, we're pretty dialed in with the people that know what, they know what they're going to get, I suppose. Yeah. So what do you think of the Oilers? Because I know you'll be watching them. Now, spoiler alert, we've pre-taped this.

This is going to air. Obviously, when you're hearing this, this was recorded prior to Christmas. Let's just go that far. lost a bunch, won a bunch, and at this, as of now, losing a bunch again. Goaltending, they can't get saves to save their life. It's another year for Drysidal,

was it two years for McDavid, the hot seat for old Kenny Holland. He's got to have major swass going up there. I don't know what you do. You got to trade your first router. You got to get something. You got to go all in. But I don't know how you fix that up there.

Yeah, I mean, there's been so many games where you compartmentalize, right? Like there's so many games where you're like, oh, they lose again. Like, Oilers are going north. It's like, yeah, they gave up six goals on 21 shots. Like, you just can't, you can't win that way.

Like, I'm not about to be like, the Oilers are shit, McDavid's shit and Holland shit. It's like, you need saves. And, you know, Skinner was a Calder finalist. Like, he's an important piece of the organization. But like, you need two goalies almost in every market, unless you have Baselowski or Shisterkin.

You need two goalies in Calgary. right so um yeah i mean i think at the end of the day and he has to wear this but like the obviously the the jack campbell all our chips in on this guy it might end up costing the oilers a couple of stanley cups really when you look at it because you're you know you're running out of time with those guys and dry tidal still on an amazing deal um and you know i'm not one of those guys that's like oh they can't get it done i don't they went to the conference final. That's pretty good. You know, they lost the cup champs. They went right there with Vegas last year. You know, they lost in game six. Vegas wins the cup. Like, I, in my opinion,

the Oilers have been right there. Yeah. Um, you know, like it's, it's, uh, it's not like they're the, you know, the capitals that lost in the first round eight years in a row. To me, they've been right there. And this year, it's been, I know McDavid had a bit of a slump and, and was hurt or whatever, but like, you know, the second they started getting saves, they won eight in a row. Like, it's pretty good team still. Yeah, I was going to say, How's your goalie? Well, which week? Last week, goals against like 1.6, 1.7.

This week, 7.1. So it's, you can't, you can't rely on it. It's an interesting, if it does go down and they don't win and whatever, if dry side of leaves or just, however, when you look back at this and if it is a failure, if they don't win, what was kind of the turning point? Like you say, was it the Jack Campbell, five million a year? This is our goalie deal. Was it a Darnel Nurse $9 million deal? I don't know. No, to me it's the Campbell.

I mean, I get it. I defend nurse a little bit because, you know, yeah, he gets paid too much, of course. But, like, you know, he signed a big free agent deal, which was like the going rate for number one D. And, you know, at the time, this is still like, hey, it's a free agent that wants to stay in Evanth. And you better extend them. and he's not unbelievable. He's a better offensive Brandon Carlo. So yeah, he's $6 million, not $9 million.

That's not your undoing. To me, it's the Campbell deal. And it's not like, oh, you know, we have no money left, but who else are you going to sign? Like that was like who, like even if even if the cap didn't matter, like who are you going to go get, right? There's not that many number one goalies out there. Maybe the turning point was,

you remember Markstrom had to decide whether he was going to have, or Calgary. You know, maybe he chooses, maybe he chooses Ebbington, maybe they have a Stanley Cup already. I don't know. My understanding there was, everyone will tell you something different. My understanding was that was strictly a play

to pull another year out of Calgary. That there was never really any strong intent to go up there. It was a fallback kind of a thing, a negotiation thing, but it's neither here nor there, I guess. Village Honda presents the road ahead. A reminder, let your automotive journey start at Village Honda in the Northwest Auto Mall or at village honda.com. They've got new in-stock inventory on the ground. Start your adventures with new vehicle pricing at MSRP. Also, Village Honda has a huge

selection of used vehicles, all makes, all models, all budgets with over 70 on site and access to more than 400 in the dealer group. Make sure you start with Village Honda in the Northwest and online at Village Honda.com. Well, for the road ahead, let's take a look. Flames are wrapping their two-game homestand to close 2023 in a couple days against the Philadelphia Flyers. The New Year's Eve game is a 6 o'clock start and then boom. Off to the road they go. Calgary Flames will wrap their season series with Minnesota on the second to 6 o'clock start from St. Paul. Then into Nashville, Music City, another 6 o'clock start on the 4th.

They'll close the road trip with stops in Philadelphia, an 11 o'clock matinee on the 6th. And then the second half of a doubleheader, another early start in Chicago at 1 p.m. on the 7th. That's a four-game road trip. Minnesota, Nashville, that closes with the back-to-back, Philly, Chicago. And the flames will be back to face Ottawa on the ninth, a one-game homestand. It's a stretch of six out of seven on the road. Once they're done with the New Year's Eve Flyers, busy stretch of travel coming up for the Calgary Flames. That is your road ahead for Village Honda in the Northwest Auto Mall and online at Village. Honda.com.

You look back, it's kind of like when you put that roster together, well, you kept Nugent Hopkins. Well, the deal he signed was so good, right? He gave you such a hometown discount on this most recent one from last summer. Evander Kane, I don't know that he makes them better, but again, you're not overpaying him. It's manageable. Heimann is an unbelievable player.

I do that signing every day of the week. He was the one. I just wonder when you keep going forward, forward, forward is, was there another, was there a defenseman? Was there something else that could have been done along the way instead of adding forwards? Well, when they did, you know, when they did that at home deal last year and then one, whatever it was 18 of 19 going into the playoffs, it's like, this is a good, this is a good team. And then goaltending was kind of their undoing. And this year, goaltending was really their undoing.

I just think it boils down to that. Like every team's going to be flawed. I truly think, you know, they're a contender. I think they're good enough. You know, I, I, every, they'd love, they'd love to have their D man. And for sure, the nurse money hampers you a little bit. But I watched that team. And there's been a couple times I've gotten up for like, like, like 4.30 AM games.

And I've watched them just like, like even the other night against Tampa. They just had a club record for shots. They out shot them like 57 to 20. And they lost seven to four. Like, you just can't. I don't know what I don't know what you do. You can't. What they need to do is win enough games to squeak in to like the wild card or third in the division and then do what they, you know, in 2006, they got Dwayne Roleson at the deadline.

And he was unbelievable and almost won in the Stanley Cup. Like they need another goalie. I know, I know, like I was, Ranta was on waivers the other day. And I was like, I was like, what about that? And I was like, what are we like, what are we, what have we come to that I'm like. I know. You know, it's like quarterbacking in the NFL. Are there not, there's 32 teams.

Are there 32 guys that can be close to elite goaltenders in the world? I guess not. Not even close. I guess not. So I'm looking here. Kaepernick, Dean. Yeah. I'm looking here today and the Vancouver Canucks, as we record this, are one point back of Vegas for tops in the Pacific Division.

You were there for a stretch of time. I'm, I don't want any, not look at a shit talk anybody because I know how it went there for you and everything. But just in terms of the team, Besser has had an unbelievable bounce back. Quinn Hughes has been on another planet. They've come back down to earth as you knew they were going to. But between Demko and Hughes and Pedersen and J.T. Miller, there was the whole, do you keep Horvatt or Miller? Miller's been good. That's the right call.

They made the right call. They've made a few calls with Patrick Alvaden. And the coach seems to be the right fit. Are you stunned with this turnaround in Vancouver? I'm not stunned. I'm actually a little stunned that they were such just big fucking losers like every year when they had so much talent. It's true.

Like, you know, I had a, I'll be honest. Like it's not like I advertised it, but like whatever it was, like 60 or 70 to 1. I threw a few bucks on the Canucks to win the cup the last couple of years. Because like they're, they got a lot of talent there. Like some of these guys are really good. I love J.T. Miller. Quinn Hughes is, is a bona fide Norris content. and it's just like, why, why are they so bad all the time?

And, you know, you get a few saves. You bring in a coach that doesn't run it like a country club. One of their big problems, like a lot of teams have, it's like they gave the keys to these young punks way too early. And, you know, they're soft. They didn't have enough veterans, all that kind of stuff. But those guys grew up, you know, over time. And, you know, Pedersen's not a kid anymore.

He's a man. And, you know, Brock Bester is, I'm not a big Bester guy, but he's having a great year and like it's about time right he makes seven million he's always hurt he never scores he's putting it together for a year right um i don't know if it'll last and i and i still don't think you know i i think there'll be a playoff team and you know losing the first or second round or something like that but um no i'm not surprised i'm a little surprised it took so long to get here to be honest they made a couple obviously you knew demco was coming they were patient and they waited there they made the right move because you keep Miller and it felt like that Miller was the guy

but it was going to go. Horvatt was the captain. He was the loved guy there and that they were going to and Miller's kind of the, he's the American, he's American, right? He's kind of a wild card. Is he happy? He's a malcontent. They went the other way.

And then you get that, you get the pick and then you pick up Philip Horonic. You don't kick it down the road and use the pick. You bring in Horonic and he's been great. I don't know about Zedorov. I think that people that haven't watched him on a game by game basis think he's better than probably what he is, but he's still a big, solid guy that can eat some minutes. The Heronic ad was big. Miller was a win.

And we watched them here, I guess it was a few weeks ago. I'm trying to remember. That was the overtime game. They come at you. They're younger. It's a different Vancouver team. Like you say, country club, I don't know if it's talk it or what. it is, but it has to be, it's got to be one of those things. We talk about it a little bit.

Guy like Rod Brindamore, guy like Rick Tocke, you don't have to have played to be a good coach. But if you have played and you played like those guys did and they're your coach, you better bring your lunch to practice to the games because those guys will probably still outwork you. They'll outlift you in the gym. And if you want to go behind the rink and throw a few, they'll probably be happy to do that too. I just think that there's, there's, there's, some real built-in respect with guys like that. Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, I thought talk was the right hire.

And I'll admit when they announced, because he was hurt at the time, they announced, you know, because what are they last place last year again? And, oh, we're trading our first round pick for Heronic. I'm like, oh, my God, guys, you're doing it again. I know, yeah, yeah. That's just, you know what?

That's just really good pro scouting because those defensemen don't grow on trees. and he's been a rock back there. And you add a player like that and it just pushes everyone else down into the proper role. And, you know, I think that, you know, I don't think the best thing will last. Obviously, Kuzmanko's come back down to Earth

from his almost 40 goals last year. You know, this is a team that for whatever reason, I don't know why, but they get so many injuries every year, which I don't think is an accident. I think that happens to certain teams and certain players. So I think they'll come down to Earth, but, you know, they're a, they're a playoff team, you know, and that's it, that's the, that's the first bar. And they have a good, and they have a good goal, right? You put, you could put Demco on the Oilers and they might be chiseling that thing in June. And what about the team here? I don't know how closely you've, you've watched. They start the year, they get a win on opening night over Winnipeg, a game where they were outshot.

They, I mean, they're probably fortunate to win it. There's a six game losing streak in there. and they looked awful. There was a game against St. Louis. Couldn't complete a pass. It was a debacle. It was the worst. As much of a tongue lashing as Husk is going to give a team, he basically said, you can control your work ethic,

and there's no work ethic right now. And since then, the wins maybe haven't been there, but they've been consistent in effort and in try. There have been some results. They're in a lot of games. We were looking at this month of December, Pindra call it's the gauntlet run because it's Dallas and Vegas and Colorado. It's all of these teams that are above the playoff cut line.

You think by the time it's said and done. And they've been above 500 with no power play. Their power play is complete dog shit. And the goaltending has been just okay. I just wonder if in the back of my head there, if we can get a first for Lindholm. Okay, great. And then we'll spin them off right away for it,

a defenseman. Oh, it'd be that kind of same thing, right? But maybe there's something to that because you get a draft pick or whatever they're going to do here. And then, oh, so that's next June. You're going to draft the kid then. How many years away? I don't know if there's, like you say, if your pro scouts see that there's somebody out there and you can spin one of those assets in a hurry, maybe it's worth it. But I don't, I still don't think they're a playoff team prior to the game the other night. They had one win in their previous seven. But because they've been invested and playing hard and in every game. It doesn't feel like a horrendous string of losses here. Yeah, I think that there's no, you know, you guys watch a game to game, you follow it game to game.

You know, the team plays hard. You're in a game. You compete. You look at the standings. You're close. That's all well and good. I think big picture. There's, I've just, I've never seen a more obvious thing. it's you know it's it's unfortunately you can't get it right down to the screws because of the hubbard or stuff which you guys have talked to death but um yeah you can't you got to trade lindholm you got to trade hanofin like you just have to you have to and and yeah it's not necessarily about draft picks draft picks because yeah you're right that takes a long time you know but the you know more like the you know the sharon govich deal you know you get a young player as opposed to a a second round draft pick that you can fit in.

You know, I just, it reminds me a little bit of, and I'd probably talk about it a little differently, but when we worked together in Calgary, and the team was forever in eighth or ninth, and they had a Ginla and Kippersoft, and they sold a bunch of jerseys, and it was hard to talk about the team game to game, because I was just always like, what are they doing?

Like, I can trade these guys. Like, you're no good. You're no good. But there's more to it than that. Obviously, you're not just going to trade again left. Then they should have, I guess, in retrospect, because they didn't get anything for them. But, you know, it was just incredibly evident that, you know,

they just weren't, they were nothing special. You know, and this team's nothing special, you know, so if you get the chance to, you know, move Backland or move Hanifin or move Lindholm. Lindholm, sure. I mean, Lindholm's the center. You got to do it. Yeah, Lindholm's the center.

you got to move him. I was thinking about that one kind of the other day. I was just going to, just some of those teams that we, we watched back then. You had Bowmeister and Ginnla got traded and Kiprasoff,

basically. And you were never going to trade Kipper. He was never going to go anywhere. Well, they had the trade done. They had him traded to Toronto. He said, I'm not going to Toronto. It's just so Kipper. Kippers got his jersey.

He's got his jersey retirement coming up in January or in February. Is he really coming? Is he going to be here? Will he come to his own? He didn't go get the Vesda. Will he come to the Jersey retirement? They might have to send someone to get him.

Yeah. I think he'll probably, they got him for the Zoom call. So I think it would be awfully embarrassing if he didn't show up. But there were some, those teams, they just kept trying to, we'll bring back Tangay again. We're going to trade Yon.

We're bringing Yokin and back again. It was wild. That was wild. And I, you know, I get it. They were a little, they were a little pot committed. And, you know, I'll go to my grave that, you know, again, his last few years here was a little checked out, right? Get my 30. My favorite moment, I tell the story.

I've told it on the podcast before. But it was just like, it was so perfect for those teams because they did have talent, you know, but it would have been a lot harder to finish eighth than ninth because then you got to play a playoff series. And like Darrell Sutter said, waste of two weeks. but doing the exit interviews with the media, Green Garbage Bag Day. They always say the same things. And Kipper always escapes out the back door, so he'd never do the media.

And it was fucking Tongue, who like, I kind of like him, to be honest. I really like him. I really like him. But like he won in Colorado and then he didn't care the rest of the way. Shut it down. Got his points.

And he comes out and meets with the media. And, you know, the same classic, he's like, ah, you know, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, it's just we really wanted it. And he's wearing a titleist hat. It's like, Alex. Yeah. Could you, like, he basically had like his golf bag over. He's got this hockey bag on one and the golf bag on the other.

Yes. How long is this going to take? I've got a 215. Yeah. Like we just, everyone in this room just really wants to play next week. Really? Do you? No, you don't.

This second. This segment is brought to you by our friends at Finning Cat, improved productivity and efficiency with equipment you can rely on. Go to finning.com and check out their extensive inventory of new, used, and rental equipment to find the right solution to meet your unique needs. The apart, it's never been easier with Finning Cat's online service, invest in the future of your business. Check out the latest at finning.com. Well, if you're paying attention earlier this week, the I-digit goes to a little history that happened in front of our own very eyes and, well, computers. And in the year 2023, before we even got to 2024, Chris LaTang, something that's never been done in the NHL history before. Hmm, I doubt it. I mean, the league's been going for a long time since like 1917 over 100 years.

What about five assists in a period? Whoa, five assists in a single period. Letang set up five goals in the second period against the Islanders. He would add an assist in the third period to make it seven nothing penguins. Crystal Tank finishes with six assists in a single game. This is absolutely nutty. The last defenseman to get there. Gary Suter, the Calgary Flame, April 4th, 1986, that same year, Paul Coffey with Edmonton.

You know, that team with those guys and all those rings and those cups? Coffee Head 6 March 14th, 1986. Prior to that, it's Ron Stackhouse, Bobby Orr, Pat Stapleton, Babe Pratt back in 1944. It's a short list. None of them played with goalies as good as the ones Chris LaTang has faced in his career. An incredible night. I dig it. Chris LaTang, six points in a night.

A D-Man, no less. This is wild. Let's hear what he had to say. post game. Only after the game. I think Todd mentioned it to me, but he was not 100% sure. But we confirmed it in the room.

But it's one of those nights that it seems like everybody seems to score every time I gave it to them. So it's one of those nights. Invest in the future of your business. Check out the latest at finning.com. Finning cat, Cat, an official sponsor of the NHL.

And thank you to Finning Kat for joining us for another episode of I dig it. Congrats, Chris LaTang. I just think of the from Darrell to Jayfeaster. Brent comes in to coach the team. Hartley comes in. Like for Keene in that hole, it was a circus in that rink for a good five, ten years, which is basically our time there. But also looking back on it, you know, because you want the team to succeed and and again like being young and fire and brimstone and like losing your mind and

feeling like you know like losing your mind like we need you trade this guy but like it was so dysfunctional at times it's like that's exactly what you want to cover like that's that's the best yeah right it's all the chaos um and there was a lot of chaos in those days you think about j feaster had to do the again le deal had had a kipper deal done and kipper said no yeah had the He had to do the Beaumester deal. They got nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Like nothing. And you know who they got? They got the guy that I watch here in Switzerland. Rito Berra is still playing. Oh, it was retrobeiro. And then they signed the offer sheet to Ryan O'Reilly. Oh, could have been like the worst. Right.

I mean, smart. Good scouting. O'Reilly was turned up pretty good player. Now, I've heard conflicting story. but I still, someone, if, if you are a hockey person and you have knowledge as to whether the story is BS, but for those that don't remember, the flames signed Ryan O'Reilly, who then of the Colorado Avalanche was, he was holding out and playing in Europe. Well, he wasn't holding out. He was an RFA who didn't have a contract. That's kind of different.

It's not like he had a contract and wasn't playing. Okay. It was in it. Right. So he was, he just didn't come to terms. They didn't sign him. He didn't so he came over to Europe to play while he was waiting for something to get worked out. Flame sent him an offer sheet. He signs it. He's a Calgary Flame unless the avalanche want to match. And whatever the, you know, compensation was, it was a first and a second and a third. It was a bunch of picks. And the avalanche very quickly say, no, okay, we'll, we're going to keep them. We'll sign that deal. We'll match that deal. The Calgary sign them to. Calgary, you can beat it. But had, but had they not, had they said, yeah, whatever, too rich for our blood, you

can take them. Give us the picks. Yes. The rule would have been because he played, I think it was two games in Europe. He would have had to go through the waiver process. So the flames would have lost all their picks and not gotten the player. Yeah. And you would guess, yeah, somebody's going to pick them on waivers. Yes. J.P.S. Pack your bags. Yeah. And I think that was almost the pack your bags anyway. There were a few people who were around at that time that, that aren't anymore and weren't very shortly thereafter. But it was just a, another one of those comedy of errors that took place. I just remember visiting media coming in.

It kind of pull you aside. What the fuck is going on here? What's going on in Cal? What's going on with this team? What are these guys doing? You know what they're doing? I don't know. I forget who I was talking to.

It was the Brandon Prust deal with Yokin and Prust for, it was Higgins and Kodalik from New York. And the deal was done, except they were going to play another game. and they had to play game. There were so many of these deals that like the Funfuf thing. The Funf deal was done with Toronto, but he had to play another game and the guys in Toronto had to play games.

My first day in Calgary working for 960 was the day of the Funf trade. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that trade because that's pre-Internet. We have no idea. Phone goes off. It's Sunday morning.

And Funuf's traded to Toronto. For what? The Monday would have been the day of starting. We don't know. We don't know. All right. Down to the rink, which is what we do. You start going live. And by then we had we had the results of the trade. So you're waiting for the Anna first and two firsts and picks and young, the young prospect, the young stud is no. Freddie Schuster. Is he young? No, no. No, he's not. No. Ian White. How many how many beers did he have? on the charter coming over? Like, a lot of, a lot of issues. Yeah.

Are you surprised? I was always surprised. I've talked to read about it. And I guess once it's that give a shit meter that we talk about every once in a while. Because Funuff comes into the league, called her nominee. Every time you get around World Junior time, you see the double D on and just what he was at that low comes in. He can shoot.

He can fight. He can skate. Right. He was a superstar. And a conversation. like I remember doing sports radio conversations and I know it's like low brow, right? It's like, you know, Manning or Elway?

But it was like, who would you start your team with? The winger, the center or the D? And it was Ovechkin, Krosby, Funuff. That was the conversation, which is insane to think about. Because he goes to Toronto and, what was it, seven times seven? I'm trying to remember what that deal was, the extension he signed there. He becomes the captain. Yeah, when he signed, yeah, when he signed the.

extension, I was I was working there. Yeah. Yeah. And it was not long after that. Him and Kessel I think signed on the same day and Yeah. Yeah. And then his the hits stopped and the goals stopped and everything just kind of slowed down. And then the next

thing you know, he's an Ottawa senator here like L.A. King. It was a very unceremonious end. He had a bright for a short amount of time. He had a solid NHL career when you look at his hockey DB. But like, you know, if someone 30 years from now looks at his career,

they just wouldn't get the full picture. Like I would say that, you know, he would tell you probably he's proud of what he accomplished and he was a solid top four defenseman for his entire career. But when he came into the league, I would say, I would say his career was a letdown. Yeah, that's, that's, it sounds horrible to say.

But you and I, but you and I also saw him in Red Deer. And we saw him. He's the best junior player I've ever seen. The best, the most dominant. Yeah. He, he, he was so physical and big and strong and fast. It was like that five tools. He's like that all start, just everything you wanted.

And I don't know if it's, if it's the money or if it's just getting older. The, and I guess we, maybe. all would be the same. The want and desire to throw your body around. Because that's the thing people don't, well, I should say people that you also will hurt the odd time when you lay a body check. You're constantly hitting and pounding and skating and going. You've got the money in the bank. You've got the life you could have never dreamed of. And it doesn't really matter how hard you go tonight in two nights, in four night. That's. sort of I just wonder if some of that was it.

I've got everything I need. I don't need to. It's like the, the old fighter that doesn't need to keep fighting anymore. And to be fair, like, you know, we all love the highlight reel over the middle hits, but more often than not, they'd lead to a two on one. And it's Roman Hammerlick and Robin Regier happened to clean everything up. You know, like he had to probably evolve his game a little bit. He wasn't always going to be a human highlight reel.

But he was just always, like we had that, you know, oh, like Darnell Nurse is not a true number one. Dion was just never really a true number one. And I don't know if he could have developed into that. And, you know, the attitude and work ethic weren't there. But, like, I just remember, you know, when he was in junior, and that was, I'd like to call it, like, the golden age of the WHL. Every night there's a first round pick coming in. But Brent Seabrook would come in and Shea Weber would come in.

And Dion would take those guys lunch money, right? There's no reason why his career should be three tiers below. Seabrook and Weber, which it is. And you look, and you think about it, I mentioned Dary and Hatcher, right, and how the game evolved and left him behind. I feel like that 18-year-old Dion could step in today and be the same. It's still tailored for his

game. Fast, it's not as physical, but man, he could do everything at high speed. He was amazing to watch and it just kind of burned out. Does Zovechkin catch Gretzky? I've always said, It was fate accompli. No questions asked.

I actually made a bet with one of my good friends. Like, we made it like a year ago, two years ago. Round of golf anywhere in North America. I'd said he'd break it. He said he wouldn't. And I was like, just book the tickets already. It's happening. This is the first little stretch where I've ever thought like still a lot of goals away.

And he does not look like the same player right now. I still think he's going to break it, but I'm starting to think now it might be a little more crawl over the finish line than I thought it would be. He scored like, he was there almost 50 again last year, right? So maybe it's just, yeah. He played a game against Calgary early this year. And I think we were all kind of,

we all kind of come around. Yeah, he's going to do it. He's still, look, he's out, he's Ovechkin. He's still flying around. It was the game that Calgary played against him. Warner the next day was like, I don't think it's going to happen. He looks out of gas.

He doesn't, he's, he is a liability to them now. You're going to be using him on power play and empty nets. Yeah. And you know what? And he could, and he might, and he might still break it just being a power play guy.

Yeah. Like I watched a game. It wasn't the Calgary game, but I watched a game a while ago. And guys were just skating around him. And it was the first time I had that same thought. And I was like, oh, my, like, I don't, it has to get better than this. And like, he'll probably still throw in his 25, but like, what if he scores 18?

What if he gets hurt for a while? Yeah. Right. He's been fairly healthy. What if he misses some games along the way? I don't know. I wouldn't cash out. Yeah.

I wouldn't cash out of my, I wouldn't cash out of my bet if I got the opportunity. But I'd have to think about it. Yeah. I don't know that I was. rooting for it? I guess, sure. If Wayne's rooting for it, then I can root for it. And it just looked like that clip he was on. And now there might almost be something poetic if he can't get there. You know, that is just how many goals it is. The premier goal score of this generation played this many years and scored these amount of goals and still couldn't get there. And again,

this isn't, you know, breaking news to anyone. Gretzky wasn't even a goal. score, right? It just shows how statistically dominant he was. I mean, and I look at the OBE stuff too, and politics aside, I don't give a shit about any of that, to be honest. I see a guy that like, like, how do you score 50 every year? You just keep doing it, keep doing it. If you're going to break the record, go nuts, right? But I don't want to see him, I don't want to see him, you know, be carried around for three years. That's no way to do it. No, you know? Yeah. Have you watched any of the Detroit Red Wing edition of Patrick Kane?

A little bit. It's been a little underwhelming. I thought it was just waiting for the pinball machine. You know, the pinball game to light right up. It's not quite been that yet. Well, as Rhett likes to say, it's a pretty good league. You know, you know, getting older. Actually, I think it was you that said it was a pretty good league.

Oh, yeah. And then Rhett's like, yeah, you know, I played in it. Yeah. Thanks, rocks. I played it. I know. I'm just kind of looking around here. I'll tell you who I like.

I like the Devils. I like the Kings a lot. The devil's goaltending stinks. That's the only thing with the Devils. I've got to do something. I look this morning, Schmid and Bannich. Devils are fun. Kings might be the best top-to-bottom team I've seen.

Colorado's going through it right now. They're a little sketchy. Vegas is obviously good. Man, the Kings are, I love the Kings. They're built to win, man. If they get saves, the year the Kings won their first cup, I remember them, they came into the dome,

flames were playing out the string. Or maybe they had a little, you know, Tongay had a chance to get eighth, maybe. But the Kings came in about probably three or four weeks to go in the season and won like four and nothing. And it was just, it was, they did everything they wanted. I remember turning to you and being like,

they might win. Like no team's beaten that. And sure enough, then they won. Yeah. They were a buzzsaw. Yeah. Yeah. And they came in.

They were the seventh and eighth seed at that point. Time for our Betway. Betts of the day. Betway our official gaming partner. Be sure to download the app. Get it on your laptop, your phone, whatever it is. Betway, bet the responsible way.

19 plus Ontario only. I'm looking at some futures in Major League Baseball. Okay. while some of the dust settling on the MLB off season, no splash bigger than Shohei Otani arriving with the Dodgers. In L.A., he moves up the freeway from Anaheim, and his Dodgers are favored to win the World Series of plus 600. I'm all over that.

My other futures bet in the majors, how about Atlanta? They were the best regular season team we've seen in ages, plus 650 to win the World Series. If I get the Dodgers and the Braves, both at plus 600, 650, one of these two hits. We're laughing. There's some big game hunting in the winter. Love those odds for two of the best teams out there, period stop. Dodgers are plus 600,

Braves at plus 650. If it's an NL World Series, I like my chances of cash in. Those are our bets of the day for Betway, bet the responsible way. You remember this better than I do, and we can wrap it here at some point soon. The Christopher Steig bet that we had, do you remember the details on? that. Oh, yeah. Game 82. Like, so unbelievable. I know, I knew you'd remember because I, try and tell people the story. I don't remember. It was something with points or whatever. What was the, our, our bet with Verstieg? Verstieg, who, you know, former Red Deer Rebel, obviously. We, so we're always partial to those guys. It was, uh, we, it was just starting, like,

I had just kind of figured out that there was life beyond sports life. You could like bet online. right and my favorite thing because i i i love fantasy hockey and hockey pools i found like over unders on points season long points like this is unbelievable this is like easy money just pick the right guys and restig who is uh he went to toronto and i like even though he had like i think he had like 45 points and 60 games in Toronto not bad at all but like everybody hated him for some reason. I can't remember why. And then he signed in Philly or got traded to Philly. Yeah, yeah. And his and his over under points in Philly was absurdly low. Like it was like, it was like 38 or something. Solo. Like it was like, free money, right? And of course, he got hurt.

So it was not free money. It came right down to it. And it was 38 and a half or something like that. and he was at 38 in the last game of the season. So I needed one more point. And we had whatever, 500 bucks on it. There seemed like a lot of money at the time. I was going to say it was probably about 50 between the two of us if you look back. But it was big money then. And yes.

And so I'm watching the game. And I pretty sure it was a meaningless game. I'm only watching it to see if Brestig gets one point on the final night. And they're up. They're up a goal, so other goalie leaves the net. So it's empty net. So there's a chance. He's on the ice.

And time's ticking around. And there's like six seconds to go. And there's no chance. Like six seconds to go. The puck is like in the team, whoever they're playing, Florida or something. It's in their end. And Florida has possession and like breaking out. Like there's no chance.

And the guy turns it over. And Rick is. is off a stick and with literally 1.2 seconds to go from his own blue line, Versteig wheels around one times it all the way down in the net with like 0.2 seconds to go. This is the greatest sports betting win of all the time. And God knows I've lost bets like that. Like some guy hits a meaningless three to, you know, break it up. But I will always remember that one.

It was a miracle. All of the stars align. You were right on that. You needed one more point. And he had to one time it. Like he had to one time it. Like look up the, look up the,

you might be able to find the goal somewhere. Like at 1959 and he had to one time it. We used to have him on the show and I've tried to stumble my way through it. Because he's one of those guys. He remembers details. I remember this game. I remember that scenario, that sort of thing.

And I tried to lay it on to like it. Well, I always, I always had such a soft spot for Verstique. because he was a sixth round pick or whatever by Boston. And he played in the Western League as a 20-year-old, which is kind of a death knell, right? If you're playing as a 20, you're not playing in the NHL.

You're going playing college or something. And he played for Red Deer, and the Red Deer teams was really bad. He was playing, like, you know, he was playing defense. Like, having Brent made him play defense, like, just brutal. And then he, like, got traded minor league deal to Chicago, and then almost won the go. goddamn Calder, right? He was a great story and became such a huge part of that, those teams, you know, and this was like really good story. This was a guy that, you know,

he had some issues in junior too. He was kind of moved around a little bit and had to, had to leave Camloops for whatever reason. Yeah, Lethbridge Camloops. Lethbridge Camloops. Yeah, and even Reddier played as a 20 team won like eight games, right? It wasn't looking great for him. And he had an amazing career. Yeah. I guess greatest as a fan or as a spectator, because you've Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, sporting moment that you were in attendance for, greatest memory. I mean, it's not, it's not close for me.

I mean, I was at, I was at a lot of the Oilers 06 cup run, which I'll vividly remember for sure. That arena was so loud. It was so loud. But when I was working in Toronto, kind of, It was a bit of a dream getting to kind of cover the Blue Jays on a day-to-day base. It's just really cool and, you know, growing up as a fan and they hadn't made the playoffs in 25 years. And then that whole summer of 2015, where they, you know, they made all the deals midway through the year.

They were like 50 and 52. And they like didn't lose in the second half, which you're not supposed to do in baseball. Like you're not supposed to go 45 and 14 or whatever they did. And that was, you know, Toulwitzky and Price and all that kind of stuff. And I'll never, I'll never experience something like this, like, as a broadcaster where, like, we'd go in. You wouldn't even do prep anymore. Like, you'd go in, you'd flip on the mic, you'd be like Blue Jays. And the phone boards would just be jammed full.

And you just talk Blue Jays for four hours. That's it. That's all you do. It was crazy. It was so much fun. And then I spent way too much money on playoff tickets. and my brother flew out. My brother, not the fat one.

I know here. You can never remember which brother. And my brother flew out and basically told his work back home. He's like, I'll be back when they're out, right? So he was planning on staying for the entire run. And then they lost the first two games to Texas, and it was just depressing, right? They were going to get swept first time in 25 years.

and they won game three and they won game four and then him and I were at the bat flip game game five crazy energy we were 20 rows up behind home losing our minds like that seventh inning I watch it once a year still like I go to YouTube I watch the whole inning just insane and like the you know Bautista hits that home run the stadium is shaking and the city just partied And again, it meant that Ben got to stay another week and a half in Toronto, right?

So that game, that game, just unbelievable. Everyone remembers the bat flip, but it is that inning. The chaos that preceded all of that coming to be a moment. It took an hour to play the seventh inning. Yeah, that whole thing. And that was now, because you're the Jays guy, was it not the previous round where Encanacion went deep against Baltimore in the wild? card that was the next year the wow that was the next year and we were there for that yes and that was an

insane game yeah um maybe the most stressful nine inning game i've ever seen because every pitch was hell like the like the like the like the whole game was always one base hit away from going either way and then edwin locked it off but the the game five the year before because it had been so long before any success. And what I remember, I remember a lot about that game five, but people like think of the bat flip like it was a walkoff. And it wasn't. It was like the bottom of the seventh. Yeah, there was more to do. But after he went deep, then you're like, let's play off baseball, right? You're, you know, hold on to your butts. Now Texas is going to do something. And at that time, it was Sanchez and Osuna. And then they came in and it was just bang, bang, bang, bang,

Texas didn't even get a base runner out. Yeah, they were done. Lights out. Yeah. My favorite part, and I don't know if I've talked to you about it. It's been so many years ago now, but my,

what of my favorite part, but one of my favorite parts of that whole, the Baltimore, Edwin and Carnaccio, is Matt Wheaters behind the plate. He's heard, he's heard home run balls go off of a bat. He knows what it sounds like.

He was going to go before. It's just, crack. He just stands up. He didn't look for the ball. He didn't need, he didn't. He didn't. in the dugout, but yeah, he was in the showers by the time the ball landed. He was out.

What I'll always remember about the Edwin game too is because like, you know, my phone was in my pocket. Like, yeah, Twitter was a thing, but we were in the moment. We weren't following on Twitter. And every guy that came out of the Baltimore bullpen, I was up kind of not far from where Edwin's home run landed, kind of by the foul pole. And every time the bullpen door would open, I'm like, it's got to be Britain. It's got to be Britain. It's got to be Zach Britain. And then it's the ninth. They get in trouble. It's like, you're bringing in, Ubaldo? Where's Britain?

And the whole section is chattering. And I was like, he's hurt. He's obviously hurt. Like, he's got to be hurt. And then Yubaldo comes in, cheese down the middle, gone. Like, no doubter. Like, you would have gone deep off, Ubaldo in that game. And then after the game, seeing the media in the scrum that, like, Britain was healthy

and available and Maddie didn't pitch. Sour. Like, Buck, what are you doing? Yeah. Buck Showalter was one. of those baseball guys, right? He was just, he is baseball. Don't use your closer on the road

until you're trying to shut it down. It's like, no, you got to use it, man. Buck Showalter, you'd be great to sit down with and have a beer and listen to him tell stories about telling the groundskeepers to, don't cut the left part of the infield to, you know, because all of this dumb baseball, but

you do not want him to manage your favorite baseball team, because he will frustrate the shit out of you. You build a thousand Bridges. I guess. Well, so just back to the old grindstone there, are you? Yeah, it's about, as we're taping this, it's about bedtime here. And yeah, we're officially kind of, Angie's hockey's done for a little bit, so we're kind

of officially getting into the holiday season. We've got some friends visiting for Spengler and expecting about 10 feet of snow and all that kind of stuff. So it's awesome. if anyone is interested and by you mentioned Dustin Nielsen I will see him in a little bit too because he'll be out here calling the Spengler for TSA. Oh nice.

Yeah and and also the one of the producers for that tournament for TSN they reached out and they want to do a piece on Angie. So if you're watching the Spengler and you're a little curious of Angie and H.C. Davos, you'll you'll see a little intermission piece on her. So that's kind of cool. we're pretty excited about it. And you'll be running coffees around in the back.

I'll make sure, I'll make sure she'll do the interview. And then I'll be in the next frame. I'm like, yeah, it's been a really good. No, I'll just make sure I'm. Dregs, Gord, Ray. Just make sure I'm in there. No. No, I did.

I did enough of that stuff. I was going to do it. I wasn't too caught. I didn't want to lose the whole thing, but I was trying to figure out how to hang up on you. if I could, like in the old days, ask you a question and then get you answering and then just hang up on you. But I don't have dial tone and I don't want to lose it. Yeah, you can edit it later.

I suppose I probably could. Good to talk you, buddy. That's the best part, the best part of you guys moving away from the archives that you had at 960 and onto barn burners that you don't have. Well, maybe you still do. I don't know, but you had way too many clips of me making a, make a national. myself. In fairness, the eclipse of everybody. What are the names of the cats? I just, I don't want to say. I don't want to say. Just tell us the names. You won't make fun of you. All right. Chubs and smoky as you start laughing halfway through the answer. Yeah. Yeah, I do miss those times.

I've still got the shovel though. I can still hit people over the head with the shovel. So we'll start putting out. We sent you a Christmas card by the way. You don't reply to my text. So, so thanks to your wife for giving us your home mailing address. So that should be arriving shortly. Okay. Yeah. And ours, too. So darn the mail service if it doesn't show. To Switzerland. Yeah. Good luck. To Andrew in Switzerland. Glad you're doing well, buddy. Enjoy, uh, go for skiing for F sakes. You know, I, I might, 10 feet of snow in Switzerland. And you, you're afraid to ski because you might like it. It's basically the long and short of it. And I don't like doing, I don't like being bad at stuff.

Like I'm not going to, I don't want to learn something, you know, I might, I might try cross country. I might go cross country. Cross country is the worst. Cross country, it's not even skiing. You know what it is? It's walking with big shoes. That's what cross country skiing is. That's snow shoeing.

It's terrible. No, downhill skiing. There's speed. It's a, you're cutting. You can skate. I mean, you have some coordination. Christ, if I can do it, you can do it. Spend a day on, go one day and take a lesson.

And then if you hate it, and don't, you know what, don't snowboard. Because you will hate that. No, that's hard. I, I snowboarded in high school and broke my arm and I just, I don't know. It's the worst. No, but it's thing. I'm going to go, like, rent all the stuff. Again, Switzerland, not cheap.

Rent all the stuff. You know, live tickets. Get up there. Not very good. Learn how to do it. And then, like, what am I going to do the next day? Go again? Like,

I don't know, man. I just think I'm not a skier. I just got, you know, they have a, they built a, they built a crazy outdoor pond by the rink here. It's, it's like field of dreams for hockey. It's unbelievable. I'll just go, I'll skate every day. That's what I'll do. So where do you skate? You figure out how to cut me off now? I don't know what, what do you talk about?