Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - FlamesNation Barn Burner: Calgary Flames AGM Craig Conroy Live In Studio

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

Live from the Tower Chrysler Studios in Marda Loop! FlamesNation Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener Wednesday November 16th, 2022- A look ahead to the Flames Road Trip - Betway Bets of the Day - Calgary Flames AGM Craig Conroy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All right, away we go. It is Barnburner on your Wednesday, Boomer and Pinder here in our Marta Loop Studios, Tower Kreiser Studios, sitting at his kitchen table in suburban Buffalo, where downtown Buffalo? East to Amherst? Where are we? Where are you? I ret Warner. Yeah, nowhere near downtown Buffalo, that's for sure.

It's Amherst area. Is it Amherst? Williamsville, Amherst, yes. Is it quality living? Is that where the fancy people live? you know, just down the street from Gilbert or whatever that kid's name was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The junior sabers duo. Yeah. Yeah. That town must be buzzing, hey? Never mind, Tage Thompson. It's the junior sabers third pair for the flames. The town is, the town is buzzing. The town is buzzing the,

that the sabers suck now. Oh. They've officially, they lost the conuckles last night. So that's no good. The people hate the Sabres again. They're losing heart with the bills. They're very concerned that the snow and the weather is going to lead to another loss,

which will drop them to, what, six and three? They're six and three now. Six and four. Yeah, six and four. The Browns come to town. They're going to run the ball. They got good defense. It's going to be a snowstorm.

It's going to slow down the bill's offense. Oh, my God. Things are not good. Someone was saying a month ago to you that they need. to be able to run the ball and stop the run in bad weather because it's Buffalo and someone else took great umbrage to that. Do you recall? I think they can stop the run. I don't think this is last year's defense. I think what you were saying was they're desucked and you're completely off base with that. Okay. Running the ball certainly could do a better job, although they're running back at two touchdowns last week or on Sunday. So, I mean, that's not terrible. feels like it's a lot of picks,

a lot of interceptions. It's a lot in the air. Second half. They run the ball in the first half and then just decide to air it out the whole second half, in any in all circumstances. It doesn't matter if you're trying to kill the clock

or anything. They're just going to throw it. Well, maybe then. Other teams don't... Sorry, what was I going to say? Because last year, remember that game against the Patriots. Didn't Mac Jones throw the ball two or three times? Yeah, I think you had like...

That's what Josh Allen should do. Just really. just run because he's good at that the throwing seems to be maybe not his strong suit right now he's got a bad wing maybe just just let him run every down well i mean teams do the odd time pick up on other teams tendencies so i mean if if maybe you were put to put yourself into a uh defensive coordinator's shoes you might know for another team you may notice a trend that the bill's boy sure throws the ball a lot, even when they don't need to. Kind of like a Pro Bowl quarterback would, right?

This might be today's show the most that what Western and Northern New, the state of New York, will be referenced on a Calgary show of any kind. Western New York. Right? More than any other, because we have a special guest coming up in studio. We'll tell you about it in a little bit. But before we go any further, time sensitive on this, I wanted to, because we are here in the Tower, Risler Tower Dodge Studios.

And what, last week we were down there, we showed you the photos of the Army Jeep. They were raising money for the Veterans Food Bank with Remembrance Day and all of that. They handed over a check. There it is. Quick $2,000 to the Veterans Food Bank in the middle with the Chapo.

That's Allen. He is the president of the Veterans Food Bank. And then Steve, on the far right, owns the Army Jeep. You see it right there. That's who owns that thing. That was cool. So $2,000 to the food bank, and they are continuing to collect food donations until the end of the week.

So if you are so inclined to want to help out, they need it. The veteran food bank is in need of food and that sort of thing. Your donations, you can go till the end of the week over to Tower and do so. Awesome. Awesome indeed. We have no flames hockey to talk about. It was a travel day yesterday. We don't know what's going on today.

Practice today at 2 Eastern. That's 2 Sabres time. We're at noon Calgary time. Off the beach, into the rink, get a skate in. Gosh, that hurts the, you put the gear on on the sunburn? Ah, Tampa. Tampa, the start of a six-game trip. The nine, six-and-one Tampa, nine-six-and-one Florida.

Philly's not seven, six and three. Pittsburgh, weirdly, the, looks like the weak spot on this trip. When going to Pittsburgh is the soft spot. Pack-a-launch. Yeah, and I feel like Philly's an interesting team right now, too, but fair enough. There's some good hockey teams. Four of six, I think, are real good teams.

But, I mean, if this was the Red Warner Days, you'd go into Pittsburgh and just kick the tar out of the, of the penguins, right? Is that how that works? Shove Yags out of the way, tell Mario to settle down. Think it easy Yags and Ronnie Francis was there. Stevens. It wasn't bad.

Some guys. Well, no, what's your take for other teams? If the flames are in a good spot because they've got lots of runway left, the other teams have lots of runway left to make up ground and stuff? I do. Because what, was the Penguins that lost six in a row, seven in a row as well? So they've had their rough stretch as well. And Tristan Jari had such a great breakout last year,

and it's not been great this year. I just think the difference is that that division's got a lot of good hockey teams, and I don't think the Pacific does. Like if you've got the Rangers, hurricanes, islanders, and devils above you. I think that's better than what the Pacific's got to offer above the flames, for example. And if not, the Penguins, it's maybe the Capitals. They lost the Florida last night.

So the Caps are 7, 9, and 2. That's the Friday noon start. Some weird starts on this trip. What are we going to do for the Friday noon start? Get hammered. Yeah, let's do that. Hammered. Do you Uber to work, please?

Yeah. And then Saturday 2 o'clock. Yeah? Hammered. Okay. This, that's coming up to this Saturday, Florida, 2 o'clock. Hammered? Hammered.

Yeah. All right. It's doing our part. I got kid hockey later. Is it okay if I get on the ice and do that? I'm sure. Do you know any other way? No.

Would hockey Canada advise me that or are they people we don't take advice from me? Okay. We'll just leave it long. Just stop. It's smart enough. Stupid. Let's do, let's do our,

because we have our guest here in studio. We'll get to him shortly. Let's get our Betway bets of the day taking care of. Kaka! You, now we didn't get to them yesterday, but you said you would have had some great success if we had. Great success is probably overstating.

I would have gone one for two, but it was a nice bet playing plus 220 for the Toronto's and the overs. Matt Murray, Casey DeSmith. That felt like if there'd be some goals, and it was a Leafswin as well. But the other one was close. I had a Barkov and Kachuk goal, and Barkov hit Kach settle for three assists.

So one for two, plus 220, we were in the Black Ink. If you could ever get a guy like Kachak, hey? If you could ever get your hands on a guy like, I don't know how you do it. You know what? You probably have to draft them.

It's probably the only way you get them. Well, and if you're drafting at five, like the Oilers probably take him a three anyway, so I don't know that he's there for you. What do you do? Yeah, that's tough. Let's go. Betway, beds of the,

I'll start, you start. Yep, three games tonight. Speaking of the Oilers, the, you know, the draft lottery balls shine upon that organization. And I'm going to go with the draft lottery double up, a dry sidel and McDavid goal tonight minimum, plus 300 against the kings

who've not been getting great goaltending necessarily. don't know if he caught the game. I think you did on Monday. We'll see who goes in, whether it's Cal Peterson or Jonathan Quick. And then I'm also going to do some more big game hunting in one of the other two games that we haven't mentioned. That's Ottawa Buffalo.

Tage Thompson's on a heater. Six foot seven. Move them to center. That'll fix them, apparently. And Brady Kachuk, he sees his brother get three assists. Well, he's got to have a good night tonight. Competitive, those Kachuk brothers. Plus 400 if they both score.

We hit one of those two. We're dancing. There you go. Those are your two. My two. some love for the Sabres retro. They've lost six in a row. You said the shines off. Everybody's down. They are, they lost last night, as you mentioned. On the road, back to back, six straight losses. It's perfect spot. Is it? That's right where they want it. Just the way

we like it. Just the way they like it. In Ottawa, to play the Senators plus 130. Give me the money line on the Sabers. And as you mentioned, Oilers Kings. Give me the Oilers to win money line. Leon. two or more points plus 162. It does. Two points. Yeah. And if the Kings want to play better defense than they did two nights ago here against the flames, might do them some good.

Would hurt your bets, though. It would hurt my bets, but for their own good, it might be... It'd be tough for them to be as bad defensively, I believe. They'd won four in a row at home and then they do that. Well, I believe Peterson... Don't think they would have looked like that in the win. I think Cal has a goals against over four. Cal.

So even if the chances aren't as good, maybe the goaltending won't be. as strong. Yeah, I don't see confirmation yet, but I don't know that either of those guys is hot right now. Are you excited for our guests today, uh, Red? Oh, yeah, big time. I was walking to the East Amherst, the North Town, uh, I think it's called the North Town Center now. It used to be called the Pepsi Center where we practiced. And I don't know if I sent that picture to you guys, but I sent it to Iggy, or I thought it was Iggy. It was Iggy's old number and some random started beacon me so i told him to go himself uh anyway i sent the picture conroy has been inducted into the uh the western new york hockey hall of fame wow and it uh i was it's not much

of a wall of fame kind of it's there's a picture there was like a shot you got it but you have to you have to go searching let's just say that it was a random thing i was one walking around, bumbling around, hung over at the rink one day, and there he was, smiling at me. He's a smiler. He's a good smiler. Yep, there's no doubt about it. Friendly man.

Tight turn here, like two minutes. Not even, maybe not even. Less than that, let's go. Don't go anywhere. Craig Conroy. Why are we waiting? Flames A.G. Go now?

We can go now. We can go now. We can go now. Fine, we can go now. I don't care. I don't care. Let's bring him in. Get guys set up.

I don't know. There he is. Ah. Is that the pride of Potsdam, New York? Pottsdam. Sure is. Thinning and graying? What is going on?

Come on, Reds. Seven in a row, Rhett, that's not, that's not easy on me. Oh, shit. Daryl Sutter's not easy on anyone. Was it easier as a player or when you're management?

Get me some fucking players. Management's easier because you can just go scout. Five nations tournament. You notice how I'm here right now. So definitely easier in the management because I don't have to go down there. At least though. I can avoid the place. At least when you're a player, you could have some say in ending that streak.

You're like, I can't go lace them up, Daryl. Like, what do you want me to do? I can't feed Hubertoe here. Yeah, when you're watching and that puck goes over to Kopitar and you're thinking, really, are we going to give up a three goal lead with 10 minutes ago? This is not. Hey. Good.

And then I'm like, what a save. There's way more. more, you get up by two goals nowadays. It doesn't feel like it's at all insurmountable. Rhett said this the other day and I saw it from NHL PR. As of like four days ago, there were 20 instances this year of two goal leads in the third evaporating. And that was about the one month mark of the season.

So that means twice every three nights in the NHL, someone's come back from two down in the third. And I thought, Brett, I was like, is that anecdotal or is it real? That's nuts. Like that doesn't, that's not supposed to happen that often. Connie, have you noticed this? I mean, I agree. I mean, you look at Vancouver and us alone.

You feel like, oh, man, we're giving up too. They're giving up too. And there's lots, yeah, there's lots of teams that are doing it. But it's like, I just don't know why. I mean, I just can't figure it out, put my finger on it. But, you know, obviously. I'll let you finish that story, by the way. If Koputar, if that save doesn't happen.

And if Koputthar scores, are we going to give up a three? What happens when you go downstairs? Well, you don't go downstairs. You just don't go downstairs. You know, that's, I don't go downstairs after games anymore anyways. It's just easier to go to my office. office and then watch another game or wait for traffic to clear out. So the joy of being part of a team has been ripped from your soul. You're too scared to go downstairs. Yeah, pretty much.

I mean, it's a distant. It's a distant association. I'm associated with the team. I don't want to be too close to it. But you know how it is. You know, after a game, it's so emotional down there. And everybody's, you know, players, coaches, the staff, it's just, it's almost just easier to see them the next day, you know, go down the next day and everyone's kind of digested what happened, good or bad, but, you know, we won both games. So I got back just in time for, you know, the Saturday game. I was in Plymouth at the Five Nations get back. So to see two wins was, was great. You know, I missed some of those games on the road because I was watching games. So I didn't really get to see exactly what happened.

So, and I know everyone says, oh, you go watch. No, I don't watch the. When we lose, I don't go watch the games. You do get a report from the coaches who they thought played well. What kind of synopsis of what happened and then. So are you with the team a lot on the road? Because I was thinking if you're on the road, you really can't avoid him then because you're getting on the bus and then the plane.

There has to be some almost near interaction. Oh, you know, I mean, like, yeah, a lot of times he's fine. You know, it's just, it's game day. It's probably game day is the day he's the most intense. So, and obviously when you lose, he's intense. He's intense a lot, but game days are the most intense. It's the old 24-hour rule. You got to, he's, because if it's 24 hours before a game,

you've got to start getting ready for it. And it just goes like ramping up and up and up. It's hard to keep up with Big D in the, 24-hour rule. when you're playing every other day. So what? You've got about a two-hour window in there between it's too close to game day and two, right?

Well, hang on, they got two days between games. You got one day. You can live your life this road trip. That's about it, though. As you come off after a game, as you come off after a game, if you've won, you have 20 minutes of the dressing room to enjoy it,

and then get your head screwed on straight, boys. We've got a game. Rett would dance for 10 minutes of that. So we had a Rett dance. couple songs, and then, yeah, he's kind of right. Yeah. And then it's back to business. So, Daryl missing the press conference after the victory over the Kings, you mentioned that lovely save from Marchman, total coincidence, right? I mean, it was just, it was probably Ryan Husk's turd. Like, I don't know. I wasn't down there. Signing autographs. Maybe Daryl ran upstairs to

sign some autographs. Yeah, I was just so happy with the wind. I wasn't even worried about whatever, you know, that was the most important thing. I was just getting the two points. I think it was last year he sent La Barbra in and it was clear like Barb's had the deer in the headlights like I just got told a moment ago I'm talking to the media and it was the first time Daryl didn't come out I mean I his his pedigree you cannot question there's two rings obviously he's going to the Hall of Fame but like can you give us more context on like this is an incredibly unique and competitive driven guy like give us a little more on on on what that building is or isn't like when things are going good bad other It's kind of what you see.

I mean, when you see his interviews, when you see his body language, his mood, his, the way he is, that's the way he is in the room, you know, so it's hard, it's hard to put into words, you know, and Rhett, maybe Rhett has a better way to do it. You know, he's, he's all about winning. Nobody's off limits, you know, everyone's in the, which is good. You know, you don't say, okay, he's got a few favorites. No, he doesn't have a few favorites. He just expects a lot and he demands a lot.

And it's a lot. Yeah. And it's intense. You know, it's hard to put in, you know, but his practices are good, they're quick. You know, you know what you're doing when you're playing for Darry. You know what Darrell expects. And that's one nice thing about playing for them. There's not a fine line where you're thinking, I wonder if Darrell's happy with my game.

No, no. You know if Darrell's happy with your game or not happy and what you need to do to get back in the good books. So it's coaching, I guess, 101. I mean, I wouldn't coach my kids like that, but definitely, you know, it's, and he'll say, it's a job. We're not here to have fun all the time. We're here to work and win games. That's it.

One of the things that you can't. Now, you got to turn yourself back up there, retro. I know you, I know, but it's just because you were, you were animated and you're up. You're good. And you can come a little close. There we go. There we go. Sorry.

You're all good. They, one of the things that, again, it's, I don't know what the word I'm searching, but Darrow picks up on things that nobody else does, right? Like he'll read a room differently than you or I will or he'll walk through it and he'll hear different things or see different things or sense different things. And he, and his instincts, I think, that are hard to understand, right? Like he'll pick up on something and it might be driving him crazy and no one else in the room would even know it was happening. happened right like little things that that he will pick up on that other guys don't even notice or see or care about he will i don't know what the word is but he will break that's part of his his whole philosophy is reading that room and having those little tendencies that he notices and sees in a practice in preparation in the gym behind the scenes where we don't we don't get to see guys he picks up on little things that other guys don't pick up and you said red going to translate into you you said that the room missed that as soon as darrell in the first carnation when he went upstairs to just be the gm when he was out of the room

that was a big aspect of what your what made your team click that was just gone yeah and i i think part of that had to do that we'd had success he was such a big personality but we had the the the players and the personalities to deal with Darrell's personality. Do you know what I mean? Like we talked about it a couple weeks ago. Who's telling Darrell to maybe

tone it down a little times on this team? I don't know. I said, Luch or Lewis maybe fully, but the group that we had back in the day, they laughed, they understood, they knew the buttons he was going to push, they knew the intensity, but they weren't intimidated

by it. They could handle it, live it, and carry on about their business. Darrell came with lots of people. It's like they can't take it. It's too much. So when his personality left the room, it was missed.

And then I also said the other problem was that Jimmy, Playfair, who came in, I think originally he would be, well, he is. He's a Darryl clone. But because Darrell left, Jimmy didn't want to be like Darrell because Darry was supposedly leaving

because he was too hard on guys. So now Jimmy's trying not to be the guy. He is and blah, blah, blah, it all gets screws up. And we got rid of Conroy, let him go to L.A. It was a terrible move. Can't be doing that. You can't do it. We changed so much of the team.

I mean, that's the one thing. When Daryl's down there, he's emotional, he's mad. He goes after guys. As a GM, he traded people. Then you can't get him back. You know, it's like, I don't know what he gave up for Chris Clark. I'm always trying to figure out what did he give up for Chris Clark. Clark, why would Chris Clark not be on the team again?

Like, you know, there were certain things as a GM. Why would he trade Dion for what he, what the heck? Like, in my mind, that day, I thought that was a joke when I was down in the locker. They said, Dion just got traded. And I thought, what? Why would you trade Dean? Like, yeah. Okay, we're getting first round picks.

We're getting, you know, and the guys that came back, it was just quantity, you know, and you gave up quality and you get quantity and great guys. I mean, Jamal Mears and I were roommates in St. Louis. I mean, no problem with the, but just the things he did, the moves he made as a GM. As a coach, he's emotional. He doesn't like you that day. But the next day, it's okay. But when he's up above, he was able to just get rid of you.

Get untrading guy. Yeah, like all of a sudden he's like, well, maybe I should have kept him. No, it's too late. You know, he's gone. Well, we wondered with Yokinan. Because trading's not the same as benching. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Benching is different. Like, and hands on in him to be able. to talk to the team and that personality in the room works really well. That personality probably in the office, I can't imagine it being upstairs. And I never was with Daryl upstairs. But I can't imagine that would be because people don't expect what he probably brings up there. You know, because I asked Mike Burke, was he similar to the way he is down? Oh yeah. Yeah, that's the way he was. So, you know, I'm thinking, hmm, I wonder how that works, you know. But it's just a different dynamics, but that's where I always thought he gets the most out of the players

as a coach. That's why he went right back and had success because he pushes and he like squeezes you every day to try to get a little bit more, a little bit more, which is hard. And like Red said, I think we, most of our coaches were like that. I had Jacques DeMere, really nice guy and won a Stanley Cup. And he was the exception, I think, that he was a player's coach for me, everyone else, you know, Mike was the GM and coach Mike Keenan of St. Louis, and he was very hard and, you know, similar to Daryl and, you know, Joel Quinville is different than Daryl, but a lot of the same coaching styles, but maybe in the locker room, his personality is different, you know, but they were always hard. I mean, there was not easy, you know, Mark Crawford, he could lose it

with them. I mean, you see him on the bench, you know, so I think we grew up with that and we, I shouldn't say expect it, but that's kind of what we expected. You know, and we would just, we would go have some beers and laugh it off. And oh, did you hear what he said to me? Yeah, did you hear what he said? And we thought it was funny, but I don't know. Not everyone's wired that. Yeah, it's different.

You know, guys are, are more sensitive and they feel, you know, it's personal. And that's one thing I try to explain. It's not personal. I mean, he could say something very, you might take as personal the night before where I would be like, wow, he crushed me. When I got home, I'd tell my wife, I'm like, whoa, you should heard what Daryl said. But the next day, I would see him. I went home and cried once.

And then the next day you walk in and nothing. He's not, you're like, oh, you're kind of the, you're a little going by him. What's he going to? Yeah, of course. That wasn't very nice last night. But, and then you're like, he didn't say anything. Like, he said good morning. I'm like, ooh, that's weird.

Yeah. It's like he forgot. He said it. And then I just was like, oh, okay. And once you kind of get. that through that's that's kind of how it works i mean so it's just a different type of coaching style it's uh but that's what's given him success yeah you know so you also have to have to have the right room because the guys have to be supportive of each other and have their each other's backs right like

that's that's part of yeah he wants to bring you know he wants it's almost like bring everybody together not against him but kind of like in a way right in a way yeah you know like we're gonna bring these guys together and, you know, and I'm going to be hard. I mean, and that's where the assistant coaches are so key. I mean, they have to be. We had a rich press and was in there. Remember when he used to come in before the games with the toe Blake and do the fist pump and tell jokes on the bus? I mean, you have to have some, something like that to keep it light. You know, obviously, I haven't been down and see who that guy is. But I mean, Kirk Muller's played in the league. One Stanley Cups, you know, he was with.

With Ken Hitchcock. So I'm assuming, you know, he can handle all that kind of stuff. I mean, you know, he's always a little bit hard on the goalie coach. So LaBarber probably, you know, it's just he's hard on goalies and goalie coaches and he expects a lot. Goleys, backups, goalie coaches. Yeah. Seem to remember there was a goalie coach nearly took a puck in practice. That's kind of a legendary story, isn't that?

I didn't see that. Seen to remember something about it. An Eric Puck nearly hit a hit something anyway. Like we've been in a studio for how long talking with Connie here and it's like there's, we haven't talked about a player. We haven't talked about like the run of play. And I think I just keep coming back to is the identity of this team not Daryl Sutter? I mean, you can talk about captains and who wears letters and all that.

But if you really want to know how this team plays and what their identity is going to be if they're successful, you say the coach's name. Like he's that big of a, I guess, personality or philosophy. would you agree with that Connie yeah for sure i mean i think it starts with the you know the coach has a what how he wants this team to play and what he expects and and then the players have to kind of fall in the line you know and that's uh you know and i thought bob hartley was very similar bob did a great job maybe with with less talent or younger players you know i thought bob was one of those guys that every day he wanted to grind out a little bit more you know and that's

i mean it's hard because everybody wants the nice coach, but as soon as he's too nice and we lose, he's just too nice. And they want the hard coach. And then they want the nice coach. And, you know, there's really no perfect, you know, you try to think coaches out there that, you know, and we're always watching and seeing what coaches, who's having success, who's doing well, who's, what, how do they coach? I listen to all, I mean, like, I listen to all the interviews. And I think, Rod Brindamore, I would like to play for this guy. You know, there's certain guys you listen. listen to his coaches. I like that. I like what he's saying. I think that's fair, unfair. He's hard,

but fair. And, you know, there's certain guys. And he's one that I always thought, I really like the way, you know, his thing. And just watching him on the bench, he's, he's firm. But, you know, so he always, you know, so he can give a little pat in the back. Good job. Feels like he protects those guys. Yeah, it feels like he does. You know, and I think that, that says, that means a lot. Because when you're a player, you know, Rhett, when you get ripped in the locker room, you get ripped everywhere, and then the media, you feel like if your guy can protect you a little bit, that's, that's, he's got your back, you know, that's, what you want him to have your back for sure. Exactly.

Exactly. You know, you mentioned Jacques Demares and sorry, we got, I'll get Alex to back this one up. I actually saw, I forgot about, uh, Josh DeMere. So let's, yeah, got lots of here there. Let's get the volume on this one. We'll back it. Let's start it off at the beginning again and we'll get the volume on it. Is this, uh, memory lane with Craig Conroy here? This is my dream come true playing for the Montreal Canadians. Look at this. Craig Conroy, 20 years old, less than a year out of Clarkson College, 25 goals and 17 assists at Fredericton, and a smile that just won't quit.

Conroy, like Darby, will start between Vincennes-Dame Fuss and Brian Bellows, and like Darby, he'll be expected to do the mucking. So I think if I just go in there and work hard and try to get them the puck, then things are going to happen. So I'm just going to go out and basically just try to work hard and get those. those guys a puck and let them do what they do best. He's a spark plug, he's got a lot of spunk, he's intense, and we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Conroy is undaunted by the length of his tryout. If it's only three games and it's still great to play in a Montreal Canadian's uniform and I've had that it could make my career. But hopefully it'll be longer and you'll hopefully I can just come out here and you know play the way I'm supposed to and you know things will go well from there. And Matthew Schneider moves it up for the Canadians. Puck knocked at front, Brasier, gets his first. Loose.

Greg Conroy was there to take it. Boomers laughing at me. No, I was just out there with Donald Brashear, Ed Ronan. And Lyle O'Deline. There's some meat out there. I don't know if you're on a line change or what,

but that's something. So look at that. That was number one right there. Yep. Number one. That's awesome, right? Yeah, you know what? I mean, Montreal was my team growing up.

That was my dream come true. Yeah. And like I said, think if I played a handful of gate, I had no clue. I mean, Potsdam, New York, you know, no one's played in the NHL. So for me to be able to play for my team, the Montreal Canadiens a score goal, if that was it, then I was going to be happy. You know, thank God it went a little longer than that and more things happened, but it did, you know, that was the, that was the goal. And it is funny to hear because, sorry, I was just, I was just going to say to hear you at that point,

because you don't know if there's a career. This could be one game and you're, gone. You want to enjoy every minute of it, but to hear you've got a characterise. I hope I'm sticking around. Shucks, I'll give it my best. And hopefully the coach likes me. I don't, well, I don't know. I'm betting Connie had a plan to play more than three games. Well, the plan was to play more than three, but you just didn't know. I mean, in the minors, you're, you're six-round draft pick. I'm not a high draft pick like rat, you know, a blue chip prospect. You're kind of, look at the face, yes. You're kind of thinking, oh, okay, Here we go. I mean, you're not wrong.

And Montreal just won the cup. I mean, Montreal just won the cups. You're going to a very good team. You know, that's the, you know, for me, it was fortunate to kind of be there with the new building coming in. I was there the night Patrick Waugh, I think it was minus four. The night Patrick Waugh got. Yeah. Minus four outside, temperature-wise?

It's weird. Do you remember the weather? It's odd. I think two bad changes by Vinny Damfuss and I jumped on. I didn't get two feet. Izzerman, goal, breakaway. Fedoroff, breakaway. I'm like, you got to be kidding me.

So did the Avalanche send you a ring? The other two are my fault. They should have sent me a ring, yeah. Yeah, I think Peter Hanlon might have went and looked and said, yeah, I think you were minus four, Craig. I'm like, yeah, that was 95, 96. 94, 95, I think. 94, 95. Yeah, right in there.

Or 93, 94, 94. Yeah. 94, 95, I think. 94, 95, six games, one goal. Yeah, it was only. one goal. I only played 13 games for Montreal. So was that to till end of the year or you got moved right away? Okay. Yeah, it said training camp, my bad. Six, 94, 95, 95, 96, seven games and then off to St. Louis.

So, yeah, it was one of those where the best thing that ever happened to me was just to be moved. I mean, I think Darcy Tucker, there was, you know, there was guys that Saku Kwavel just got in and there just wasn't going to be room for me in Montreal. So to be able to get moved with Pierre, you know, and I thought when I got traded, I thought I was going to go to Worcester. I was in Frederton, so I said, no, I'm going to go to Worcester. And they said, no, you're actually going, you're going to meet the team in Colorado and play. And I buried one against Patrick that night. So you mentioned Pierre.

That's Pierre Turgeon, French Canadian guy, leaving Montreal going to St. Louis. How was that received by Habs fans? It's kind of one of their own leaving town. It's weird because when you're in Fred, you know, being in Frederton, I was just so excited to be part of a trade and to maybe get an opportunity. I don't even know what was going on in Montreal. I mean, I think they were upset. You lose a French Canadian.

I mean, it is very important there. That's what people, you know, unless you've been there and lived it and seen it, how much that meant. But that's why even getting rid of Patrick, I mean, Patrick said, he took his helmet that night and said, I'm going to, this is it, guys. You know, my last game. And I thought, I wonder if he's serious or, I mean, I wasn't saying much. I was just sitting there thinking, this is crazy.

Like, this is, I've never seen quite like this. but and he was gone. That's one of the more iconic moments in obviously Habs history, but almost when do you think hockey history, one of the greatest goaltenders ever. Because it changes the course of history for hockey. Sure it does. You get that dynasty in Colorado now.

Yeah. Yeah, they go and win cups. They're not winning the games without him. Yeah, it was. Florida, we would have won. That's right. Sure. It all comes back to rep.

inevitably it comes back to retro. That's good. Somehow Patrick Gwa went from the east to the west and it hurt Florida. I missed that somehow. Yeah, well, you know. You know what? I want to get this in. We're going to mention it a couple of times.

Sorry, right. I just, we have Craig here in studio in the, in our studios here, the Barnburner Studios. Coming up on November 28th, it is, what, the fifth annual now, right? Let's talk hockey with yourself and Rob Kerner. This thing's been going about 20 years now. Curse. I've been doing the thing for 10th. Is that right?

This is the first time in three years, though, we're going to be. back live doing an imperfect person so that's exciting for us let's talk hockey in support of the prep society therapeutic and educational support to children with down syndrome 639 30 p.m. at the dome tickets are available you see the website there prep program dot CA the link is is there noah hanifam nasum cadre chris tannov how did you get these big names you know what they're just good guys is that what it is i think once once you mention the kids down syndrome yeah they're not saying no. I mean, I hate to say it. Like, you'd love to say I had to work and, you know, they just said, oh, absolutely. I would love to do it and be a part of it. Yeah. So especially with Cadre,

coming in new. And boy, when I asked him, you know, he's still playing great, but he was off to a great start. He's the one guy. I think his personality and, and, and Daryl, seamless. You know, I think that, because they're kind of similar. Like, they go about their business. And I think he's at a great start. A lot of it because of that. Because he can, okay, no problem. I forget which game it was. I think it was two, maybe two games ago. And he was yipping someone hard. Like, I wonder what player he's really given it to. It was the ref. Oh, really? He was laying, you, MF and the ref and everything. Wake the fuck off. Like, he was really giving it to him. I wish we would lay off the refs a time. It doesn't seem to help Connie. It's weird. Really, like, you know, even when I played here,

we are, Darrell's not easy on the ref. As players, we aren't easy. We were not. Remember, I mean, everyone's, the poor ref goes by, we're all screaming at him. And then we're like, why aren't we getting any calls? I can't figure this. You know, I think it might be Luch is yelling at him. I didn't see cadre yelling at him.

But I do think, God, I wish we would maybe just lay off the refs a little bit. But he is back to the original point there, because I know it was out of all the new faces and all that, who do you think is going to have the biggest impact? And maybe you default to Hubert, oh. But it was, there's something about cadre. And the way, like you say, it just felt like he's not going to have any issue coming in and fitting in like a dirty shirt. And he sure did. Yeah.

I mean, I think the swaggery came with winning the cup, the way he's played, he's been on different teams. You know, I think with Hubert O, he's only been in one place. Yeah. And the one place he could have 10 goals or be minus 10. And when he walks out the rink, guess what? It's the same. It's just a guy. Here.

You know, you know. And I always say, if you're going to play in a Canadian market, this is the market to be, because everyone wants you to do well here. You're going to get a long, long leash. But people still care, and they're going to talk about it, and you're not going to be able to hide anywhere in the city. I mean, that's just the way it is, which I like. I mean, why would you want to play somewhere where they don't talk about your care? It's passionate.

They want you to, but they want you to do well here. And I think, I did think Hubertoe, it's going to be a little hard for him because expectations, you want them to do what the guy up north's doing, those two guys, probably every night. And that's hard. And there's chemistry. And when we brought Beaumister in from Florida, it didn't gel. It didn't gel right away. So it takes a while to get that chemistry.

And I think that's kind of what happened. But with Godry, he just comes in with a swagger. He's like, whoa, this guy is really, you know, he's ready to go. Yeah. He's not feeling any pressure. He's just going to go about his business. And let's be honest, he played in Toronto. He's seen that market.

Yeah. He probably thinks this market's nothing. Cakewalk compared to Toronto. Yeah, this is easy. You know, and he's Colorado. So, you know, I think just give it a little time for the guys and everybody else settle in. And it's right. Where it's early.

And I think the division is obviously a little easier. Not, I don't want to say easier, but one team kind of is running away right now in Vegas. And then everyone else is right around there. And Seattle's played well to start. And I'm guessing he's not, I mean, we could go over the list of coaches that he's had in Florida. I'm guessing there's quite a few. Probably not many cut from that sutter cloth. Yeah, I mean, the only one I had would be Joel, and Joel's different.

Joel's a different off, but on the bench, he's, I mean, Joel's got a lot of the similarities, the way they run practices, the way they expect you to play, what they want you to do. You know, there's, it's non-negotiable. Certain things are non-negotiable, and that's how Joel was. But I think Joel's, he could take the foot off the gas. in the room, you know, at different times. Like, Joel likes horse racing and he loves football. And he'll go to, on Sundays, he's always going to the Cardinals games,

the Rams games when they were there. You know, so he had a lot of hobbies and that's the difference. You know, that's what I would say. But it's just similar coaching style. So you note the new guys who talked a bit about cadre, expectations for Hubert O, Weger is another guy that comes in. What's a, you talked about the off-the-ice adjustment. What about an on-ice adjustment?

you talked about Hubertos coming from a pretty different system, albeit some similarities between the coaches. Like when Darrell came in, how different was your job or as maybe a 200-foot checking center? Was it not that different? Like, what are you expecting in terms of when these guys you think will be their best selves under Darrell? Are we there yet already? Like, Caudry, obviously, a great start. But the other two, you're saying, okay, like, still adjusting, it looks like. Well, I don't think it's the coaching.

I don't think it's a system. I mean, that's, if I had to go with Joel and what Darrell want, I'm sorry. same. We're pretty close. Like it's, it would not be the systems. What it would be is the chemistry with the players. You know, it's weird because coming here, did I ever thought I'd get to play with Jerome McGillenland? No. Did we think we'd have any kind of kept? Not really. It, it kind of by default, when Savvy got hurt in Detroit, I got to play with him and he went on a tear. And then all of a sudden you have that chemistry. You know, I never would have thought there was chemistry. And I think just to to figure out the chemistry to get that going, that might take some time.

You know, like I mentioned Bowmeester. I mean, we, I thought we had maybe the best D in the league with Feneuf, Regear, you know, all the guys. And in the end, it just, we couldn't get that figure. I mean, we still made the playoffs, but it didn't work quite the way as a player. I thought it was going to work. And it just took, it just took some time to kind of figure it out. You know, even when we had Dougie here and then we finally put them with Gio, I thought

that really, really took off then. you know, Brody and Gio and Brody playing his offside. Brody just likes playing the right side better than the left. Those are all the things, you know, is Weiger better on the right? I mean, those are all things Daryl's trying to figure out right now. And you'd love for it to be like Codry. And he's seamless. He can play with anybody and he's going to have success.

But that's just not always a case. And I don't think it's so much the system is just the chemistry with the players. Sure. And isn't that one of the things, too, with the game now? it feels like you're like you say it's early or give it time or be patient there's none of that almost none of that anymore where a five game losing streak feels like 20 and a seven feels like 30 just every two three days if something is continuing it's so great or it's so awful right it's so true and we compare to other people it's like pender said matthew had three yeah i knew he had three assists

list. I mean, I find myself watching the guys that have left, you know, and not be overly excited with them doing really well. Like, oh, you know, and it's, I think that's just human nature. We, and by we, I mean, Rhett, we were maybe a little critical of the line combinations that we've seen that Daryl has gone to. It's, uh, like the first seven games. Yeah, it was really good. And then there was some changes in that. Again, I'm not looking at, for you to get into any trouble or anything like that. But, Rhett, would you say it's fair to say that it's kind of uncharacteristic of Daryl to have swapped out the lines to that degree

this many times this early? It was like three different major iterations you've had, right? Yeah, I just thought the first time was the biggest one because once you make that switch, it's, you've made it. That's kind of, you know, the coaches, they always have that opportunity to make changes on the lines and you can do it as often as. you want i guess but the team wasn't really struggling you know huberto they were you know the talk was well maybe he's not putting up as many points as everyone would like but it wasn't

it wasn't impacting wins and losses and all of a sudden you know you kind of you lose that one to edmonton and all of a sudden he changes the lines and i was like whoa like it seemed a little drastic to me and then and then it doesn't work out the other way so now you got to go back and now you're mixing and mingling and guys come out they go in it's it just seemed at that point to be a little a little well i said it already a little bit drastic and my concern if we want to dig deeper into it is is he trying to push too many buttons i mean a lot of the conversation we're having is about darrell you've got to work with them so maybe you shouldn't say anything but that was my take you know i take was i hope he's not back to a spot because he can do that

where he tries to maybe do too much. You know, I mean, it wouldn't even be fair for me to say because you were in Buffalo, I've been gone also. Unless you're down in the room with the coaching staff, I don't know what the conversations were in the line changes, what they're seeing in practice. And, you know, so it would really be unfair for me. I think he's just trying to figure out what the best combination.

Would he love to just, like last year, just felt like all those combinations worked and we just rolled with them the whole year. You know, and that's, I've played on teams like that where, you know, in St. Louis, we had really good teams and I just played with the same two guys. The lines never changed. They just were the same. And then we, you know, the next year, we had some guys that left, some guys that came back, expansion, blah, blah, blah.

And then it felt like I played with a lot of guys. You know, it didn't, it didn't never, didn't settle down maybe for, you know, a month. so we're a little bit more than a month now. But yeah, I wish I was in the meetings and could hear what Darrell's thought process was, but, you know, I wasn't. So, you know, you just have to go with, he's the coach. He knows what he's doing. Yeah, there's a long game too here.

And if something, if you have to put someone somewhere that gets them going later, I'm sure that's the thing. One of the, I guess, silver linings is Adam Rojitka looks like a really contributing part of the top six, never mind the bottom six he couldn't even get into for the bulk of the first 10 games. walk us through Rosie's development and maybe, you know, even from the draft year, it was always consistency was the one thing. But is something different now or is this just a nice run, I guess, is the question we're asking. It's about opportunity. It's about getting to play. I mean, what is he going to do when he doesn't play? I mean, you said it yourself, like,

he couldn't even get in the bottom six. Now he's getting in, getting on the ice with good players. He's a big guy, can skate, has skill. You know, as for a young guy, yeah, his consistency has always been an issue for us, but when he's in the American League, he dominates, you know, first-line center, him and Maddie Phillips and Pelchay, they were, you know, anybody he kind of played with, they were unbelievable. He was one of the top scorers, whenever he's down there. So you knew we had that in him. It's just he got the opportunity and he's taken advantage. It's fun for us. You know what? Because we're excited to see, you know, instead of having to say, oh, we've got to go out and find another forward, a top six forward.

Well, it's nice when you can bring one along. So hopefully, I mean, and it's, it's a few games, but you can see he's got a lot of confidence now. He's feeling good about himself. I said it the other day. I thought the last game was easily his best game as a pro, and it wasn't just that he scored or that he's got four points in four games, but he was making plays. Whereas before it may just be get somebody take this puck because I don't want to turn it over

and get benched and then sit upstairs again, where he was making some points. plays that showed that that creativity that that hockey sense was there and now he's got maybe some confidence to make those plays. I thought he was really good the other night. And he turned over a couple of puck. I mean, in the first game, he turned over two pucks on any other given night. He would not have gone out again, but he did go out. So he knew, whoa, I'm not going to get benched here. I'm going to play. I mean, that was the one thing when you're on those top six. Yeah, we made mistakes. Daryl addressed him on the bench. But you still got to go back out and try to make up for those mistakes. And that's what you, because if you're playing

where you feel like, if I make one mistake, I'm not playing the rest of a game, you know, Rett would tell you, you can't play like that. You just, you got to be able to play. And it's a game of mistakes. You want to limit them, but there are going to be mistakes, but for his size, skating skill, and his show, I don't know how often you see him shoot because he doesn't shoot, but in practice, he's got one of the best shots in the team. I mean, it's hard, accurate. And he's just a big guy. So it's fun for us to see him do well. I mean, I'm rooting for him. He's worked hard.

He deserves it. And hopefully knock on what it continues. Chatting with Craig Conroy, we're going to say it's in place of the Pinder Report today. Sure, absolutely. You know, why not? Pinder Report brought to you by Village Honda. Common Experience, the all new redesign,

2023 Honda CRV at Village Honda, your dealership for life in the Northwest Auto Mall. I wondered about you this past off season, because I think it was different. for a lot of flames fans to see Johnny Goddrow leave town, but you and Johnny, you guys were kind of together right at the very beginning.

The draft, the whole thing, that was well, it was paperwork. That was big too. The private jet to bring him in, right? He would not have been a flame, were it not for Craig Conroy, and that smile we heard from DeMeres, that smile just won't give it my best. That just won't quit there. There is that

personal side, and I think that what was it like for you to know that it was over? Yeah, that that hurt. I'll be honest, you know, because, you know, like Bob Hartley says, Connie, you fall in love with the players. And I do. You know, and I fell in love with Johnny right away. And, you know, we had a connection. And to have them, you know, and even when I came on your show, I was, you know, when we said, are you going to get it done? And I said, yeah, we're going to get it done. I always believe we were going to get it done.

Just like I believed, I had moments when we went to sign them the first time that maybe it wasn't going to happen. I was freaking out a little bit then, too. But in the end, we got it done. and I really thought it was going to happen again. I thought the legacy, the city, you know, I think his parents love it here. I mean, Guy, I was with Guy at the hotel, and we were at a different hotel in Dallas. And, yeah, I just felt like it was meant to be.

And I mean, I talked about retiring jerseys and all-time leading flames point leader over, and I go, you're not going to catch Jerome's goals, but you're going to catch him in points. And, you know, for me, I thought all that, And we have a good relationship. He might not want to hurt my feelings or whatever. And, you know, so, yeah, it was, it was tough, you know.

And I know some people say, oh, we're better. We're, you know, for me, it was a personal thing. And we were, we were friends. And I thought he was, he's a special player. And he is a special player. I mean, the same with Matthew. I hate to see Matthew Lee. I would have loved to have both them back, you know, and add a few pieces around them.

That would have been, you know, kind of our plan going into the, draft and then when Johnny didn't come back and Matthew told us he wasn't going to come back, you know, for me personally, it takes a low, I take it personal because I'm like, what? You know, I'm like, we treat you. I felt like I, anything they needed, you know, you care about the guys. And then, but I get it. I do get it. It's just hard.

Do you remember the first time you watched him? Because I remember the day he was drafted. We were at the dome. And then we got him on the air and he had a pretty thick accent at that time. His buddy had played in Sam and Am. Like that was all he kind of knew about Western Canada, that sort of thing. And it was like, how big is this guy? Not.

This guy is, what are they? What do you remember from that first? Where was it? Was he still USHL or what do you remember? And you would have been special advisor to Feaster at that point? So I just came on board. So I got to watch my video. I didn't even get to see him play live.

Yeah. I listened to the scouts, see what they said. obviously Lewis, my agent had him. He said he's special. I'm like, oh, this is, you know, you watch him. I'm like, what is this guy doing? Like, he's unbelievable. So you could see, you know, read the reports, see what people are saying.

And then when we finally draft him when he came in for that first little development camp, we were playing a three-on-three game. And I remember saying it was Lance Boehoma. It was like three A-American League guys at the time. Booms wasn't a regular in the NHL. But I said, okay. I said, I get that he's small. You need to hit him.

Like, you need to finish him and you need to be hard on this guy. I know you probably lay it. No, we can't hit him. I'm like, what? I'm like, no. Because I literally walked down from the top to say, okay, enough. Put a body on this guy. It's embarrassing right now, this guy.

And they're like, we can't do anything. And I'm like, really? I'm like, you're trying? I'm like, okay. You know, so I mean, to watch him in practice, he made a backhand sauce, spinorama, backhand sauce over three sticks for a guy on a breakaway. and I thought, that's not easy.

I don't know if anybody in the NHL on our NHL team can do that. That's like Tangay stuff, like those kind of passes. I'm like, oh. So then to go see him play at Boston College, I remember the first games, I think he was playing against North Dakota, and we had a peer Lamaroo was working for us, but he also was going to school at North Dakota, and he was doing part-time stuff for their team.

And he kind of said, hey, we're going to have to watch. Watch, Goodroll, because he's a special player. And then, like, yeah, okay, good job. Like, you're just a, you know, you're a student, you're helping. We don't need any advice on John. We don't, not worried about him. He dominated the first game. The next day, they're like, circled his number.

We have to try to figure out how to stop this guy. It's 160 pounders, ruining everything. But I would be begging to take him to the world juniors. We were in Lake Placid. I'm like, guys, you know, like, well, we can't invite him to the camp. he's not, I'm like, really? You can't invite him to the, I'm like, if you get him here in the summer, special, he's special. They're in a spot.

You know, and then the next year, obviously, they brought him and he led the tournament goals. They win gold. And I'm thinking, you know, he, so John's had to fight his way every step of the way. You know, nobody was just handed it to him. You know, obviously when we got him and brought him back and he scored in his first game, those are exciting things. And that's why, I mean, with that our relationship, ship, you know, maybe it was more hoping that he would come back, you know, rather than just

me being for sure. It did feel like he was in knots and it did feel like this definitely swung in the balance. This wasn't like, ha ha, I'll keep it as late as I can and screw the team. That's not any of the vibes, anyone close to it is relayed to me. And then I think one more angle to bring in is when that happens and then Matthew comes with the news to Brad and you guys saying, you know what, I'm not going to extend. So everyone starts saying, Americans will never sign here, stop trafficking Americans, it's Fox, and now these guys. And there's Connie, an American boy who is like made his home here, like loves the flames, came back, works to the team.

Like, you've got to be like, no, this is not right. You can't, this is not true. And it's a bad set of coincidences. You know what? I think it is. You know, and I want to ask those guys, neither the guys played anywhere else. I want to see in five years what they say. Yeah.

Honestly, like, because I know everybody thinks is better other places. but until you get there, you don't know. You don't know what it's like. You don't know how well a guy like Peter Hanlon, Kelso, the staff, you know, just the way they're treated in the city. I mean, I think that's the one thing people don't understand is, you know, people say, oh, well, there's a lot of, yeah, there's pressure. But, you know, you're also treated extremely well,

where I don't see Matthew at South Beach getting any perks, you know, where he could do, he could call at any moment at any restaurant and, you know, they're going to find a table for him. They're going to, if he wants to go to a, anything he wants to do. And maybe they do, you know, and that's what I said. I'd love to find, talk to Matthew. You know, I still text Matthew, you know, and I would love to see what he says in five years. You know, if, and maybe it's way better.

And I just don't know. I mean, Rhett played in Florida and he played in Calgary. You know, he'd be the best one to, what do you think, Rhett? Well, it's, there's lots of differences. I think the thing is, it's what you said about Hubert. You get 10 points or you lose 10 nothing. You walk out.

It's the same thing, right? Like there's no, you don't have, I loved having pressure and having the community behind you. And not that the Florida fans don't cheer for the Panthers, but it's certainly not even close to the passion that a Calgary Flames fan has.

So I like that part of it. I remember coming from my house on Madison. I'd come over by the cemetery there over the hill and I'd say, I would say in my head, I want to do good by the city in my truck, on the way into games. And I honestly would. I like that part of it. I think most players like to have fans and people that maybe aren't as past or shouldn't

as Darrell, perhaps, but still passionate and excited about the game of hockey, right? And have an opinion on it. So I think that the places those guys went won't offer that as much. And I think I've I always found it harder to play in those places. College football is way bigger than the blue jackets. It's not close like Miami you're the fourth, fifth or sixth most important team. Sorry like and and that for some guys that's great. Connie right? You want an anonymity have that or some guys don't like pressure they don't want to play with pressure like it's weird to me because you're playing a sport.

A little pressure is probably good and that's where you know being. an American coming back. L.A., you know what, though? Not that I can say any place I played, the fans were unbelievable, St. Louis, L.A., as much as I said, well, L.A. is not, no, it really was full all the time. But I watched the game last night, and I'm looking at the stands,

and there's a lot of empty seats in Florida last night. You know, and I'm thinking Matthew thrives on the crowd, people. You know, I mean, we're still booing Doughty the other night, I think, because of Matthew. I mean, I'm thinking, oh, Matthew's gone, and doubt he's probably like, seriously, these guys still hate me. But, you know, I think personally, I love it. Yeah, I love when you wake up in the morning and we lost and maybe I played bad. You guys call me out or, you know, that's, I'm going to do better next game. You know,

people, but people care and people are like, oh, we're behind you. And for the majority of Calgary, like, I don't remember ever going out and having people ripping me or, you know, they were like, hey, you got to get going, the teams, we're behind you 100%. And that's the way it's always been in Calgary. That's why I say, if you can play for any Canadian city, I'd want to play in Calgary. It sounds like a Calgary statement that it's something that Calgarians would say. But I do feel like it is different where people are passionate,

want you to win, they go to the games, they love it. But if they see you at the mall or at the movie, they're not going to get your shit together. You know, I just think that it's a little bit different here. which, and I've heard that from some of the player. I mean, you're one of them, right? That you can be in a town where they care. And like you say, Red, winning matters

and the city is passionate for it, but they're not going to make your life miserable if the team's losing hockey games. The only time I had to happen to me was the O'Reilly thing when I was in management. Oh, that's right. And literally like a guy was driving down, he was in a truck, he rolled down in a little,

what are you and Feast are doing? Are you guys idiot? I'm like, I wanted to be like, Now that it's this late, I'm like, the way I found out, you can ask Chris Snow if he's ever on. I literally said, someone put an offer sheet in an O'Reilly. Oh, that's us. And then I clicked on the email and said, Snowy, we put an offer sheet in an O'Reilly. And then we went to the game.

And I remember Eric LaQualle was there. Bennington, I mean, they were just staring us down. I'm like, well, this is weird. You know, like we threw the offer sheet. were at the game and they matched that night so it was done. But yeah, I actually didn't even know. And I'm thinking, I'm getting chirped. Walking down the street and I actually didn't know either.

So was that a rock bottom moment for the organization in some ways or not? Because I know that the PA had interpreted it one way, but by the letter of the law, he would have come through reentry way. If you had not match, if the Colorado had not matched, you wouldn't even have got the player if someone claimed him, as weird as that sounds. Yeah, so we called, I guess, so I really wasn't, I wasn't privy to what was going on. Jay talked to Murray Edwards, and they called the lawyers the league, and they, I'm pretty sure they went through this whole process to see what the rules were.

Yeah. And I think, I don't know how it worked because there was a lockout. He was in the K and there was reentry waivers. That was weird, right? But they were saying, like, because of the lockout, it was, it was a weird thing. And they said, like, I think we. would have fought it till the day we would still be fighting it if that was the case but yeah to me they the league kind of said no you can do it and then i forget which reporter put it out there and i'm thinking that is the rule yeah normally and mike burke would say yep that's the late that's the normal rule yeah so for people that don't know what we're talking about they put the offer sheet in he was ryan o're playing in the k didn't have a contract with colorado still Colorado did match it but if they chose not to

match it and the flames were to get O'Reilly. Before he could come over, he'd have to go through waivers essentially. And every other team would have a chance to pick him. Yeah. So you'd have given up four first and lost the player, potential. And not gotten the player. Yeah. You probably would have got some traction, I would think, by fighting it. But it was, in terms of that, when you say rock bottom, I feel like for that iteration of the team, it was. And it felt like Berkey came in soon after and that was part of the like build back a little reputation. Maybe I'm crazy. It was a steady stream of people in my world, the media world, being, what's going on in Calgary? Yeah. Like eyebrows race. Like what, what is going on? And so you're new as assisted

to the jam at this point. And it's like, oh my gosh, what's happening? And the thing was, it wasn't like we went, you know, we went, you know, like, and we do this with everything. I mean, you go to the league lawyers and make sure this is a way we interpret it. Yeah. Are you guys seeing the same way? And, and, and Mike Burke does an unbelievable job with that. I mean, we've never had another issue. So I can't imagine we didn't get the approval. Like, yeah, this is good to go. You know, because we wouldn't have, we just don't do it like that.

That's just not, you know, even when Jay was there, that's how it worked. Yeah. When we do it now, you know, I'm assuming when Darrow was there. Well, you're talking to the agent too, right? So the agent has to interpret this as well. It's his client.

Yeah, everybody. It was the lockout year that hurt. Are those games going to be, you know, what is the rule? Yeah. And nobody could come up with it. And, you know, now it all worked out great for it. No, not great for us, but it definitely worked out where they matched.

It was over and we moved on. Yeah, there's no. It could have been worse, clearly. Things always work out in the end, right? For Connie. Well, always work out for Connie. Because you were saying earlier about how, you know, savvy gets hurt and then whatever and then you come in, maybe you'll get a chance to play with a Ginla, right?

And who knew if you and a Ginla were going to mesh? Because there was a time where you guys weren't necessarily best of friends. I think you were in St. Louis. And boy, Jerome was just a young, just a young, just a young, but some bad hair. If only we had, I don't know, it was different. hair if we only had video yeah to recall everything has video oh there's this one okay this fellow with a nice chin hey did red do the top shelf uh goal celebration on the plane he hasn't told that story on this one yet hang on let's see it's coming up let's see need the volume this is uh-oh

uh-oh and there they go you've ended up very good for thanks uh-huh dude your old mcindler is doing very well with mcron right he beat me up when i was in st. Lewis, so maybe he'd take it easy on me now that we're buddies. You know, now he's got a family. He's getting a little soft. Let's hear from red at the beginning of this. We miss the other start of this. So I don't know why he wants to rematch.

So how did that one start? Do you remember? I mean, I think you probably remember what in. Savvy went up behind Chris Pronger and speared him like, you know, speard him. Yeah. And then, so I went over and kind of. grab savvy but then as I turned around I was just standing there and then Jerome said he said something on the way and I don't remember what he said and I thought oh geez so I went to

grab him and then it was full-off yeah he was already ready you know he junior he knew how to I'm a college guy I don't know what I'm doing and you guys you know what you play with tough players like I've always played with so many tough players you had brisier in the first highlight yeah I had brashire but I had in the minors I had Chris Murray was on my line and I don't know if you remember Chris Murphy, Cam Loops. Very tough. On my line. You fought him?

Very tough, right. He was very tough. And I had Brashear, I had Mary Robes, Serge Robes. I had, I mean, that's just, and you could only have three lines and an extra forward then. And I had all those guys on one team. Wow. Yeah. So that had that.

Then I had Kelly Chase, Tony Twist, Rudy Pocheck, Mike Paluso, all in St. Louis. Jansett? Was Jansans there? No, Jansans wasn't there then. No, he was hard. So when those. scrums emerge, you're never scrapping. There's always another guy to do the business.

You know, that's what I said. And they made it look really easy. It's when you start getting punch. It's not even fun. So I thought, oh, boy, I'm not very good at this. Well, and in fairness, you shouldn't be fighting any of those tough guys. You shouldn't be fighting a ginnla, right? You should be fighting guys that would be more in your weight class or maybe even a little bit below. Although I think there was one time where maybe there was, is that right? You fought someone more.

Who's fine in this? Did I ever jump start his career or what? I sure hope we have video of that. I kept his career. Oh, look at this, Battle of Alberta, Craig. Let's hear it. Oh. That I slipped.

They said he threw me down. You can see that's a slid. You can see that's a slip. Yeah, bring the vault. Let's start it again with the volume because I love Mark Lee. Mark Lee is doing the play-by-play. He's not doing you any favors. Because it was a good start for you there.

You were hanging. and it was Sam Gagne is what we're doing. We're watching the Oilers here. And listen to Mark Lee. Describe the scrap here after you guys fall to the ice. I know my glasses on, so I'm going to get closer. He's had his stick high up in the area of the Pocke. And now a fight.

And it's Sam Gagne. Sam Gagne. Wow. I mean, I just slipped. Throwing rights with Conroy. And he brings the crowd to its feet. This is a hockey player who was demoted to the four. fourth line by Pat Quinn.

And right off the draw, he takes on Craig Conroy and wins it by unanimous decisions. Is that unanimous? Down. Get out of there. That's nonsense. That's maybe my favorite part of the whole. Unanimous. Get out of here.

I literally, my left hand slipped and that was over. Well, you landed way more than he did. That's nonsense. Well, and why are we at center real quick? He's about 16 years old there. Is that, uh, you know what happened? He came to the thing and he said, hey, I need something here. I got to fight.

And I said, that's no problem. I said, at this point, this is my, I'm 39 years old. I'm like, yeah, what do you want to do? He goes, can we fight right off the draw? And I thought, okay, nope. I mean, so it's not like you're mad or anything. You're just kind of standing there. And then he goes and has a seven, I think he might have a six or seven point game.

Yeah, yeah, just right after that. And he's still in the, I'm watching him. I'm like, yeah, you're still playing. And he was, like, he was having a rough go up to that point. As he said, demoted to the fourth line by Pat Quinn. And it jumped started him. So he probably should have got some money along the way there. Avalanche, John, yeah.

Maybe not too late. Yeah. So he's in C. He's in Winnipeg now, right? Yeah, Winnipeg. Yeah, that's right. Is he? Yeah, Winnipeg.

Good way. Still, see Conroy, just making courters. So that's at center ice, but it's clearly not the beginning of the period because the ice isn't clean. Is that right after a goal? Or do you remember? Yeah, I can't remember. It was, it might have been right after a goal, actually, because we went out there

and he just said, hey, you know what, I saw him. I saw him talk to someone else first, and someone said, no. So he came, he goes, hey, I need something here. You know, he goes, what do you want to do? I said, okay, no problem. We'll just, you know, when the puck drops. Did you ever have any of those retro where it's a, your older, young kid is like, dude, you need to help me out here.

I need to do something. No. I had to do it with Chase or more than I, nobody came and asked me because I wasn't much of a win for guys. go fight Warner and beat him up. It wasn't really. So you would go to Kelly Chase and say, hey, I need, we need to go. No, wow. He mentioned Chase.

The only reason I brought up Chase because, yes, when I was trying to come into the league, Chaser had been the year before skating with the blades in Saskatoon, which is where I was. And so we were playing our last exhibition game. And I ran him. And he's like, don't you take advantage of the fact that we're buddies. And I'm like, you know, F you chaser.

I'm trying to make the NHL. So I want to do two things, and then I want to give a little bit more love to the Let's Talk hockey event before we go. But the first thing is it was on this date in 2003, Calgary Flames trade San Jose sharks for Mika Kiprasoff. What do you remember about, we've kind of heard Rhett, the first kind of like,

I might be pretty good. What do you remember about that day? Do you remember? Because, what was it? McClennan had a broken sternum and Turc was heard or whatever the... Yeah, whatever the series situation was there. It's like, man, bad luck. They had a good start.

Turk actually looked kind of good there. And I remember, and it was Peter Marr was on the radio. And he actually, it was Mika Cypakov. He actually, he was like, well, we don't know who this guy is. Third stringer, right? Right? Is who's this guy coming in? I had no clue.

I said, Mika Keprasov? I'm like, who? He's the third string goalie for San Jose. I'm like, well, obviously, Darrell know him. And Darrell actually called Jerome and I went into the office. He said, hey, we got this Mika Kepersoff, obviously with the injuries. You know, I think he's going to be a really good goalie. Oh, okay, good.

You know, he goes, we had him. And then, yeah, you don't think much of it. He comes in. We need a goalie. And that first practice, I was like, whoa, this guy's making some, you know, it's practice. Yeah, he's trying really super hard and it's practice. But then you just, as the game started, I thought,

this guy he's good yeah yeah we might be all right here and it was it was I was I was actually annoyed well not annoyed but somewhat disappointed that because uh noodles had been playing and I was like everyone loved noodles right so you're kind of like give him his shot that he brought in another going okay but he didn't really like yeah you got that I mean he couldn't even hardly put his hand down like noodles I mean I give him a shot I mean I give him Rolls screen. Yeah. And what was the

just I guess kind of quickly, right? Because you have told this story to me before at least when in that the first instance during a game where you were thinking, okay, something there.

Yeah. And I don't know what my, now this is how my memory, I think it was the first game in one of the first shifts. And I think we were playing Montreal and it was a two on one on Rettster. The Rettster didn't do a lot.

He didn't. take away the shot or the pass. So it was a backdoor tap-in for somebody, and Kipper slid across and made the save. And I'm like, oh, yeah. We got some here. I like this guy. It was those lateral ones where you're like,

this guy's different. Like, he could cover that back door like no one else. The way to fully scored the other game on quick, Kipper was getting those. Yeah. When he would come across and get that. You're like, whoa. And he's so far out.

If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see there because Kipper's got the white mask on. That's got to be right. Whatever San Jose's affiliate is, that's the gear. The first week or so after the deal, that's you. Hey, thanks for that. I didn't take the shot or the pass on that. I'll take one next time.

Appreciate you, bud. Appreciate you, bud. Appreciate you. I'll buy you a drink. That's exactly what he's saying. See it, Cowboys on Thursday. You talk about pivotal moments, man, the franchise. Yeah. How history would be different.

And the last one, because I know, and we'll do this one, we've talked about this one on the other program, but getting to the end of the career, I know for you, it was hard. You got to make those decisions for Red. It was kind of the same way when Rhett had his final training camp. And he's off the team and you guys are on the team. And you have a little team building thing. I think you guys were going out to the mountains or something.

And it was all tough. It was tough not having the Rettster because the Rettster was the life of the party. He was. And you don't have the Rettster with you for the first time. What was the mood like? Because were you going to Banff? Is that what it was? We thought he was coming.

And we're all sitting on the bus. I'm like, where is Rhett? Like he's, someone said, hey, he's not coming. We're like, what? It has to come.

Like, it's not going to be fun without Rhett. So we're sitting there on the bus. And finally they said, hey, we can't wait any longer. We got to get going. So the bus takes off. And we get out.

There's a husky. I forget almost, I can't remember Brad's Creek. Where is that? Probably right by the Cochran. Yeah, right by the car. Yeah. And we're kind of cruising along and you see like a sign, Banff or bust.

And I'm thinking, and this, I don't really know what's going on. They have like Daisy Dukes and like a little haltertop. And you don't see the face. And I'm like, look at this idiot. I'm like, who's going to, and the bus starts pulling over. I'm like, what is going on here? Like, I'm like, keep going. Bamp for bust.

I'm like, we can't stop. There's a pro sports team run picking up hitchhikers. We're going to get hurt here. Like Bamp, and literally as we pull over, Rhett puts the sign down and he's there. I'm like, okay, now we're here we go. This is going to be a good time. And the boys must disarrupt at that point.

It went. People were going crazy. Like you just knew it was going to be, yeah, I don't know if you could do that anymore, but definitely it was a highlight of. Okay, so give us the ensemble, Rhett, you put it together. Your wife dropped you off.

Is that how this one goes? Yeah. It was, wow, it was. It was cowboy boots and Daisy Dukes and a halter top, but I had a couple of balloons jammed in there to make it look good. Yeah. I don't know if I had a cowboy hat on or not. I don't.

But I also had a cooler full of booze, and I chugged a few when I stepped onto the bus. Oh, the boys I loved it. It's a classic. It is a classic. It's one of the kinds. You know, Rhett worked hard to do that. Hard.

Yeah. But to you, I mean, to your credit, you could have, you could have been hurt and sat home. Mopey. Or you, you turn it on. Well, I don't know. Well, it was an option. It was thought, it was considered of not just going, just staying and saying, screw it. I'm done.

This is it, I guess. But I remember in Chicago, we had the Chicago series. Yeah. And right before that, Reggie got hurt. Geo got hurt. So we were down defense. I remember going to Red. saying, because Mike Keenan asked me, what could we do?

I said, I think if we could get red up this, you know, Red can play. You know, I remember going to Red. Red's like, you know what? I'll try. My shoulder's bad, but I'll try, you know, and I think the league ended making you go to, did they make you go to New York? Yeah, they sent me to New York. And then they didn't allow them to.

Wow, yeah, because they're doctors now saying you, yeah, it was a big mess. But he was going to try. Too much weed in his bloodstreet. No, he was going to try. He couldn't pass the piss test. He was, he was all in. He said, hey, I'll play with one shoulder. I'll do it.

Like, this will be the, it is, it is my greatest. Wow. Greatest. It is one of my worst memories of hockey sitting in Chicago going to a playoff game. They haven't been into playoffs forever. The place was electric. Was it ever? Underwatch.

Oh, I was, it's painful. It was awful sitting there. Awful. And that was already in Chelsea, Dagger territory, right? It's the beginning. Kane, Taves, roof coming off that place. They were just, yeah, they were.

You could see it during the year how good these young guys were. You're like, Keith. These guys are good. Yeah. It's a, you knew it was coming, and this is just the beginning. And then, you know, we jump started them, I guess. It's for you guys.

another percentage you can chase. Yeah, we jump started, though. November 28th, it's a Monday night, 630 to 9.30. It is at the Saddle Dome. It is Let's Talk Hockey, the fifth, for you and Rob Kerr, the fifth, the fifth year that you've done this together. And there you see the details.

Scotia Bank Saddle Dome. Tickets available. Prep program.com. C.A. Follow that link. Get your tickets. Got a couple weeks here. And you guys just sit up on, tell us some stories, this and have some fun Nazim Kodry Noah Hanof and Chris Tannavin yourself and Robb. Exactly. And I'm hoping Chris Sutter is going to come and be with Rob and myself.

Nice. Awesome. Awesome. So special guest. You know, Chris does a great job. And Chris went to the prep program. So, you know, it's really kind of a sure. Look at that. Look how well Chris has done. And I think it's, it's special to see these, the kids. To have the kids there and be a part of this is well worth it. Prep Society, therapeutic and educational support to children with Down syndrome, obviously, as you say, close to a lot of people within the Flames organization and beyond. So there's some details on the screen. Get your tickets. And we actually have some tickets to give away. I mean, we can do it tomorrow. We've got some time. We've got some runway. I feel like people. I feel like people. I feel like people. I feel like people. I feel like people. I feel like some runway. I feel like people. I don't have any sort of. I don't have any better. idea right now. So, yeah. Or we could do it that way, I guess. Go. Tag us with your favorite Connie Highlight off YouTube. That's an easier one. Do that. Something fun like that. Yeah, I'm not sure that's easier either.

That feels like a shot. But it's good to see you. So what the team is in Florida. And you're not. No. So how does that work? What's happening for you over the next two weeks? You know, I went to the Calgary Canucks last night. We have a lot of games now in town. So, you know, I have some NHL teams, some American League teams, I got to catch up on those. I went to the Five Nations. Yep. I'm going out to Vancouver, going to hit the BC League this weekend. And, you know, it's just, it's amazing you forget how much travel there is when you haven't been doing it with COVID.

Sure. To get back into it. So it's been, you know, and the delays and the flights and it's a lot. But it's been great. It's so much better, I think, to see the players live than just on video. You know, the skating, especially defense. How do they gap up? How do they do their things?

So for me, it's, it's been great. And I think, well, you guys probably already know, but it's going to be a great, great draft. That sounds like there's a bag of studs and it's deep as well. It does. I'm excited. You know what? You watch players and you walk out and you thought, wow, this guy is, this guy's supposed to be in the second round or third round?

I'm like, any other year, he's in the first round. So it's a deep draft and it should be, you know, we got to dig in and make sure, because we have our first and second this year as of right now. Yeah. So we got to be. Imagine those BC ranks retro, like the BCJ when Craig Conroy comes strolling in, like Elvis. If I bring Jerome, then it goes crazy. It's going to say it.

Good to see you. You look good, buddy, despite what Red says. I think your hair looks good. Thanks, Connie. There's no shame in for sure. Graying or losing hair. Well, they went in again. It should grow back, right?

I don't know about that. That's what I said. I'm like, I should just maybe go like Ryan Leslie and just shave it all off. Oh, you're not there yet. Close. All right, good stuff, buddy. Thanks for having me. Thank you, thanks for having me.

Thanks, guys. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks, Connie. Well, those nation every day coming up next on YouTube. See you. See you. Boyler suck. Did retro tell you almost came with it?