Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Former Calgary Flames Forward Jason Wiemer (FULL INTERVIEW PART 2) | FN Barn Burner

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

Rhett & Pinder sit down with former Calgary Flames Forward Jason Wiemer.PART 2/2Shoutout to this episode’s sponsors:The Hearing Loss Clinic: https://hearingloss.caMcleod Law: https://www.mcleod-law.comBK Bowfort LiquorOutdoor Dental: https://www.outdoor.dentalBon Ton Meat Market: https://bonton.caTower Chrysler: https://www.towerchrysler.comBetway: https://betway.com/en-ca/ Mad Rose Pub: https://www.madrose.pubVillage Honda: https://www.villagehonda.com/enVena Nova: https://venanova.com________________________________________________Visit  www.nationgear.ca for merch and more.Follow us on Instagram @flamesnationdotca Follow us on Twitter @flamesnation @barnburnerfnFollow us on Facebook @FlamesNationReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey guys, it's Pinder back here in the Tower Studios, part two of Jason Weamer today. Final reminder, as it is Thursday, Saturday is the ROR to Explore at Tower, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Jeep. It is going to be all kinds of amazing vehicles. You can check out free admission to the public if you want to register your vehicle to get into the dance of the check out how nice my car is slash truck slash Jeep. Just 20 bucks and proceeds going to brown baggings and lunches for Calgary kids. which is a great cause. Sadly, too many kids in our city aren't going to school with a lunch. This is a program that certainly alleviates a lot of pressure on that. I think we can all get behind kids having a lunch to eat at school. No doubt about it.

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only a year there because then so uh keenan got fired midsummer and uh rick dudley came in and so it's that next summer i got traded to yeah so i was only in ford for a year bernislav maisie i for some reason you are an islander to me i don't know why but that i i how long were you in the island like a year and a half yeah but i feel like but you guys had a good team then didn't you make the play I think we've seen. Yeah, lost Ottawa. That's right.

Yeah. We had a good team. Teams then, too. Yeah. Hosa Havlatt, Phillips Redden, that career, right?

Chara. Yeah, well, if, yeah, that was fun. Talk about it. Talk about it.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Huge. But liked the island, played with an old junior teammate, Izzy.

Yeah, got to play with Izzy. Great group of guys there. Eric Cairn. Webb? Webb. And Webbie, Sean Bates,

Mark Parrish. Adrian O'Coyne, Ricky DiPietro, Garst Snow, Osgood, like really good group of guys that we got along really well. We had a pretty good team. Not great ownership. And so then we ran into that problem where it was, we're not going to pay, so dismantle and they're kind of still in the same boat. So it was, that was unfortunate, actually,

because it was a good place to play. um you know now that they've got the arena issues what did you that was the old rink too like how cool was that like it was it was it's terrible but did you that's what it's just it like i used to like going in and playing there but i was there for 24 hours yeah no it was terrible and you know the locker rooms were the shits the ice was the shits it was it wasn't a good ring you know now that they've got it all sorted out obviously it's much better um but fun place to play like where we were good good yeah great guys guys you're in good communities to live in like we're living in supported lot passionate fans passionate

fans and you've got the islanders rangers yeah that's right which the best rival you for you you played in the Tampa Philly the first time Tampa made the playoffs they played Philly yeah it was an absolute blood bath blood bath it was insanity I remember watching it was my first and they would have eaten that up in Philly like that's well how many people were in Tampa it was at that shitty all the baseball stadium or like 24,000 or something? Oh, I think it was more than that. I think it was like 30 something. It was crazy.

It was. Oolenev and Lindross and Oolanoff. Well, even when Oolie was in, I think it was in Winnipeg before and he had hit Lindrosse a couple years before and banged up his knee. So there was some bad blood there to start. And he had his number. I mean, he had figured it out before Stevens figured it out that Eric had his head down a lot.

Yeah. And so, and he could hit. O'I could hit. And he stepped up and tattooed him a few times, which just started these meleys. Yeah. So we had full on line brawls and a few of them. Well, those fillet teams weren't going to be intimidated.

No. You guys were like, we're good. Well, and that was the Legion of Doom, right? So that was Lindrosse Leclair and Renberg, who were unstoppable. Like, and the only way we could think of was we're going to have to get in their way. Yeah. Which didn't slow them down a whole lot because they would just steamroll over us.

but so I think we went to six with them yeah you lost the game six at home that's right and it got ugly at the end it got ugly at the end so I don't remember the score but we were down by a few and Lindross had had enough and it was okay ooleneff it's my turn and so he came in there and he dumped it in oh yeah he dumped it and he went and got the puck and he just steamrolled him got and before Ullanoff was up Lindross was throwing and like haymakers. So I remember Chris Grattan and I were on the ice, kind of looked each other like, oh shit.

Grab someone. Yeah, get him. Get him off. Get him. So I remember grabbing onto his arm with both hands and him throwing me with the punch. I don't know that I was slowing him down much. Like he was, he was an insanely strong man. And so anyway, it was a full yard sale.

So we all get booted out. I'll never forget this. Ooleneff comes into the locker. We had the jersey, like, shopping carts. It was like the plastic Walmart shopping cart. And he was all pissed off. So he came into that locker and kicked the shopping cart. Well, his foot went through it.

So now it's like a crab trap. Because his foot's through it, but he can't get his foot back out of it. So he's laying on the ground. And now he's kicking with the other foot. We'll be damned if the other foot doesn't go through. No. So he's got both his feet stuck into the shopping cart. And he's on his back laying there.

there. Gratz and I are standing over top of him, but we're not, can't get any more close because he's kicking with his skates. So we're like, hey, stop kicking. So he finally stops kicking and thrashing around. And he's bleeding everywhere. He's probably zippered for like 15 across his forehead. And so Gratz and I are calmly kind of getting his feet unstuck from the shopping cart. And grad says in just a very plain voice, like, so did he hit you with any? just bliss. I was like, oh, God. That was funny.

But the rivalry in New York then. The rivalry in New York? I mean, well, you know, the Battle of Alberta is the Battle of Alberta. But the teams weren't great back then. You didn't see the best of it. You didn't know. But Edmonton had a not bad team when they had like weight and Garen and Pronger.

like that so that was the 06 you're right your first year they were good they went to the final that year that's right like so they were pretty decent um so there was some bad blood but it wasn't enough hate yeah you know it wasn't like it was hate filled the rangers islanders the ice what's going on the ice doesn't matter what's going on in the stands is crazy like there's full on brawls in the stands like these people watching the game hate each other. And so there was numerous occasions at both rings where there would be a timeout or whatever it's going on. And you look up and there's an entire section brawling, like just going at it. And like, it would be like, hey, start the game and everybody was just sitting there like,

holy Jesus, it's insane up there. Actually, I got cut at the end of a game at MSG. And so the doctors had taken the medical cart off out of the locker. And I got cut right at the end of the game. And so the trainer's in there and the doctor. And he comes in. He's like, Williams, it'll take me 20 minutes to get down to get this cart and get back. Or you can just walk down there with me to wear this little medical room.

Okay, fine. So we walk down there and I'm laying there getting stitched up. And all of these guys that were in this brawl up above are now in this room with us. And this one guy, he's missing all his teeth. Oh. Another guy, he's cut everywhere. And they're trying to convince this doctor that's sewing me up to

sew them up so they don't have to go to the hospital. And the doctor's like, well, I can't because I'm not insured to work on you here. And the guy's like, dude, I'm here on a bachelor party or something. Like if I got to go to the hospital, like, my night's over. Like, come on, you got to do it for me. Dr.'s like, I can. I can't. I can't.

He's like, I'll give you a 50 bucks. The doctor looks at me. He's like, 50 bucks. I'm a doctor. No, I'm not doing it for 50 bucks. The guy ended up, I think he got up to a couple hundred and finally the doctor was. Okay, laid on. I'll get some.

After I got my zippers, he sewed this poor sap up. It was, those games were fun because it was, there was a level of energy in the building that was exciting. So those were cool. The third annual Honda and Acura show and shine is coming to Village Honda.

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Visit their downtown show. room on the second level of Stephen Avenue Place or check them out online at vina nova.com. So leave the island and go to Minnie. Leave the island, go to Minnie. And one of the most iconic coaches of all time. Jacques Lamar was coaching there. And you've always said the best. The best.

Hands down to the best. Like he was the best coach. Just X's and O's or everything? Everything. Okay. So I mean, mostly X's and O's, yes. But attention to detail. Yeah.

Like details everything. He's in his point was everybody's good. If we're better at the details, we'll win. Yeah, he's right too. And he is right. He was very, very, we called him the mad scientist. Like he would watch video before video was even that big a thing. And when he'd see something, he'd giggle, like in his little French giggle.

And then we'd all come in and he'd sit there and show us. And we're looking at the video he's looking at. And he's questions, you see it? You see it? See it? See what? No, I don't know. It looks like we're good.

It's like, no, we can just stick. It's got to be on the other side. Huh? Okay. I mean, just small, small details where, like, on that one, he was talking about there was a D man behind the net. I was on the right side. It was a controlled breakout.

And so the D man behind the net is a left-handed shot. Okay. So he's like, he's going to want to come out his left side so that he's on his forehead. Sure. I was standing. I shoot left-handed. I was standing with two hands on my stick. I'm in the right position, but I had two hands on my stick.

So he's like, if you take your hand off your stick and just move it over here, it'll influence. It'll influence him to leave onto his backhand, come up behind that out on his backhand. Now we've got a backhand pass in their zone and off we go. Little stuff. Little is huge to him. But he's... And right.

And right. Because you could have coaches that would try and find something. They'd almost try here too hard. and it wasn't, you're always like, that's not going to make a difference. This is not a difference, right? Like, it's fine if you say that, but something like that.

I think, Jacques, he got it. This made a difference. Yeah. And if you had enough little details, it makes up to a big thing. And, you know, obviously he knew what he was doing. He was a pretty damn good coach.

Well, they went to the finals once in one in Minnesota, but the cups in Jersey, like, those details, they add up. Well, how many did he win? Like, I think he won six as a, player, didn't he? I think he had nine or something. I can't remember what it was, but it was handsful. It was quite impressive, but yeah. And so the other story I need you to tell is Deg at Christmas. Alex Degg, hi, Pitt. So it's first overall in Ottawa, a huge bust. It didn't

work for whatever reason. And you saw him in, Minnie. I saw him in Minnie. And, you know, the day go, he, love him or hate him, you knew what you were getting. You know, there were guys, again, that didn't like him, but probably didn't understand him. I said him one time, how come you've got this reputation of being so selfish? He's like, because I am. Well, all right. He's like, yeah, how can you be pissed at him?

Like, okay, I guess you are who you are. So we were living in the same apartment building. And I invited him, my family was coming in for Christmas. So we invited him over for Christmas dinner. And he showed up at the door with a bottle of Opus 1 wine. Okay. And so my mom answers the door. And as anybody kind of coming into your home, she kind of reaches for the bottle of wine.

Like, oh, thank you. Yeah. He's like, no, no, that's for me. You guys can drink your own swill. This will be mine. And that was him. So I'm like, oh, my God. Like, this guy for real.

So anyway, we sit down for dinner and he's got his bottle of wine, like in front of his plate. That's like, there's other bottles, but he's got his. And it was lucky I actually had an empty bottle of the same stuff, like underneath the sink or something. So I was like, perfect. So we got to go into the bathroom. I changed the bottles. And he came back and picked up that bottle and it's empty. And he kind of looks at me like, and he was mad.

Like, are you freaking kidding me? You guys drank this? Like, what is wrong with you? Like, he was. What kind of Christmas? Where we have it? Who drinks somebody else's wine? Like, what's wrong with you people?

I told you. That's a guest at Christmas. Yeah. Right? I'm like, oh my God. So I hand him the bottle back. I'm like,

you are such a boob. And so. I hope he laughed at least. Well, kind of. Once he got it back. Yeah. Once he got it back.

So I can't wait for practice because I can't wait to get to the ring to chirp him and tell everybody about how big of a boobie is. He beat me to it. He got to the rink and told everybody himself. He didn't mind me in the butt of the gun. He didn't care. He didn't care. I liked him.

Like, you know, He was a different cat, you know, but you talk about pressure. Yeah. And the pressure that was put on that kid at 18 years old to come in and save Ottawa and get the expansion franchise. And a big contract that everybody in the league was pissed off that he got. French speaking, French town. That was a tough.

The year before was Lindros. The year before was Lindros. And so you're going to have to sit, kind of that big an impact. Was it Lindros? It would have been close. Lindrosse was 91. Was he 92 or 93? I think he was 93.

Either way. In recent history, there's some franchise altering players that go at one and Dagg just flopped. No. Yeah. No question. But he's funny. I wonder what a player he would be like in today's game because he was a fast, fast

speed guy. He's another. He didn't have the chemical makeup to be a stunt. you know what I mean? It could be your second or third best player maybe? Sure. But, you know, he didn't have the drive, the passion to be the guy that's going to drive the bus. You know, if he was going to come along behind in our supporting role, perfect.

But yeah, I don't think he had what it took to be the number one. And so end up in many decent seasons there. Yeah. Again, it was only there for a year. Then the lockout. Then the lockout. And then you were fighting, wow, but you were deciding between going back to Minnie and coming back here. So I was unrestricted at the end of that year.

Lockout year. Block out year. And so Minnie came to me and said, you know, would you like to stay? And Darrell had approached me about coming back here. So it was, I liked Minnie. Minnie is a crazy hockey community. You know, they support that team. to the core.

So it's a great place to play. They got a great facility. I really enjoyed my time there. But this was kind of home, right? Being from Kimberly, knowing the guys, I'd played for two setters before. I was like,

and Daryl Rico was here. Preston was back here. So I'd had him with Brian before. And Richie was like, yeah, you got to come back. So this was after your guys' his 0-4 run. So we were, yeah. So it was a lot of momentum.

A lot of momentum. I'm watching it on TV going, okay. This could be fun. This will be fun. And I'll fit in. I know half the guys on that team. And I'll fit into that locker room. You would have been one of those guys.

Like, yeah, absolutely you fit the DNA of that. Right. So I was like, this is perfect. Like, yeah. And so ended up signing and coming back here. So then that was. So you would have been teammates in. Finally, after the vending machine in Japan, you finally get to play.

We finally get back together. finally get back together. So it was a long, long way back together, right? I know, finally back together. What was it like? What do you remember about weems coming in? I remember weems not getting to play enough.

No, I, we had a, we had a fucking tough team that year too, though. Oh, we were doing. Like, Sy was tough and McCarty was there. Weems, like, we just had a lot, the archment was there. Dion was come in. Like, it was, there was depth to the toughness.

maybe not too heavy heavy heavy weights but yeah we we could go we could fight but you know so that was ending to that that i my criticism of darrell at that point would be that we went to the finals and we're interviewing you so should talk about that instead but my criticism of darrell at or that time and place was that after we'd gone to the finals with a young group of guys he felt we had needed to get older. And the whole league and said, we're going younger. You got you have, and we did the opposite. That year off came to the

wrong time for you guys. Because I think also correct me if I'm wrong, if you had a year left that went into that locker, you're just got washed out, didn't it? Yeah. So there would have been guides that would have returned that oh, they're not free agents. They're going to leave. Well, and so coming out of the lockout, he signed McCarty.

He signed Tony Monti. I'd signed before the lockout. So we, like you say, we'd gotten older. But for some reason, which I didn't understand, he and I did not, or he didn't like

the way I played or whatever it was because it was from day one. From training camp on, I was the Whippin'Boy. And I don't know how many conversations I went in and talked to him, but like, what?

How have I created a decision? What have I done? What's happening? Well, day one, game one. I can't remember who the hell we played. Probably Van. No, it wasn't Van. But we went to, it was Columbus. We played in Columbus.

We played a mini and then went to Columbus. That's what it was. Played a mini. I played. Played okay. Like, we'd, I think we'd lost her. We might have tied.

I think we tied 1-1 or something. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Get to Columbus and I'm a healthy scratch. I've never been a healthy scratch in my life. I was like, healthy scratch. Oh, shit. Okay. So Rico and I went in. I'm like, I'm going to want to see what last night's game. Like, let's go over. Let's go watch this. Yeah. Because I didn't think I was that bad. And so we went through the video clip and Rico looks at me. He's like, yeah, you had a really good game.

I was, I'm like, so what's going on? He's like, yeah, just ride it up. So, and that's what I did. I wrote it out. And I asked them for a trade quietly, three different times where I went in and was like, okay, if this doesn't work. Clearly, I'm not. And you've got me in Si and Donovan and McCarty and all of these guys that are doing what you're asking me to do. And so if you think that they can do it better, that's fine. Let me go somewhere. We need to play. Yeah, we're coming off a lockout. I need to go play or I'm done.

Yeah. And yeah, he just wouldn't do it, wouldn't do it, wouldn't do it. And then finally, well, I asked, the first time I asked for trade. was November. So I asked November, December, January, February, and he traded me at the deadline. Late. Late. Yeah. And I get a phone call at 305. So after the, it's past after the deadline. And not from Darrell. Darrell's too busy. He couldn't call me. So I get a phone call at 305 and they say, yeah, we just wanted to let you know that we think we traded you. We didn't want to. We didn't want see it on the ticker. I'm like, well, what the hell does that mean? Well, we had a game that night.

Well, if you don't hear from Lou, Lamarillo, the trade didn't go through and just show up for the game tonight. Be ready to play. I'm like, yeah. I was like, well, is Daryl going to call me? He's pretty busy. Okay. So Lou called me. I went and got my gear and got the hell out of here. So I, that wasn't handled very well. No, I think there's a professional courtesy that could have been extended there. Yeah. You know, but, you know, he was, but at that point, he was the coach GM. Yeah.

Which was stupid. Stupid. It's too much. You can't do it. You know, you, this isn't that long ago. No. This is not the 50s. Like, right?

Like, there are kids all over the world playing that are high end in a billion dollar industry and your coach and when you need to be GM and or you need. And look, maybe if you're the most collaborative person. person on earth and you're taking an opinion from everywhere. You could maybe that wasn't him either. He was he was doing both jobs all on his own. I don't, I don't care for your opinions.

I'm doing both jobs. You know, as a coach, you have to create some rapport and relationships with your players in order for them to like you, to want to play for you so that you've got their respect. So you have to spend time and understand them. As a GM,

you don't want to do any of that. Yeah. You want them to be pieces of meat that I can. Your assets. I can't get attached to you because if the deal is the deal. I don't need an emotional. Attached side of this. Exactly.

You have to be very black and white. So in order to do both jobs, it's damn near impossible. Yeah. I don't know how anybody would think that you can be emotionally detached when you're coaching. Yeah. It doesn't work. That's like I've never thought about it that way, but I think you're bang on. Yeah.

And that's why it didn't last long. Like it was the next year, playfarers behind the bench? Yeah. Yeah. It was like one year, basically. Yeah. And I think they're still recovering. You know, like he did a lot of damage in that.

I don't know, it was a year or two years that he was GMing. You know, some of the deals he made. Three or four. Was it, yeah, that got old, too much term, too much money. Not a great draft track record at all. Traded a lot of picks. Not older. Like, you know, you can blame Kipper too.

Well, that was the next. thing. It was all taken care of because Kipper kept you in it. Kipper kept you in it. Kipper kept you close. So there was a misread on really how close you were. That's fair. And you weren't in Amonte away after all. No. I'll be late in his career, Monti. Prime Amante would have helped a lot. Yeah, Prime Amante was pretty good. He could skate too.

Big clap mom off the wing. But no time in Jersey either. Blow your knee out and that's it. Blue my knee out in the playoffs. So got traded there at the deadline. blew my knee out in the playoffs. Where are they at in their life? Are they contenders at that point still? Or is it just after the cup runs there? No, they were still contending.

You had Martin Broder. You had Marty Broder. You had Gianta scoring 50. Scotty Gomez getting 80 points. Eliash was there. There were some. They won not long after that, didn't they? I thought they won one more with Marty before.

They kept churning coaches and had a couple of runs there. They, for a while there, they were just around. Yeah, like Zach Breezy was there. They had a, it was a good team. Like, good, and any relatively young. Yeah, so blew my knee out in game six against, no, game four. We swept the Rangers and then. How was that?

That's not nothing. That had to be a fun. series to be part of. That was a fun series to be part of. That was cool, but the Rangers weren't very good at that point. That was the... Got it in.

They were overpaying all those old guys to be around. That was the Yager. Not a lot of heart and soul. Not a lot of... I remember it was game one or two. And that was it. Hit Yager. Just bump into him, bump into him,

get him disinterested. And it was like... He got hit once or twice. and it was, he just turned it off. Really? Thank you. Might as well turn to stick over. He did zero interest.

Yeah, so that was about it. Blew my knee out. Kind of got misdiagnosed around the Lamarillo group. Weird. Yeah. He's an interesting cat, that one. So I went and got an MRI, and they told me, you're fine. You got a kissing contusion.

Your knee joint has opened up, slammed back together. And so basically the two sides of your knee are bruised. And when they touch, it hurts. But you're fine, but you're fine. No structural damage, it just hurts. You should be fine. We should be able to tape it, put a brace on it. You're good to go.

Okay. So we played Carolina in the next series. We lost in six. I played in that series and then came home and was working out. And this just didn't feel right. My leg was kind of looping and opening and it just felt gross. So my brother's radiologist, and so I called him up and said, hey, I'm going to need an MRI on this thing. So we went up there and he scanned it.

And I went into the little black room where they were looking at the image. And he started laughing. He's like, you want the good news or the bad news? It's like, good news? Your leg shouldn't fall off. And bad news, everything else is fucked. So ACL was completely gone. Meniscus was completely shrouded.

like both my other PCL and LCL were grade threes and so needed complete reconstruction. So, sorry, how did it happen? Tom Pody, the intimidating figure that he is. Yeah, I would say MSG ICE had a lot to do with it. I was going, got to center, had the puck, and just kind of bumped the puck in and he stood me up. And I was turning to go to the bench. He stood me up and just leave. back and pop.

That was it. Pretty innocent. It was completely innocent. There was nothing to it. It was just the way and the way my weight was. Just the way the weight. And again, I don't know if I hit into the ice too deep and it just twisted it and popped. So went in the locker room.

And it wasn't like it was excruciating roll around. Screaming pain. Like I skated to the bench. It was right at the end of the period, walked down the tunnel, put tape on it and finished the game. Like it wasn't, you know, it didn't balloon like swell like you would think it would. It was just, yeah, keep going. Okay. So you're back home. You've realized what you're told it happened is not what it happened. Not quite what happened. And so then what happens then? So I call Lou and said, hey, I went and got a second opinion on my knee. Now before I can say what's wrong, he asked if he would like

his surgeons or if I'd like to go somewhere else to get a thing. So he knew. So he knew. So he knew. So I was like, well, I don't think I'm going to let your guys touch me. So ended up going to Cleveland and got it repaired. But the shitty thing was instead of getting my deed done in April or May, I got my knee done at the end of July. Yeah. So instead of being ready in August, instead of being ready by October, I'm ready by January.

So now we're navigating salary cap issues. I was making a million bucks. And I haven't played. So we get all the way, it's now January. and I'm making a million bucks and we're right on the cap. So he's got to take two guys off of the roster, which would have been Dan McAcher and probably Mike Rupp and send them to the miners in order to insert me in.

And we're in a playoff race. And I haven't played since May the year before. First time on a new knee. I'm not making that move. And had a lockout year. Had a lockout year. I only played probably 40 games. 50 games a year before.

So the last two years, I've played 40 games. So anyway, it would, like, I mean, I don't blame him. But he went about it wrong. He didn't come out and say, hey, I can't take these guys off the cap to put you in here. Maybe we'll throw another year on your deal. It was just, we're just going to stick you over here and forget about you. Well, and again, to the point you made earlier, if he diagnoses it properly, you've got a fall decision, not a mid- season decision. At that point, you can be traded. Other things could happen more easily.

Anything could have happened at that point. So it was, yeah, it was, that was a little bit difficult to deal with where, you know, at, I don't think 31 or 32 years old at that point, you're like, holy shit, I'm just me. Like, it doesn't matter to anybody of what's going on. And, you know, he kind of been through it all. And that was my hand wiping moment. I was like, I'm done. Like, You both had your careers end in that fashion. And most guys don't get to pick how their career ends. Like tomorrow, well, I guess we're weighed it down. We sat down with Lanny.

You get to lift the cup and retire. That almost never happens, right? Like Ray Bork, that almost never happens. What most often happens is what happened to you guys. And I know you had said it. You were just done with it for all. You didn't watch games on TV for a bit. You needed to just stop with hockey.

Didn't you want to see the game on TV. Were you the same way? I don't think maybe that. that much. Like, I would still watch it. I'm still a fan of the game. I had no interest in playing it.

I didn't, like, it was probably two years before I even started thinking about playing, going to play and play in beer your pickup. It was,

you know, something that you have kind of, that you love, that, you know, you had the passion for, that it was all you did, it was who you were, and then it's taken away.

And you're kind of, almost feels like it was stolen from you. Like, I don't, you know, so you have a level of, anger towards it where it was I was not at the game just at the how it unfolded how it unfolds in the bullshit again I'll go back to the fact that I got another year or two after you did but

hardly played there was a lockout and we were told you what we were brought up team team team team yeah there was no individual world that you could even think about if you're an individual In that era, you were not part of a hockey team. No. They got rid of you. So you were taught to be a teammate and you're a top team first. And then you're part of the union. While the union relies on your part of the union, we got to pull together.

Bob Good now is the guy, hates Bettman. We're going to, we got a war chest. We're going to bow. You're lied to by your union and telling you, we should. We're going to make this all back. Yeah, we don't give in. They'll crater. There's no cap coming.

We refuse to take us out. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Stars over Kansas. Yeah. And you're like, I'm a dumb hockey player, but this is, it's worked for me so far, being a good teammate. I guess this is what you got to do. Well, you miss a whole year, your career there on a fucking lie, to be quite honest with you.

Like, we could have negotiated that deal the year prior to the lock. The one you ended up getting, you could have got, but without a lockout. So you got what the owners wanted missing a year. That's so. So not only do you miss that year, but because you miss that year, you're probably, you know, there's the trickle down from that is huge.

If you don't miss a year because of lockout, your whole trajectory is different. Like everything's different. Everything changes. So you have, so my point being to me, that's where the cynicism started for. And maybe the disdain for some of it was like,

well, this is a bunch of bees. Yes. I thought I was the good guy in doing and living and being this way. Well, now you're just fucking taking advantage of it. Yeah. And that was two kids fighting in the sandbox.

Yes. You know, like, yeah. They didn't give a shit about what was really going on. And I don't know what Bob's end goal was. I don't either. I don't know how he ever expected to get to where he was saying.

Yeah. Where he thought we were getting to. It was no hard cap. But he lost that. Right. But what he painted to us about the hard cap is a far cry from where we sit today. Yeah. Right.

Like we were painted that, you know, we come in with this hard cap. You're going to have your top players getting paid millions. They're going to get 20 and you're going to get half a million. And everybody else is going to get the chicken feed. And we're not master negotiators. And we, I didn't even put thought into it. Oh, I don't want that. Yeah.

Because I'm the guy that's going to get screwed here. You're like, I'm, I'll pull the line. Oh, but you can put other stipulations in there where there's minimum salaries and they can, the top guy can only take a. Oh. So you could have massaged it a little. Yeah, it was, you know, and I guess bad on us that we didn't get some more opinions on where this should go.

And we just took his word. Well, I mean, to your points, your teammates that stick together, you listen to your coach. In this case, the guy running the union was your coach and you listed to him. And he may have philosophically had high ground, but it was a group of millionaires fighting with a group of billionaires. And I guess in hindsight, it's easy to say the billionaires, we should have knew they were going to get what they wanted. Well, they were going to get what they wanted because at some point,

and it was. I mean, we had players, you know, kind of walking going, we're going to take a cap because I'm making 10 million bucks. And I just lost 10 because we lost here. I'm not losing 20. So we're going to get a deal done. And so we had guys working behind the scenes. I can look in the mirror now and go,

you're an idiot, rat. Oh, yeah. That was dumb. You should have thought more about it. And been more involved in it. Yeah. You know, but like you're saying, we had a guy telling us this is what it's going to be.

We weren't supposed to be getting taken advantage of by that guy. And I don't know that he was deliberately taking advantage of us, but he was misleading us. He sold you on something that didn't happen. It didn't happen. But I wasn't going to have. Yeah, and I don't know whether he was smart. He should have been smarter because I don't think he lined his pockets.

Like it's not like we're talking Alan Eagles. No, he's not stealing. He's just making fucking poor decisions. Just poor decisions. Because he didn't like bet. That was the problem. It felt like a personal vendetta between those two. It came down to two little kids fighting in a sandbox.

And we all paid the price for it. Yeah. But, and I go back to where we started on this, I think that's exactly right because that was kind of coming off the heels of like so my career ending was off the heels of the lockout and it was after that lockout it was different it's easy to be jaded if you lose the year salary you were sold something that didn't happen you see it as a huge business where you're just a piece of meat and then you get misdiagnosed when you know they do it like i i think it would be really easy to be very jaded and cynical of that well and so

when i re-signed here in 05 or 5 or 05 or 5 oh 5 or 5 So I signed a three-year deal, then a lockout. So I lost a year and we had a 25% rollback. Right? If you only waited like a few months, you wouldn't have the 25% rollback. Yeah. So you get 25%.

You signed a three-year contract that just became a two-year deal and you're 25% of it. Yeah. So dang. That was, yeah, I was kicking the nuts. And then not soon after that, you get screwed on an injury diagnosis. And it's like, that's affecting your life. They didn't care.

No. And you know what? That part I don't really care about like the like, I mean, you mean, affecting your life, like how you walk around from day to day because you've got injuries that may hurt your life. We signed up for that when we started playing. That's fair. You know, like there's an inherent risk to playing hockey, to playing any sport in any

profession. If you want to get paid to take those risks, if you don't, then don't play. Yeah. You know, the concussion things and the other guys coming back saying, well, I didn't know that I'd get a concussion. You were signing up to get punched in the face. You know, that's not good, right? Like, that's probably going to come with it. So I don't, I don't, I don't have animosity or pissed off at the game or people of the game because my body hurts now, maybe a little more than it would if I'd have been a school teacher. But I also wouldn't have got to do a lot of the shit. And I owe the game, really everything I have in my life to this point.

I owe it to playing hockey. So, you know, as you get older and wiser, you can kind of reconcile. Reconciling, navigate a little bit of it where it's like, okay, yeah, that pissed me off. But not pissed me off that I wish I hadn't done it. Yeah, the question that you always put to it, would you? you do it again? 100%. Oh, yeah.

I'd do it different. Yeah, I would probably do it different, but would you do it? Absolutely. The real question for both of you is if you could do it again, would you hit the beer vending machine in Japan? Absolutely. I believe I would.

Yeah, 100% that beer vending machine would get hit. But it might have hit like the gym after. Right. Maybe. Like just tried that on for size. A little bit less of that, a little more of that. Not less.

Just different. That's the full circle on it. We can keep going, but we are right back to that vending machine in Japan. Love it. It was a good spot. The Hearing Loss Clinic was open in 1993 with a simple mission, make a positive difference in the lives of our clients. It's never been about hearing loss or hearing impairment. It's been about empowering you to be socially active or more connected with loved ones

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Bontan was voted the Calgary Consumer Choice Award winner for Best Deli Meat Market. Find them at 28 Crowfoot Circle Northwest. Or go to bontan Meat Market.com. And I do a couple things. So you got two boys. They slide into Retz, three boys. You guys see a bunch of each other.

Your name always has come up over the last decade working with this guy. We know you're a bit of an outdoorsman. You like to hunt, if I'm correct. Like what is what do you love about life right now with with the kids at that age and having some spare time and being a pal at this lunatic? Well, you know, it's fun. Like with two boys, uh, it's great because you get to do a lot of the things that you like to do. You know, so we like to hunt and fish and golf and play hockey and they like to do the same stuff.

So, you know, fishing trips and hunting trips are now with my kids and a lot of times with my dad. So we've got a few generations out there. So you get a lot of time to, you know, spend some time with the kids. You know, everybody gets busy doing shit. And you kind of make excuses why not to. So us being able to do all the things that we like to do together is great. You know, and now they're golf. Here's a question.

So you've got two boys. If you had two girls, how different would it be? I don't like to think about it. I mean, maybe they like hunting and playing hockey. You never know. Yeah, they might. But no, honestly. And part of the reason it's, it's an observation from,

and I think we've probably just talked about it. There's no science to it. I've not done research on it. But I'm guessing that fellows, NHL guys that have boys tend to be involved in the game less, professionally, post-career than guys that have. Because they're busy with their kids hockey.

Yeah, hell yeah. I'm with you. That'd be interesting to look at because, I mean, that chews up the majority of my In your mind, in my mind, are you going to stay in the game? Wow. Do I stay in the game or do I give my time to my kids? Yeah. And they're hockey and they're, not that it's a career path for them, but it's a direct involvement with them.

Well, it's the time you get to spend with them. Yeah. You know, like we've talked about it lots like both getting back in the game. Okay, do you want to go and coach or be involved in something in a junior hockey? or whatever. And it's like, well, what do I got to give up? Yeah, not if it means sacrifice and coaching my kids team because I enjoy that. You know, I like being there.

Yeah, I might like coaching junior, but I'm coaching my kids. It's, we're not far off here. And you can't do the challenges you can't do both. You can't be riding a bus for seven months in the Western League and coach your kids. You just can't. No, you can't. There's not enough time in the day. Yeah.

So, no, I wouldn't. If you had girls, I think that you'd have a lot more white hair. like that would be a very stressful I would be very stressed if I had daughters I would be owned like I would feel like I have a just I can fake it in my brain that I have some control yeah the situation at home with it was all girls but I've got I've got nieces and it's like if they want something they come see uncle Jason like hey oh yeah no problem yeah you bet you you're my My favorite. My kids will be sitting there. You're my favorite. My kids are like, well, what the hell? I'm like, yeah. So yeah, if you had a daughter, yeah, it would be tough. It's fine. Between Rhett boom, myself and there's eight kids, seven are boys. Yeah. So we don't have a lot of daughter stories. Well, we've got a few, but generally speaking, it's a lot of sons on the show. When Rhett and I get together, we'll have a few buddies go down to the Red's Lake or whatever.

So we'll have, you know, four or five families around. And it'll be one or two girls and, like, hen boys. It's like, now the girls don't want to come. Just rolling their eyes at the idiots. Oh, yeah. Or dad doesn't bring them. They're all getting to be 14. Where's your daughter?

She's at home. I come and hang out with these ramrods. Way, man. Thanks for coming in. Anytime. Good seeing you guys. Wait, I want to add. Let's just do a quick five-minute breakdown.

Thoughts on the flames going in the next year. Conroy's in. A lot of change. You know, a lot of change. I think Connie's a great, happy for him. He's a great guy. You know, I think he deserves the opportunity. I think he's been handed a handful of shit to try and make soup out of

spot here. He's going to be, he's got to make some really hard decisions that unfortunately are going to somewhat pave his path. He's either going to come out of this and everybody's going to say, wow, this is a great GM and he's going to make a career out of it or he's going to come out of this and be the GM for three years and nobody's going to see him again. So it's going to be, I think, a real difficult spot that he's in. we'll see how he does the team i don't know it's a tough watch last year do you buy that they're

good or do you buy that they're bad or i mean they're they're right on the cost for making the playoffs it's probably what they are they're not any better you know i mean they're not going to come out and win the west no you know so we're talking about somewhere between six and 12 right and if they play well if they get good goal tending maybe they get up to six maybe they finish second or third in the division maybe i i don't know um you brought up a good point the other day we were talking about the team they're all coming up unrestricted right so everybody six guys uffas the sepoli got moved but you still got shillington tannov backland uh zedorov i believe as well as the two big ones that's your hannifin and

and then then don't so you have five or six guys that are looking to have career years so they can get the big ticket. Good time to have one, fellas. Good time to have one. But that doesn't help Conroy. That makes Conroy's position worse. So what happens at the trade deadline when they're in a fight for it, are you going to start buying?

When you've got five guys that are unrestricted, you can start buying and then lose everybody. It's a tough spot if they're good. Can you sell? The easiest thing to do is if this team's horseshit, we can all look at it and say they're no good. trade everyone. The hardest thing to do is if this team is competitive at the deadline and everyone's like, I want to see what that's cap's going to do. I don't really want to resign right now. I might,

but not now. Oh, nobody, nobody's agent will let them resign right now. Yeah. Like, Stamco's hasn't resigned in Tampa. I think he's staying in Tampa. Even the people where you know where they're going aren't signed yet. Even if you back up the Brinks truck. Yeah. Which then maybe, but now you're going to have to overpay. Well, and then you've just, yeah, you've just sewer. And that's where they're out with Lynn home. That's where they're out with right. He'll sign for too much money. Yeah. Are you going to give Lynn home eight? And he probably wants something that starts with the nine. I guarantee

Becklin comes back for three years at the same. Yeah, but that's a bad deal. Exactly. So where are they going to be? They're going to be right in the middle. I think they're going to struggle to score goals. You know, I don't know. You traded away your leading goal score. You didn't replace them with any. who's going to fill the net? I don't know.

You need a bounce back from Huberto, that's for sure. Well, you know, there's got to be a bit of a bounce back. But Huberto was 115 points once. Yeah. He's been a 70 to 80, 90 point guy a few times. So a bounce back is 70 to 80. Yeah. Not 115.

No, I agree with that. That's the outlier. I think you would take 80 point Uberto right now, wouldn't you? You'd take 80 points, but like that. Because that's how bad he was. At 115 points, he only had 30 goals. And it's not happening again. It's not happening.

That was a one-off. That's your career year. But who's going to fill the net for him? Yeah. Because he's a passer. He's not going to get 30. You know, a good year for him would be 80 points with 20 goals. He passed first.

We saw it all last year. Yeah. So 20 goals, 60 assists, you'd say great year. Yeah. Who scored those goals? It is a thing. And, like, Cadry had a very frustrated year. still had 24. If you told me that Dube and Manjapani and Pelchi and Cornet, like, sure,

but that's again, that's by committee. None of those guys is going to score 30. I don't think. You've got a lot of guys that projected should project out 20 plus, maybe one or two or 30. Maybe a lind home. Maybe Lindholm. Maybe a cadre. And a cadre. Lend home doesn't get to 30 very often in his career. No. I was playing with Johnny, sure. but yeah so you know but those would be the only two guys where you could say okay 30 could be in the cards yeah like i don't see magic two years ago but everything went right it felt like everything went right like i mean i don't know what a shooting percentage was but it felt like it was like 50 yeah was it on the road yeah it was one of the other the splits were nuts so i i don't see you know i watch

i love the kid i think that he plays i like how we play plays hard she plays you know hard on a sleeve he goes out there and works his bag off. He's got good skill, but he's not a 30 goal guy. You know, he's 20. And it's the same with Duby. Doobie has a good year. He's 20. So you've got lots of guys, like you say, by committee, you need something, you need some injection of skill. The point you make, it's the best and worst for the flames. And we've talked about it. Constantly. Six free agents, that can be a great thing because all those guys are looking for contracts. But if they have a contract year, that puts you in a spot where you're in a playoff position or at least fighting and what in the F are you doing?

Well, you get a great return for this guy, but we're in a playoff spot. Yeah. How's the owner going to react to you trading your leading score at the deadline? Yeah. So Connie needs to spend between now and March, paving the road to trade everybody. I think. Win or lose. And the fan base, the ownership base, He's got to start putting the bricks in place that regardless of where we're at, we need to sell. I'm telling you, those guys that he's got are really attractive pieces. Who would not want to add Chris Tanev to a playoff roster?

And I understand the injury thing, but when Tanev is, like, he screams at him at the deadline, playoff bill defender. Who wouldn't want to add a Michael back and like, oh my God, like third line, put him in a shutdown role, whatever you need to do. Penalty kill. Like you're talking about the types of players that are the final pieces for contestant. But the problem is they here it might not be the contender. Wouldn't you say that this team is full of second and third liners? Yeah.

Like on any contending team or even playoff team, is anybody on the flames playing on the first line? Well, I think the Hubert-O one's tough because he was a point-per-game player for four seasons in a row. And last year he looked so bad. It is hard to believe he was for half a decade, a point-per-game guy. But was he the best player on their team?

No, he was not. He played on a line with Bennett and Duclair. He didn't play with Barkov, but he still put up those screens. So I get what you're saying. Lindholm was, but only when he was with Johnny and either Monaghan or Johnny and Kachuk, because he had those two big career years. And so I'm kind of with you. Like there's a lot of guys you'd love to be your second and third best player.

Well, when you talk about it was going along now, but you just said it. when you trade those guys, those are pickup pieces for a team to take them over there. They aren't their top line. Yeah. You're already a contender. You go to trade for those guys. Those are the kinds of pieces that are like, holy, look at the depth of the squad now. Oh, my God.

Those are your depth guys. Those are the guys that second and like really good third line, second line. Vegas loses a D-Man injury. We go get Noah Hanna. He's going to play 25 for on our second pair. Yeah. Like that's the. They're not driving the bus.

You know, they're great. Great fillers. you know, what would you call tertiary pieces, secondary pieces. Sure. That's, and that's where I look at this squad and no offense to Huberto, he's not a cornerstone. He's not a centerpiece that that's the guy I'm building my franchise around. Yeah. Florida approved it.

They picked everyone else instead of him to keep. Well, it could have kept him. And I mean. You get Kachuk, I get it. They made a pretty good move. You know, Kachuk looked pretty good last year. And, I mean, again, trees are pretty tough. spot there and he looked like he did pretty well coming out of that so got a first in there too got a

first in there too you don't extend them that's all and and so if they are going to be competitive it it's going to be a buy committee they're going to have to get goaltending they have to be much better defensively than they were and i still and i think they can do it for a year i just don't see long term long term no if you keep the oh man we're having a great year we're going to make the playoffs oh we got to sign all these go okay we're going to sign them now we've overpaid them I don't think three years from now that that team is well you there's a lot that's a long time out you look at teams that you're excited about you look at ottawa you look at buffalo you teams that are on the upward trajectory and you look at their core and what they've got they've got a stud young d man

and one or two studs up front that they're building their franchise around i don't see that here they're older right they're older and so maybe you'll see that down the road from a Peltier or Coronado and this Hansek kid will probably be here in two years, but that's not now. That's no. And, you know, the hard part is you got to be shitty to end up being good. But I, I don't mind that because I like the idea of increasing my odds of picking a stud player. Yeah. And to do that, I got to be shitty.

You got to be shitty. And that's where, you know, we struggled here for so long is they haven't allowed it to be shitty. Yeah. So. sell it off. You know, if that's what you got to do. And I mean, if there were time to do it where nobody could really bitch when you've got

six UFAs come in. The other thing is, man, like if they want to be good when that new building opens, that's going to be real good for business. Don't be shitty. When is that happening? Four or five years. That's about how long it takes, right? I mean, you know, it's it's not tomorrow.

You do have a window to like, if you want to, like, if you want to. want to turn it around, you've got a few years. And if you want to be good in a new building, you're going to make way more money than you're at the saddle dome. In fact, well, there's no question. You know, and it's, unfortunately, you got to take a dip before, because hanging in the muddy middle, great. You know, maybe you've got an outside chance making the playoffs, the building, but the

fans are also going to get tired of it. I think they are. Yeah. I think the fans have had it now. Yeah. I think they saw. This is last call for me in terms of where I think the fan base is at. I think you're going to see smaller tennis numbers.

and if this team wants to be good, they might win them back. But if this doesn't work, there's going to be all kinds of people yelling for a rebuild. Like, I would think the vast majority of fans would want that. I feel already like it's, it's getting close.

I think even the people that aren't calling for it right now could be convinced of it. This is not the worst decision. Maybe you don't like it, but it's not the worst decision. Well, is there anybody, like, do you get excited to go? Not last year.

The year before was pretty fucking excited. There's a different team the year before then. Yeah, no. I mean, you're right. You know, you'd go watch Johnny and you'd go watch Kachuk. And do it. Okay. That's good.

I'd go watch 115 point here. I don't know that I'm going to see that in Flames. Good luck. Fingers crossed. Yeah. Maybe. Thanks. Okay, boys.

Appreciate it. Have a excellent finish to your summer and knowing the number of the number of hockey dads we have, it's going to get busy here. So soak up the sun and make sure you're ready to get on the jets and spend a bunch of the winter drinking coffee in a rink. coffee. He's only coaching one team now. Parking lot beers, you kidding?

You can't find a vending machine. Yeah, thanks, boys. It was great. Thank you. The word is out. Madrose Pub in Royal Oak has become one of Calgary's best pubs. And it's no secret why. 20 beers on tap, kid friendly Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, daily specials,

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