Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Friday Morning Hangout With Boomer & Rhett | FN Barn Burner

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

Special Edition Of FlamesNation Barn Burner - April 28th, 2023- How Covid-19 affected Boomer & Rhett- Rhett's move to Buffalo- Kids growing up- Going from Radio to Podcast/Youtube- Life talk & more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to, what should we call it, a special edition of Barnburner today. There's no pender for starters. We're all at home. And I think that, and we'll get into it, but I think at some point, the tone of these shows is going to change a little bit. We're not going to be talking about the Calgary Flames every day. There's only so many days. We can only rip them to shreds for so long before we have to do something else. But people keep asking, so what's the plan for the off season?

What are you guys going to be doing? and what are you going to be up to? And you're not supposed to ever admit, right, that you don't know what you're doing or that you don't have a plan. And I think part of it is we don't, this is a whole new world for us. But yeah, we don't really,

we don't really have a plan as of yet. But that's, I live my life like you, Red, you know? Just frigging wing it. See what takes you, man. And if I'm not supposed to tell people I don't know what I'm doing, then I'm screwed because I say that all the time. And it's, but I've, but I feel like that's the truth.

I thought we were supposed to tell the truth. Nothing about the truth. That's what, hey, look where it's got us. I got this light coming in on my. Yeah. Yeah.

So we've got some sunshine. Someone spying on you? No, it's just the sun outside. Christ. So welcome to Barnburner. Welcome to the Tower Kreiser Studios. It's just little,

little me and Rhett hanging out. We'll probably get into talking some hockey. We'll talk about whatever. But it's weird because you came back to town. Now, when did you, because you're in Buffalo, as people know, you left for Buffalo in what month of 2022? August. Right. And I think I was out of town in August.

So it was when you came back for the playoff draft, whatever, two weeks ago, it was the first time I had seen you in a long time. Because we worked together at SportsNet till March. And then I probably saw you off and on. I was done March 17th last year. So yeah, I'm sure we saw each other a little bit over the summer, but, yeah. Yeah. And then summer happens. You get busy.

I was out of town. You were out of town. And then you left. You weren't back for Christmas. And you came in and, yeah. Oh, you're looking great. So, yeah. Yeah.

God. Honestly, man, I can't believe it. It's happened so fast that even I see it. I'll look in the rearview mirror. It'll be like, Jesus Christ, what is going on? I don't even know what to do with it. It's like I need a haircut, obviously. He can be like Conroy.

Just dye the piss out of it. It'd be great. Does he die his hair? I don't know, but we got to pretend. Yeah. Oh, man, like some of those guys like Eric Francis, it's like, he must die his hair. But then you're talking to us like, well, no, he's got some little bits of gray in there.

But no, he's, that son of a bitch. I don't know how you battle it. I can't hide it. Because it's in my chin. Well, and how, God, we're such slobs. If you were going to try and pull it off, you'd have to have somebody else to do it. You'd have to pay a shit ton of money to get it done. And you'd have to go back.

Yeah, you can't just, you can't ignore it after one application, right? Oh, well, I'm good. No, I'm just not going to cut my hair again. No, it's not really how it works. I go through that even with my appearance where I'm like, okay, you slob. Like, I'm a jeans and t-shirt. to the point of my problem my own detriment.

Like you're going to meet with people that are important to people. It would be the worst thing to put on something just, you know, maybe that would have been ironed even. Ah, I'm a jeans and teeth. So I go through these phases where I'm like, I need to just shave,

maybe comb my hair, don't wear a hat, like one day of your life. Yeah. And I have about two days in a row of doing it. And then, So for me to dye my hair and pretend that I'm going to have some sort of maintenance routine, fat chance. And there's many times that I feel badly for my wife that she is with me and not with somebody else.

But you see somebody's like, man, that's a sharp. Like look at his shoes. The shoes are brand new. They're polished. That's how dress clothes, like you tucked in that's straight lines. Like the shirt goes into the belt and then the pants. It's like everything's like, gosh. She has to want to be with somebody like that.

Oh, yeah, for sure, because they all look sharp, those guys, like my buddy Funker and stuff. But, okay, so get this one, though. Johnny Winwick, ATB, do those dinners with them. So this before Geo was even gone. So I would get invited and I would dress nicer for that. I've only got so much wardrobe. Geo calls me out. He goes, dude, you wore that last year.

So I can't even I don't even know what I have, what to wear. It's sad. It's hard, man. I get it. But I guess, yeah, so it was, you were home for the playoff draft for kids' sport. I picked you up.

We went to the draft and then you bailed. I didn't see you afterwards. And we worked together for that week or whatever was, five, six days. And then you were gone. I don't even, aside from the trip. to the Grey Eagle Casino. We didn't really, I haven't had, I didn't have any one on one time with you.

And it would probably surprise people. We're obviously not in the same room. I think people get that you're in Buffalo and we're there. But there's not a lot of conversing that goes on for us. We talk to each other every day, but we never really talk where it's not the show. No, not very often. The odd time.

But you're right. When I think that's part of it, though, it's like when you live at home. with a person in your house and you talk to them for two hours, that's probably not. That's good. Yeah. We're all right. So, no, it doesn't, it doesn't carry on afterwards.

And it certainly, I mean, it's not a should or shouldn't. You got kids running around too. Where the F are you finding the time to sit down and have another hour conversation? Yeah. It's impossible. People would, say, also Stephen Brunt, you know, when we'd have them on the, on the show, what sports now. Stephen brought to you guys.

What do you? Have never met Stephen. No. All the years that we had him on the radio and you would think somewhere those lines would cross never did hook up with him face to face. Feel like we know him, right? And we've had phone conversations and very friendly that way. I consider him very much an acquaintance, but we've never sat down together.

You have a general feeling for the character of a person, but no, no clue. I was the same way with Elliot. The only time I've ever ran into Elliot was when you and I went to the All-S, no, was it the All-Star? The awards banquet. The awards banquet in Vegas. Only time in my life I've ever met the man. And he looked like a bag of shit that day, didn't he?

Terrible. Oh, my God. Was he wearing sweatpants in the casino or something? He looked awful. Gosh. That's some kind of work that they do to get him looking good. Because when he's disheveled, and you see him go on some of these podcasts, He hasn't done any of his head. That's Elliot.

You know that that's the Elliot freedom. Yeah, that's the one the wife loves. But of course, people will ask, because they just think we're together. So how's Rhett doing? What's going on with Red or his kids doing this or what's he doing? And I'm like, I think he's good. Yeah, we talk every day, but I don't, I don't really know. And we've talked about it.

And I think some people maybe think it's a bit. But the moving to Buffalo, I guess. And you don't need to share. I feel like this is kind of how we roll. We can just kind of throw things out there. But how did it come to be? And we joke that you do things on a spur of a moment. But this kind of was one of those things.

How did it come to be that a year ago, it's like we're leaving and going to Buffalo, New York? Well, I loved playing in Buffalo. So even when they retired, I had a soft spot in my heart. Like I played in Florida. We went to the finals. and you have a great time in Florida. But Florida is a different animal, right? It's not, to me, a family upbringing type of atmosphere.

And even as a young guy, single guy, living down there, I didn't make a bunch of friends. You know, I kind of, you're a farm kid from Saskatchewan, never seen a palm tree, and all of a sudden you're living in Florida. You're not exactly up to date on how to act. Where or anyway. But I came to Buffalo and I made friends. And it's a blue collar place.

And I enjoyed my time here. We had success here. The people treat you really well. And even when I retired in 2009, my wife being from Buffalo, it was always an option. And we considered it. Chose Calgary. You thought that there was more potential in that city.

and then I think it's weird for everyone right now. Like I talked to the shoveler yesterday or the day before. I said, you know, it's not that long ago that this COVID stuff was front and center. And there was a lot to it. We're living a very normal life now. Everyone. Whereas a year ago, that was certainly not the case. So I think that COVID for everyone unraveled their brains a little bit and scrambled them and made them a little bit, you know, squarely and confused.

So maybe that was part of the reason that in August we decided to come. But it was we'd always talked about coming back to Buffalo. My wife lost her brother in the Army, the U.S. Army, so that she is, you know, her, she's the only daughter now, the only child. for her folks and family's important to us. So that was one of the deciding factors. Her grandma's old and still kicking around, still has Sunday dinner,

like 90-some years old, and every Sunday cooks for 30 people. Like it's staggering. But probably the biggest thing is me. I'm a spur of the moment, dumbass. And we were sitting on her deck. It was August 16th.

And I told this story and it was, I'll finish it and then I'll go back. But it was August 16th and we just said, yeah, what the hell? I'm going to go try it for a year. During COVID, we took the boys for six months and traveled and went to Florida in different places. We absolutely loved it. So I think that was part of it. We were like, I'm not afraid to try new things. I don't like actually getting stuck in ruts.

I actually don't like being told. Oh, you're going to do it because that's what everybody else does. That's how people do things. And I'm like, what the hell does that mean? Is that your boomer impression right there? Is that what that was? There's a little boomer in there for sure, because you are just like my father aware. This is, well, that's kind of how you're doing.

Anyway, we decided by all, I'm so dumb that once I make, I'm terrible at making decisions. But once I made a decision, it's like, let's go. Yeah. And so by the, that was August 16th, it was 8 o'clock at night before we ever decided. and by 8 o'clock on August 18th we were in Buffalo with three hockey bags and done it's amazing like it truly is now that now the catch to that is that I did not expect I wouldn't be able to go back and forth right right so when we came down here I was saying we'll go back and forth and do a bunch of stuff and this and that and then the immigration stuff comes up and all of a sudden you go almost was eight, nine, ten months without going back. That was not in the back of my mind how it would play out.

So that was a little bit awkward. Yeah. I give you credit. I mean, you're in a, you're in a good spot where obviously, you know, financially you're good. So you can just kind of, to a certain extent, you can kind of do your things and go that way for a lot of people. It's being tied down to that job and how are we going to do this and all of that.

But COVID was funny because it, in some ways, stripped away just about everything and got you down to what do we really need all all the everything in this house in our life what what what what we really need to be happy and i think a lot of people went without a lot of shit and realized we can be pretty happy without doing all this or buying all this or having all of that i know it did for for me i love stuff and i still love stuff but there was a lot of things that uh like dinners together every night board games movies together, little kind of dumb games that you can play on the TV off of your phone and stuff like that. We would have never, and we don't do that now, and we hardly did before.

But it's kind of those things where I don't know if I need to, my quest for these sorts of things isn't what it was before. Yeah. For me, I'm not a stuff guy. I'm an experience guy. and I've all even when I was playing I would end of the year I'd go on a trip and we went around the world when the lockout happened and we did I've done various times where I don't give a damn about

and like you said I'm lucky because I can pay for it afford it but I don't spend money on watches and I don't spend money on clearly on clothing or face cream but if we're if we're having an experience and we're going to go do something absolutely let's go do it i'm all for that so for me i think

that the i think there was some i'm not you know a lot of people look back on coven and it's just pure evil almost and and trust me i hated it for the most part but there are things that you can think back on during that time where you did things you wouldn't normally do like playing bingo with your kids on a wednesday night after they cook supper, right?

Like you, you certainly did do some, some deep thoughts and some internal analyzing, where most people did. And there are things that came out of it that were probably for the better. I'll still catch myself. Sometimes I'll pull in if I'm getting a coffee or something. And it'll just grab your mask. Yeah.

Yeah, right. We can just go in now at Christ, how long is, How long have we been without the mask mandate? Less than the year. It's still kind of in your, in your head a little bit. But as far as like I, I guess I give you credit. I'll let you, maybe you can explain.

I think it would be hard for a lot of guys to move to the town where their in-laws are. Do you know what I mean? Because for me, it was, are you going to move back to Manitoba to the farm and be a farmer with your wife's parents or whatever it is. And I'll be honest, I never really hear you bitch or complain at all about her parents. That you just,

you go to not, none is for grub and you hang out. And it's, you must have a good relationship there. Well, I've thought, everybody's different. But I would say I have a deep respect for them.

Two days after we got engaged is when her brother's accident happened. I watched that family get torn apart and live that. Raw and fresh and awful as it was. And you learn about the kind of people that they are. And on top of that, I come from hockey background, where you're around people. And you know what? Not every teammate you have is your best bud. Yeah.

but you deal with different. That's your family. That's your family. And I would say that her folks have spent, we've been under the same roof, probably more than most couples, right? Like they would come up when they were still working and spend a month at a time.

We were down, like when we came down here where we were in their place for a month, a small little two-bedroom place crammed in there. And I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but the only reason I'm able to put, put up with that is because of my background and and and and living in a hockey and a dressing room that's it you you you allow people to be who they are and and i still think you're the same way i still think that also on top of that it's your small town upbringing yeah people my class

when i started school it was me and there were two other boys in my school you don't pick your Yeah. Even my town wasn't that small. But yeah, that's, that's, you want to be picky, bell? You don't got no one to hang out with. Right.

So I think that does play into things. And now they probably get as pissed off as me, right, as anything. So anyway, it's, it's certainly. And the one thing I will say is that

we're a nine-liner part for the place that we're renting right now. Yeah. from where her folks live, it's almost easier because they're never in your house. They pop over and drop off some soup and they walk back home. You don't need to stay. You don't sit in my couch. Yours is 100 yards away. What are you sitting down for?

What do you need? So it's kind of good that way. Yeah. No, I think it's really cool because I'm not fascinated by it, but I'm impressed by it. I think that that is really cool that you have that relationship where, yeah, it's not, I just love my in-laws. It's not one of those things. But when they moved here for a chunk of time,

and it was like, yeah, that's just, you know, family's important to you. And I'll, we want to talk about that a little bit later on. I was saying we're here in the Tower Chrysler Studios. Tower Chrysler, of course, one of our first sponsors. They were the first one in. And I tell Serge all the time, like, you were the OG. You were the first one. There was the first hand that came across the desk and shook our hands and said we're in was,

was Serge La Calais. And he's he's such a good guy and I look forward to doing a bunch of stuff with him in the future. He's what he's a guy like you. I look forward to you guys hanging out more because he's up for anything. He is up for anything. They he went to like he'll go to Vegas for something and then end up staying two more days because, hey, we might have tickets to March madness or we there's there's a chance for us to do this. We only got one life. Let's stay.

there's lots of days to work and there's lots of days to do chores at home, but there's only one time right now to go and do this experience. So I think you guys would be kindred spirits that way. You started this stupid conversation today with how old we're getting and I'll be, gee, purse. You do start to think about those, get her done, buddy, because who knows now? Yeah, I hear you. So this thing that we're doing, how would you say it's going? Because I, as you can imagine, you're there, no one knows that you're doing it.

Here, a lot of people know we're doing it. So it's a, so how's it going? How are you guys doing? Like in the show, it's going good, it's going good. And there's different levels, right? It could, I am happy with how it's going. It could be better, but it could be far worse. From you being distanced from it, unfortunately, what's your take and the measurement that you use for how it's going?

Well, I would say I'm probably similar to your opinion where I think it's going well. Are the things that I think we could do better? Absolutely. Are the things that we shouldn't do? Absolutely. But I don't know what the measuring stick is either for, you know, proper success. And, you know, probably a lot of people from outside would look at it and go, geez, you guys are really doing really well.

And, you know, I think the two of us would lean to more, well, we don't like to get too high on the hog. I'm going to paint a little more negative picture than, yeah, damn right, we're really nailing it. Right. So I lean towards that opinion in all of my life where I don't like to get too high about things. But I think that probably if you're on the outside looking in, you would be pretty impressed with what's going on. I am very realistic that it's better when I'm in that room. And I understand that. And I think we all feed off each other better when that happens.

I think, you know, when the flames aren't good, there's a lot of hot topics. And you can get into it and have some good shows. But it's not good for business. It's not good for growing a brand or, or, I mean, we do piggyback off the flames a hell of a lot and what they're up to. So having them be successful and playing in a playoff series right now would be much better than talking about the flipping oilers or the Leafs or whatever. So some success and some things that you would do that would be good aren't allowed because your team didn't have success this year. So there's a little bit of that.

But I think the learning curve is, you guys have dealt with a lot more of it directly than I have, making sales and getting in front of people and talking to different people. But I think the product, it was a known product. And I think that the product that we're providing is still honest and truthful and hopefully entertaining for people. So I think it's going well. I would like to see it get bigger, but I'm no genius in how to make that happen.

Yeah. And I am with you. We talk about it all the time. It's all you're glass half empty guy. I'm also the guy that doesn't have a lot of patience. It's like, why isn't it growing? Why isn't it getting bigger? It's like, well, it's been six months.

Why would you expect it to be different for a six month thing? So yeah. And the other part is I was talking to somebody today. And I said, the thing is, if you were a home builder, It's pretty well established how you build a home. You start here with the foundation, then you do all of this. In the digital space, there's some guys that, some people that do podcasts, they do it very well. But it's not like, can go back 10 years and be like, well, see, this is how you do it.

It's such an unknown. So we're doing it a certain way. I don't think we'll be doing it this way in a year, two years, three years. Because we have Jack who came on board. I said, listen, if you see something, you got ideas, don't. Or you see us doing something and you don't think it's right, tell us. Because it's not that we know it's the right thing to do. It's just what we happen to be doing right now.

Yeah, it's not a proven track record. We've got to stick to this because we know wrong from right. It's, well, I guess this is what we're doing. So I mean, for me, we can talk about it. God, I'm like losing sleep and stress. And I'm, I am the king of the comfort zone. It's just when I feel like I don't, I'm not in control of, or it's just things are out of my hands.

you know, you just feel your chest start to tighten up. Like, oh my God. And that's what this whole thing is. So there's some excitement to it. There's some, you know, anxiety and all of that. But I think for, I think it would probably surprise people who think it's going so great that it's only at the level that it's at. And it might surprise people, I think, as well to see us how far we've come in a short

amount of time. I think we do a lot behind the curtains that people, don't, I like to open the curtains and let people see in there. There's something, so it's probably best that you don't know how close we were to not getting on today or how we don't really know what's happening, but we think it's working. So let's just keep going with it. But, you know, you look back and you probably, you probably laugh and think, man, remember, remember that first, or our first show was a disaster? It was awful. And shouldn't have been. It was such an easy fix, knowing that now, but at the time, had no idea. So yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's,

crazy. People always ask too. I got asked on the weekend. We were at launch pad with our Christmas charity anyway, with some guys. We're like, hey, so what really happened with Sportsnet? Nothing really. Everyone really wants there to be some sort of tail, right? So, so what, what happened? And it was 15 years. It was 11 years of doing 3 a.ms. And I was just tired. My mental health wasn't good. I wasn't good physically. Like I was just, I was no fun to be around. I felt like shit. I just needed a change. And I, I could still be there today. I could be doing afternoons and getting more sleep and all of that. I, Rogers was very good to me. I, I, I, you know what, I'm, I'm kind of like you. I often think sometimes because you, you know, you played.

I think that if I were somebody that played in, in the NHL, I just, I'm fiercely proud. And I've talked to about this, like, well, when we were doing the show, I felt like we were doing it for Rogers or for sports and that, but we were, it was our brand. That was our show. And I wanted to win and I wanted to do the best. And if we were, I just, I'm for a guy who's pretty lazy, I'm oddly very competitive in, in some other ways. So yeah, there was nothing. I, I loved my time there. There's still people back They're great friends. I miss those trips that we went on, the client trips. We had a hell of a good time, good people over there.

But it was just time. You can't underestimate, and people will, because they hear getting up at 3.30. You know, you got up very early. When I started, I was going 7 to 9. It wasn't a big deal other than the fact that I had young kids and I hadn't been used to ever getting up, right? Practice was never at 7. anyway then it switched to six

and I was doing the full show and even getting up at the times 5 a.m. 4.30 to 5. It's you got to stay up to watch the show or to watch a game and then you're up again

and you're not really asleep and one of the big things about this job that people underestimate is you're not showing up to work at 5.30 and turning your computer on and having seven coffee and not talking to anyone until

8, 9 o'clock. And when you're awake, the lights come on and she's go. And I tell people all the time and it's not a shot, but it's all those the music DJs, those guys have it easy. They sit down. If their show starts at 6,

while you, hey, it's six o'clock. We're on Pete FM. And then you roll 15 or 20 minutes of songs while you have your coffee and get your shit together. Whereas for us, it was like, okay, sports net 960. We're talking for 20 minutes. And like you said, if you didn't watch the game, these are diehard fans who are listening. They're going to sniff out your bullshit instantly.

They'll know if you've seen the game or not. So you had to. And I was at a spot where for me, because. I stress about stuff. I couldn't come. I just wouldn't allow myself to be put in the spot of feeling awkward and the anxiety in that tight chest of not being prepared for the show. I had to do the work and the prep to carry me through to the end of the show, which was, it was hard sometimes. Well, you also understood that the guy would be sitting beside you wasn't going to have a lot written down to pull out us.

But when needed. I'll tell you what. But let me finish. What I wanted to say was that it's not a shot, but maybe it's for people listening. It's getting up and having that lack of sleep or that little amount of sleep and being immediately on and not having,

I'll call it normalcy to your life over time, beats the piss out of you. I played in the NHL. I went to the Stanley Cup finals three times. I don't know if at any point in those runs, I felt the fatigue and mostly mental, mental fatigue that you feel or we would feel on a regular basis during the winter season.

Like it's amazing. Even now, the sun is up a little early. You remember going in when it was May and June and the sun was out. Jesus, I feel alive. But those winter months would beat the piss out of you. It's when the game's wrong and you're getting up early. It's a detriment to your, it takes years off your life. I'm convinced of it.

Yeah. It was, and it was one of those things. When I took the job so long ago, it was, am I really going to do this? I got, I got to be getting up. You got to be doing the mornings. And right through to the very end, There was never any time where I felt good about it, where I was okay with it.

I dreaded it every single day. And listen, there's going to be a lot of people. If you're listening to this and you're at work and you're working. We weren't working. We were getting up and doing a job. It wasn't really hard work. So don't, don't mistake it for hard labor. But you're right.

It was a different type of a fatigue for sure where it's talk radio. You got to be on. You got to shake the cobwebs out and talk and be coherent. And if you could be entertaining and not suck, that would be great too. And I mean, that was why I was thankful for the guy sitting across the table, is that I could, over time, I knew how you clicked and what made, you know, where I could go to the different places, which was why I'm, that's what I miss is those commercial breaks.

Because we would do the radio and then we would take a break and kind of something would pop, oh, I was out at this restaurant the other day or we were doing this and like, okay, there's something that we can go to. But I was. Pre-show. Yeah, the pre-show. But no, there's no, there is no bad, no bad blood at all. No, well, that's the, the, the sports dent thing, there's no story to it.

Yeah. I quit a couple years earlier when COVID, before COVID hit for the same reasons. I was like, I'm just tired. I can't bring the energy and I can't. I'm, you know, I don't think I stressed as much about the show as you did. But I also, because of my background, you're expected to be high performing. And if you're not going to be high performing, what the, like, you're doing something for. Yeah.

Right. So I have that in my, in my makeup. And I was just like, I'm done. I cannot get up anymore. It will surprise some people to hear it because they'll think that show, but it would kill me when we would have bad shows because I would feel responsible because I feel like it's kind of on the host

to bring out what's good in the co-host to bring out what's good in your guests and all of that and there'd be some days you'd walk out of there it'd be like God what this was a waste of time today geez there was never ever a worse show

than we were in a car dealership the day, the Monday after the roast. Yeah. And we couldn't. I was sick and hungover and useless and you like, oh yeah. It was just two of us. We were terrible.

Yeah, we were terrible. You know what other one popped into my head the other day? We did that show in Lethbridge. Oh. We did the sports bar the night before and then we went out and got, you know, whatever. And we were, again, that poor, that poor dealer in, in Lethbridge, that Chevy dealer, whatever it was. Me, you and Pete.

Peter Klein and Klein's got nine bottles of water. He's just, holy shit. There's a lot of those days, like, how am I getting to nine o'clock? How am I getting to 10? That's all I was thinking is how we're here. All you're doing is sitting there and people are staring at you. You're at a table. You're hung right to the nines.

I don't know how we're getting through this show. Like, I know that nine o'clock's going to come and we're going to get in the vehicle and go home. I don't think, I don't think there's any other end to this story. But I don't know how we're getting there. I really don't know how we're getting there. Nobody's going to be pleased with how we do. Yeah.

I do want to just kind of, because it is, it's a different show, but I do want to mix in the sponsors. One of the guys that you talked about an OG, Serge was an OG for Barnburner. And then you go, I'm trying to think of when Greg Keller and Bon Ton meets. I mean, it's almost day one, I think. I don't even remember how our first interaction was with him. I'm trying to think, I don't think he was part of the old studio. God, that's studio. Right?

Like, I don't think that Greg was, I don't ever, and the only reason I say that is because I don't remember getting a food delivery. But I kind of do. I was going to say, didn't we have food in there? I seem to think we had big trays of ribs and all kinds of shit in there. I do. I think we did. So, and,

we talked about it on the show and we've talked about it for years and I think like a lot of things we're not bullshit and he's he's just an extremely generous guy he's he gives back more than people will ever know if it's if you need it it's yours if he has it it's as good as yours he'll give it to you and he uh he's just constantly thinking of of other people and uh i'm i love sam bennett well he texted me every time that pricks course he's texting me but no i'm he's one of those guys. I'm, I'm very happy to have met him along the way because he's a good man and he runs a great, a great business. And through him, Matt from Mad Rose Pub up in that same, it's funny how it all kind of came together, but didn't know Matt. Matt knew the show, knew Greg Keller. And he's like,

yeah, I would be in. And Matt is unbelievable. And you saw what that pop was when we were up there. That feels like home. I've only been there five, six times. I don't. Only when I live a long ways away from there. But every time we go in there, it feels like this is, this is awesome. I'm just so happy. And there's all of the sponsors, but for sure, you know when a partnership feels right. And with those two guys up there, that one just feels right. And I'm thankful for both those guys.

I guess stunned, it shouldn't be the right word. But it was a Tuesday night when I was back home when we walked in there. And it was packed. Yeah. I was like, well. Yeah, red dog who used to be a radio guy. He was on with Jerry. Come over to my house all the time.

Yeah. He was there and he came up. He said, Hey, I don't know if, if you know about my dog. Come on. Like your, your radio royalty. So we shot the shit for a while. And that's, he's like, this is my place. This is, this is where we come.

And it's, it is one of those pubs that has that feel. And I don't think you get that unless the guy or the people that are running it are genuine. I don't think if it's, if you're just. into it to sell beers and it's one of a number of pubs that you own. I don't think you have that. So we say it all the time. Get up there, enjoy the food and enjoy yourself. You mentioned earlier and it's it hit me because I have an 18 year old that lives in my house. You were 18 when you saw your first palm tree. No, I was 19. 19. Okay. So, but we're in the same ballpark. And this, this fucking guy won't put the Cheerios away.

I just, I don't, I can't imagine if I sent him on a plane alone to go to Florida or to some place he's never lived before and yeah, go, go be a professional and start your life. Well, now envision that without a credit card or a cell phone. Tell me about it. I mean, that, I was thinking about it the other day. I don't know what came into my head why I was thinking about it, but I was actually, thinking about my parents and how I went to Florida and I was in Florida and training camp I remember that training camp felt like forever I'm sure it was the same length as probably most

training camps we started in Greensboro North Carolina and I didn't play the first exhibition game I played a I played I don't even know what I would call it I played an exhibition game against the Leafs, but it was all kids, right? My age. And I fought Topperowski. And I've said this before. Like, the old grapes, the Don Cherry, you know, he used to do the videos. And then he'd always say, you kids, you fight the first day of training camp, middle

of training camp, and a training camp, right? I fought the first day. I had a shitty exhibition game because that's what you used to do at training camp, was just you immediately into exhibition games. against each other. So last shift to the first game, I'm like, I was terrible. So I picked a fight with Cabana.

And then my first exhibition game, so about halfway through training camp, and we played the Leafs and it was the kids, and I fought Topperowski. And then the last game, it was against Hartford, and I fought Kelly Chase and Mark Jansons. And Dwayne Sutter told me,

I forget when, but it was a year or two later, that if I hadn't fought that, that last game that they were considered sending me back to Saskatoon. Now, anyway, that's not to answer your, but we'll go to North Carolina, have training camp. I don't remember phoning my parents on a daily basis.

I don't remember phoning my parents, period. Yeah. And there's no internet. They have no idea how you're doing. They're trying to get hold of their hands on the Miami Herald newspaper. Like there's no, I've told this story, they had to go find a cheater card in a back alley to try. I don't even know if they saw my first game against New Jersey.

But there's no cell phones. There's no nothing. I don't know how they were even abreast that I was alive, let alone we're going to play in the NHL. Yeah. And the only thing I could think was how many phone calls my agent must have been getting. right like i got i got to think that's the only way that they were getting any sort of information and i wasn't coming for me i wasn't talking to my agent on a daily basis but maybe my agent was

phoen chuck fletcher who was the assistant GM at the time or brian murray i got a cough so do you remember do you remember being nervous was it hard because i i i remember when i went away for college. I was 17. And I just remember when my dad pulled out of the parking lot, it was like, holy shit. And there again, there's no, there's no

bank cards, there's no credit cards, there's no cell phones. He's just gone. And now, all right. Figure your shit out. I can remember flying, I had to fly through Florida, or pardon me, through Toronto. And again, you're a dumb kid.

And I got to the customs and they said, okay, we got to fill up this form. And I could not for the life of me fill it out. I don't know if I was nervous or not. I screwed it up about eight times. I'd walk it up. They're like, no, that's not. Go fill it out again.

To the point, I can remember this thinking, just turn around and leave. You don't need the shit. You're not good enough. Just go. Like, give up. You're done. It's not working out. Remember having those slots.

So, anyway, So who takes you under their wing? You talk about Scroodland and a lot of the veteran guys. Like somebody had to have looked at you and said, okay. We had a deep squad of veteran guys. And part of the reason I'm convinced that I was stuck around was because Jovanoski was going to make the team and he needed a sidekick. And I think they trusted me at that point to be a good sidekick.

It's a terrible idea. It was awful. Terrible. But at the time, I were, anyway. Yeah. But I roomed with Terry Karkner.

Right. And who I was just shit scared of, but became great friends with. He's a decade my senior and tough as hell. And the kind of no bullshit kind of guy. So I kind of went with the upbringing that I'd had. And Brian Scroodland was from Sadd. So he was watching out for me there but there is there's all kinds of guys

Duane Sutter was going to say Dwayne Sutter again Jeff Smith Dave Lowry I remember going to Lowry's house for for dinner with Adam used he was little baby pick him up and we were wrestling with him me and Jovanoski I remember I remember So there were a lot of guys on that team and it's it's not funny But it was a veteran team and the game was different guys drank and they hung out more. It was kind of more of that slap shot mentality where we would leave practice and everyone would go for lunch. And it was kind of an expected thing. You know, everyone stays and they get fed lunch at the ring now.

But there was always you picked a spot or a restaurant and not everyone. 12 out of 12 guys out of the team, 15 guys off the team every day went for lunch. so you always had a group of guys now they'd all have a beer or two then they'd all go home it wasn't a party group right like there's there's that side a lot of people say oh you're hanging out and drinking at the beach it wasn't it really it really wasn't we had a lot of fun but those guys those veteran guys they they knew how to do it and they picked their spots a little bit. They were smart about it. And they, well, I love them all because I know that they, without them, you don't end up being who you are having the, having the career that I was lucky enough to

have. Do you start seeing, because it's crazy. And I, obviously the older we get and we can talk about getting old, but there's kind of whatever you want to call it, mile markers that my, my oldest is hitting. It's like, well, it's not a prom or it's grad or whatever. It's all these sorts of things. And then you go back. And the first thing that goes through my mind is I remember that when I was his age, when I was in high school and when I was in grade 12 and when this happened. And then you flip that script. It's like, this is what my dad must have been feeling like. I'm now, that whole thing is starting to shift for me as the kid goes out, as the kid is now 18 and can drink and is out at night and that sort of thing. Where, where, where is that line now between

he's 18, he's a man and he's living in my house. He's still my kid. Put your, put the cereal away. Like the discipline, that sort of thing. It's, it's, it's weird. I guess it's mortality. You start thinking about that sort of thing. But it's, I'm finding myself thinking more as a parent than as a, as a kid, which is crazy because I've been a parent for a long time. Does that make any sense to you? No, yeah, I get where you're coming from. I mean, you just look at the age on your birth certificate and your eyes open real wide.

And then you look at your kids and you go, wait a minute. This kid is, he could be drafted to, like I'm talking about my oldest, two years, he could maybe be drafted to a WHL or an OHL, or he could start that sort of, what are you talking about? He's a timbitt. I know. Right. And he ain't, and much like my parents.

supposed to thought he ain't effing ready to do any of it because there's no way he could step out and do it but you underestimate him too sometimes and i think you know the other thing i'll say because you brought up your dad you know and my dad it's such a different world it's such a different world rob bray and i were two dummies and we're real good friends and we're at the rink the other day and there's all these kids running around and a really good hockey atmosphere but there's all these young boys running there. And I looked at him and I said, you think any of these kids here

have ever actually been in a fight? And I'm not like, I'm talking young kids 10, 12, you know, have they ever been in a schoolyard fight? Not that that's a measure of a man by any stretch of the man. My point is it's a different world. Not every kid,

not every boy was in a school yard fight by the age of 10. Well, tell you what, a lot were when I was growing up, a lot were. It wasn't rare to have a, I'll meet you behind the hill after school, buddy, or you're going to get it. And there'd be a little row and they'd throw a couple punches. The only point I'm trying to make it's not about the fighting is just the kids lead different lives now. And I don't know if the lives they lead now put them in a position, a better position to succeed or worse.

they're privy to so much more information and things jammed down the throat but they don't deal with anything even though like i try to think i make my kids deal with a lot and through moving and traveling they've had to overcome some adversity but by my god what these are not real problems in life right like they went into a different school sure it's not easy but it's also not the most difficult thing. But I don't know that kids deal with much these days. And I don't think it's a good thing.

And I don't know what's going to be better or worse, and I don't know how to define it, and I don't have the terminology or the education to give you a proper rundown, and maybe I'm crazy in my thoughts. But you talking about your kids getting older, my kids are getting older, and

all I think about, and again, you sound like an old fart when you say it, but back in my day, we wouldn't have done it. Yeah. They have not had to experience or deal with some of the shit that we had to deal with, but by God, you and I don't even understand what they're dealing with now. No, I was going to say.

Can't grasp it. The way that the kids are being brought up, and I think ours would be the same, they would be very ill-equipped to grow up in the world that we grew up in, but they might be just fine for the world that they're in today, because it's changed too. Everything has changed. So I don't know. It's,

I've got a daughter here now. And that's, like, you've got the three boys and my first two kids were boys. So now I'm going through a girl who, uh, asked me, dad,

do you like this lip gloss yesterday morning? I'm like, the answer's red. Yes. I, I guess so. So it's, we're makeup and stuff.

Oh my God. I just, and again, there again, I'm starting to think about what, what were my parents. thinking like I just brought up when dad drops me off the college there he goes then you start to think what was he thinking in the truck driving away I've never really thought about that before

like maybe he just turned the friggin' music up and was like don williams was great yeah or you know how emotional was that for him oh he's falling his fucking eyes out part of my french right so my brother's oldest left home a couple years ago and I don't think aside from bringing a kid home, I don't think there's going to be a more emotional day in your life. Yeah. Yeah. I don't.

I can't imagine. Yeah. It's amazing. I had to go through my phone the other night because my freaking phone's full. You can't do that because you're memory. You got no memory in your friggin' phone. And then I realize that every time somebody has sent you like a gift rig

or something, it's in there. I'm going back to 2017 and deleting Pinder sending me dumb gifts of stuff that I guess have just been stuff. Oh, fuck, I found another high kick. I can't wait for him to come back. I found some classics. But yeah, it's, it's wild to be, to be getting older. And I, I'm going to ask you, I just want to talk about the hearing loss clinic for a minute because Travis Rhodes is a guy.

We, we hooked up with him through Ben He Bear, the Cur, who Ben's a great guy. He was on the show. I think it was when you were in Nashville, maybe. We brought Benny on. Great guy. Great storyteller. And the Hearing Loss Clinic is one of his sponsors for his curling team and all that. And we had lunch with Travis and it was, it was a cool thing. You forget sometimes that having the radio show or having this. If people watch it on a daily basis, they get to feel like they know you. And I know what that's like growing up. There was TV shows. or whatever. It's, I know that guy. That's my buddy. He likes things that I like and we're the same. Never met the guy.

That sort of thing. But so I think Rhodesy very much knew who we were and what we were about. But it was cool to, to sit down with him and see. It's like, yeah, I can see why you liked our show because you're one of the guys. You get the humor.

You live the, yeah. Yeah, we've never hung out. But you are very much, you're in our circle of guys because you're one of the guys. And he has been great. And I look forward to doing more stuff. I'll be getting over there and doing some work that they got theirs.

And again, starting this thing. And we've got help to start a hearing loss clinic and then add another one and then add another one. And then you're in B.C. And you add two and three. Sounds like real work. It sounds like a lot. So I give him a lot of credit. So hearing loss, the hearing loss clinic, hearing loss.ca is their website and he's going to be a big part of what we're doing moving on and moving forward.

One thing I did bring up to you in that car ride to the casino that night for the to the Grey Eagle resort and casino. We had gone with John Winwick with ATB. We did our Christmas campaign obviously before Christmas. and one of the experiences that we auctioned off was the top shelf. Yeah, that's what it was, the top shelf experience. You go before a flames game, sit down, have dinner. One of the flames, either alumni or member of the staff come and they share some stories, and then you go to your seats, then you come back, and it's a very cool event.

And thanks to John and ATB Financial for donating to that and for everybody who pitched in and got that. But we were sitting there, and Tim Hunter came in, if everyone knows Tim Hunter, and was telling stories about his playing days and what's Lanny like and all that. And then he got into some of the coaching stories. And I knew he was with Ron Wilson in San Jose. I knew he was in Toronto. And then he starts to kind of go into. And I guess I just never really stopped to think about how long and how many years he's spent behind the bench as an assistant coach to some degree.

And Dan was a head coach in Moose Jaw there for a while. And I asked you because you're a guy that, you know, you're passionate and that very much cut from the same cloth in many ways, that to hear about, because they're, and, and throw in with Craig Conroy, if he gets this job and there's other guys that are your age, some of them are now younger than you that will be up for some of these jobs. how does that sit with you professionally because I know for you that's in a weird way it's been a goal but it's taken a back seat to other things so what is it like when you see guys share those kind of stories and have that kind of a resume when you're very much in that same class?

It's a bittersweet thing for me I always I guess if I look If I look back on things, I think I've always thought I would be behind a bench. But when I had kids, the one thing I said to myself and I try to live is that I won't put my accomplishments or needs above theirs. Now, that sounds deep and, oh, you're very caring.

And it is what it is. I've always envisioned being a coach, but then when I think about what are you going to miss out on? What are you willing? What are you willing to miss out on to be that coach? And I'm not willing to miss out on anything my kids do.

And I don't know if that's to their detriment or mine or benefit. Right? There's two sides. every story maybe. Maybe it'd be good if dad was gone a little more. But I do find some solace that I've been around with my kids and spent as much time as possible. I guess the one thing that always stood up to me or I've always think about is that there's no one in the world that says they spent too much time with their kids. Yeah. Yeah. And I would love to coach. I would love to win a Stanley Cup.

and I would love to have that opportunity, and I think I could be good at it, and I think you could add different stuff. Anyway, but that doesn't become before the little shit sleeping upstairs. It's the same but different for me, and people will say, oh, did you ever go to Toronto? Do you ever want to be on TSN, or did you ever want to? I never really had, because I was from Manitoba,

I went to school in Thunder Bay, but that was as far east as I'd ever gotten. Even now, I've been to Toronto, but I've not really been to Toronto. I don't know much about the city. I don't know southern Ontario. I need to, a map to, you know, where was Scarborough? Where was Mississauga? I don't fucking know where any of that is. I just, it's not ever really been on my radar.

The one thing that I've always thought about was being on the road. Color commentary is kind of a player thing, but do you want to be with the team? Do you want to be with, especially now with there's so much social media and digital stuff. Do you want to be on the road? You see Ryan Leslie and everybody traveling. And I've always thought that would be friggin' cool to be on the road. But then inevitably, I'll be at a hockey or a ringette game or some, you know, dance recital or something. And it'll pop into my head. The flames are in, they're in Columbus tonight. Yep. And shit, this would have hurt to miss. So I, as much as I, as I look, it's like, oh, man, they're at, they're at Dodger Stadium watching a ball game.

And they're going, you know, they're doing all these cool things. I always tried to really kind of bring it back and be aware that I, because as you were talking there and that you don't spend too much time with your kids, I can't really think of any kind of a milestone event, sports, life, birthdays, whatever, that I wasn't there for. And I'm, man, you'd pay. pay money, right, to have that sort of, to have that in your, in your hard drive. And I think when you live it every day, you maybe don't respect it or see it for what it is.

But what you're talking about is your kid getting to be 18, 19, 1920, and he's going to walk out that door and he ain't going to come back. That's when you're going to go, I'm pretty damn happy. I did what I did. Right? Because on a day-to-day existence, it kind of glosses over some of those important things until something major happens. Like, I can't leave it home.

And then you go, holy, it went by too fast anyway. And I could have missed more of it. I don't. Thank God I didn't. People miss. things in people's lives and you don't have to be at everything. But it's, again, I won't regret doing it.

Yeah. I won't regret being at the fifth birthday or the 15th or the third or the game where he scored or the game where he took a penalty or the game where he got cut or the whatever. You're not going to regret those things. And that's, and it does. I get it because I'm the same way. And it sounds like, hey, look at me.

down of the year over here. And it's not that. But because there's sacrifices to that too. But you and I are kind of like minded that way, that we could have chased different career paths that I think both of us probably have the talent and the ability and the drive and all of that to do. But I had never got to the point where it was a decision

that I had to make and say, yes, I'm ready to leave this behind to go and do that. No. And I've had a couple opportunities to go and do it. And I was just like, yeah, don't feel right. It just doesn't feel right. Jay McKee just got back from Hamilton the other day. And he's got a youngster.

Like, it was the first time he'd been at home with him to put him to bed since he'd been born. Right? Like, it's the first time. He's put him to bed on his own. I don't. But grudge. anyone anything. It's not I'm better. You make

a choice and you live with it and there's good and bad that comes of everything. So this was just a choice that it was extremely difficult for me to leave the game. First off, it was extremely difficult and to swallow

your, you know, you swallow some pride, you get kicked in your nuts and your egos hurt and this and that. and at that time it was it was i should be chasing after this dreams some more but sometimes you just got to stop razor rob ray was really good about it and talk about it and saying like you had your time you got you i got to live a dream life for a lot of years

i'm not going to better it by coaching because all the coaches say, yeah, it's as close as you can get to play. But guess what it isn't? Mm-hmm. Fucking play it. Yeah. Right? The players have it better than the coaches, for sure.

The players play. It's still pretty good. But yeah, there's, yeah. You don't need to be first at the rank last to leave and all that sort of thing. It's funny, you know, I feel that the same way with this move. And it's not the same. But I tell you, I told you this a few times and not to get, but I remember when you were still under contract, but you weren't able to play. And you were coming to the rink and sitting upstairs and you were dressed nice and you were going to scout or whatever.

And I just remember seeing you the one night and we had no idea this was ever happening down the road. But I knew you and I think you kind of knew that I was the radio guy or whatever. And I just kind of, you're hanging out. You're like, oh, we don't see how it goes. I remember as you walked away, you were in a blue suit you had your kind of blue My chapeau. Your blue chapeau on.

I just remember thinking he's not fooling anybody. He's not fooling me. That fucking guy ain't doing that. Because you felt like you still could play that you still should be out there and to sit up there with and look down on the game that you were just in. You were not a guy that could handle that.

Some guys could. No. I didn't even like being at the, Frickin rink. I hated it. Yeah. Yeah. Couldn't go for a long time. Probably five or six years. And even then, when I did go, would be emotionally drained and upset

by the time I got home and it would take me a good day or two to actually get over it. Now, again, people listen like, oh, God, let it go. But it meant that much to me. me. And it wasn't like the rug got pulled out from other my feet, but I sure as F didn't see what happened coming, right? I didn't envision the wheels falling off as quickly or as awkwardly as they did. And it's another one of those things they tell you, hey, it happens fast. You better enjoy it while you. Of course. Yeah, of course. But still,

I tell guys still to this day, like Kyle Okpozo's here, and I ran into him one night. I said, you know, he was, he even brought up about, he didn't know how much time he's got laughedness and that. I said, well, what a year? He's like, no, I'm prepared. I'm getting to him doing this. And it's just like you said, well, me two minutes ago, you ain't effing ready. You can take some course or you can do some financial plan and the guys have all kinds of

of money nowadays and this thing. It's like bringing home a kid. Until you do it, you don't know what you're doing. And you've always kind of had that advice for guys. If you, if someone's going to slide a contract, take it. If you still want to play and someone's going to

pay you to play the game, you play it. Long as you can. Yeah, if that's what you want to do. Yeah. And I wonder about guys like Matt Stagin. A thousand games, went and played one year in Europe, took his family over there for that experience. what he played. Did he play Spangler? I don't remember it. And then comes back and assistant coach for the

Calgary Hitman. That's not the NHL. Like that's buses. That's practices. That's not that's no money, right? Not that he needs it, but it's not like there's any kind of reward. But and you're also sacrificing some of that family time that you would otherwise have. That's a personal choice. Make it. I do not begrudge anyone and you have. have to do certain if you want to coach and be the best and have success those that's the shit you got to do yeah that's the shith give her yeah one way or another it's it's not easy and a different level again but i'll tell you go ahead sorry for interrupt but i don't think it only relates to sports if you own a business or operate at a high level and something and you have the

desire and and work ethic to be successful, you have to sacrifice. You will not have a perfect life. You're going to give up. You want a business you think you lose sleep? Imagine having a business that could create her and fall apart. And right?

You're going to be up all night then. So anyone that has success knows unless you're extremely lucky. most people that have success know that there's a cost to that success. It is not handed to you. And in the words of my grandfather, and you love it, the world don't owe you a living.

So unless you go and sacrifice, work your ass off and try and make it for yourself, you ain't getting it. It ain't happening. And no matter what it is, there's nothing that's 100%. You can't have at all. And even if you've got a lot,

there's still something that maybe you know you're missing it or maybe you don't know at the time. But it's, you just have to find that we all make deals with ourselves that you got to be able to live with. And I was just going to say, for you, it was leaving the game. You didn't make the ultimate decision. For me, I mean, I wanted to be a radio guy when I was a kid. Like I was, I would listen to the radio and think, this is the greatest friggin' job in the world. They're laughing. They're hanging out in the room, listened to all, listening to music.

music and telling stories and laughing, getting paid to do it. What are we talking? This is the greatest job in the world. So I always wanted to be in radio and I thought it was awesome. And there was, you know, there was kind of that, I guess, celebrity thing to it. You know, it was a nice little kind of an icebreaker. A lot of people would be like, oh, oh, that's, oh, it's kind of a cool thing. And then so to leave the morning show and to leave radio and do this,

there was there's part of that and there's no regret but it was a while ago I got asked for the first time met somebody to know who I was from Adam and like so what do you do and it was kind of the first time that I had to hmm well rather than give you the whole backstory I do a podcast it was like oh yeah so what's it about it's about sports and I wasn't going to do this the, you know, well, hey, you know, we did the radio thing for a long time. Don't you worry. We're pretty big shit. But, uh, you just do this on our own. It was, yeah, I do a podcast. What's a, what's about hockey? Yeah, we talk about the flames of Ferrepid and the person, I could tell they were like, okay, that sounds going well. That sounds great in your mom's basement with,

with porno, porno mags in the corner, whatever you're doing, you weird bastard. So, you know, because it was, we were, it was a, it was a, it was. a successful show, you know, our boomer in the morning on the Jumbotron at the Flames game. Like there would have been a time. There's a time right. Young Dean would have been like, you have absolutely baited it. Why, you're quitting, you're leaving that. What the hell are you thinking?

So I get it. And it would be even more magnified when you're when you're an athlete because you're right. You go from being very important to not really important at all. Yeah, you better learn how to swallow some pride for sure. Yeah. Because you know what? It's weird because when I come back to Buffalo, I did a ton of charity work in the town.

And I wanted to do more of it. And I think it's always important. But you questioned how influential you are. It's the same thing. You say, well, you're doing a podcast. You go into the children's hospital. all. And the kid asks, who are you? Oh, I used to

play for the Sabres. They're kind of like, oh, yeah. Not anymore? Do you know Connor McDavid? Yeah. No. Is Tage come? Is Thompson coming? Yeah. Like shit like that.

Yeah, I know. Again, getting old. I guess so. Green Drop has come on board. It's been a great, another guy, Brian Gibson, that we met along the way back at back at the old place he's one of my favorite people he's just one of my favorite guys he's one of the nicest guys and there again giving and charitable and the shirt off of his back but he is a blast and I look forward to getting out of you so he's always when are we going

golf and when are we doing something those trips that we did back at the station and he would go on those those are just some of the best times ever the best times ever wow he was one of the leaders of the pack. Oh yeah. Yeah, you don't need to talk about these stories when you're on the radio. Like, I mean, you don't need, because my wife doesn't, the guys don't need to know about all this. And yeah, we're in friggin' tutsies with you got, you've got another guy in your shoulders or yelling and screaming in the back. You don't need to tell those stories. You really don't. So, and just all, all across the board, like McLeod Law came on board. They reached out. St. Eugene. Mike, uh, used to work at the Grey Eagle Casino. And now. he's at the St. Eugene Golf, the casino out there, and he knows the show and wanted to get

involved. And it's, it sounds like it's one of those things. Oh, yeah, ha. But you really do appreciate these people for what they're doing for you. You want to in turn do for them, because I've, I tell people, when we were at the other place, maybe they were advertising because they were going to get on the Flames game or because it was Sportsnet or because it was that the radio whatever anyone that's that jumped on board with us it was not because there was any brand all due respect to flames nation it wasn't I get to advertise on Flames nation they were coming because it was us because it was our show it was us and they were yeah we're going to take a leap of faith and we think you you get you know it was that was uh that still means a lot because I think that our our numbers

are growing and I know we want to build and I think we will build and it's going to be successful and all that. But to jump right in, what do you have for numbers? We have no numbers. Do you have any data? Downloads, any, we have nothing. Zero. We have nothing to give you right now. Okay, well, we're in. So that is pretty cool for a lot of these guys. And Jay Patel, we joke about the snoring. That was actually a hookup from your brother. Who? Yes, the do ptoaster. Yeah.

Sells far, what does he sell? Metal or dental supplies, yeah. All your dental needs. And this guy's great, which is not surprising. But there's, that's got to be a different relationship because he did say, he's like, yeah. Yeah, Trevor really got me good on, on this one. It's, it's so expensive.

Like, it's just, it's so expensive. I can't believe I spent this kind of money. I'm glad they still get along. That's good. But yeah, this, you know, this laser that we talk about, and it does. You go for the snoring treatments and stuff, and it'll, I would guess, you start finding other ways.

What else can this laser do other than just remove drills and help out with teeth? But he's a great guy, getting to know him over time. I guess, and with Pinder, because he's not here, obviously. Pinder report for Village Honda, Anthony's such a good guy. Love those guys up there. They, uh, this is going to be a long partnership with those guys too, I hope. But for Pinder, when I think of the different chapters of his life that we have seen, it's mind blowing.

I remember, I had heard about Pinder. I'd heard of Ryan Pinder. I didn't know who the hell he was. He was a play by play guy. It was for the Flames farm team. And I remember Kersh, Kelly. Currish, old boss. He'd be, yeah, he talked to Ryan Pinder. He's going to work for us someday. He, uh, he thinks he's a play by play guy, but he's not. He should be on here. Uh, he should be doing

talk shows. He'll be, he'll be here soon enough. And he was right, because then a job came open. He came in. And the first time I heard him, I, I, I remember where I was. It was on 32nd Avenue up by the old studio. And I was like, who's, who's on the air right now? Like, oh, it's, It's that pinder. And I just remember thinking, fuck, this guy is pretty sure of himself for being on the radio the first time I've ever heard him. And he was like, it was matter of fact,

like, well, this stinks and that's no good and this is great. And that, that's no good. I was, who is this frigging guy? Not in a bad way, but I was like, he. Oh, he rubbed me wrong the first time. I was at a wedding. I wanted to kill him. Drunk pender telling me how great he was.

Oh, God. Get out of you. He's, there's no one else like, I feel like we can talk like he's not here because he's not here. There's no one else like him. I'd say it to his face. I'm not too worried about it.

There's no one else like him. Just everything in the room changes when he walks in the friggin room. And it's not bad. It's not all 100%. But he does. He impacts whatever event you're in. Whatever it is.

Small, big. Lunch. Yep. Yep. Night out at the bar. Yep. Wedding. Yep.

Whatever it is. He's going to bring some element that that kicks it up a notch. And I just think back to when he started, he was going out and we're doing mornings. So he's out at the ship and he's out at doing this and he's hammered and he's hung over and he's. Well, then he's bringing in them dumb peters and his baba gannoo. Stinking up the friggin' room with his. his friggin petas and like what do you what are you doing boy oh what are you talking about down the street from where i live here's one of the best peat they make the best peters in the city and that's like

why do i need to know where i get the best petas in the city so i mean i'm small town you know farming community guy a pita guy and he's you know born in calgary has never lived more than a block from the calgary tower so i mean we're different guys but to watch him and and the stuff that he would be into and I remember he was off I think he was going to Portland because he'd met this chick at a concert yeah we're gonna go to Portland that's right have a good time and it was not long after that yeah we're uh we're having kids what and then it was twins holy shit and i forget which one it was it was that she was pregnant that they were they were having twins and somehow freedman knew it before I did But he sprung it on me on the air.

And I friggin laughed. And we've played that clip over the years. But to go from, hey, where are we going? What are we doing? And in fairness, there's still a bit of that. I don't know how he gets away with it, to be honest. But it was just carefree, fancy free, just let's fucking go. Let's do it.

Yeah. Woo, who. Who. Who. It's twins. And it happened. I don't know how you can have twins in two months. But it felt like it happened that fast.

I got a girlfriend, she's pregnant, it's twins, married, life over. Bang, two months. So to watch him kind of, it's almost a fatherly kind of a thing because you and I have gone through it already. Oh, that's never going to happen. Oh, that's never going to happen. I'll say, I'll say this, he's maintained more energy than I imagined. I don't know how he does it. No, it's, it is, it is pretty impressive.

but there are chinks in the armor starting to show up. It's starting to become, there's little things such as the gout kicking in the odd time. That slows them down. There are different choices that he's making, but you just said it. It's amazing the energy he continues to have. Yeah, he probably should be medicated to some degree.

Like there's something that should, take him down a notch on a daily basis, but it would change who he is. And I'll tell you what, it's going through this whole project with him. Some days, like, thank God for Pinder. Because he does. He'll bring, you know, he brings, here comes the boom. He brings it. And then other days, you're sitting in these meetings, like, would you just please, just please. Stop. God, just stop. Too far. Too far. Stop. Stop talking. Stop talking. But, and people, and people, and oh man pinder this or and there's some people because i know like craig shaw stack the shaw stacks love love those guys they can't get enough of pinder kreg shaw stack he's oh pinders pinder's great he loves

i'm like yeah i mean yeah he's he's great he's the best he's the worst but he's also the best yeah also the guy that might get punched in the nose the hour but god i found and again i'll share the i won't i won't break it but i found a video in my phone that's like wow that's That's from a long time ago. Same guy. Same guy. But short hair, way younger, different guy. Same guy.

But he, he's been a big part of this show. And I loved working with Wox. And Wox is great. And I don't, it felt like at first he, Pitter must be trying to be a contrarian to us. Because we were more like-minded. I want. Wax was kind of in that same group. But he came in and it took, it didn't take long.

No, this is really what he's thinking. This is him. And he's over there and we're over here. Perfect. And some days you get mad and start sniffing at each other, but nine times out of 10 or eight, maybe seven times out of 10. It's all in good.

There's been a respect that has grown. I'll see that. It was maybe not there to start. Yeah. Yeah. there was a lot of shut-ups and abrupt endings to segments every once in a while. But, man, he's got two kids and he and his wife, they're unreal. Those kids are awesome. They take him skiing.

Because truly, he's, oh, we're at Badminton lessons, and then we're going swimming and we're on the outdoor rink and we're going skiing. I don't know how he goes from 17th Ave doing shots at 2.30 to the ski hill at 10 a.m. the next day, but God bless. that's that's the Pinder away the Pinder way I guess but how are you like how do you feel because you just had a birthday mine's mine's later this year I feel tired mostly I'll tell you there's a lot of days where a nap would be real good my uncle used to have a nap after every every lunch from 1 to 1 30 the news had come on and you needed the laser treatment somehow he battled through. Jesus, I don't know.

Half hour cat nap would be good, so. People are, oh, so you're not getting up anymore. Yeah, not getting up anymore. Do you still nap? You know what, some days, yeah, I still have to have that nap. Not getting up with three in the frigging morning, but it takes, because between, the eyesight has been the one thing. Because I'm absolutely, I have to, I'm,

I remember Daryl Sutter was talking about, oh, I had to buy glasses. You can go to Costco and get five pairs for 20 bucks. I have to go and buy glasses to have them in every room or start carrying them. I need to start carrying eyeglasses with me because I can't see. A little loop thing or whatever it is?

God. Well, I used to read. I don't read anymore because I get a headache because it can't see it. Sad. It is. And I had been doing the, the Peloton thing for a while and it was going really well.

And then summer holidays hit. And then it's hard to get. I just, I have found it very hard to get back into that regular routine again. And it's like, man, this is taking a lot longer to get my wind up and to get back into the whole thing. Jesus, this is when I bought the bike in 2020 or 2021. What year is it now?

Is it that? I feel like two years have passed and it's so much. Carter. I fear for the next two to three years. Good God Almighty, but I don't know. Good things to come. I'm sure. Yeah. The elbow thing. My friggin elbow hurts. What'd you do? I don't know. Did you bang it? No. Just woke up. And when I went to get out of bed, I leaned on it. Oh, son of a bitch. What did I do to my, I don't know. It's just something. I hopped over a puddle the other day and my hips hurts. My hips are so friggin bad, man.

It's it was funny because Alex is the producer of our other well, he's our other producer with the show. And whenever we start talking

about kids or whatever in the pre-show, he chimes right in because he's also now a guy that has very young kids at home. Is that what happens? Like, what do you need to do?

Don't take our fatherly advice. I mean, don't make the mistakes we made. I guess. there's something we've learned along the way. I don't know that you should be doing a parenting podcast anytime. I can tell you what not to do. Yeah.

Most circumstances. I blamed it. I blamed today. Even it was today I blamed whatever. We're talking about our kids and I blamed it on while he's the oldest. So it's his fault. Middle guy that's because he's a middle child and the youngest is that way because he's youngest.

certainly has nothing to do with me. No. No. No. I remember my cousin was telling me that there's, I forget what birthday it was. He says, by the time they hit that age,

like is it 16, it's like, you're done. They are fully developed. Like their brain is what it's going to be. They'll maybe change their mind about things. You can kind of persuade them, but they are who they are.

You can just throw the keys back on the desk by the time they hit that age. And I don't know. There's so many influences between schools. and online and everything now. Yeah, maybe you are as a parent. You're hoped by the time they hit 16. God. Well, they get wheels.

They're going to be flying around. Mine don't have to wait until 16 to stop listening. So don't. That's already begun. I know. So what is your plan, as we put a wrap on this? Do you have a plan as far as we're going to get through spring? the hockey season ends, the cup is presented.

We have kind of looked at July 1. It's free agency. Just the way free agency seems to work now. It's red hot and then it's shut the mill and everybody's done. So I don't know what exactly our summer is going to look like. But for you, is it fair to say the Buffalo thing was a try it for a year kind of a thing? I don't know that we've made a, well, I don't know. I know we haven't made a.

stay for next year decision though. Yeah. So our plans of right now are to continue to discuss, but be back for summer and spend the summer in Calgary and see where we go from there. You have a very nice house here. I know. I feel like it's probably nicer than the one that you're in there. It doesn't take much.

No, it must be. Sometimes, like God. air conditioning would feel really nice. I got it. ACs good here. It's small. It cools off real fast.

Thanks to all of our responses. And of course, Betway, we're not going to do a Betway bet today, but Betway is our, well, it is, it's our betting partner. They've been a big part of how we're doing this. You know, Grey Eagle Casino and Events Center came on and Sheldon's another one of those guys.

He listened to the show and liked it, and I could just see it. Seeing him at the drafty, other night. We've already talked about other events and and you know what? I don't know that we ever had and I think it's maybe why this whole thing, part of why it's worked is as different as the three of us are. We have the same kind of values and I think right from the start it was what what what's our first charity event? What can we do? And that's that's important to us and I know as soon as the because we haven't even with Kevin from kids sports sending out the emails like, hey, we're just getting.

some final numbers and like we're already thinking about what's next. So to be able to have that in our hands and to try and give back feels it does. It feels pretty good. It's not about the best thing we do. But it's and I look forward to stuff that we're capable of doing. Again, I don't know if it's the kids that like you say the Children's Hospital. Who's this guy? But to be able to help some people that need help because it's it's a great city but it could use some help and if we can do there there. There's lots of people out there that need help and I think if you're going to be part of the city wherever that may be, you, I truly believe it. It's what's the words?

Your civic duty to give back to that whatever community or part of, whether it's a small town in the middle of nowhere or a big city like Calgary or Toronto. if you have the opportunity to give back to where you're living, well, I think that's your duty as a human and a decent person. Give back whatever cause that speaks to you and make your city or wherever you're living a better place. It's cool that you've been able,

the one thing that you've taken from your playing days, because people will remember Warner's Corner at the dome and the stuff that you did in Buffalo, the bowl, all these events that you did, I think that you probably did quite a bit more than the average player. And it's not about that, but that it was important to you then, and it's no less important now because you're not an NHL hockey player.

You still have some influence and some ability because of who you are and what you do to give back. And it's, I do love it. I don't know how it would work if one of us was like, ah, why are we, why? Well, this sad part, there are people out there like, and hopefully not too many. But aside for my kid,

that's the thing that makes me, gives me the most pride is, is being able to give back and have positive influences on, I get, I don't know that I've told this. I went to the children's hospital here in Buffalo and visited some kids sick with cancer.

And later that summer, I got a, I got a letter from a family. And it was a picture with the young boy. and he was we're kind of arm and arm and giving him a hug and he was laughing

and they said this is the last time we saw our son's smile and that that one kicks me and anytime I'm thinking this is why are we doing it I just think about that

yeah man you're not going to get me I made it this far wow it's not to get you it's no you but it's It is. It's important and I love that if we can keep this thing rolling, then it'll be a big part of that too. Because we're just such good people, I guess is what it is at the end of the day. But thanks to everybody for listening. The summer, this will be probably a little bit, not this deep. It'll be probably a little bit more shits and giggles, but the offseason shows, the Barnburner summer vacation shows that we will do.

You asked, well, how can we make it better? And we've discussed it off there where we need to get some good guests in now. Yeah. There has been behind the scenes. We've been limited a little bit in terms of staff, time, technical. It's not worth getting into. But yeah, I love the conversations that we have with guests when we're face to face. When we would get people in studio at the old place, very rarely did I ever worry about us having a good interview?

you just knew. This is going to be good to have them in and they just took care of themselves in a lot of ways. And the one that stood out, it was so clear one day to the studio at the radio and the first few questions he's given us the, well, I think 100%,

and we're going to, if they could just focus on the D and then about seven minutes in, he realized, we don't give a shit what you think of the same power play. You're like, who cares? Let's talk. Yeah. Now, your audio garbled just a little bit there.

Now, that's Rob Ray. And then the day he came in with Brad May. Yes. When the two, right, the two of them came in. And you're right. And Brad was like 110% and give them all you, you know, bring your A game and that sort of thing. And then I think he kind of saw that Rob trusted us that we weren't going to sewer them. And then all of a sudden he, I think we went to break or he just kind of, he led his shoulders.

okay so this that's what we're doing and then it just became then we were just talking and then he was telling stories that story he told about the practical joke that he i don't remember how if he had a hair i'm gonna gag so gross he got he got pranked i think is what it was and then decided he was going to get the guy back so he went to the barber shop and said hey you collect all the hair God. Collect all the hair off the ground. Sweep it and put it into garbage bags. What are you talking about?

Just do it. I'll pay it whatever you need. I just need this. So then he's got all these black garbage bags full of hair. And was it like Vaseline or something? He took a tub of Vaseline, smeared it all over dude's car, and then covered the car in human hair. Jesus.

Like, that's... You don't get. that in every place. And again, I don't know if, uh, if we were talking to him on the phone, baby, we don't get that story, but we got it that day. But yeah, I, God, that's gross. No, we'll get some people in and get them telling stories because those are the best when guys open up and realize that nobody, just have some fun. Let's hear what your life's about. Yeah. I hear you. That's going to do it. Have a, have a fine weekend, everybody. We'll be back to normal. Pinders away for a few more days. But, you know, I've got some stuff already planned for

next week. So have a great weekend. Thanks to all the sponsors for, if you enjoy the show, please support the sponsors. So subscribe to the YouTube, subscribe to the podcasts on your Apple and Spotify and like and all that sort of stuff. I know it sounds cheesy, but there's this algorithm and that's how that, you know, that's what moves the needle in the digital space. So if you wouldn't mind, that'd be great. But good talking to your retro. All right. Have a great one. See yeah. What do you what do you use as me? Oh yeah, the oilers, they suck. There you go.

See you, buddies.