Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Jeff Glass Joins The Show | FN Barn Burner - August 22nd, 2023

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

FlamesNation Barn Burner with Boomer, Pinder & WarrenerLive from the Tower Chrysler Studios in Marda Loop!- Rick Jeanneret (9:00)- Flames Captain Talk (14:30)- Hagel Deal (25:30)- Jeff Glass Joins The Show (36:00)- The Pinder Report (01:11:00)- Betway Bets (01:20:00)- Tommy Joins The Show (01:22:00)Shoutout 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.

All right. Good day. It is Tuesday. It is another edition of Barnburner. If you are watching on the YouTube's on Facebook, on Twitter or X or Elon or whatever we're calling it or Instagram. Rhett, what are you doing? You're back in the long. Have you referred to it as X? I'm hearing people sort of transition into the X thing. It's still a lot of people call it Twitter, but then everyone's on all something like, yeah, I was on X the other day. Oh, that sounds like you're on a drug at a nightclub. I was on X. Yeah. It's been a while since I was on X.

It's really a roll off the tongue. I'm not sure I want to go back there. All kinds of letters. You don't have to do just X. I'm sure there's others you can find. Yeah. Yeah, it is a little clunky. X.

And apparently, because X is such a naughty letter in some countries, Twitter, you couldn't even get to for a while. X. 18 plus type content. I don't know. I guess. Elon, not sure what the plan there is.

Yeah, I'm not going to judge. Decidedly worse since he's owned it, but then maybe he saved it from something else that would have been worse. I don't know. How is it? How could it be better or worse? It's a bunch of idiots talking about stupidity.

Yeah. I just feel like my feed's full of more idiots and less of the people that I'd like click to follow on. I'm like, where are the people I'm following's tweets? Why am I getting idiots that are subscribing 10 bucks a month? I don't want to see these losers' opinions. I get more that. That's my compliance.

Clearly you use it enough that you can notice a difference because I wouldn't. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, look, the whole world's falling to shit, rat. I mean, Twitter slash X is just one of the many things falling apart, including you who have crawled back to Buffalo, it appears. I recognize the branches of that olive tree. Where is the art that's usually hanging behind you? This is sad news. I got booted out of my place.

I got a move. I got tossed. You got tossed? You got a good divorce lawyer or what's the story here? The shovel is finally done with you? Yeah, find your own place. See, I thought she'd go back to Buffalo because that's where her family's from. You're doing the switcheroo.

I don't know whether to announce where I'm heading, where the new place will be, or just go live from that place. Just go live from there. Because it's going to be, it's going to be. it's going to be good. I could also use, well, we'll have to talk about it off the air then because if we, it's like,

I don't want to spill the beans. Someone that's been on the show before will be, I'll be able to moon them from my bedroom window. Also, you're moving to a new place. Are you saying this is in Buffalo or not? How many hints are we giving? There's one in Buffalo.

Okay. I don't think of a couple of buffalo we've had on, but a lot of suspense for sure for next week. That's a cliffhanger indeed. So are you, you made your mind up here. This is all summer. Somebody made up their mind and the children have been enrolled in sports and activities and it seems to be a movement about.

So yeah, it's a go forward at this point. fantasy camp for Rhett is over. The kids are enrolled in school and sports. You have a home. No more gallivanting and nomadic behavior. Okay. When your kids are out of school, they drive you nuts, right? Because you're like, oh, my, can you?

But then when they got to go back to school, I'm annoyed by that too. Like, am I just one of those old farts that I can find no happiness in anything? Like, get out of your fucking. Shut up. Do something. And then they're going back to school. Oh, damn it. Now they're at school.

I got to get up and I got to take them to school. They need lunches. And, ah. Lunches. Ah. Yeah, that's, I'm at the end of the rope for summer. I'm ready. Like, we've done a lot of dad kid time.

It's time. And it's all wonderful and the memories will be good. But it's like, okay. They're ready to learn. Yeah. Yeah. Jules gets up with some knowledge. I'm I've done.

I've given all I can give for this summer. And that's what teachers do. I mean, that's they're really, clearly. Yeah. Yeah. There's some news, some flame stuff. We've got a in-studio guest we'll get to in a moment. We have a Pinda report.

We sat down with Tommy Wilden Jr. Calvary FC. Yesterday, we'll play that for you at the end of the show today. We got a Betway bet. I'm extremely hyped on fantasy football. I'm obsessed for the last two weeks. Really? It's taken over my life.

We have drafts coming up. I ignored it for most of spring and summer. And then two weeks ago, something shook me. And I cannot stop reading, calculating, listening to podcasts, spreadsheeting, mock drafting. It's becoming a problem. I need these kids back to school. So I get more fantasy draft prep in.

Yeah, so you can full-time fantasy prep. I've been there. And it's much like the internet and X and Twitter and social. It's the best and the worst. It gets you excited. You're into it. You're making lists. And then four hours go by and you're like, what the age have I done with the like?

This does not matter. Right. You got. I got this great team. They're so good. Broken leg, MC Altair, concussion. My whole team's dead. I got a graveyard for a team.

What's happened? And the best case scenario is you win the league and they take you for a beer and wings. And it's like, you know, right? Like that's right. That was my part-time job. That was my 20 hours a week turned into beer and wings. What an idiot. What a waste of time.

I told this before the first time I ever played fantasy. It was baseball. I love baseball. And it made you, it got me into it. And I just retired. I was getting up at 4.30 in the morning to be the first one on the waiver wire. Like just a nut job. Did you co-own that team of someone?

I feel like you co-own. Not that one. Not that one. And I eventually co-owned one with boom and he owned it and didn't do it. But I actually, again, much like social media and phones or whatever you get addicted to, I had to cut it off. I'm like, you're an idiot. I remember getting mad at my buddies that I was in it with me. I'm like, dude, fantasy, baseball, chill.

It's pretend sports. Let's not ruin relationships. Yes. Well, I'm of a different mind. Starting September 7, I'm ready to ruin relationships again. Our draft's going to be the night before the beginning of the NFL season, as per yuge. We have a bunch of media hacks in a league, and I need you to show up on time on your computer on the 6th.

The night before Thursday night kick off of the season. Oh, it's the 6th now? Detroit, Kansas City. Okay, okay. Usually it's on my anniversary, so I get a robo pick and it's terrible. The auto pick. You pick as many bills as you can, then you quit and you auto draft the rest of your team. That's stupid.

Tried and true. If you want to finish from sixth to last, that it works every single time. Okay, let's get some news. I thought of you immediately. I saw Boom tweeting about it, the whole hockey world. Morning might not be the right word, but I think maybe more celebrating and remembering an incredible 80-plus years for Rick Jennerate, the play-by-play voice of the Sabres. You were a Sabre, as we all know,

and he was a bleeping legend. There are sports broadcasters, there are play-by-play guys, there are certain voices that you associate with certain teams, but I don't know that there was ever a Rick Jenneret for a team more than this guy meant to the city of Buffalo and the Sabres. Yeah, you'd have a hard time finding somebody that more symbolized their franchise

that they called games for than Rick. and I was teary. I had to go outside. I got some texts and some tweets or whatever they are, or exes, or anyway, I heard the news, and I had to take a moment. And he was awesome. I still remember, I mean, you remembered him always anyway.

It was a kid you'd heard him, and it was such a great voice and a great call. But for me personally, it was when my mom and dad phoned me after my first game, we played in Detroit, and I happened to fluke out. Again, it's Rick Generette's professionalism. I hit Eisenman, like my first shift. I mean, bumped into him and Generate,

Warner lays out, Eisenman, what a, right? Like, it makes everything so good. And my parents phone in there, like, oh, my God, the game was so exciting. Generate is, you know, so good. Like my, I think that probably

my parents fondest memories are the, or the Buffalo years, and part of that reason is because of Rick's calls. Yeah, I just, there's so many iconic calls.

You've got the May Day one, you have La La La Fontaine. I mean, on and on it went. And, you know, there's been a lot of lean years around there, but whenever there's a big goal, you didn't worry about Rick

not hitting the high note on it. I've bragged about how big a name Rob Ray is around this area. Rick's bigger. Like I, you know, the bills are obviously big. Yeah. So you got the Jim Kelly's and the 90s teams and the four finals.

I still, I think Generates bigger than all of them. His name holds more. I would suspect that I don't think they're doing a memorial. And if it is, it'll be a small one that's kind of probably not announced. But I would. suspect that the city would have to shut down if they were to hold a Rick

Jenner at memorial service wake or whatever you know whatever they put out there I honest to God they would be gridlock traffic and everyone would stop and attend and give their thanks and prayers because he was that big and the other thing that the people here don't I think they understand a little bit but when you when you're from here and that's all you've ever had and listened to and you know how great he was. I don't think you understand how big his name was across the league, across North America, right? Like, it's not like it was just Bufflonians that liked hearing Rick Jennerette call game. Yeah, I think a lot of you, I could believe that Buffaloans be like, oh, he's ours.

It's a, we're a little small market, hockey mad city, we're not big. We love them. And I don't even know if other teams, no, you go any building. guy, you know, everyone's heard the calls, iconic voice. And I don't know that as someone that's not a player, if you could have more association with a team than him and the Sabres, pretty cool. So here, this just popped in my head. And I don't know if it's good or it makes me sad or happy.

AI is getting pretty good at stuff. I can't wait for when AI can call a game with Rick Generate's voice, right? Like, how awesome would that be? Yes. Well, I think we had it to, I think, Jack, did we find it like months ago when AI, we found they were making music and it was like, oh, yeah. Make a song with like Biggie's lyrics with the sound of the weekend and like Jay Z's voice or something like that. And you're like, oh, they can do that. But like, yeah, if you could just have Rick Jennerat doing AI play by play on your NHL 24, that'd be pretty cool.

I don't know, I don't know, man. It'll happen. I guarantee you, you know what it'll be. because it's, I don't know, they're smarter to me, obviously, but even if you have some dope like you or me calling the game and they would just voice over with Jennerettes.

Honestly, I think you're honest. I think you could get like Bob Cole's voice, he's still around. Obviously, you could go like Howie Meeker, who was that famous analyst way back like Foster Hewitt. Like, why not? You should be able to sort through and pick if computers, as long as you're not

taken over the world, let's use you for some good or some fun here. Let's go. Tell you what, that is somebody's going to do it clearly you're going to have to be smarter than us but it's i i can see it coming can you imagine rick janarette comes back in two years and he's he's the voice again oh my god that's wild um we have an initial signing to talk about the calgary flames need a captain want a captain going to have a captain apparently uh connie and huska and management's going to make the decision on a captain. We had Rob Kerr's show yesterday, just a

game. Jack was with him asking some questions from the fans and the captain conversations become a little more prominent because McKenzie Weger in the last few days noted that he would love to be the captain. Here was a little snippet from just a game yesterday with Kerr and

Jack. I think we'll be the captain of the flames and who do you want to be the captain of the flames? Backland I want and I and I wonder if he won't be the captain boy did you see a lot of this McKenzie Uigher stuff?

A lot of people like Lots of people hyping that up lots of people like and I don't think that's a bad choice I think you know you've got some tenure there it makes a lot of sense Backlin has put in the time Backlin loves this team loves the city loves the logo yes yes yes

I know he was in the in the Swedish newspaper saying well so wait and see and all of that. That's just common sense. That all that is, that's just good business. But Michael Backlund's ingrained in this community, supports three different charities in this community. He has worked and cobbled at the feet of Jerome McGinla at Mark Giordano.

I think he should be the captain, but it's a two-part question. I think he should be the captain. I'm going to go with, I wonder if McKenzie Weeger isn't the captain, captain because you have him for four more years after this. But I think both are, both are good choices. I think it was an absolute shame. I just think it's a mistake not to have a captain. And Becklin was acting as that last year.

I don't care what anybody says. He was the de facto, one of the de facto captains on this team. So I was Curry yesterday, Jack, relaying some listener questions to him. Just any reaction of thought on that? Are there other candidates we're not talking about? We should be. is this cast a wide net? Do they already know the couple two, three, four guys they're looking at?

I'm sure they've got to narrow down to one or two in response to Rob. I like Backlton, too. Problem for me, I've said, I can't change my tune now. You either are or you aren't. And Michael Backlons had a few years now to establish that he is. And I don't think, to me, there's obvious, to me, a coach, a coach maybe it does happen i've never seen it but i don't think a coach holds the captaincy back from a guy do you know what i mean if you truly are the captain it's been a few years now

you could have grabbed the reins or the or you just are recognized as captain and the players are then it would have so i just don't think he's there why hasn't it happened yet that sounds exactly like he's been around forever and yes he's done all those things and yes he's integrity from the community. He gives back. He's everything Rob said for sure. But if you're the captain, it just happens.

It's announced, right? By now, you don't need, you certainly shouldn't need Conroy and Huska to have to make that decision. The players should be making the decision. And I don't know enough about Weeger personally. He's been here a year.

He was horseshit to start, really turned it around, saying the right things. Looks like he's getting involved. looks, he's taken on the role of a leadership. I mean, well, what the hell are we talking about? He's come to Calgary to go party for stampede and do a charity event. Like, I don't know.

Does that make him the captain? It's the guys in the room that should be deciding, not the coaches. Yeah, talk to people that were real close to the team. Backland was sort of the guy that I think a lot of people wanted to be that last year and why they didn't have a captain. I don't know that, well, what's that? who wanted though like the players wanted them to be? Then why wasn't he the captain the year before?

I don't know. Or the year before that. That's a good question. I don't have answers for it. Like Darrell took over this team when Jordano was the captain. Gio left via the expansion draft. And then Darrell's first year, they went no captain.

And I understand that. And then his second year, you had even more changes. And they said, no captain. And I don't, we never got a great here's why we're not doing a captaincy thing or it might just have been as simple to Darrell that I don't see a leader here who is a capital C captain and so we're going to not annoyance anyone that but I have a problem with Backland getting it if he doesn't have an extension in

place and I'm not suggesting that um I just think it would be clunky if you're out of the playoffs he's your captain he's Mr. Community and then you trade them at the deadline? Like, what are we doing? I think both scenarios with that. First of all, I think the players should pick the captain. I don't think. What the difference does it make to the coaches?

And the coaches and the management should have to work with the captain that the players nominate because he's the leader in the room. The coaches and the management shouldn't be nominating a guy to be captain. It's backwards, in my opinion. What you said is. true as well. It is, and again, I'm not against Backland, but if he was the guy, then fuck, the players should have went in and said

to the coach, Darrell, whoever else, this is our captain. It shouldn't be a debatable thing. And it, and it shouldn't again be Huska and Conroy deciding. Here's a vote in training camp. Who's the captain? You're the captain. Great. And my feel is it, okay,

go ahead. Sorry, I just wanted to finish that. I don't want to reward Michael Backton with an extension if he's, only because you're naming him captain. Yeah, or vice versa. I don't, well, I guess vice versa, I might accept. If he wanted to sign an extension below market because he really wanted to be captain

and you already have him as your captain, I'm okay with that. But the opposite I don't like. He's the closest thing we have to a real leader here. So let's give him two more years of too much money. No, no, no, no, no. That's not how this is going to work. And for Weeger, I'm kind of with you. I think you've seen, okay, what, he wore the C for Team Canada, if I'm correct,

of the world championships this past summer. That's not nothing. It certainly isn't being a captain in the NHL. It's a three-week tournament, not a seven-month season. And I don't know the human well enough. I certainly think there are some leadership traits in there. He sticks up for his teammates. He works hard.

But I don't know the guy off the ice and we haven't seen him in the community long enough for me to say, like, oh, for sure, that guy's a captain. And then I also wonder about like, okay, there's some younger guys that have been around a while. Like, where does Rasmus Anderson fit in all this? Do you see, is there another guy quietly that leads, by example that maybe we aren't talking about. I don't know.

I mean, but I also get the sense that the players and Connie and Huska have these two groups. I don't think they're singing from the different hymn books. I think Huska being around that team last year would have known who actually was the guy and who the players would want to be. I don't know that they're throwing a curveball to the players are at where they're saying, hey, you guys all like Backland, screw that, it's Weeger. Because we've got them in our pocket. I don't think that's happening either, but don't muddy the waters.

Let the players pick. Come to training camp. What the fuck do you need to announce? Sorry, I'm grumpy today. I didn't get enough sleep. I'm reading this new book. Keep me up on it. But what do you need to announce it today for?

Because you need positive media vibe right now? Because you haven't done horse shit over the year or over the summer? Like, we don't need it. Players come to, or the fact that they are saying they're picking. is wrong to me. Shut up. Don't say that. Just announce it, first of all.

Or phone your players and say, who's your captain? Or do a monkey. It's offseason. It's one of those survey things. Can't you fill out those monkeys? Survey monkey. There you are.

Okay. Do they go? Let's go. Yes. There's so many ways of doing this that aren't clunky and they're making it clunky. Yeah, well, and I think part of this is that there's no news in an off season and people need to talk about this team for a living. And so you get the, you know, weir goes on local media and they ask them and here we go.

Now it's something to talk about. What do the flames need again after the off season they've had? They need a positive vibe because nothing's happened. You're going to back with the same team, new coach, but same coach. And people are wondering what's going on. let's throw a captain out there. He can start answering some questions and we'll have a nice story.

What's this book you're reading? It's AI? I'm a big book guy. But my eyes are going, not good. It gives me headaches. I don't know what it is about like pirates and oceans and those types of stories. But those crazy bastards back in the day,

Can you imagine walking on to one of these rickety old wooden hull pieces of this and thinking, it's only going to be two or three years I'm on this? Like, what? What are you talking about? Hey, Red, what are you doing this weekend? Do you want to go see if the world's flat? Let's just keep sail and see if we fall off somewhere. No, yeah.

And hope the wind blows and that you don't get scurvy or typhus or anything else. It'll be great. Or a pirate attack you. And we're going to go around this point. I think it's called Cape Good or Hope or some damn thing. We're going to go down near it. It's real cold down. We're down south.

We'll go around the bottom of South America. Around the horn. Yeah, we'll go check it out and it'll be great. Yeah, it's big waves, but whatever. Anyway, it's called Wager. So I read a book about this years ago. That is like the most dangerous waters to sail on Earth because you have the warm waters. of one ocean meeting with the colder waters of another ocean at the tip of Argentina there

and just above Antarctica. And apparently they would do races around the world. And until someone got around the horn there of South America, it was like, you haven't accomplished yet. The meanest waters are yet to come. Yeah. And apparently it goes from 1,300 feet deep to 300 feet deep. So all the water swell, like, it's supposed to be just a no thank you. No, thank you.

I've been on the ocean in like eight foot swells and I'm like, give me the out of here. This is terrible. Yeah, you're from Saskatchewan, right. I mean, you can't get eight foot swells on what, Emma Lake or? And I'm going to, I'm going to go with the best segue ever from Saskatoon and that damn Brandon Hagel. What a, what a deal.

The newest. Eight times six and a half. Well done, son. Sasker. There it is. Is he smiling there? I think so. I mean, you got what? 50, 50 million reasons to be smiling. I'm okay with that. 52 million?

My mouth's all around, Pinder. High five is all around. Owee. So how are you like in Tampa? Yeah, pretty good. We were dog shit in Chicago. And yeah, I get to play with, you know, Stamco's, Kuturov, Point,

headman, Vasilevsky. Every year they just add some more guys at the deadline. good. This poor, this poor bugger, this poor bugger, sixth round pick. Where is he going?

Oh, God, Buffalo, Jesus, this is no good. Get me out of Buffalo. Yeah. He's in 10th.

Is that where he was drafted? Yes, six round, 105th overall in 2016. Right? Wow. They liked him a lot. They moved two firsts,

I believe, and some prospects as well. I think it was also Boris Kachuk and one other young player that they had there that I'm blanking on at the moment, Taylor Radish. And it was like two first two prospects for the, like what? But he had two more years at really low number. And that helped them fit under the cap. This isn't for this season.

This will kick in the year after this season, if I'm correct. And so they basically got a super cheap functional guy that they're, you know, people are calling a top six for it. I sort of see him as a middle six. I never see him as a top line guy. but he works his tail off. And that's a good little, I like it for both sides. Chicago, you got a ton for this guy, this kid, he's happy, life's great down in Tampa.

And for the lightning, it's like, okay, so you gave up two picks that would have been like 25 or 28 or 30. There's no way those picks are helping you do anything this year or next year. You've got to wait years to see if it's a ham sandwich or a player. Those deals are kind of eye-opening, but I think they worked for everyone. Well, the deal that didn't work out was the Sabres deal. let them go for nothing. That's the one you don't want to do.

Yeah, that's a good call. So if it's two prospects, two first, or nothing, you take the two prospects and two first. You're brilliant. You draft the guy. Yes. Yeah. Woo-hoo.

We got a guy in the sixth round. It's going to be good. Not that good. Almost like drafting a guy that wins a Norris in the league. Incredible stuff. Flames did it. I didn't sign here. Adam Fox.

Shut. Okay. And what else is going on with life? You said kids are back on the ice already? You got hockey's rolling. It's mayhem. Mayhem. It's on. Yeah. No, eight games this weekend.

We've had practices. We've got training camp. Oh, baby. Yeah. They're showing up as bad like you used to, right? They haven't skated all summer? Well, the youngest, the coaches, they send out an email today. and there was a question, are we doing the, the, uh, the, uh, practice, are we doing a warm up before every practice?

Because yesterday we do a little warm up before practice, got to get the body ready. And I, I emailed back and I said, listen, I've just met you people and I'm not judging, but perhaps the coaches should participate in said warm up because by the looks of us, we need it. So just 20 kids on 20 different programs out there, warming up. Yeah. Some toe touches, some deep knee bends. We're good to go. It's busy, but good.

When does it get shitty there? October, November? Like, just around the time that people say the bills are going to win the Super Bowl, that's when everything changes there. You know, it's weird. There's a little bit of Calgary in Buffalo because I've seen people golfing in December. So you just never know. I am looking forward now that we know you're back there for the season to that.

you know, one to four days a year while you can open your garage and still have a door there. It's just a wall of snow. You open the door frame and it's, I'm still, I'm under a snowbank. How are we getting air in this house? I don't know. I'm excited for that, those coming days this winter. Brave of you.

It's going to be great. Okay. I want you to have our guest in studio waiting patiently and may even have some Brandon Hegel insights. Fitness guru, entrepreneur, pilot, goalie coach, legend in Russia, and the goalie of the greatest

world junior team in the history of time, the 2004 world junior team from Canada. Jeff Glass, Glass, sir. Hello. Look, there he is. Get your head in the picture. There we are. Now we are. There we are. How's that? Can you guys hear me now?

There we are. So you were Chicago it's in your stop on on the circuit there. Yeah. Do you have any haggle? No, I got absolutely nothing. Nothing on haggle whatsoever.

Everything I, you guys just said, I just learned. So, no, he's from Saskatchew. You should get to know him because he could pay

for the tab at the end of the night now. He's all set. That's right. No, yeah, he's definitely all set now. Nothing wrong with that.

With your boy, uh, point too, who you've trained with a bunch. Yeah, no, there's a few guys down there, I know.

I think Tampa's, I think Tampa's got something cooking down there, right? Like, it's not a hard place to sign up for. And so, uh, yeah, no, I think there'll be all right. Yeah, yeah. Uh, right, enjoy the day. We're going to hang with Glasser, tell some stories. We got a Pinda report. We got Tommy Wilden Jr. coming up. And I have some Betway bets of the day still to come. Nail it, boys. Have a great one. Yeah. All right. We'll see you. Uh, there's the Rats there back in Buffalo. It is quite, uh, quite a life he leads. Is it not? It's, it's awesome. Like I said,

I admit I don't watch this show every day. But when I tune in and, and, and I saw that, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty amazing. Rett's on a headset. Is he driving truck for a living? Oh, no, he's just driving to Pittsburgh. Oh, there he is in the parking lot of the Hamilton Airport. Oh, he's back in, he's in studio in Calgary. He's in Boomer's basement.

He's in his house in Buffalo. We never really know. It's quite something. How's your summer been? I love catching up with you. I didn't give you the intro you probably deserve, but I admire this human so much for the amount of things you are willing to get at, try your hand in.

hard worker, relentless, fearless, and like fingers in as many pies as you could ever imagine. Spin Studio, goaltending camp this summer, goalie coach for the Anaheim Ducks affiliate in San Diego, long playing career in Russia. You come back and work your way back up to the NHL at the age of 33, which is almost unheard of amazing story there, the world junior stuff. And then, oh, by the way, you just got a little bored along the way and decided to get your pilots license and you're flying around all the time. Like what's a normal Jeff Glass day look like? Have you been in a plane yet today?

No, no plane yet. I've been on the ice, but no plane yet today. I don't know. I appreciate that. That's nice of you. But it's, it's my life has probably been one of those ones where, you know, I wasn't a first round or I wasn't the Brandon Hagel signing a $56 million deal. So I kind of, you know, skirted around the edges a little bit, let's say.

And it's been good. It's been fun. It's been an awesome summer. It's, uh, Calgary's been home for me my whole life. So we wanted to come back and, the hockey school is a big part of it for sure. We want to come back and kind of do that thing. But then, like you said, I got into the flying,

and I've got a little bit of a gig going on the side with the flying thing. So that's fun. And then you kind of meld it all together, and it's called life, I guess. But, yeah, if I was all those things you said I was, you know, I wouldn't have to come in here on an, what is it, middle of August and fill in for you guys, right? I'd be doing something way bigger and better.

But this is exactly what I love doing, and it's been great. Tell us some of the flying gig. So how does that mix in with gold, camp here in the summer and I imagine you know for what eight to ten months year you're tied up with gulls stuff in San Diego but you're still coming back to Calgary to do your camp and and the flying fits in as well here yeah no the flying thing I think I've told you off the air before it's it's something I love doing and I've always wanted to do and I don't know I guess I could probably tell these stories now that I'm not a player anymore but it all started back when I was with the Marleys and I got left

behind on a road trip and and I actually tell the goalies now I tell the goalies in San Diego I tell the young goalies, you should always have something outside of hockey, and I didn't. And so the Marley's going to road trip, and I was the extra goalie, so I got left behind. I'm pissed off. And I tell my wife, all right, I'm going to walk over to the airport and figure out what's going on. And we're staying right downtown Toronto, so I wander over to Billy Bishop. And how does this work? And we'll take you up right now. What do you mean? You'll take me up. So they took me up. We toured around the CN Tower. We went up and down the beaches. That was awesome. When do I get to go again? You can come tomorrow if you want. And the boys were gone on a four-day road trip. So I said, all right, well,

I'll be back tomorrow and I'll be back the next three days after that. And that's kind of where it started. So I picked it up and I guess I got to thank Lou Lamarillo for that because he, you know, he was the one who said, yeah, come, you can come play on our team, but we don't really need you just yet. And, you know, just stay over off to the side a little bit. And it worked perfect. So I started there.

It continued on to Rockford, finish the private pilots in San Diego. And then I've added on some, some, what's called, some ratings and some stuff. So now I'm a commercial pilot and I fly for a company here in Calgary that, We prevent hail, in theory. That's our job. I don't want people coming at me on the internet now saying, hey, my house got smoked by hail. It's all your fault.

But we go up and we try to make the big hail, little hail to simplify. And we're hired by a bunch of insurance companies to kind of get ahead of these storms and see if we can keep everybody's homes and cars safe. So as a pilot, it keeps me in the air. It's something I love to do. And yeah, it's been a lot of fun. And those are three places that you mentioned flying before,

Calgary that would be some pretty interesting airspace like Toronto's busy Chicago like O'Hare is one of the busiest airports on earth that can be hairy and Rockford's just outside Chicago so you got lots of stuff going on there and then Southern California be absolutely bonkers with L.A. San Diego all the different airports around there that aren't the LAX and the San Diego one I mean that those would be really interesting places to learn to fly and to deal with all the chaos of a busy airspace. Yeah and it was exactly that and I always say like yeah I'm lucky I get the I've not everybody gets to fly in three of those different types of air spaces.

And to your point, actually the Chicago one in Rockford, we were flying over cornfields. Like we were just outside. And so that was actually fun because it's a bunch of uncontrolled airspace and you're kind of on your own. It's a little bit of a rodeo. And then you get from there to like LA where we're flying right over LAX and you're doing all sorts of fun stuff there. So it's all different types of flying.

And I don't think I realize because when you're a hockey player, you're told you're only supposed to be a hockey player and at least our generation. And so they said, you know what? I was so nervous to tell people I was a pilot because I was worried they were going to think I was taking hockey lately and I wasn't focused on hockey. Like, aren't you trying to make the NHL? Well, yeah, but like we do have a life outside of hockey. And so that was once I realized how much I actually enjoyed flying and doing all this stuff in aviation, well, then it was a little easy to talk about because now I'm, you know, a certified flight instructor. And now I, it's okay to talk about this now.

And I try to encourage that to the goalies I'm coaching now. It's like, go find something, go do something. Because the back half of my career was better than the first half of my career. And I think it was because I had something outside of the rink. And it wasn't just, you know, go to the rink and then come home from the rink and fret about the rink and then, you know, stir about it and can't go back to the rink and spin that in the circles over and over. It was go home, get your mind away from it, go for a flight and come back and re-attack

it tomorrow. That seems interesting. I never heard you say that. So the second half of your career, you enjoyed more than the first. The first is probably, I would suggest, where you made the most money and you would have traveled the most, but in the second half, you had more of a life away from it, wife, daughter, and sort of a second hobby. I never heard you say that. No, and like, don't get me wrong. Like, my career is probably waves like this. And, you know, I had the world juniors, which is a high.

Maybe, maybe the highest part of my career. And that was fun. And we win a gold medal. And then reality sets in. And it's like East Coast hockey league. And you're going to start right from the bottom and you're going to grind your way up. I thought I was going to step right into Ottawa and like make the team as a 19 year old, like, how hard could this be? then you realize, okay, it's hard. And so then you do this. So then I go over to Russia. And it was good in Russia.

And like you said, I was able to make some money, playing some good teams, have some success. But it was always just like middling. And I couldn't really gain any traction and get going and try to accomplish something. So then that's why I needed a new challenge. And that's why we came back. And I was like, I want to make the NHL. I never did it before.

I want to do it now. And I came back. And that's when I started to like focus on hockey. And that's when I put a plan and, place and people have heard me talk about this before but it was it wasn't just a fluke then i was motivated and i had a mindset and a goal and i went after it and then maybe that's why i consider it more successful is because i set out to do something and i did it rather than the first half my career i was kind of like well it should just come like all my buddies i'm owed this this is this is my

time right and i'm the world junior's goalie you should you should want me right and then i realized no no it doesn't work that way and so uh i think when my mindset flip maybe that's why i view it more successful, whether or not it was, I mean, this or that. You were part of a logjam in Bennington, if I'm correct? In the Ottawa organization, walk us back to the decision to go to Russia in the first place, and then we'll get to the decision to leave Russia. Yeah. And so this is maybe more of my mindset.

The decision to go to Russia is because Ottawa didn't qualify me a second time. And so I was a free agent. And I was like, ah, perfect. I'm going to go sign my Brandon Hagel money. I'm going to go, you know, here it comes, baby. and like crickets, like nothing comes. And so, all right, well, you can go play on this American League team or you can go kind of like you might start on the coast here or Russia.

And a good friend and another goalie, Ray Emery, he went over the year before. And he went over for a year, kills it. Everybody's calling for him. And he comes back and the rest of his history. I said, well, that's exactly what I want to do. That's the move. That's the move. I'll go for one year and I'll come back. Well, you know, month into the first year, they offer me an extension.

okay well yeah no that's way more money i'll take that and then the next year it's it's a new team and and as the story goes the number keep getting bigger and the team kept getting better and we're more competitive and one year over there to kind of like rejuvenate my career turned into like seven years and now it's seven years and i'm 30 and i'm going well this is good uh and any of the guys that have played in russia can speak to this but at some point you start to say like all right like enough's enough this isn't sustainable this isn't what i'm going to do for yeah this it's It's everything's on fire every day, right? Like, let's just have some little bit of normalcy.

So then that's when I decided, all right, I want to give this a try and come back. But the decision to go over there, I don't want to say it was made for me, but I was kind of pushed into a corner where it was like, here, you can go play for said team in the East Coast or American League and grind from the bottom again.

Or you can go over to rush and try it for a year, rejuvenate your career and come back. And I thought, oh, that's the move for sure. And financially, it would have been close. If you're comparing HL, ECHL, it may as well add a zero at the end. It really was exactly that, maybe two, right? You're right. You know what I mean?

And it was like exactly that. Financially, it wasn't close. And so you said, okay, came off my entry level deal and go over for a year. And worst case scenario, I made a little bit of money come back. And I'm probably exactly where I left. And so then when you decided to come back, you were like, okay, well, I've played well in Russia. I've established myself here.

I want to have a better life. You know, you're married. You're probably daughter's not quite there yet, but getting close. But getting close. And it's like, okay, we've got to set up our life and not just be mercenaries traveling around a foreign country and the other side of the world where I don't speak the language. Like, let's set up some normal. You knew that was going to be tough because you kind of, when you're that age, you're painted

as something and you were painted as a KHL goli at that point. Yeah, I had to try everything to try to lose that label, right? And it was like normalized my gear. I switched to CCM because it was a gear that like made me look like a goalie, right? So what you were in before? It was just like, to be honest, it was kind of a. make shift setup that I had. It was like a buddy was doing a buddy of favor and he had this new brand that was coming

out. I thought it was sick, but it was like you didn't really look like Jacob Markstrom. You look like a street hockey goalie. So it was like that guy plays in Russia. That's definitely a Russian goalie. He makes money in paper bags. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going for. So I ditch that.

You get the gear and then, but you can't ditch the age, right? And that was what I was. I was a 30-year-old guy. And I was talking to a goalie that's with Pittsburgh now just just yesterday. and he was, I was talking about Kyle Dubus, because Kyle Dubus, he was the assistant GM in with the Marley's, and he was the one who said, like, we'll bring you on, Jeff. We'd love to have you, but like, no offense, like you're 30, right?

Like, we're not, by all means, stick around to Marley's. And he was so upfront and such, I can't say how good he was to me. He's just a great guy. He was straight up with the whole process, but they had two young prospects. They had Garrett Sparks and Anton Bebo. And he goes, these are our guys. And we're trying to, so if you want to stick around, there might be some room somewhere and if something comes up, I'll move you,

but like we love having you around, you're a good guy. And so then that's when I started to realize, oh, I see how this works. Like I got to kind of be a mentor. I got to kind of take on a different role here. It's not about me when I go to the rink. I got to get my time in when it's time, but I can't make it about me. I got to kind of take a back seat. And that's what I did.

And it allowed me enough time to stick around with the Marleys to then they shipped me to Rockford. And then Rockford was in desperate need of a goalie. So when I showed up there, they were kind of floundering around, but they needed a goalie like yesterday. So that I played every game. And then from there,

you sign with Chicago, get called up and away we go, right? But it was, I realized that was a 30-year-old goalie who'd been in Russia for seven years. It was like to start at the bottom again. The way we go.

Wild. Yep. And I remember, I'd met you, I think before you'd started that journey and just like, you're coming back to North America. Like, what?

Like, that's wild. Like, because you had a good over there in a way. I mean, it's not, it always comes with different challenges. Like you might get offered a lot of money and said, and then you're trying to collect it years later, a piece of that or whatever it is.

But like you were established as a go-to guy. You were like a locked pay this import. He'll help your team caliber player over there. Those guys, they do well. Yeah, it was, and it was exactly that. I mean, there's times my wife and I look at each other and they go, geez, like one more year, it would have been all right. Like it wasn't so bad, was it?

But we were, in all reality, I wanted to make the NHL and we wanted to have a baby. too. And so it was like, you know, with all due respect, everything that went on in Russia, the spots we were playing probably wasn't the best to just do the whole baby thing over there. So we said, let's come back, try the North America thing. Like I said, we were feeling pretty comfy after seven years over there. So we decided, all right, let's switch it up here and try something new. Yeah. So you come back, you make the debut at, I believe, 33 with Chicago, which is wild. I mean, you talk about paying dues all over again.

You did it. You happened to do on a Western Canadian swing. You took a point off the Oilers, I believe. I appreciate that. Thank you. I think, yeah, we got the win. It was an overtime. Yeah, but it was, you had a lead late.

Yeah, we blew it. Yeah, we blew it. But what was it? It was Vancouver. There was an injury? You made your debut in Edmonton? Or was it in Vancouver? You came in late.

I'm trying to remember it was Vancouver, Everett and Calgary. No, it's such a fun story. I haven't got to tell these stories for a while, but it was a Christmas break. So I'm with Rockford, and we got three days off in the American week. Our daughter was brand new. let's take her back to Calgary. Everybody, family and friends can see her.

My wife was going to stick around for another day or two, but I had to fly back Christmas Day because we practiced on Boxing Day in Rockford. I believe we might have even played Boxing Day. So I'm flying back Christmas Day, and like any American League player will tell you, like it's Christmas. So you feel like you owe it to yourself to like, you know,

eat, have some drinks. Like, enjoy, it's Christmas. Like, whatever. I'll sweat it out tomorrow. So get on the plane, pass out. We land. and my phone is just lighting up. I'm at O'Hare and I'm, what is going on?

And it's the GM from Rockford and he's trying to get a hold of me. And so call him back. I haven't even, we haven't got off the tarmac. He said, yeah, we're calling you up to Chicago. Something's happened. Like,

well, who got hurt? I can't tell you, but just you got to drive from O'Hare back to Rockford, back to O'Hare because the team charter is leaving tomorrow morning at 7 am. Get your gear and then get back. And then get back. So I flew from Calgary to Chicago for like 12 hours to grab my gear to get back on a plane to go back to

Vancouver the next day, right? So now I'm in Vancouver, a little bit of a whirlwind, haven't skated in four days, and now I'm getting called up. And so we skated boxing day when we landed, and then we were playing that, I believe it was the 27th against Vancouver. And Chicago that year, there was no secret. They were kind of, they couldn't find their footing. And so Anton Forsberg was a little bit in the doghouse. And I got called up.

And I should back up. I guess I found out that Corey Crawford was just unavailable. And that was the start of that whole thing of we couldn't figure out what was wrong with Crow. So Anton Forzberg stated to start. He goes in and it just didn't go well. And as a goal, you feel for a guy when he's in this spot, but you know exactly like it, everybody was staring at him. And the pressure was on and it was just going the wrong way. So it was actually the video coach who I had in Binghamton, which is the smallest story of all time.

He goes like after the game in Glass. was like, make sure you're ready to go tomorrow. Yeah. I'm here as a call up. Like, I don't know, but I could, the way he looked at me, I could tell he was just coming from the coach's office. Like something was going on. So I was like, all right, we're going to get on the bird.

We're flying to Edmonton. And then we play, you know, like Jesus coming off like five days at home, you know, whatever. It's, oh, perfect. Welcome to the show. Yeah, right. This should be fun. What could possibly go wrong?

So, Landon, Edmonton, go to get on the elevator. The goalie coach, Jimmy Wait, says, yeah, you'll play tomorrow. So that's now, I don't know, two, three in the morning. Do you want to skate? Yeah, I want to skate. did a morning skate called everybody i knew rounded up the troops everybody makes the trip up from calgary edmonton and and away we go and it's funny because that old four world junior team you're a part of you had some teammates on the chicago team that didn't even know that was your debut they assumed

that like oh no like he's a journeyman he's played a bunch before like seabrook was on that team like who walk us through that and even i think the coach at the time might have been or it was the next year The next year. Yeah, yeah. So, no, yeah. So it was, Seabrook was the funny one because, you know,

you put money on the board and you try to, you know, take care of everybody. It's the first, your first year debut. And I was sitting right next to him in the dressing.

He's like, what are you doing? I was like, well, it's my first game. It's your first game like since win. And he's like, yeah,

like, ever. Like, what do you mean ever? And we'd known each other. We were roommates at World Juniors. Like, first game like ever, ever? Yeah, man.

Like, he's like, holy. So yeah, so we, uh, so he puts a couple of brown bills up after that. Yeah, I got the boys attention then, but it was, um, I think he said something before the game in front of everybody. Like, holy, it's this guy's first game. Let's put a half decent effort in. And then, um, and the story that I love telling him, my favorite part was like, yeah, we blew it. Actually, Seabrick tried to stop a, it was kind of like a half ass point shot and he tried to get a glove on it,

knocked it in and it went in. So we were up three one with like two minutes left at the game. late. it was like bang bang i think the second one might even been dry sidle it's three three we're going overtime like come i can't believe i just blew this right two minutes two miles boys let's go how hard is that and then patrick kane scored an overtime and there's a pitcher out there somewhere and i got it somewhere but it's he's he's pointing at me after he scored right and it was like yeah and i was i was the happiest i'll ever be right there right and it was like everything couldn't have been

better than that so yeah so got to play there um and then we came to calgary two nights later Yeah. So it was pretty cool. It was a good run. It was like storybook stuff, right? Yeah. You couldn't have drawn it up ever, any better. Yeah. I mean, and look, you didn't play until you were like 42 or some weird Tim Thomas stuff because he was one of those guys that didn't show up in the league until late. But you got it. You did it. You'd reached, you'd climb them out. And I love that you're honest about you had to sort of reset your approach and understand that, hey, nothing is is given here. It's all earned. And that, that, you probably mentally weren't ready to be an NHL or at 23, 24. We're at 30. You're like, okay, here's how I do it. I know how. You had to be the best teammate in the world when you were in the Marley's.

You needed some luck along the way. And then when you went in, you had to be, you know, be flexible. Don't throw a temper tantrum. You haven't been skating for five days. Get in there and make the best of it, right? Yeah, no, there was, you nailed it. That's exactly how it is. And now, you kind of fast forward to the coaching side.

It's easy to tell that story now or sell that narrative is like, it's not going to be perfect, right? But, you know, I got to Chicago. Now I looked around and I go, oh, I can do this, right? The competitive nature and all of us comes out. And you're like, well, now I want to be here forever. Like, don't take my spot, right? So every time you like, you reach a milestone, it was like, all right, reset it and go for the next one.

But it was, I always felt like mine was a little different and that's okay. It's not supposed to be a straight line. At least I wish it was. But you know what I mean? Like it's a little more fun. telling the stories now in this environment where it's like, yeah, like swerve left, swerve right, almost got hit by head on traffic and then like somehow, we're there, right? And like, that's kind of how mine went.

And that somehow got into coaching as well. So after the Chicago stand, you're looking for jobs and I'm sure, you know, there's interest at the American League level. And now how do you pick? Where's the best chance for me to get up to the big squad? What else is going on? You end up with the Anheim organization. Yeah. And then there goes now this is when the ball starts to bounce. I always say, like, goalies are like a bouncing ball. If your ball never bounces, if you stay on one organization, you're good. But as soon as you move from one to another, that thing doesn't stop.

And it just keeps bouncing until it runs out of steam. And so my ball started to kind of pick up some steam in a way we go. So I actually came to Calgary that next year. We did a PTO there. And it was, hey, let's be serious. They were going. I think it was China for preseason. So they need some warm bodies.

Totally good. Brad Pascal, I owe him a huge solid because he was a, the world juniors, he was on my world juniors team, whatnot. So he said, hey, come in. I can't guarantee anything, but it'll be a spot. Yeah, yeah, good. And two goalies got picked up off waivers with the Marley's or the Maple Leafs, McElheny and Pickard.

So, time to call Mr. Dubos up. Back to Toronto. I got to cash that favor in that he owed me. So I, long story short, but I was able to actually reach out to him and make sure it all worked. I got on a plane that night and I was back in the Marley's for round two. So it started there, didn't go so hot. So that was the one we're looking back on the whole thing.

I wish I could have had that probably two months back. But it was, you know, Sheldon Keith was the coach and Dubus was the GM. And I couldn't find my footing. I just couldn't. I don't know what it was. And signal a trade to Anaheim. And it was probably the best thing that could happen to me, right? We found out I got traded at the Christmas party for the Toronto Marley.

So we're at the Christmas party. I got my daughter and my wife. We're all like having a great time. Santa gives her a present and then I see like somebody giving me the old like hey get over here get over here I came over there and oh yeah hey Merry Christmas yeah I traded you to San Diego

Oof oof like that's gonna Give me a second on that one I said I said Do you want to tell my wife or should I go You can bring her over here so I think Ali was pumped at that point Because we'd had enough I was she's seen me miserable for a few months in a row there now But it's Christmas in Toronto a little different in the weather in San Diego Yeah it was like packer bags were off to the beach so on to San Diego and that I guess led me into the coaching thing and that's where this all started.

You have the, I'm trying to think of the character now and Slapshot, but the, oh yeah. The player coach, yeah, where you'd. Reggie Dunlop. You were Reggie Dunlop in net for a while there where it'd be like, okay, I'm going to, I got some young kids, some pieces of clay, I got a mole, I got to teach. And then, oh, it's our third game in four days, Dosser, and you go, you can play some too. So I got to players, a player player when I got traded.

That was the end of my players' contracts. And then, and then again, kind of a funny part. that never I don't get to talk about much was then I got brought back as a player who's responsible for coaching and so I was I think the official term was goalie mentor or goalie I can't remember they used a couple different terms but they took my name off the game notes as coach because that would have been like a faux and like you said it kind of started to get fun then that was one of my favorite years it's the COVID year and like there's no hockey and now I'm like I'll show up to the rink at for a seven o'clock game I'd show up at like

three. I do my coaching stuff from three to five. And then I'd give it like one good, we good here in the coach's room and you're good. And then I'd go put my player stuff on and I'd have to go like back up for the game and, you know, be a player for the rest of the game. And then the game would end. And I'd come back to the coach's room and put the video and get it ready for tomorrow. And away we go. And then you're finding time to fly in there as well. Yeah. That started to kind of, yeah, again, get things moving. So you're still with the Ducks organization in San Diego. How has it been? I mean, when you look back at that first year where you're playing and coaching i mean you're probably just trial and error what do i do

do here calling the guy in anaheim for help but now you're much more established in the profession how do you how do you like coaching goalies oh it's been awesome and um i know i i didn't ever want to be a goalie coach i had a few along the way and this isn't a shot at anybody but it was a few along the way that i looked at and i said that's not who i want to be when i when i'm done this when i'm done i want to like step away. Thank you very much. Exit stage left and you'll never hear from me ever again. But, you know, it was my wife. She said, hey, like, why don't you just do it your way? Don't do it the way that they did it. Do it your way. And I had a lot of good influences. I had a lot of really good goalie coaches. And I wanted to take bits and pieces from what they taught me and then say,

all right, yeah, no, I can do it that way. So that's what I did. And right off the bat, I think a few people kind of, you know, laughed at a few of the things I did because it was the way I wanted to do it. And but it's kind of my way. What's an example of that? I mean, there was, I had a goalie coach out of Edmonton. He, uh, John Stevenson's name and he, he's worked with Braden Holpey, give him credit it. I think when he won the Vesna for changing his career.

And John would do a drill with me when I was struggling on tracking pucks and he'd put a laundry bag over my head. And guys would exactly what you're doing. Like hysterical laughing. Like this can't be for real. And you couldn't see because this bag was just impairing your vision. And I was like, this is nuts. It was so good.

And you could never do it in pro hockey, though, right? Because these guys are like, they're going to laugh at you. And I said, well, big deal. We're all big boys, right? So sure enough, I brought out the laundry bags one day. And I, like, stuck them on the goalie's heads. And I was like, hey, we're going to practice with these on today. And a pitcher made it to Anaheim.

And, like, I got laughed at. I'm okay with that, right? It's like, I'd rather get laughed at. I asked the goalie, are you guys comfortable with this? They said, yeah, there's no problem. So we did it. And like I said, I credit John for that. because he did it with me in an environment where we were in Kootenie.

There was no media or anything. But like the narrative was always like, you'll never get away with this at the pro hockey levels. Well, yeah, you can. And it's fun. And it's supposed to be a little bit fun. And you get better. So like, what are we doing here?

Like let's lose some of that, I don't know, some of those dinosaur tendencies that tend to to linger. And so the concept behind it being like you impede your vision, you got to work harder for positioning or to hunt to find pucks. Yeah, hunt to find pucks. So just the best comparison. You know, a baseball player holds two bats or has the donut on the bat. When he's warming up, you take it off the bat, super light, right?

You have this bag over your head. You can barely see the puck. You got to actually watch the puck into your glove, your blocker. You take the bag off for the last 10, 15 minutes of practice. It's like the puck looks like a beach ball, right? And I know the NFL, I think it was in vogue, like 10, 15 years ago, they'd have these glasses that, like, the links, and it cuts your vision for, you know, eighth of a second.

And it's kind of like you really got to work for tracking and for quarterbacks to do that while watching people run their roots, you take it off. It's like, oh, this is, wow. Exactly same. And we even use those glasses as well. They're just harder to fit under a helmet. Sure.

But it's same concepts. Same concepts, right? And there was lots of those kind of things where, like, you know, I had a theory on playing goalies as well that I, like, again, I'm not reinventing the wheel, but it was always, I love to know when my next start was whether I won or didn't win. And so you pitch these ideas to coaches. and, you know, there's tons of, like, feedback, kickback or everyone at all.

And then that's okay. It's okay to, like, I'm new. I was allowed to make mistakes. So I really wanted to kind of push what I wanted to do off the bat. And some of it worked. Some of it didn't work. But we, you know, we were able to almost lay out two to three months' worth of goalie schedule at one time. Now, one injury and this whole thing, you rip it up, you start over.

But, you know, I always hated the narrative if you win, you stay in because it's okay to, like, win and then go practice. and feel good. 90% of my career, I practice miserable because we'd lost. Because we'd lost. And now it's your job to go practice for a week and a half and two weeks. And all you want to do is just stop the puck and get back in the net. And then when you win, you wouldn't practice because it was like, well, I won. So I'm playing the next day. So I need the day off. And this. And I'm like, well, this is backwards. Like, let's flip this. So it's like you win. Okay, practice for three days and feel good about yourself. And then watch the other guy play. And then you're going in on Saturday, no matter what. It's Wednesday, so Thursday, Friday, and away we go. And there's things like,

small little things like that that are fun to kind of approach now from the other side. It is interesting. And I think specifically here in Calgary, like knowing Jordan Sigel out a bit. And I know you know Jason Labarbara, you would have met both those guys when you passed through, if not at other junctures. I think you set me up with both of them. Well, not barbs, but for sure, SIGI, I think that's how I met him. I couldn't get enough of the goalie stories. And we've got our good buddy Brusty and a few other guys that played Net over in Russia. If you get goalie stories out of Russia, there's no better stories than that. You guys are nuts and you have to go to the craziest place on earth.

I'm in for that. So we set up a goalie lunch. I think that's where you guys maybe first met. But I think they would be very open things like that. And, you know, right or wrong. I don't think Darrell wanted any part of that. I think the way that he wanted his goalies to be was uncomfortable. I totally agree with that.

And it's like if you know you're Jacob Markstrom that I am going to start on Thursday and there's a Monday, Tuesday and I'm getting one and, you know, Vlodar is getting the other. maybe everyone can operate in an okay I need to be at my best at this time and then at this time and like you can work towards that peak performance on two windows of the week rather than being like I don't know who's playing tomorrow I'm going to bed and I'm like my mind's racing I don't even know if I'm playing tomorrow. Yeah, and like you couldn't have hit the nail better on the head there. I've been very lucky. I've worked with some coaches that are open to new ideas. And even if they're not open to my ideas, they tell me straight up. And then that idea gets flushed down the toilet.

We start over. But sometimes as goalie coaches, it's your job to feed information and your job to provide maybe a different perspective, but it doesn't always go over smooth. And your ideas, it might be a bad idea, right? And so I'm not close enough to the flames to know exactly what went on. here and and that whole environment. But like, I can speak from my, my personal situation.

I have, like, maybe my mentor as a goalie coach in Anaheim. And I, several times will go to him first before I try putting a bag on a goalie's head. And then, and then from there, you know, you kind of feel it out and you work with these coaches. And, and like I said,

you make some mistakes, but I've, I've been okay making mistakes because I'm new. I'm supposed to make mistakes and see what happens. Well, and look, it means you're trying new stuff and some of that stuff isn't a mistake. It works. you keep it. Sure. I like that. Sure. And, you know, a couple young European goalies that are pretty pliable. And so that, that was, that was what I was handed when I first got into this coaching thing. And it was like, here, they, you know, these guys have never even been to North America.

So it's like, help them get a driver's license. Help them find an apartment. They don't know what a social security number is. They don't know, you know, like, okay, what's the credit score? And, and so it's like, the simplest things, they're 20-year-old men, and they're, they're fully functioning adults. It's not, I'm not trying to make them sound like, but they don't know any of this stuff. They come from the other side of the world. It's their second or third language. Sure. Their goalie coaches up until 20 have taught them how to do a butterfly in an RVH.

I don't need to touch on that right now. But what I do need to do is make sure that they can get to the rink. And so let's get them a driver's license, right? Once they're at the rank, then this is pretty easy. Away we go, right? So there was, my first couple years was a lot of that. And now, yeah, it's kind of taking me down a different road. Yeah, and interesting team.

I mean, lots of young talent, but clearly missed expectations, Patty Verbeacon, what is second full season coming up here? Like that's an interesting spot they're in. They've got a bunch of young kids again. Yeah. And you know what? I'll give him some credit, Pat,

because he's got a plan and we're sticking to it. And lots of times, guys, at least from what I've seen as a player, is you know, you stick to a plan and then you don't. We're going to do this right. And like you said, we got a bunch of young players. I think there's more coming, right? And all we're talking about right now is good our defensive prospects are.

I think we got some unbelievable young goalies coming up. A couple pretty good sentiment. We drafted one second overall. You know what I mean? So is it going to be pretty next year? Probably not yet. But is that, Pat's okay with that. And I think everybody's okay.

Exactly. And we're going to get there. And he's been very clear with anybody that asks is like, if you want to be a part of this, then it's going to be some work. It's probably going to be a little bit ugly for a little bit here. But that doesn't mean the work doesn't have to be done. It just means maybe there's more work.

to be done and then we'll get there one day and and that's kind of the mindset we all have right now. Yeah. On this league too, it doesn't take long when you got young, talented kids. They're starting to pile up there. Yeah. And, and then that's kind of where we're at. And I'm partial to a few of them, obviously. I kind of played almost with some of them as a player coach.

Well, Lucas Dostell is a guy you've worked with a ton. Sure. And he's a European netminder. Is that sort of the guy that you feel like you've had your fingerprints on the most? Yeah, he'd be, he'd be the guy that I've worked the closest with, I guess. and he came in. Actually, she played in Calgary last year, and you guys were able to muster the comeback on him.

But he's come in, and I think, you know, we have him, we have Steylock, and Gibson would probably be our three guys in Anaheim and how that all shakes out to be determined. But I think Doss is, he's right there. Like, he was an HL all-star MVP last year, and he's knocking on the door.

And I think I'd compare him, I think he'd compare himself to the guy you have here in Calgary, Dustin Wolf. And so now I get to, work with a guy like that and it's fine-tuning a guy like that he's a pro and whatever and then we have some young young guys we just drafted a guy in the second round uh from italy he's you know six six and he can skate and he's a different piece of class yes yes yes yes so i think my wife is already planning our our next summer vacation she thinks that we're going to tuscany next year why wouldn't

scout this guy right work babe i don't think that's quite where he lives in the uh you know southern part of italy but anyways uh so yeah so we got a bunch of young prospects and and those goalies they're different and my job is to kind of, yeah, get my fingerprints on them, see what I can do. Okay, so other life updates. How old your daughter? Yeah, she's five. She started school last week. I can't believe it. The U.S. starts school too early. So they're back in San Diego. And you guys are almost full time. Like, it's, you don't come back to a house anymore. You are coming back as a visitor to Calgary in the summers. Yeah, we redid the flip last summer. So we sold our place here in Calgary, bought one in San Diego. And so we came back and rented off a friend this

summer. And then next year, we'll see what happens next year. But we'll be back again in Calgary for sure. It seems to work for us. The other way was sold back backwards and spending two months here and owning the place. And owning a place to rent it out to somebody else, blah, blah, blah. Tell us about the goal of camp. You got a hat. Jeff Glass, goaltending. I was out chatting with some of your kids. Lots of different age groups, but obviously this time of year, your big guns are getting ready to head to camp if they haven't left already i mean europe's rolling yeah the khl season i think it's already started yeah you're spot on i appreciate you coming out the kids love that we had uh

for anybody that would listen that there was a kindergarten class going on above i think a basketball game next door we were trying to do audio clips you had audio clips that weren't working so i apologize for that but no the camps have been great i always wanted to work at that uh we wanders preschool yeah i check the box so life life life level unlocked oh it was something something up there. So yeah, the camps have been great. And it's always been something I've wanted to do. I think I worked the camps as a demo goalie or a, you know, whatever you want to call instructors. But I wanted to run my own camps. And so I started them three years ago and they've been steadily building every year. I think this year is for sure our best year as as far as camps.

And the story I like to tell about camps is I was lucky enough to work with a goalie coach. And he brought together six of us every summer. And it was a different. and six, but he was lucky enough, I was lucky enough that he invited me every summer. And, you know, the names were big. They were, uh, Carrie Price and Ray Emery and Jason LaBarra, Chris Mace and Devon Dubnick. And he would put the six of us on the ice and he'd set up like two or three drills and he'd just let it go. And the whole concept was, is like, like, learn from your peers. And it was, these drills were properly set up and monitored and the shooters were high quality. And, and I remember looking at that going, I want to recreate something like this, not only at the top level, but like all the way down.

So how do you do that? You kind of got to create that environment. And so that's how I set my camps up is where you come out and you're going to be around your peers. I want your peers to push you. I try to bring out shooters that are maybe a level or two above what the level the goalies are playing at. Challenge them. And we get together. And this year, the off ice took on a little bit different look.

We brought in some non-sport specific characters to kind of make my goalies athletes. for it. And I feel like goaltending right now, I don't want to say in Canada, because that's a real generalism, but we're, we're falling a little bit behind. These, these goalies that are coming out of other countries are just freaks, they're athletes, they can run, they can jump, they can throw football, they can. So we brought in the top dogs from the lacrosse guys in the area. We brought in a couple of one of the Cavalry FC guys. And I want these goalies to not just be goalies and not just be good at tee pushing and shuffling, but, you know, be an athlete that can also play goalies. So that was kind of how camp went this year. And it was, yeah, it was a big success.

Sweet. And so you have a morning meeting. Not today because you're doing this. Right. If you weren't doing this, but tell us what you'd be up to. Yeah. So, and then so this goes back to the flying thing. So we, I think the best way to describe the flying job is kind of like goaltending, I guess is like when everybody else is like dodging out of the way of the hockey pucks, us goalies like we stand in there and like maybe try to get hit in the face with it. That's weather. And that's what I do with the flying thing is everybody's landing. All these planes are coming into land and we're taking off and we're going to go getting ahead of this thing. right. So yeah, every day at 11 a.m. we come in and we do a brief and we have meteorologists that are way smarter than us that can kind of like set an outlook for the day, maybe a two-day outlook and they let us know whether we stick around the airport or they send us home and stay close or good for the day. And then if there is weather in the area, we'll come back. We'll head up. We have two kind of types of cloud seeding, they call it, but we'll go below the storm and kind of get ahead of it. And then there's a second type that's above the storm. And both times are, you know, or both types are super fun and yeah and that'd be some fun flying because these would be some interesting machines and you're you're not going in the still air no little chaos if you're around the storm yeah my first time doing it i remember thinking oh there's not way this is right like we're doing

someone's punking me right now but then you you do it something i know don't this is definitely how it is but um it's some of the most valuable flying i've done you learn you learn a lot about weather and you know what to do and what not to do but um yeah anytime you see those those king airs doing circles over your house. We're trying our best. We're trying to keep those storms to a minimum and so that everybody can, you know, get in their car and not have golf ball size hail on their cars. Unreal. Treat having you in. No, that's just fun. If you want to hang for a bit, we'll, we'll show you what's happening in the world of sports and nonsense. Let's do it. It's, are you familiar with the Pinda report? Yes, I am. So yeah, usually. There was a few summers there

where I was around at 6 a.m. when you're heading to the hockey rink, the Pinda report would come on. So, yeah, no, I'm definitely familiar. So we're going to load her up here. We're going to start, well, I should first off tell you, Pind Report brought to by Village Honda, as always, and they've got a big event going on. It is their Honda and Acura show and shine. That's coming up this Saturday. How about this?

Best Hondas and Acres in the city on display, family friendly, no charge for spectators. And if you want to register your car, it's just $10. You can check that out. Visit Village Honda for more information. You can RSVP or register your car. And the Subi Foundation is where all proceeds are going. They're not going to pocket that $10 for your car.

They're going to give that to charity. Love that. Also, they've got new in stock inventory on the ground. You can start your automotive adventures at Village Honda, where new vehicle pricing is MSRP. And I believe they're still going to trip vouchers to Vegas for two. If you sell your caller at Village Honda, love that stuff. Let's get into it.

We start with the NHL. Marion Hosa, Marcel Hosa. Marion, that's the good one. Marcel wasn't bad. You would have been around that. I got Marion Hosa stories. I don't have Marcel Hosa stories. Well, Marion's got more stories to tell after

this past week because they did a retirement goodbye, Marion Hose game. This has got to be in the Czech Republic, I imagine. He is Czech. Czech. So this is obviously in Bratislava, guys, it's in the Slovakia. Trenching, you're getting closer. It's somewhere in there.

And then this is, let's have a look. There's some names here. Miro Chatan. We got, uh, Taves is out. Look at that. He's not retired at all. There's Johnny T. Dustin Boplin, Boplin, Big Bop the stuff.

that's a big three is that a goalie jersey three three another 33 is it ain't o char onto the ice another slow back there this is quite the crew and look at big crowd big building over there pretty unreal uh i i got a kick out of this there's some names there and there's the legend himself right there just apparently a physical specimen hosa absolutely one of the best guys he takes care of himself like i was in chicago when he uh came down with the rash or he was allergic to his equipment And it was, I couldn't believe it. This guy is like, temple still. The reason you can get that many guys to fly to trench it.

Yeah. And this time of years, because he's that good of a guy. Like, he is unreal. And were you in Ottawa and he was in Ottawa? I was in Chicago. No, I know Chicago. He was Ottawa back at the beginning, but you might have missed him. Yeah, but I was just a smelt.

Yeah. No time for me then. I barely, barely got near that dressing room in Ottawa. Yeah. Do you like an awkward handshake? Because I got one for you. This is a new part owner of the Washington commandants. Hey, it's preseason you guys.

You've got to work on your handshakes and get them ready for regular season. Joe Bach and Troy Aikman are doing the call of the game. It's preseason and one of the part owners of the commanders coming in to, you know, have a little chat with both what's going on with the team. They just bought the team from a noted jerk and new owners. Yeah, I mean, you're no stranger. You're no stranger to professional sports team managing general partner of. Oh, dear.

If you missed it, Troy Aigman is moving his hands and gesturing. professional And the guy just grabs his fingers. This is not a handshake. Look at Aikman. He's loving it. Awkward party. We go from there to the Seattle Mariners are a big problem for the Toronto Blue Jays right now.

They're hottest team in baseball. They are rolling. And Luis Castillo is all vibes. They got up yesterday pretty big on the Chicago White Sox. Castillo, one of the best pitchers in the game. He wasn't really trying to trick anyone. Here's the tweet from the pitching ninja, 47 fastballs in a row. Just here's my best.

Have at her. Good luck to you because even when you know what's coming, you're not hitting this thing. He's got a two seamer or a four seamer, but literally Castillo just pumped heaters, 47 pitches in a row. Very few hiccoughs. Peter. Peter. Peter.

Peter. The confidence in the presence. Lots of the balance. Lots of the balance. Nice. like literally 47 in a row. Must be fun. Hey, you got a big lead.

That's good there. He was good. They win again. Blue Jays opened 83 game set in Baltimore against the Orioles. They're probably the best team in baseball. And the team that is now past them and holds the final wild card is the hottest team in baseball. That's Seattle.

So I don't know. I'm not baseball baseball. But like, what's the most tracked fastball? in a role. I don't even know if people would keep track of it. That's just for a starter, you're supposed to have a large repertoire, like four or five pitches.

And he does have two there that he's using. It's a two seam and a four scene. They'll move differently. But you're usually trying to change speeds a lot because it makes it harder for hitters. He's just saying no one's hitting my fastball. I'm not to even pretend to fool you. Like you can't hit it. And until someone does,

I'm still going to throw it, which means you're having a good day as a pitch. Feeling good. Yeah. The opposite's when, you know, everything you're throwing gets hammered. That wasn't yesterday.

for just deal. The NBA, I guess, is parted ways with one of their social media people. Let's have a look on Facebook to see how this went. This is the NBA account on Facebook. How do I log out of this? Haven't worked here in weeks anyway. The NBA over extends its social media employees greatly to the detriment of their health and social lives for a salary of less than $50,000 annually after taxes. I work 14 hour shifts. Shout out Adam Silver. We don't get health insurance until 90 days. That's silly, isn't it? Glad I resigned. No need to divert job to get in the way of your happiness. Donate to mental health causes peace. Maybe take the passwords and change those when you get rid of your social media.

Everybody should be allowed one of those tweets when you get fired. I think that's a good call. They're like, yeah, okay. We'll leave that for 24 hours. I won't believe it. Sorry, Johnny. And I think they know who that is too. Yeah, they might.

Just spit in truth. That's all. We're fans of fans fighting. And this fight, not very pretty. preseasoning. This is mid-season form. Let's head to some NFL preseason for a tilt in the stands. I believe this is NFL precincts. But yeah, this is, we got Cincinnati and San Fran. A lot of boys here. And you're going to watch Cincinnati hat with the young shirt. It's weird.

He's with the Cincinnati hat and the San Fran T-shirt. You know behind bodies for, look at two hands going. Oh, Jerry Rice. Double lawnmower going on. and security can't get their hook. It feels like the whole section's going on. Oh, goodness. Security up. Yep, Thomas going to get you out of here.

She's on charge of you. You're out of here, George. And usually when these things you think are over, there's another way. Jack, not the best fan fight, but again, preseason will take it, right? That's right, yeah. By week three, you're going to be in great,

shape there. And this dude got K-O. Keep an eye on this guy here with the ripped shirt. He's woozy as heck. They had the well-done knuckle sandwich on Rye. Anyway, there's a little, and speaking of fights, street fights, also entertaining. Don't know where this

is, but I'm guessing it's late and it's after the club. It happens quick. Ice peeled, Jeffrey. Okay? Okay. That's a direct hit. Guy in the yellow, good night. See you guys. I'm out here. Bang!

That's two right on the button. Houston Astro fan got busted badly. Now, what do you think he's getting busted for? Is that the ballpark? He's wearing his gear. What's he getting busted for? What are you not wanting to do getting busted at the ballpark on camera?

That could be a long list. I don't know. You don't want to be making out with someone that's not your wife on the Kiss Cam. You don't want to be picking your nose. You don't want to, you know, just, you know, be respectable. And this one, I didn't notice it until the very end.

He's, he's undercover, I guess. Jack, is that fair to think? Big swing from bogey. Enjoying the game, no big deal. Fix his hair. Oh! What's going on? Hey, now.

Whoa. And who wears a visor to the baseball game, though? That's what I want to. Guy with fake flow. Yeah, that's it's right. There's a big visor problem out there. I don't know. It doesn't affect.

many people, but I can't wear a hat. I need visors for golf. No pro shops have visors anymore. It's like, sir, this isn't 1987. We're out of visors. I'm like, come on. I need a visor. That's the first time I've seen a visor like that.

Yeah, that's a special one there. And finally, I think Boomer, you've met Boomer? Yes, I have. The old place. He's usually flying out of there and you'd be coming in in the nine o'clock hour or something like that. He was having a yard sale the other day.

And classic boomer, just so negative. Come on. man, world's not that bad. Nothing really mattress. Who chairs? I think those are free. So I feel like for any furniture. That will be your Pinda report for the day.

Again, Village Honda, big event coming up on Saturday. It is the Accura and Honda show and shine. Some of the best in the city on display. Check it out. They're up in the Northwest Automall Village Honda.com, your dealership for life. We've got a Betway bet to get to, and then Tommy Willem Jr. sit down.

Long show today. What the hell are we doing? I'm going to be flirting with two hours. You guys are working hard. You're so good to tell stories. He's like, damn it, Jeff. No, no.

It's your fault. Lots of comments, loving this. Sit back and watch. Okay, bet way bets. Betway, bet way, bet way. 19 plus Ontario only. Bet the responsible way. Let's start with the CP Women's Open.

Canada's national LPJ event. Brooke Henderson has won this tournament before. She's 22 to 1. You don't want to cheer for a good fashion. Canadian girl at a Canadian event. Get out of here. Get your, your Maple Love going for Brooke Henderson to win. 22-100. Yeah, 22-1.

Jeff, if you bet a dollar, how much would you win? $220. You'd win $22. That was close. Okay, we'll also move to the majors. It is Toronto at Baltimore, beautiful Camden Yards. The trash birds are very good. Baltimore may be the best team in baseball this year. But our boy, Kikuchi, you say Kikuchi. say ace. He's been sensational of like coming off maybe his best start in the bigs

needs to hit just 6Ks for me to cash in plus 220. I'm all over that in a huge series for the Jays who have watched Seattle pass them. They are now though as Seattle swept Houston. So the good news is Toronto's gained some ground on Houston. They're within

a game of the second wild card, a game and a half of the second wild card, one game from the third wild card. And we got what, 37 games left, something like that. It's going to be a fun sprint to the finish in the American League wildcard. Those are betway bets today. Betway, bet the responsible way.

Tommy Willem Jr. stopped by yesterday. We'll close the show with this. Great chat about Cavalry FC. They're into the final third of the season and a huge victory over York last weekend. Big game coming up this Sunday against Pacific FC. I mean, you invite someone in, and not only do they bring us gifts of chocolate and beer,

but they make sure that the label we've, given them is accurate and current and up to speed top of the table tommy top of the table tommy of calvary fc tony tony tony wilton junior how are you buddy oh thanks i thought um i was a poor house guest when you'd first open the show and i didn't bring anything to wish you a happy house woman and this is more congrats on a great show so thanks for having me on well hey it has been a while i feel like geez when was that are we talking like in the summer wasn't it yeah i don't even know i think we started this in october had be early um and it's good timing because most of us have been vacationing and playing some long-form nonsense all summer here. Good nonsense.

But the beer fridge is finally just emptied. It's been backlogged. So the timing's impeccable, as is the timing of this conversation because you had a big win on the weekend at home against York, Martin Nash, your old assistant coach and that crew. Another home win. You've been really good at home. It sounds like another great crowd. And top of the table, indeed. This has been quite a change of pace. I remember five games in chatting with you. And it was like, trust the process, five ties in a row, some blowing leads late. And you're like, you believe, you believe. But there's some stress and anxiety that comes with believing that a process might work, but it hasn't yet shown that it has worked. It seems like ages ago when you hadn't had a win, you were five

draws in five games. And listen, as a coach, you dive into everything you can to, you know, the players, the psychology to documentaries. And I think hadn't it not been for Ted Lassow, the cliche of believing and actually, you know, the feel good story and actually just diving into the human element of our players and saying, look, we're actually trying something a bit different because, you know, we've, we've, we've, we've had good, good players, good championship runs, you know, and playoffs are being a bit different. Here, we've got two different trophies to chase. We've got the league, which gets you into Conquer Calf as well, and the new trophy, and then you've got a new playoff format.

So the placing actually really does help the first and second place, because it gives you, you know, a couple of bites of the cherry to get into that final. So, you know, we wanted to trust the process, but in doing so, I had to get into the hearts and minds of our leadership group, guys that have been with us for a while like Marco and Sergio, guys that are starting to be here, two, three, like your Dan Klomps and your muses. And that's them, you know, how are they feeling with the way we're trying to play? We want to be braver.

And we're seeing that. Look, we give up a goal on the weekend because we're trying to play. And one of two maybe goals, but we've scored more goals this year than anybody else playing that football. So when it comes to sticking to your principles, we've done exactly that. It's got to be exciting. I mean, there was a couple years that were scrambled by a pandemic that messed up everything. And, you know, to see healthy crowds, I think almost all season, it's been really good.

I mean, are you happy with where things are at? Has the fortress become even more difficult for opponents to come playing in? Yeah, I think we are now after that win, the best home team in the league. Our crowd, again, always biased, but you go from, like, my family sit in the 408s, then you go across the crowd and you just see familiar faces, you see new faces. As you work, you weigh around to the 109s and into the foot soldiers end. It's phenomenal to just see how much they care about it. Even at the beginning, you could feel their frustration.

you're walking past after a couple of, you know, ties. We weren't losing, but a couple of ties, you could feel their frustration. Calgary's a winning city, right? It's no different. And we launched in a winning fashion. We want to make sure that we are a winning team. And, you know, even you look at, you know, flames when they go off on, you know, the playoff runs the season before last, you know, people like that.

You know, the Calgary Surge had launched now a winning season. It helps. The city likes winners. So we're trying to be part of that group. For sure. And it's also, I think, a feather in the cap of your ownership group yourself everyone on the business side i mean it's it's a unique property this this is not like any other event in the city it's like well there's calvary but

it's kind of like no no it's a one-off there's this is not like something else kudos to you guys for that the next game coming up is sunday it's pacific it is 3 p.m at at aqu field at spruce meadows they've they've been a good side for a while here uh i think it was what really young in the first couple of years and then a title they knocked off the white caps a few years ago in Canadian. There be us in that playoff run, right? The ball were in or out debacle, right? That's right.

You know, sometimes you need a bit luck. But what I like about their ownership and the way they're doing things with the coach, you know, James Merriman's a young Canadian coach and he's, you know, imparting his ideas of trying to play. And it's a brave league. You're seeing that now. Like I get reference, you know, when I talk to people back home in England and

people come and visit and they're like, I can't believe the standard. Like everybody's really trying to play, trying to play in a brave way. And it's not like you'd imagine Canadian football to be. People thought it would be like hockey, dump and chase. And it's actually the opposite. We probably overplay in some ways that everybody wants the ball to the feet.

Everybody wants to try and play through the thirds. And yeah, it's good. It's making for some really good coaching. And then everyone seems to have this now two formations, one in attack and then one in defense. And I think it's really coming in and leaps and bounds. And it's funny because internationally, Canada, prior to this generation now that we're seeing John Hurdman coach.

It was a, well, we need to park the bus and get lucky and win 1-0. Yeah. But this league doesn't have any teams to try to do that. Well, I think now you're talking to Nashia after the game, he's had 2-3-3 games back-to-back. We've gone 3-0 against Forge and then 2-3, we lost at Baller and then we've just won 2-1 as goals because there's more bravery. I think it's more a case of trying to win versus trying not to lose. And yeah, I love the bravery.

John Hurdman's been a big influence on that because the way he took the Canadian men's to there, you know, to Bev Priestman, the way she's created winners out of the women's team that won the Olympics. I know it was a tough run in the World Cup this year, but sometimes that's just a change in other guard and, you know, new players are now coming on the next cycle. Does this year feel like there's been more change, whether that's philosophically on the pitch or personnel-wise than other years? I mean, you have made some in-season moves, and you always do.

Is it just because we're in this season that it feels that way and because you had to sort of wait for that payoff of the new system you're playing? You have to adapt. I think that's the biggest thing in coaching. You know, what was right five years ago is not right today. And if I don't adapt, it's like the Charles Darwin one, the species that adapt are the ones that are going to survive. And I think that's true in coaching. If you stay, you're always going to have your principles. This is how I want it to be done. But I think I always looked up to Sir Alex Ferguson with Manchester United.

he was at the helm for so long and he you know people thought he was a he was a tough leader and he was but he was flexible with his methods as he got older it's the way he managed wayne runy to say uh brian robson and people on the you know the man united teams of old will know that but you have to i've changed over five years we've also been in the middle of a pandemic so what these young men have been through um you've got to be aware of that and also how you challenge him is a lot different than how i would have coached nick ledewood yeah who's now our system but unfortunately i have guys like Nick Ledgewood and Leon Hapgood alongside me that, you know, that they, you know, for what I can't get to or miss, they can get to. And I think that's what you've got to do.

It's a shared leadership process. It's been quite the pipeline leaving here. I know Joel Waterman went from you guys to Montreal Impact. He's now had an appearance on the national team at the international level. You know, Dominic Sator, chase some dreams in Europe. I believe he's still playing over there. Poland, if I'm correct. Yeah, yeah. Behrumbelled. there. Arabem Pebble has been phenomenal.

And we watched him last year. You sold him off to develop him. Victor Luturi, the same thing. I know it's everything is win, win, win in sports. But you've always really been faithful to that second purpose. We want to win. But we also want to graduate players. We're developing for higher levels.

We're not going to, you know, put a ceiling on somebody here. We want them to go succeed elsewhere. And, of course, you're financially rewarded if you can send someone to a much higher level. So we've got a strategy and this comes down to, you know, unbelievable ownership with the Southern family. I mean, Linda's a winner in herself in the way that she used previous Olympian. The type of shows that go on at Shrews Meadows is remarkable. Ian Allison, he's great to lean on for experience and advice.

And when we talked about building a soccer club, it was a club, not a team. A team can win a championship. A team can go on. But in a salary cap league, you're always going to have a high turnover. We've got a million dollars to spend on players, you know, and some players will max out and some players will sign for two or three years, but you have to be able to develop them and move them forward, hopefully. But in that time, you want to impact it.

We've built now underneath it. We've got this under 21 system, which is basically 16, 17, 18-year-olds that we think could sign development contracts and then maybe future first-team players. You know, we've got the affiliation with Cali Foothills with my, you know, my brother runs that one. And we've just re-signed Tom Field, which is like a farm team for us. And then beyond that, you know, you look at, you know, Mo Fassey's another great example. He's one that's playing well and consistently in the MLS. If we can get them on to more established leagues, we've done our job for the football food chain in Canada.

And if we know our place in the food chain, we're always going to be an export league. But it doesn't mean that we can't give young. And I think the under 21 rule in the league is fantastic because it gives young Canadians a chance. I want you to talk about Gote and Tigny as well as Willie Akio. They've been really big jolt to energy for your club. I believe both of them sort of like middle of the season type entries into bigger roles. Like what have they meant to you? And are those going to be names that we're going to be hearing about at higher levels down the road?

Yeah. And that was the thing with Willie was, you know, when we talked about Victor going to Ross County, Willie was another one that went. And we, you know, I just put in an inquiry as a GM. I said, look, you know, I noticed he was on loan. What's your plans for this coming season? And they were looking at either loan him out or moving them. on and there was a couple of clubs that was interested in, you know, the championship level.

And I said, well, can I pitch to him? And what I did was the Arab and Pepper one. Arabin was in that same one where we thought he'd play for the full season, but literally he's gone from almost signing for Forest Green and then go into Luton Town within the space of three months. We said, look, to Willie, if he comes back and does what he's doing now, he won't be with us long. Hopefully we'll then have the negotiation power to be able to finish a season. But we want open doorways. Gote is, you know, another one that took a little time to adjust because as we got rid of our Arabim, we brought in Gote and we didn't do it a like for like replacement. Same age group, but young players need time. They need time to learn the system you're trying to

play. We feel we've got a very tactical system and it can be quite complex. So what can we give them that just makes it easy for them and what can we give them that they can just play off the cuff and what are the non-negotiables? And when we've done that, you know, Gote is now hitting more of his stride and that's what you see and he's so exciting and you know i'll put myel henry in that bracket fans probably saw a little bit on this weekend go i can see that now but you've got to have your futures you got to have your now's and you got to have your experience always think of three brackets okay and goatee certainly one now that we've started having some interest and willy if he keeps scoring like that there's not many wingers like that you want wingers that can just

attack people score he's willing to work the other way too uh speed with uh Goet, people have said he's Alfonso Davies quick. That's a statement. That might be me that started that rumor. It was coming from our sports scientists. So Alex Potts, we do our testing and our speed testing. But how fast is he? And it was funny because the first one he did, it was like 34 and a half kilometers an hour.

I'm like, oh, it's decent. And we're looking around the room. And then I think it was a doca Chima, big defender got 35. And Gote is so quiet. He's like, can I have another go? I went, why? Well, I didn't go full out. We're like, we topped at 34.5.

No, I can go quicker. So then he gets there, I think it was like 36 and a half, maybe 36.7 at top speed. But he's built as well. So if he comes running at you like that, and that's what you see, and he can terrorize the fence

because they want to play him physical. He's strong enough to hold it. He's got a really good first touch. We actually want to work on different parts of his game to polish him up. But yeah, he is Alponzo Davies quick. And if, look, if you're going to continue to polish, you don't have this kid too long.

No, no, no. You can't teach speed, right? Right? It's one of those weapons. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can teach a lumbering guy, all kinds of other stuff. You can't give him that speed. You had some big changes midseason.

Jose Escalante's going back to Honduras, if I'm correct. And Conte, in a trade with Vancouver FC as well, those were bigger deals from my perspective, but I don't maybe they're all every deal as part of a bigger piece of the puzzle for you but just a thought on what you know that's that's a pretty high in quality that departed and yet it's timed in with you starting to play arguably your best soccer this season yeah and it was a tough one because when when when when I did it so you have to separate church and state as a head coach and a GM you have to think of strategy you have to think of right how which players are going to be for the long haul which players are going to be good on the run in and as head coach what do I need for the game

against Pacific, right? So Cantav, you know, wanted regular playing time and Gote was starting to play, you know, Fiske's a great squad player that he'll come in and, and add value to the team, excellent pro. And he was finding that we were playing Jose Lower or Higher and Gote, and he was finding a logjam of players. And so, listen, I won't keep you if you're not happy. He'd asked, you know, approached about the possibility of a trade. Vancouver had called us just talking about players that they were trying to get rid because they weren't happy with the ones they'd got. Mickey's name came up,

and in return, there was Mile Henry, who I'd heard a lot of and seen as a young player, and they weren't playing. I'm like, but why would I try? And then I had to go and do some work. And Oliver Minotel is our head of recruitment now, Tofa, Fakhunli, our assistant GM. So I had them work on,

give me reasons, pros and cons. And what we found with Mile Henry was he's a future. So if we're getting Gote to a place where we think we move them on, what's our next high potential player? And we felt he's, one that we could filter in. And then we had the Willie Akeo opportunity that we had to work in the back burner.

And then Jose had, you know, his family issue. He wanted to go back. I know it was a bit of a crap show the way it came out. But it was well intended. I think he was, he wanted to be with his family. He loves this football club. You know, you showed that with the way he plays, but he's played a hundred games for him.

Day one guy. And they're tough to say goodbye to. But, you know, we've loaned them out for a year. It gives us time to see that is it going to be a permanent exit or, you know, maybe there'll be a return, but we don't need to make that decision today. Yeah, fair enough. Last item for you. I saw an article online that I think if you want to dream, there's not a lot better than

dreaming about Lionel Messi, if you're a soccer fan, coming to Atco Field of Spruce Meadows to play on the natural pitch here. It does seem like a dream. It's become much more realistic in the last month because his club in Miami has been on a heater. They're going to qualify for the same tournament. You're hoping to qualify. and at the top of the table, as you noted, there's two spots for Concaf Champions League.

You can win the league regular season or you can win the league postseason. You're in the running for both of those at this juncture, albeit early. And Miami's going to be in that tournament appears as well. Crazier things have happened. Listen, Kamal Miller, who plays with Lionel Messi,

was in the 2018 playoff final against us for Reading United. Got sent off kicking Nico Pasquati. He's now playing alongside Leo Messi. the game, life throws things at you very quickly. You know, Lucas McNaughton was playing for Pacific, marked him in the nation's league in the final, Leagues Cup final, sorry. So I'm a dreamer, always have been, you know,

the amount of times that you're told, you know, you couldn't build soccer in the city, you won't, you won't do this, we're doing it. You know, I would like to dream of the possibility to play against Messi one day. Why not? He's in our region.

I think it's great that he's come to our region. and in 2026 when the World Cup comes through U.S., Mexico, and Canada, he's adding value to this side of the world. You know, and it's interesting now, if you look at it, because you've got Saudi Arabia and MLS that are now grabbing people's eyes and attention, and you'll always have your four big leagues, but we're growing. And, you know, one day maybe Messi comes to Atko Field. I'm going to call in a favor on that day, Tommy, if you don't mind.

I'll wear a security, yellow security shirt, I'll do anything just to stand and watch that one. Imagine that. Have you seen some of the things, like he's, my brother Jay says it, he said, look, how many times have you actually watched his games? And I said, well, probably the big World Cup games, probably, you know, you're watching. And when he's playing for Barcelona, you'll watch the O'Dell Classico, but it wasn't something like the Premier League I'll get up and watch. Sure.

He's like, now it's in our time zone. So even the other night, we watched the forge in Halifax with a curry, and then we watch the Messi show right afterwards. And it's like, this is brilliant to watch him. Yeah. Doesn't have to be 8 a.m. on a Sunday. Yeah, exactly. I was a big Barcelona guy.

So you got to watch it a bunch, but it's magic. Like, I don't really hold a lot of time for people that don't think he's one of the best ever, if not the best. It's like, I'm sorry. Like, everyone around him gets better when he's out there. It's not just a guy scoring goals. And I'm telling my 14-year-old son now, the game's always about time and space. You know, and an old coach said to me, you know, a poor first touch is a thief of time.

Yeah. Because you haven't got the ball in control. You don't know where the ball's going, and you're just creating chaos. us. So what Messi does is he walks and it's like he's playing the game at different speed. Yeah. It was like a, I've seen someone on, you know, X this morning talking about he walked for a minute before his goal. Yeah. A minute. He's walking around. Everything's chaos and then he recognizes the time to strike. He's like, you know, like an alpha male like just going out for the hunt, isn't he? Gratzki was the same way. Yeah. The greats do they make everything look easy and they know

where the space and time is? That was the same thing with with Gretzky. It's wild stuff. Uh, good catch up. We need to do it more. And fans that are saying, hey, this has been a great ride, tell us more of what's coming up, or people that still haven't been to a cavalry game this Sunday against Pacific should be a good one. 3 p.m. Anything you want to hammer on here as you're coming into what, this is final third of the season? Yeah. So actually, this is a top of the table clash. I think they're in what second place right now. We've just lead prognum. We're level on games played. I think what we're a point ahead. Very good team. They've led the league. this year and we've now just leafrock them so it's going to be a big big clash and those who

haven't been to spruce meadows you don't miss out because it's it's an experience and i say that as somebody that went to the shore golf classic this weekend as a calgary and i'd never been i'm like i have to go to these events you know i want to go to a calgary surge basketball game so but share the love in this city it's a big enough city get yourself out there because once we play pacific now we're on the run and we want you there you'll come back three home games after the pacific home game it's mid-September and then 29th to September and October I mean you've got a lot of road games count this your chance I'm going to suggest this is your best weather home game left that you got but it's Calgary making bets on the weather would be idiotic we're not going to do that

it's been like hot like I've I've only wore my suit jacket once or twice I think through end of April through to now it's been a hot summer yeah well keep the team hot it's been great to keep tabs on and hopefully we'll see you this Sunday okay sounds good thanks for