Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Matthew Barnaby (FULL INTERVIEW)

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Matthew Barnaby Talks Bennett Hit On Stolarz, The Leafs Under Berube & More | The Insider HotlineThe Insider Hotline | Presented by Crystal Waters Plumbing Company https://www.crystalwatersplumbingcompany.com/Join Pinder, Rhett & Rhett as they welcome former NHLer Matthew Barnaby for an in-depth discussion on the latest around the NHL Playoffs.Let us know what you think in the comments below!!BARN BURNER BLONDE https://originbrewing.myshopify.comFLAMESNATION MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8INSTANT REACTIONShttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-dO2AraHTeftSpPt00evo8M&si=lY5D3nk8zVtrQgql🚨 Subscribe to @Flames_Nation on Youtube 🚨➡️ / @flames_nation 🔥 Barn Burner with Boomer, Pinder, & Rhett Warrener➡️ • Flames Nation Barn Burner 🔥 After Burner ➡️ • Flames Nation After Burner @dailyfaceoff2563 LIVE with Frank Seravalli:➡️ / @dailyfaceoff2563 💻 Website: https://flamesnation.ca🐦 Follow on Twitter: @FlamesNation @960boomer @PinderReport @Warrener44📺 Subscribe on Youtube: @Flames_Nation#NHL #Playoffs #StanleyCup #NHLShorts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former NHiller, Matthew Barnaby, the man that called Barney joins us here on the show. How are we doing? I'm good boys and retro awesome duster, man. Look at you. I wonder if underneath matches your 70s born star. Oh, absolutely. Big Bush everywhere. What he is holding, what he's keeping under wraps right now is the mullet.

He's got a nice and tight around the sides and top and he's letting her go out back. It's really back. Yeah, if you want to call me a beauty, I can guarantee that guy right there is right up there with the all-time great beauties in the game. We're unbiased media personality. Journalists. Just Calgary guys. Journalists. Calgary show.

It's right. We report you to son. Yeah. So, I mean, obviously you were in the little green room there for a little bit. I don't want to get super sportsy and right into it. But obviously, you would know. what's the big talking point? It's less about who won game one,

and it's about Sam Bennett, former flame, enemy number one right now. I guess from the start, thoughts on the injury, the hit, the lack of a penalty, now it sounds like a lack of a suspension or anything else.

How soft. Goleys are. Listen, I tweeted out right before that we heard from, I believe, Elliot Friedman, that there be no supplemental discipline. I think that's the right call.

I listened to you guys for four or five minutes before I came on, listen, the shot to the head that he took had to have something to do it. It was an absolute bomb. And yes, you get hit twice and you're not pulled out of that game already or at least for a few minutes, like to see, that's on the Toronto Maple Leaf's medical staff. It's not a suspension, guys. Come on. It was a little, listen, did he mean to do it?

Was it probably a two-minute penalty? Absolutely. Was it a suspension? Absolutely not. I've been suspended six times. I've given almost $300,000 to our former players, and I love that they're using it wisely. I'd love to have it back and buy a Ferrari,

but those guys are enjoying it. But as for the hit, not a suspension. Stolar's hopefully is okay and can return to this series because he's a big reason that they have a chance to beat the Florida Panthers. He's been like significantly better than wool for the second half of the year. Like this is a huge blow if he's up for any amount of time. Yeah, I think his same percentage this year was 926. I mean, they haven't seen that if they add up all their goalies in the last 10 years together, a 926.

So Joseph Wall wasn't great when he came in yesterday. Thank God that Sergei Brabowski was not good yesterday as well. So, you know, I heard you guys talking, is this chance to get Reeves in the lineup? That's exactly what the Florida Panthers want is to get Reeves into that lineup. He's not going to do the Toronto Maple Leafs any good. He's too slow. There's not going to be a lot of fighting. they're just going to let him run around, hopefully take penalties and capitalize.

He's not coming into the lineup. So I'm going to play Devils Adkitt. What if you just say, hey, Reeves, go accidentally fall on Bobrovsky, because we know the backup's not nearly as good as he is. Yeah, you know what's going to happen is if you don't hurt him. First of all, that conversation, if he's put into the lineup, someone's going to come down from the National Hockey League and say, if anything happens here, listen, you guys are getting massive fines.

They come down before games all the time when stuff like this happens in the playoffs. you do that you risk first of all a five minute major the most important thing and paramount is to win game two that's how you can hurt the florida panthers and and and bennett the most is win game two and forget about everything else i i it it stings that it's like hey so the nchl now is going to start giving out fines for accidental on purpose goalie contact but it wasn't there in game one like you see what i mean yeah listen rewatch it did he mean to get get him a little bit, but it wasn't egregious. It wasn't an egregious.

Now, now, if you're up 4 or 5-1 in game two or down 4 to 5-1, now it's time to go send a message. Grab Mitch Marner, give a little beating on him. Like, like, I'm going to the other way. Go, go grab one of their smaller players. Go, go grab

San Benet. Don't grab San Benet. The only guy that's going to fight Sam Bennett on that team is Max Domi. Like, Sam Bennett's tougher than anyone else on the Toronto Maple Leaf if Reeves is out of that lineup. So I always said, like, why go after the guy that did it if he's pretty tough? Go after someone smaller on a team. Go grab Sam Reinhardt.

Go grab him. Go grab someone else that's smaller that you could send a message that way. Now you're going to get fine and maybe risk a suspension, but that's what I would do if the game gets out of hand. But Paramount is winning game two for the Toronto Mapleys. And to your point, that's exactly what the Panthers want. They want this devolving into like an hour. Yeah, they'd love to get exactly what they want.

This is a perfect game one. If you're going to lose, this is perfect. Yeah, they want it in trenches. They want this ugly. They want this nasty. That feeds into their game, not the Toronto Maple Leafs game. They wanted to get nasty. They want cheap shots.

That's more of their alley. They got a plethora of guys that will answer the bell that way. And coming from Matthew Barnaby, it just feels like it ring. I guess that's, if anyone speaks from experience as to maybe how to kind of get it into the you know get it get it off the rails a little bit i i remember when you entered the league it was like this guy this guy is something else i've just was who who are you or and i don't want to get too much away from what we're talking about yeah uh influences guys that you looked up to or modeled your game because you've got to be a very you got to be an elite hockey player to get

to the national hockey league but you had something else to go along with that ability you were kind of a a unicorn almost when you came in because you weren't six six four, but you were willing to go with anybody and you could play the game. How did you kind of put it all together? Well, I had the retro mullet when I came in. I just had half a tooth because I couldn't afford to Dennis back then. So I had to have that half tooth for for a year. So all the girls that I was with that last year, junior man, that must have been nasty for you. I apologize. But yeah, like everyone's talented at the lower levels in junior and growing up. My favorite player growing up was Matt's Nazland, a small Swedish winger for the Montreal

Canadian, just a little skilled guy. My last year, junior, I had 111 points like everyone else did, and then you get to the NHL and you figure, okay, they got Alexander McGilney, Pat LaFontaine, Dale Howard Chuck on the first power play unit. If it's Sesame Street and we're the four boxes that people can see right now, one would be flashing. Like, one of these things is not like the other, and you realize if you want to carve your career route now i made junior because i was too small and had to adapt and find a way to make junior

because i was a really small guy until i got to like 17 and then i grew and put on weight and got stronger like like everyone does but i i i just adapted to being an antagonizer and not not not being fearful of fighting guys and and that's kind of the transition when you go to the n hl because once you go to the nchl guys are so much bigger they're men they're playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars, now millions of dollars as we went through. So guys don't want to lose their job. So that's the real integral part of making that next step into the NHL is, are you willing to do anything?

Because some people aren't willing to change their style. They're a skill guy and junior and they get to the NHL. I'm going to live and die on this hill. I grew up poor. Listen, I was going to do anything, taking a couple punches of the face to drive a nice car and date a nice girl and have a nice house. And being the NHL, no chance I wasn't doing it. Yeah.

Who was your first scrap? Then we'll move on. First scrap was Sean Hill. Finally won one. They were 22, right? 22. Yeah. Yeah.

Then the Stu Grimpsons came along, the Derek McCarties, the Sedano Charas. Then it was a long 15 years, yeah. Sedano Chara. That's a bad decision. Very bad. I've made worse. Trust me. Oh, Brett came in this morning and he was, I know you were going to talk about us.

Like the game is soft or we've gotten soft. And I mean, there is that fine line. You don't want anybody getting hurt and puking on the bench with the brain injury. But at the same time, it's like, this is why we wait all years for the physicality and the intensity to ramp up. And all things considered to your point, I don't think it's a suspension. At first, when I was watching, I'm like, oh, the goalies, I thought he was taking a dive. I thought he was trying to get a call on Bennett.

And then in hindsight, he is injured because it just, it looked like he got bumped in the crease and then laid down. I was going the other way on it. But it does feel like the game has certainly changed. Yeah. I think we're all in the same. There's no game in the world. You go, I'm a big NFL guy.

You go game five of the NFL and then you go to the Super Bowl. It's the exact same game. It's the exact same game. Baseball is the same way. No, pitching and bringing guys. and it changed a little bit that way, but basketball, maybe a little bit more intense. Hockey, it's like, you watch game 35 of the NHL, and then you watch game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It's like two different sports. It's not even close to being the same sport. So I think we're all there, and we don't want to go back to when Retro and I played in the archaic 90s and having that. It was scary some nights there. Like, you get down with a minute to play. by two goals. Like someone's either going to two-hand you.

If you have a little injury on your wrist, they're going to try to break it. I know I certainly was trying to do it to guys. And we don't want to go back to that level. Like, it was insanity. So, but we do appreciate the physicality that gets amped up once we get to the playoffs. And that's why it's so good,

why it's the best sport in the playoffs by far. And I don't even think it's close. What did you think of the two game sevens we had on the weekend? And just when you thought that Dallas-Colado game couldn't be won up. There are hockey gods. It was because we saw it on the weekend. It's wild. I don't like wild.

I don't think if either of those teams are on the road, either team wins. I think that's the importance of having home game sevens when it gets there. And we don't mind playing on the road. Hockey players don't mind playing on the road. You kind of block it out. But that extra juice from your fans and rant and it, coming back, scoring a hat-trick. I mean, Disney couldn't have written a better script for how that all unfolded.

And Winnipeg with 1.6 seconds left Perfetti scores in an electric building, and then they win it in double O.T. So awesome for hockey. The first round was absolutely amazing. And we're just going to build off and keep going. And hopefully a couple Canadian teams get far. And we're able to talk more and more about hopefully 93 since the Canadians won at last. We have a Stanley Cup champion at some point from Canada.

You think Helibuck, has he kind of gotten over a hump here? Is this a mental victory for him and he can settle in because it has been rocky roads in the playoffs for this guy? Yeah, very tough on the road. I mean, those numbers are atrocious. I mean, awful, awful. And some of the goals are just flat out bad. Mentally, I've never been a goalie. I've seen, I've seen some, mental guys when it comes to fighting the puck. Listen, when I played New York and Mike Dunham was there, a great guy, but he didn't believe he could stop a puck,

and you know what, he didn't stop a puck. He didn't stop one. I think it's a big thing that they won in game seven, but we're going to have to see how, you know, he is on the road again. He doesn't look comfortable. No, and how about that? When you get pulled and you're going to be the Vesnet Trope winner,

you're going to be up for the heart, might win the heart and you're in an opposing stadium and they're just chanting who we want Connor. Like, is there anything worse when you're pulled and you're playing so bad that they want you in over Eric Comrie? Like, please get the Vesna Trophy guy back in the net. Like, just awful. Just awful.

So that just builds on it. So now he has a chance to go when the President Cup, President trophy winners in the regular a season. They're going to start at home and they've been very good at home. And then you look at a guy like, just Mark Shifley, is he ready to come back? Is he healthy enough? Because I don't think without Mark Shifley, they stand a chance in the series. Yeah, you got Morrissey as well in Winnipeg. And then on the other side, Robertson and Hayskinon, maybe they're back. I mean, if he didn't like the blues and the offense they created, a half the Dallas club is going to be no fun for Connor Hallibuck.

How about Dallas beating that Colorado team without Hayskin and without Robertson? I mean, it's It's mind-blowing. So it was a great series. We had so many great series in that opening round. So physical when you look at St. Louis. I think Florida, now Toronto had the puck a lot more. I think Florida had 51 hits. I think they would hit them like 51 to 24, something close to that.

So the physicality, like you said, teams getting healthy. You get through a Colorado team. Dallas is going to be very, very, very tough to be. Do we like Toronto more this year? I mean, Bobrowski wasn't good last night. and I'm not sure if that wasn't the difference in the game. But do we like the poise and the attitude of the Leafs with Bruby behind a bench? Yeah.

I mean, Bobrowski, that first goal, that's that's that's that's that's putrid. Let's that's that's badham stuff. Like when I was coaching my kid in Buffalo back in the days, my goalie would have been yanked right there. I got no time. Eagles is right out. Get the hell out. Get the hell out. Listen, I once pulled two goalies and went with six skaters for about 12 minutes to prove a point.

I'm not going to recommend that to any coaches that are parents out there. It does not go well with the two goalie dads and a manager. But this is the best Toronto Maple Leafs team we have seen in 10 years. Canada has a huge addition to that team, physically blocking shots. This team blocks a lot more shots than they're used to. Stolar's has really solidified that back end. And they've taken on. Listen, they don't have the mentality of creativity of,

Greg Brubrick, because that's not how they're built, but some of the guys that they've brought in, and the Max Dolmys plays hard. Matthew Nyes can bring that element of a power forward, TANF. They do play deeper down that lineup, a more physical style. They're never going to be the Florida Panthers.

They don't have the horses to be able to play that game. They're a skilled team that is a very good power play when it's rolling, but you can see the mental makeup of the team that when Florida came back and scored two in a row, boom, they score again. Florida scores, boom, they come right back. So you look at the time out that Craig Barouba called, calmed everything down and went from there. I think that's the calming influence as well as just what it takes.

Like Craig knows what it takes to win. He's won with the St. Louis Blues, and they kind of had similar makeup to a Florida Panthers team. So he knows what they're trying to do in the series as well. well. Yeah, correct me that wrong. I think Trilliving has remade the entire blue line basically there. Like OEL is this summer. Carlos is at the deadline. He's

6-5 defender. You love that. Tanev, he's always loved, brought him to Calgary as a free agent years ago. McCabe from Chicago. Benoit from Anahe from Anaheim. Like there's some guys with dirt under their nails there. That was always a spot on this team where you're like, yeah, okay, they're all right, but are they tough enough? Like, that's five

of six defensemen they're starting. Trilliving guys that all got some moxie. Well, Carlo was the big pickup up at the deadline. I can't even believe they got him from there for what they paid. I mean, he's a tremendous defense. He talked about the size, Benoit and the third pairing. OEL obviously can create offense and he's a great skater.

He's a mature guy, right? A mature guy that's played in the league for a very long time. So this is a much better defensive team than they've been in the past, but Stolar's is the key to this team. I think if Joseph Wall is there for the rest of the series, it's going to be a tough, tough go. Florida is going to be a lot better in game two than they were in game one. And Bobrovsky is going to be a lot better than he was in game one.

So this series is far from over. But in jest, this is the best leaf team. We've seen going to the playoffs in a long time. I'm intrigued by all three series this round. Yes, all three of them. All three of them. All three. My math in Ottawa mustn't be great.

Are you doing Calgary math? Is anybody listening or paying any attention to Washington and Carolina? It has not been mentioned in my world. No, Carolina is going to win that series. I don't think Washington is that good unless Logan Thompson stands on its head. I think Carolina is way better. But yeah, it's definitely the least talked about series out of all. And I think you only tune in to see if OV is going to score a goal in that series.

So Carolina is a good team, very fast. We knew they were going to make easy out of New Jersey. with no Jack Hughes. I don't think this series is going to be any tougher for the Carolina Hurricanes as well. Goalies are interesting there. Like, is Freddie Anderson good to go?

Is he gone for a bit? Is Logan Thompson ready to go? Is it Charlie Lingren? I'm not trying to make this an exciting series because I kind of agree it's not. But they're not bad teams. They're just not particularly interesting, I suppose. The Carolina is they've won around,

what, seven years in a row or something crazy? Still don't care. I feel no emotions. Yeah, you never think about them, do you? And literally, like, last seven, eight years, they've been the model of consistency when you just talk about getting there and playing and just disposing of teams and moving on. So, but yeah, it's Carolina.

We don't really talk about them until they get to the conference finals or the finals, and then we go from there. So what's keeping you busy? What's going on in your world these days? I do a lot of events. So Alzheimer's, I was up in Edmonton a few weeks ago. I was in Toronto this past weekend. raised 1.1 million in Edmonton, 1.4 million in Toronto.

So a couple of good events. I'm headed to Windsor this week. And then I go back out to Calgary for their Gordy Howe Cares proem that always raises between like 1.2 and 1.4 million. Then I just go see my kids. My son's a hockey player in France and he lives in Buffalo in the summer. My daughter lives in Tampa. So I go see them a bit.

And now it's golf season in Ottawa for about three weeks. So yeah, I'll get to play a few times up here. I spend the winters in Florida. So not too bad. This old body needs a little sunshine. Vitamin D. I felt guilty not going to Razors thing. But then I thought, well, if I ever had an event,

there's no way he's traveling to come to mine. It is not a two-way street. How did it go? How was the big event in Buffalo? Well, especially knowing we had to pay for it ourselves. Yeah, that's true. Nice touch. Yeah.

True Buffalo Sabres way of treating alumni up there. And you know fucking know well that if Razor has to spend five cents of his own money, he's not walking across the street for any of us. Any of us. Not a chance that big-headed bastard is spending any. He's probably still driving the 92 tourists with no power windows. My brother, I got traded there from Florida. and my brother came down to watch

and he's like, you know, you're parking in the back, he's like, who's driving the Taurus? I was rooming with Razor. He got a truck and we're rooming together and I still remember in Montreal and we're sitting in bed watches before we shut the lights out and he's like,

you know, I don't know about this truck and I knew exactly where he was going to go with this. I looked over, I said, if you tell me you can't afford gas, I'm, I'm, I'm going to rent my own room. I don't care if... Well, it's expensive. This gas is way more than the tourists used to be.

I can tell you, I lived with one two years. I've fought him so many times and love the guy. He does so much for charity, but the cheapest, listen, I guarantee when he goes down a hill, he puts his car in neutral to save

on gas. Right. That's how cheap he is. And I remember living with him, he had to Taurus and and he goes, hey, do you want to ride with me to the game? I'm like, not a chance. Am I seeing someone, is someone seeing me get out of the car in the NHL in a 92 Taurus with no power windows? Not a, not a chance that's going to happen.

But it was, it was a great event. He was awesome. The speech was great. He said he loved me, he hated me, he loved me, hated me. But yeah, yeah, he's done a lot of good for Buffalo and it was well deserved for as many years as he's been in that organization. Turning it off at stoplights to say. That's right, yeah.

I hope it starts. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He was the original before the cars actually shut off when you stopped at a light first. He actually did it himself. Didn't he go hunting and have like a bloody deer in the trunk or something? Oh, yeah.

It was just gross. He's, yeah. Yeah. He's one of a kind. He's the only guy that goes on a seven-day road trip to the West Coast and brings a toothbrush. Oh. Maniac.

Which Brad May might have shoved up his ass one day. Rumors. Rumors. Rumors. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Fellow, thanks for taking some time for us today.

We appreciate it. Thank you. Awesome work, guys. Cheers, my man. See you guys. See you. Love it. Thanks, man.

See you. There you go. Matthew Barnaby. Good guy, former Sabre. A, and as we say, A beauty.