Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - The Rob Kerr Experience | FN Barn Burner

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

FlamesNation Barn Burner - April 27th, 2023Live from the Tower Chrysler Studios in Marda Loop! - Kerr & Warrener- NHL Playoffs- Calgary Wranglers- Head Coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr Joins The Show- The Pinder Report for Village Honda - Betway Bets of the Day Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do not adjust your sets. Do not call your cable or internet provider. Don't blame this on Elon Musk. I am Rob Kerr in for vacationing Ryan Pinder and Dean Moldberg. I'm not exactly sure. I'm here. Thank God Retro's here. And thank God Cam Moon from the Edmonton Oilers is what?

This is a crazy show. We don't need any more. Are we adding more boxes? Is that what we're doing? A lot of Euler talk. A lot of oiler talk. yesterday, Rob. Too much.

A bit much. Right? A bit much. How are you, sir? Yes. How do we find you today? We're doing pretty good. Bright and sunny skies here in Buffalo.

So the weather's nice and everybody's feeling pretty good. Yourself? Well, we got a little skiff of snow. So woke up with a little white stuff on the bar. Yeah, on the roof. That's mostly gone now. Just a reminder where we are and who we are. But yeah, a little reminder.

Now, it's supposed to go to 27 next week. But that's probably the most Calgary thing of Calgary things, right? That doesn't seem odd at all. You live there, you get used to it. Other people, I think there was a point a couple months ago where it swung like 40 degrees overnight. I tried telling people that here and they're like, what do you, what do you mean? Like that's, that can't happen.

I'm like, that's how it operates up there. It is. It is. It's what we live with. I do have, and am I using the term correct, lake effects snow? We don't get the lake effect snow here, right? So.

Well, the lake effect snow will shut you down for sure. I tell people though, Rob, and you might not know, like, it's not a shot. We don't get the snow that they get here. I understand why the city of Calgary doesn't own snow removal equipment. Yes. In Buffalo,

Our major, everyone has a plow and a tractor and a dump truck and you'll get 12 feet of snow and they'll have the roads cleared in 24 hours. It's amazing. It is, but it's life in northern New York, right? You just, that's what you come to. Yes. Yeah. We have Tommy Wheelden Jr. joining us here at the top of the hour.

Are you, I don't know this about you. Are you a big footy fan? Do you have a, do you have a team? Are you, you know, were you sequestered behind closed doors during the World Cup? Where's your fandom when it comes to soccer? I love soccer. Love the game of footy or football or wherever you want to call it. Yep.

It didn't grow up playing it. Really, I've never played it other than maybe with my nine-year-old in the backyard. But I had an Italian buddy in Saskatoon and the, I think it was World Cup. here in the states and i think the italians played brazil in like 90 early 90s yeah and i was invited over to his place and they had the whole crew and it was the world it was the final and i actually said to him one day i said we're going to go to that one day and in 2006 me and him and two other buddies we all went over to germany and watched the world cup and had a blast of a time one of the best sporting events, well, probably the best sporting event have ever been part of.

Yeah, I don't know what it would be different, right? I'm not sure you could compare it. Like you wouldn't compare it to a Super Bowl. You wouldn't compare it to a World Series. You know, it's just a different feel and a different event when it's the entire world. And we were in a great spot. I think that sometimes it moves around. So you maybe don't know what city or what you're going to get into.

But in Germany, it was awesome. operated so good. You got the trains. You got the good beer. You got the passionate fans. Wonderful of it. Yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to talking to talk. We were talking earlier about weather. It looks like 23 degrees on Sunday for their home opener. So I'm sure if we talk to Tommy, the four previous home openers probably haven't been that nice or a couple of them. I think were wet, but I'm just going off the top of my head. So this is a nice change or a nice weekend. I think I think the first game ever, Boomer and I took a couple of our brady kids and went and watched. And there was, like you said, there was a bit of, there was a skiff of snow that day as well.

Sure. Well, again, it's Calgary. We're I'm live in the... We're hardy folks. We're live in the Tower Chrysler studio. Consumer Choice Award winner voted Calgary's favorite Chrysler Dodge dealer. 109-1, McLeoddrail South and at Tower Chrysler.com. before we get to Tommy, any burning thoughts, ideas?

I mean, we can get into it afterwards, but just two games in the Stanley Cup playoffs last night. Florida stays alive, and lo and behold, here are the Seattle Cracken. Who knew? Leading the defending Stanley Cup champions now three games to two. That Kachuk guy seems to be involved again. And every time you see it, you're like,

you cringe a little bit because you... overtime winner. You wanted to see him go. Yeah. And the Seattle team, I've talking with Boomer and Pinder. I didn't pay a lot of attention to them this year. No. I don't know that I watched a full Seattle cracking game. Yeah.

I've watched some of the periods now. Yep. They're pretty fun to watch. Fast, aggressive, and they don't stop. Go, go, go, go, go. They're great. They're top line with a young guy, Maddie Baneers, and then Jordan Everleigh. And I stopped there and I go, Jordan Eberle, he's been around for a long time.

He's bounced around and not to take anything away from him. He's got local ties and he's a good pro. But he's not, you know, McKinnon. You're not going up against one of the premier number one lines in the National Hockey League, but it's more of a pack mentality, right? Like they just, they play that system where one line is going to be like the next line, right? They swarm you and swarm you and swarm you. and swarm you and go and repeat.

And it sure looks like they got Colorado flustered and frustrated. Something's not right there. I know Landis Cog's not there. McCar had the suspension last night. No Nukushkin. And I think you had Frank on yesterday. And I'm wondering a little bit if there isn't a distraction going on there because they do look a little bit like a distracted team, don't they?

They could be. I also wondered if it's not easy to repeat. No. right like they had a long run last year and i think they're a great team and this and that you lose your captain mccart but even without the injuries and the suspensions i think it's just real hard to get your energy level to the point it was at last year yeah that burn that desire the old eye of the tiger calm you know yep i do i just it's it's hard to duplicate and if you're five to 10 percent off, even though you think, you know, you're still going pretty good.

But if you're five or 10 percent off of what you were last year, it ain't going to happen for you. Yeah. Well, it kind of makes what Tampa's done the last couple of years that much more credible, right? I mean, it took forever for somebody to win back to back. Pittsburgh, you know, did it what, back in 16, 17? It hadn't been done in a long time.

Now they went back to back against Detroit, but didn't win both. But to your point, I mean, how, it even worse than that, Rhett, it's the teams that don't, that make it to the final. that don't win, the history of that next season and their results is not really good either. No, I've got to experience that. It is not easy to come back

after going that far. And then spend the summer living a life full of disappointment. Right. And everyone's, oh, well, you got there and stuff. It's like, no, no, I didn't want to get there. I wanted to win. Exactly. And now he spent the summer not sipping out of the silver chalice,

just licking my wounds. So you're beat the piss and you don't have anything positive to think about all summer. You're mad. It's hard to get the emotions back to where they need to be. Right.

And I was not intention. It was not my intention. My intention was more of like Nashville. I just remember Nashville a couple years ago. It just seemed like they were building and building and building and they finally get to a Stanley Cup. And then the next year, it just,

you know, they've never been the same since, right? Same thing with San Jose. Right. San Jose were the after runs for so many years. They finally get to that cup. And since then, it just, they've fallen off. It's hard. Well, and it's, it's extremely hard. And that's, you know, what you talked about.

Tampa doing it three years in a row. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. Absolutely incredible. Yeah. And to the point where you're, I'm not surprised at all to see them maybe not play as well, although I, up four one, they could.

could be doing just fine if they hadn't squandered a few leads. But everything has to go your way. You have to have the emotion. You have to have the excitement. You have to have the skill. You can't get injured. There's just so much to it. So much to it.

Is it? Because we repeated on this side of the microphone, you lived it. Is there something to the old axiom about the first ground being the hardest? Yes. I think there is. I don't know why it's that way, right? Because you go when you play, you go to the Stanley Cup final and it's not easy to, but I just think that there's a lot, there's so much emotion and there's so much going on.

You haven't lived that life. I mean, at minimum you lived it a year earlier and just, and it just seems like a long road. Really? You know what I mean? And you kind of got to get on that. that you've got to get that train started down the track. Yeah. And once you can do that and get through the first round,

well, now you've got some momentum behind you and it helps to carry you a little bit. I just always felt like, you know, it's almost not to use the World Cup analogy, but everybody's in it. There's eight games and 16 teams and everybody's talking about it. The fans have enthusiasm. The reporters have everybody's got enthusiasm. And by the end of the first round, wow, what a great first round. And then by the time we get to the second round, now we're eight teams and four series.

and, you know, we've been doing this for a couple weeks now. And the other thing, and the other thing that can happen is that you have to work your ass off to get there. Yeah. Right? Like, there's a lot of times where you're looking at the standings. You're going, we've got to win five out of eight to get into the playoffs and just to get there. And it's like, holy. And then the playoffs start and it's like, oh, my God, we're still going.

This is still hard. So there's a lot, lots of pressure that goes with all. of it. I don't know why some teams are able to handle it better than others, but those teams like Tampa that go year after year, that's not luck. Well, it's depth and health, right? Depth and health. You got to have health, and then if you don't, you got to have depth. Pretty straightforward, right? Um, I think, do we have Tommy? Close. We'll find out in a second. You know, this is a good time, though, to talk about bontan meat market, don't you think? I think it's a, uh, I think it's a, Well, when's it, when's it not a good time, right?

Always for me. Always? Yeah. What was it? Two weeks ago, I came in here and you guys had this big spread of everything. Ribs and potatoes. I mean, nobody takes better care of this crew than Gray. Like, it's amazing, right?

It's, well, and it's hard to do the job because he sends it in, and then you start stuffing your face, and by half hour into the show, you want to put your head on a pillow and close your eyes. The original Bontan meat market opened its doors back in 1921. All they've done since then has provided the highest quality product and treat customers like family, the best AAA Alberta beef, free range poultry, grain fed Alberta lamb, milk fed veal, and fresh Alberta pork. Once again, Bontan was voted Calgary Consumer Choice Award winner for the best deli meal market, deli meat market.

Easy to find 28 crowfoot circle northwest, bontan meatmarket.com. We will visit with Tommy Weilden Jr. here in a little while, but as well, we will be giving away tickets. You get to give away prizes on this show. I like that. I usually have nothing to do with it, but I'm all for it. Well, we're going to give away some tickets.

I think that's going to be fun. So looking forward to that. You know what else? Hey, I need you to fill me in. Mm-hmm. Because it's tough to get Calgary Rangler update here at Buffalo, New York. How is the crowd and what? the results?

In overtime, 3-2, Jacob Peltier with the winner. So Calgary Tapes game one. The crowd was good. I suspect that it's going to be much better on Friday. At Puck Drop, it was a little bit thin in the lower bowl. And you'll remember a couple, like, way back a decade ago when the hitman went on their run to the finals. And by the middle of the second third round, the dough.

dome was really starting to fill up. I wonder if that's not what we're going to see. Dustin Wolf was good. There's a little bit of old-fashioned animosity between these clubs. They played quite a bit down the last bit of the stretch. But no, kind of a fluky goal for Calgary to open up the scoring. And then it was just tight hockey the rest of the way they go to overtime. And Pelche, just nice move across the blue line, got to the middle of the ice and beat Spencer Martin from a fair distance, but a good goal. Nothing wrong with it. It's up 1-0, nothing, heading into game two of this best of five on Friday. Now, what do you think about the?

Because Pinder brought it up and thought, he said it was cool, and I said it was ridiculous, the schedule and how it works, the two, three. I like it because it gives you something to talk about, right? Like, you know, what would you do? You know, would you rather have the three games, or would you rather have the two? I was talking to somebody who knows Mitch Love really well, and he said, hands down, Mitch Love wants the first. too. He wants to go, you know, put your foot on the throat, so to speak, and then just have to win one on the road.

So I like it because it's a debate, right? But it's one of those debates, too, that you can overthink, you know? I guess the equivalent in the NHL would be, you know, do you want two, two, one, one and one, or would you rather have two, three, and two? Right? And a best of seven. Yeah, I just feel bad for a team to work their ass off. If it goes to five, they don't get their crowd behind them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I thought I was missing something, but a lot of conversations like this about, you know, what do you do? And to me, it opens up that exactly what you just said is it opens up some, you know, second guessing if this thing goes to five and you're playing next Sunday in Abbotsford, you know. And that's the other thing is they play Wednesday, Friday, and they don't play game three until next one. Wednesday and Friday. To Wednesday. Yeah.

I know that. Goofy. But, you know, what are you going to draw? Well, I guess you could have played Sunday in Habits for probably would have been a good draw. Right. Yeah. And that's one of the things that I don't consider so much because I'm so far away from it is that those teams need to fill the buildings as much as possible. So give them good days to host, I guess.

Well, and that's what I said about. It seems a little off. That's what I said about that. You asked about the crowd. you know, looking at the crowd last night's, you know, I was, I really thought it was going to be a lot fuller, but I think it will be on Friday, and I think it will be the further, you know, it goes. That, to me, I'm just going on what the hitman used to do when they got rolling, right? The further they went, the bigger the crowds of the got.

First round was always hard to fill for the hitman. So you want to talk a little footy with our pal? Should we do that? Let's do it. All right. this Sunday out at Atko Field, the cavalry will kick off their home as part of their schedule in their fifth season. They host the Valor at 3 o'clock. The weather looks gorgeous, 23 degrees.

Very pleased to, well, invite in our good friend, dear friend, longtime friend, Tommy Whelden Jr., the manager of the cavalry of the CPL. There he is. How are you, sir? Hey, gents. Yeah, good. Thanks for having me on. Welcome back to Calgary, Red. Yeah, no, I was back in Calgary, and now I'm back in Buffalo,

and then I'll be back at Calgary, so I'm going back and forth now. I'm no longer banned from my country, so I could travel a little bit. Nice. Always a little concerned about the legal part of this. Tommy, let's talk about the start of the season. So far we can deal with a couple of the off-season changes in a minute, but you've already got two under your belt in terms of. of the CPL, but you've also played a little Canadian championships.

Thought on what you've seen from your squad so far? It's been a good start because it was never going to be easiest on the schedule, playing the defending champions first. I thought we were very good and, you know, I'm lucky not to win it, really, to be honest, but that's a learning moment for us in terms of closing out the game. The Canchamp, really good, tough conditions. The wet and the rain makes a difference, but it was a different experience for us. lads were good. PKs is always a lottery, unfortunately,

and one penalty kick away from being in the next round, that's always a tough one to swallow. But I thought we were good considering we were a bit depleted on the Sunday game, showed a different side of us where our defence actually had to grind out the point for us because we weren't great with the ball. But what I've seen over the course of these three games is character. And, you know, you can have all the Xs and O's

and all the technique and that. But I need to know how many of these guys are willing to suffer on the road and pick up more points. Because this time last year, we lost two out of the first three on the road and ended up, you know, could have won the league by two points. That was the difference in the fine margin. So, you know, it's a good way to start. We come back and we had a terrific home record last year.

And that does give us a lift in front of our fans. So at least we've got points on the board. And nobody really in the league right now is winning much. Right. You know, the first place team is only two points. points ahead of us. And that's who we play on the weekend. So it's, it's, it's, it's in our hands. Five years in, I mean, I go back to Don Matthews when he was coaching in the CFL. He said, you know, you really don't know what you have until week four. You know, I buy into the old

Peter Marr benchmark in the NHL that really the, the first quarter of this season isn't as important as the second quarter. The second quarter of the season is when you really get a good gauge on your team. What's your benchmark? When do you feel like you can really get an honest evaluation of your team. Yeah, it's a good way. Looking at it, for me, it's kind of that, you know, play everyone wants. And I think, you know, and varies home and away. And once we played everyone once, the first thing we learn about ourselves,

how we are on the road against them, how we are at home against a different group, but how we are in both environments. Because, you know, to win out on a 28 game season where we play everyone four times, we've, you know, you can take those, those games to heart and then build from that. So, yeah, I like to see the first seven games gives us a layer of the land. And then from there, you know, we can build on or improve on as we need. Rhett? Oh, okay.

I hope I didn't insult him. That's it. I'll board him with a football talk. No, no, he's not bored at all. He was excited you're coming on. Let's go back to the offseason. Mason Trafford hangs him up. Tell us a little bit about the changes that you've had and what you've had to add this year

as you get ready for year number five. Well, and that's the thing we've looked at. In the off season, you always spend that time reflecting, you know, how close we were. But you also look at winning in other ways. And as a club, this is the first season. We've been able to go back to back without any pandemic. You look at 2019, we had a really promising opening season.

And then, you know, obviously the pandemic hits us all. And then 2021 was broken. So 2022, you know, was a real season. Now we're going back to back. And with that, players age out. But, you know, something that, myself and our president Ian Allison had always talked about is how do we build this club for the future so this is not just a one season let's go and try and win a

championship this is something that we want to be a legacy at spruce meadows a legacy within Canadian football and helping change that landscape you and I have you know for years on these things yeah so our big picture rob is always right how do we build that infrastructure and Mason Trafford was our captain last year and a terrific professional he's kind of like that mark giordano type you know that he's missed a reliable and week and week out. What we saw was other qualities. So, you know, we saw him he had a very entrepreneurial entrepreneurial brain, very organized, great at building relationships. So we felt he was a great fit in our front office as our commercial director, managing partners, bring

in new excitement. And it's, and he's been terrific. You know, add to that now, you've got Nick Ledjewood, who's our assistant coach and community manager, deals with a lot of, you know, getting out all the youth clubs and programs to, you know, Jay Wilde and my brother who's running our under 21s to recently Oliver Minnetale was another returnee to the club. And these are good moments for us and shows that on top of, you know, likes of, you know, Joe Waterman getting into the Qatar World Cup squad to, you know, Dominic Zator and Victor LaTori,

players that have been with us that are being named in the recent Candace squad. And, you know, Mo Farsi last night scored his first goal for his MLS club. So these are these are moments that we're trying to keep building on because it's it's a big part of it. We're always going to contend and chase championships. That's our DNA. But we also like the fact that we're able to develop other opportunities for Canadians where there weren't only five years ago. So if we go back to our conversations from a decade ago and you introduced the term path to professional and a path to, you know, what what your vision was, 10 years ago, having alumni, Having, I don't know what else the way to put, well, having these guys return and be part of it and help move it forward, was that always part of the plan?

Or has that been a really positive kind of benefit or surprise that you, you know, that these players are sticking around. These players are now coaching. It just seems like there's some longevity to the career in Calgary. Yeah, it was always part of the strategic plan. So when I first met with our ownership group, the Southern family and Ian Allison, we talked about, you know a sustained long-term project not just a win and done and have a one good season um it was about how can you maintain that level of success how can you strive for excellence you know those words are written around spruce meadows and and why you know we're we're approaching our

50th year here is it's sustainable it's strive for excellence every single day so we looked at nick ledger would bring him back to have his last chapter of football to mason trafford to even i knew with with my brother that he's an unbelievable coach and our under 21 coach, but also, you know, technical director of Calgary Footills, the job I used to have. So there's this pathway that we've created that we think is a really, you know, makes us different from everyone. But it's also something that if you look at the top clubs around the world, whether it's Bayern Munich and Germany or IACs in the Netherlands, they're the ones that actually have this

very similar one where, you know, if people have bled for you, and actually the cavalry's motto is blood over grass, hence the red and the green connected. These guys have bled over grass for us. So when they're in their front office or on the sidelines as a coach or you're on the phone representing us overseas with international recruitment, they care that little bit more. So it makes it easier for them to be motivated. There's no time clock for them.

They're working all the time trying to grow the club. And that's been a big challenge over the pandemic where things have been paused. But we're stubborn. and we're continuing to make the strides that we feel is necessary for the growth of this team and this game. So tell me about the work that you had to undertake this offseason to prepare for this year. We talked about a few of the players that have turned over, but what was recruitment like, what was even just resigning? You had to bring back your, you know, arguably your most important player, your goaltender.

So what was the offseason like for you? Well, that's where we go first and foremost. in our recruitment is we're very big on, you know, taking the time to reflect and not making the emotional decision. So the offseason is we have a lot of exit pulse checks. You know, you think of the hockey locker rooms. They have their locker clear out. Fun enough, today is locker clean out because we're moving back in to return to Spruce Meadows. But, you know, first and foremost is like, what went well and why? What didn't go well and how can it improve? And what went well was you've had a young man like Marco Carducci that fought off cancer, got the goalkeeper

of the year award, and is always just that, no, just that he amazed us all with the way he talks and the way he approaches. Oh, he's incredible. It was an easy to lock him down with his contract, and B, give him the captain's arm bandit, actually made our job easier. So that one jumped out. And Ali Moosey, one of the most exciting players in the league, was the other one that we went after.

And then you look at, right, what do we need in terms of systematic players? So we'd made decisions in the off-season where we'd signed players that, you know, we felt had been in the league, you know, had been at good teams and could come in and fit our culture. And actually, it was harder. The older they were, the harder it was. So we went after players that we felt were systematic. So with, you know, Mason-Traford leaving, Callum Montgomery's been a great one coming in from the MLS environment, you know, and it's kind of, you know, similar in profile.

Adoka Chima, very similar in profile to Karefa Yao, who's younger, that, you know, has a lot more coachability to him. You know, we're seeing with Shemit Shome, who's a player that we've known, you know, being an Edmonton boy, going to the MLS, return to Evanton. We felt he could have the energy that Victor Lattori had when we, you know, sold him to Jesse Daly, to recently Brad Camden coming in as a Canadian and a local guy. So these are guys that might not be as flashy per se on their highlight reel, but they were systematic because we felt they would make Marco Carducci better. They would make Dan Klomp better. They'd create more goal opportunities for a Joe Mason, Sergio Camargo, Maya Bevan. And we're seeing right now, Jose Escalante, one of our originals, is playing in a new role because that's what the team needs right now.

That's a systematic player and that's something we bring in. So we spend a lot of time, Rob, you know, looking at data analytics, looking at video. But the last one is always about the human element. You know, are they going to be, you know, fit our culture? The guys that, you know, are here to build something for the future, are going to be the trailblazers. And we believe these guys are. Had the pleasure of talking to Marco recently and, you know, we talked about doing a new deal. Were you ever concerned that he might go elsewhere?

You know, I'll get into the reasons he told me why he stayed and I love them. But was it ever a concern that you might have to replace your netminder? Well, listen, I'll be honest, we had a call. We had several interests, but we had a call literally just before he was diagnosed with cancer about his availability. We're in the, with an MLS club that we were in talks with. And, you know, it was looking that way. Obviously, things change in football and in life. And he adapted.

And as soon as he did that, we wanted to make sure that we rewarded him for. for his situation, circumstance, his loyalty, and looked after him first and foremost. So look, I think all our players, we know our place in the food chain, Rob. So all our players are available at the right price. So we believe in our pathway system. We believe in our recruitment system

that will always bring players in. What we've got to do now, the more we create this trading history is we've now got to be the ones that dictates the timing of it. Because right now we're still a sellable club versus one that can hold down. but we have ambitions in our next round of sales to make a quarter of a million with,

you know, one of the young players coming through. So we've got to manage that accordingly. No, and rightfully so. That's the business that you're in. I get that. But when Marco sits next to me and says, you know, I have a decision to make, I could go somewhere and sit or I can stay here and play and develop. I chose to play in development.

That's refreshing to me, right? Because I think that's up and down in sport. Sometimes we chase that elite spot. that elite spot might be a bench, but we don't, we don't necessarily put enough priority, even at his age of playing and reps and game pressure and all of those sort of things.

So I like that conversation. I thought it was a refreshing conversation. Yeah, it is, and hence why it was easy for us to give him the captain's armband. He bleeds for this club. He's also working within the Calgary villains and helping out that next generation

from the club he played for. So we believe in, you know, playing it forward. as we talk about on the pitch, but also as an ethos off it. And he represents that to great credit. And, yeah, like I said before, we're fortunate to have it. Well, and Tommy, you and I've done this long enough to know that you're probably wondering

why I haven't gone off into left field yet. So now I'll go off into left field. The next time I do a coaching seminar or a, you know, something in hockey, I'd like you to come and talk about, it's okay for a netminder to be a leader. I love it. I don't get it in hockey. I never got it in hockey, but they tried it with Roberto Luongo

and everybody poo-poot it. But leaders are leaders. And it's, you know, to me, it's awesome that, you know, you put it on the guy that deserves it, right? Not necessarily because of tradition. Yeah, it's funny. My president always says to me about leadership is situational. And I think Marco's an epitome of that.

He's been through moments that have tested him, challenged him. He's been with moments with the team. But one thing you notice is it's not just on the pitch. He's number one in New Jersey and he's number one on the pitch, right? So it makes it easier that you always want your captain to be on there. He's our first choice keeper. But it's when he speaks in the locker rooms, he will say something and people listen. And when he demands something, he listens.

And he's not a guy that kind of is aggressive and grabs people by the collar. or want to take everything. But it is, here's our tone setter. So I'll use the weekend as an example. You know, I said at the start of the conversation, Forge, we were very good. And, you know, unfortunately not to have won that. In the penalty shootout, you know, we'd have loved to have made a saving it. You know, we'd have loved to have kept a clean seat.

We're through to the next round. But it was the last game where Marco was the most important because sometimes a point can feel like two points dropped, you know, from the win. That was a point earned. We suffered. Like last 15, 20 minutes, we had no gas. We were making changes. We're putting players in different positions because they were just fresh.

We had several injuries. But Marco was our tone setter because he would take his time on goal kicks. He would calm the guys down and just choosing whether to play short to invite the pressure from the opposition or play direct and try and turn the opposition. He made very calculated choices. And that's where you want a leader is in that situation. And I think that's where the boys respond because we also surround him with leadership group that can work through the spine. of the team and they're starting to know their jobs. You.

You. What about you? Five years. Same voice for five years. What do you do? You know this world. You know this sports world, man. Coaches are hired to be fired.

Managers, we see it all the time. What is your post-season evaluation? What's your off-season work like? Or are you okay? Are you comfortable being the same? What about you, Tommy? How have you changed since year one to year five? Yeah, never, never comfortable, to be honest.

And I think that's what you have to lean into, Rob, is you have to embrace the discomfort. Like, you know, for example, you know, for me, I know my pattern of behavior. Once the first win happens, we can build from it. You just, you know, you're leaning towards more that first win. So for me, I, what I choose to do is surround myself with people that are better than me in other aspects. So, for example, you know, I've got Nick Ledewood with his experience as a player recently. retired. It's played at the International, played in Concorda Cohncaf, knows that Leon Hapgood has incredible energy on the pitch and the players love him to, you know, we've got

video analytics to, you know, we've got a mental performance coach. We've, you know, we've got several different aspects. And personally, you know, I take my coaching licenses. So, you know, there's a, there's a pro license that's my next chapter because I do always need to learn. You can learn in the job, but you can also learn by, you know, going to these ones. So I know, that's my next chapter and I think that's something that's coming soon into Conquercaf which you know I'll be I'll be wanted to take but I'm open to feedback you know I reflected after the season and you take it personal because you're like two points off of the first place again so you know if we'd have won that one game that we tied or you know

beat Ottawa at home that one time out of the two times they played here we're the regular season champions again but I actually look back and went we're probably overachieved so if you think start the season before we'd even kick to ball, Anthony Novak, our starting striker, ACL, to Tom Field, our starting left back, ACL, to Marco Carducci, testicular cancer, five games in, Fraser aired, Canadian International, and we're like, this is crazy. And then suddenly we go on our best winning run.

We go seven games in and create that 11 game unbeaten run because we kind of galvanized. And mid-season, Arab and Peppel creates all the attention. He was on a short-term contract, sold him. Victor Lattori had raised some interest, sold him, we replaced, and still were there, one goal and one bad decision. You look at the playoffs, you know, it's hard to take it personal when, you know, you don't get the calls that sometimes you need. Sometimes you've got to be lucky to be good and good to be lucky.

But one thing I keep reminding myself is we aren't afraid to punch above our weight and aren't afraid to go back into that fire and keep going. So I'll always keep learning. I'll always keep adding things where I feel that maybe my blind spots are there. So I'm open-minded enough to do that. I have end-of-season discussions with our president and ownership group and give feedback, have feedback. So I know my job in this game is to help it grow. That's the big picture.

And I know with that, you have to be the caretaker. So what I have to do is when the club makes the decision or things that, you know, they want somebody else in, no problem. I'll hand them the keys and leave it in a better place than I started it. And that's, if I can think like that, I'll always go to bed at night and be always be able to sleep. Tommy, are players changing? Can you see a change in the player? Yeah. The league's getting better.

So I think what's happening now, Rob, you know, for the two years, what are people doing two years during a pandemic or 18 months is they sought things? like they went and got, you know, online things. They read more. They're now more curious about things and have more of an opinion. So I think now as a coach, more than ever, you have to spell out your why. Before you give them the how or the what, you have to give them a why. We're doing this because this is what we see and this is how we feel we can do it. What do you think?

And we can break that out into leadership groups first that can, you know, get their background into it to now going on to the pitch running through it and actually make sure the players know they're part of it so i think what you see now is more of a collaborative coaching process right than a uh autocratic one that says this is it's my way or the highway yeah i think that's how players are changing yeah they're fit a faster stronger than ever so that's now trying to get it's the human element that i think will be the biggest growth and it's the coaches and general managers with the the high IQs that will continue to be the successful ones. Do you find...

High EQs, sorry. Yeah. No, I know you were going there. And I apologize because I'm going deep here, but I love this stuff. Like, to me, we can't just statically watch a sport player, a coach, manager, whoever, and just say, well, it's going to be the same this year as it was last year. You mentioned COVID. How much has mental health become an issue at the pro level?

How much of it has been things that the player or... or even your staff might bring to work that you have to work through before you can get on to. They call it trauma-informed coaching. Is that something you're aware of? Is that something that you've had to adapt to? Not that term, but I'll tell you, and I'll share with you, that, you know, through the pandemic, I think that's probably, you know, if I look back now on the coaching, you know, I'm still a young manager. I'm 43, so I still feel I'm learned every single day.

But if I look back at greatest achievements, I think the pandemic was, probably one of my highest moments because it was the hardest. And what I mean by that is, Rob, is how do you keep players engaged? How do you understand that, you know, there's some players that, you know, having troubles at home, some that can't get outside at having trouble because they've always needed that release, that impact, that, you know, that testosterone release. You know, people separate him from their partners to, yeah, there's lots of things. So there's depression. There's mental health. And you can tell it. You can feel. You can feel. I'm an empath so I can feel that energy and sometimes that's a good thing because you can be aware

but sometimes it's a bad thing because you absorb and what I noticed with myself and that's why I said with my own blind spots is you know I went and got a performance coach myself that I could talk through the process and say I'm experiencing this because and I've never had it before so it was greatest thing and what we've ended up as a club is being very forthright and proactive saying instead of reactive because you want to be a we want to create everything for every player so we've you know hired a mental performance coach right that comes in biweekly to speak with the players the available access anything like that so it's no different than you know we bring in our team doctor our team doctor looks at it with you know if there's knee injuries things that are serious injuries or we've got team masseuse

that the guys are tight they've been battered and bruised over three games in in a week right she'll come in Mental performance, video analysts, like who just needs extra time looking at it. Players learn in different ways. So I do believe we haven't scratched a surface on mental health yet, Rob. But I certainly have be a proponent of it because I think it's the biggest difference in, you know, in life in general, but in actually high performance. I've never had a coach tell me about their bringing in. So if you don't mind, and you don't have to share it all, but just tell me a little bit about the concept behind, you know, you going out and getting somebody to work with. How does that help you or how has that helped you?

So think about what are coaches? We're here to affect behavior to improve performance. That's coaching in a nutshell. And I'm stealing that quote from a great coach mentor, Richard Bait, Dick Bate, as you've known in England. Yep. How do you affect behaviour to improve performance if your own behaviour is you're angry at a result, or you're pissed off because somebody's not played the ball the way you'd run the drill to be? And then that player themselves have had car troubles, or they haven't been able to pay for something,

or their family's struggling or going through surgery, but you don't know that. So how are you opening the door to make sure that you know that human being so you can affect their behavior to improve their performance? So I just felt that, you know, when this pandemic hit and we were having conversations like this, you know, it was, you could sense something wasn't right. So I thought, well, I need coaching. So as a coach, I need to know how to deal with these things because it's not in my remit. As, you know, I've got a degree in sports science and coaching, Rob. We tapped on psychology. Yep. you know, you can always presume how people feel. Everyone's an amateur psychologist. So why not speak to somebody? So I sort out somebody I was recommended.

And she's been brilliant. And she's been a voice of reason and is able to, you know, remind me of the strengths and remind me of my blind spots. And I think if you're open to that, then you can fill the blind spots with people that might see something different or be able to support or divide and conquer. Because, you know, it's like my mum always, used to say, you know, it's hard to drink from an empty cup.

And we've got to make sure that we find people around us that are fountains, not just drains. Well, outstanding. Thank you for sharing that because that's, again, I've never heard that from a coach at the professional level before. So, and it really, I wish I'd started that with my, my question before, because that's, that's the answer, you know, what I was looking for. What are you doing? You're not stagnant. You know, you're the manager. You're the, you're the guy, but you've got to be the leader too. And that's part of, you know, to your point, that's part of leadership, right? That's, that's making sure you're taking care of yourself, right? Yeah, of course. And it's in the job where, you know, we win a few games, you're the king, right?

And everybody's saying how wonderful you are. Yeah. But you lose one or two. And suddenly now you're the villain. So it's, you know, you've got to make sure that you're able to keep the balance. No matter how right. It's, it's like that Rudyard Kipling, if, right? Yeah.

So you can't live too high in the sky when you're riding. well, but you can't be too low when you're having a couple of bad performances because it's not personal. It's right. It's situational. And in sports, we've seen that with Giannis last night. I've seen his interview. It was brilliant, you know, about, you're saying about failure. I'm like, well, there's only one team that can literally lift the trophy in the whole sports league that you're competing in.

Every team, if every team said they weren't going for that, they'd be lying. Oh, we're just doing this for development. No. We have to chase championships. That's why it's a league that keeps league tables. points on the board. Right. But we know often, more often or not, we're going to fall short.

Jack Nicholas said it as well. You know, he failed more than he won. Right. He, you know, you've got to learn to deal with the failures because it's a professional sport and you can't guarantee outcomes. But if you can do that, that's the biggest battle of mental health as well for, for coaches, is be able to accept criticism and, you know, not get too high on the compliments. We need more, we need more Tommy Wilden juniors.

We need more leaders talking about the importance. No, but we do. We need more leaders talking about the importance of failure. And we can get into the youth and the development of sport here in a second. But we're removing that from our kids' lives, right? It's not your fault. You know, they did it. It's them.

I am a product of failure. I say that all the time. Like I have failed way more than I've ever succeeded, but it influences and it impacts me. And to hear somewhat at your level, what Janice said last night is absolutely true, right? Like, you know, he made it, whatever, it was 15 years, he won six, he failed nine times. That's how Michael Jordan views it. But to me, we've somehow, we don't embrace failure enough because it is such an important learning tool.

Well, look at what's going on now in the Premier League. So Tottenham have just fired one manager. Yep. They put his interim in. He lost the game 6-1 because the, guess what, the locker room's disjointed. Chelsea are going through a similar one. He fired their manager that they hired mid-season, brought in a guy that, you know, used to play for them. Terrific guy.

He's lost a bunch in the row, and there's now talk about that. I'm like, well, it all depends on what your ownership will do. Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the greatest managers of all time, I don't think he won anything in six or seven seasons at Manchester United. but he had a belief of building a football club and he had a belief in values. I think when you build it in that way, Phil Jackson's the same with wherever he's gone, he had a belief in something bigger than just the trophy. And I think the trophies will always come if you're doing the right things over and over. But yeah, failure is part of the journey.

As long as you're leaving everything out there, and that's what I said, we go back to the blood over grass and that's what I tell the players all the time. And why you've got a good home record. The fans work very hard in this city. It's a very non-entrepreneurial city, very hard working. It's kind of that fuse between the blue collar to the white collar. But it's people want to see that they give everything. You know, in Alberta, they want to see you give everything and leave it on there.

So if our players leave the pitch and have given everything, there's more forgiveness there to say, yeah, you know what, they left it all out there. I can get behind that. But if they kind of want to don't hunt back or don't chase or don't try to get at someone or take a shot, that's where you lose fans. And that's something that, listen, while I'm the caretaker of this football club, will always be primary when ours,

we'll always leave everything out there. We'll leave blood on the grass. Right. That's an important thing. But it's also something now as a parent, that's what I tell my son. You know, you have to earn the right in everything you do, whether you're doing your math or you're playing as a player.

And guess what? You're going to lose some games. You're going to actually get some bad grades. That doesn't define you. It's how you respond to it. And that's the biggest lesson as coach. we don't tell enough. 100%.

100%. 100%. You mentioned your brother who's got your old job. My guess is you probably keep your finger on the pulse. What about the growth of the game? What are you seeing? We'll get into where we are internationally and how that helps. But you've been very much a part of the fabric of this sport in our city

for better part of two decades now. What are you seeing out there on community pitches? Do you know what's really good now, Rob? And I think you and I spoke when we had that USL PDL team. And the reason we did that was we felt that bridge between 17 to 21s was kind of left to just going off to university. But which is great, but there's there's a development pool that's needed. So if there are to be more and more expansion teams that come through Canada after we host the World Cup or before, where's the players going to come from? We can't allow just, you know, the eight CPL clubs and the three MLS clubs to be the only ones that are actually serving.

in it there's a lot of great development clubs and you've seen that with the team you know as a league one bc team knocked out valour and you know and done a giant killing and now they're in the next round and had we won on penalties we'd be facing them but what now is the infrastructure that you know across canada you've got the cpL but underneath it now and you know this i haven't worked in the hockey environment we've got that underbelly that league one ontario started now there's one league one Quebec there's League 1 BC that started and there's soon to be one league one now what that does is creates more opportunities for that 16 17 18 year old and also the late bloomers that might be 21 22 that you know just at a finish

university to find their physicality their football brain so that's what's growing and underneath that's you know AYSL which is Alberta youth soccer league that you're trying to make more standards and high performance aspect, you know, train to play ratio is so you're not just playing three games a week and one training session. You're actually developing in accordance to how you can the pitch. So there's lots of great things. I think I look at the technical directors of other youth clubs across the city, whether it's

Calgary Southwest to, you know, Jose Escalante works at Southwest United to, you know, Sergio Camargo does work at McKenzie United. Jay and Jordan Santiago are keeper coaches. at Calgary West. So there's a lot that are given back. And I think there's better coaching and leadership in those clubs more than ever, as well as now facilities, which I think has always been of shortage. Be remissed if we didn't talk about the national teams.

And respectfully, I know that there's some stories and controversies and they need to be addressed and we'll address them, but maybe at a letter to date, I'm just more curious about the fact that, You know, the first time you and I met was the 2014 World Cup. And, you know, it just seems like so far off for Canada to have an entry in that. But here we are coming off our first World Cup since 86. Yeah, you know, bruises and things, but you have to go. The women continue to be a dominant story on the pitch.

And again, recognizing there isn't off the field story too. But just as an observer and as someone who was committed to growing the game in this country, What was the last two years been like on the international level watching this country? Like it's a truly Canadian story punching above our weight. I don't think anybody had expected, you know, the women to win the gold. And they did, and they did it heroically again. So, you know, sometimes you have to have that little bit of luck along the way to be, you know, to be successful. And I'm not saying it was all up, but they left their hearts out there.

They played. They were tactically good. And then the men's, nobody thought that they could get. to the World Cup ahead of the 2026, but John Hurdman had challenged him and said, look, let's be one of the last ones to earn that right because it hadn't been earned since 1986. So I think it's wonderful to see that we are certainly punching

above our weight. And now the fact we're having professional leagues under that development leagues that are connected to it, to youth leagues around the world, we're doing something that's unique to this country. And the youth sport is another great example of that to be able to pull players from that system, give them a U-sports agreement scholarship,

and then they can go back into that system. It's uniquely Canadian. And we're in a good way. And I just hope now that we're seeing more and more people put their dollar vote in. And what I mean by that, Rob, is, you know, everybody can, you know, share their opinion and thoughts on social media. But, you know, if they're not out supporting their local club in their area, whether it's a ticket or a jersey or whatever they need to do,

then it's just a voice. We need people to put their dollar votes in. That's how we're going to continue to grow this. this league in this country. Let's come back to CPL. Again, you open up your home portion of the schedule on Sunday against the Valor. Not having an Alberta classical,

not having an Edmonton team. You know, I even harken back to our original conversations. You know, we were talking about what Edmonton had and what Calgary didn't. It just feels like there's a hole, a void. And I know the league will address it. some point, but it does feel a little bit odd not having that other Alberta team in the league. Yeah, certainly does. And listen, you know, while we were trying to develop the professional

league, the Fath family actually brought professional soccer to Alberta. So, you know, they put a lot of money into it. It didn't quite kick off. They had some great moments. And I think what we've got to do now is we've got to be willing to carry the torch for the problem until they're ready to do it. Again, Evanton had carried the torch for us for a while. So it's up to us to return that. would we love them to be involved? Absolutely, because, you know, a three-hour ride, it's Calgary, Edmonton, there's lots of people there that you recognize from whether it's youth setups to family and friends and, you know, so hopefully that'll be back. It's a great market. You know, wouldn't it be great if Alfonso Davies and an ownership group got in there?

What a cool story to be had and maybe that will happen in the future. Maybe it won't. But I think it's certainly a market that the futures will say, actually, that's a really good market. Let's let's do it again. But we've seen this in the MLS, Rob. You know, when the MLS launched in the mid-90s, there was a few families that owned several clubs and, you know, one or two didn't survive the initial. That's part of a startup business. But yeah, I think it'll be back. Vancouver coming in is showing that there's growth to be had and I'm sure there's others going. But it's good. Listen, I just see my battery batteries down to the last couple of years. No, no, no, no, I don't want to do a Rett Warren on you. No, no, no, Red had a kid.

Red had a kid he had to take him. So, no. Tommy, I appreciate it. You know me. I could go on for hours. I really appreciate the conversation. We encourage everybody to come out and check you out on Sunday. But best luck the rest of the way.

I know we'll talk between now and the end of the year. But thank you for doing this. Mike, thanks for you on Rob. Okay. Tommy Whelden Jr. From the cavalry. Let's, yes, let's address Rhett first of all. Red did have to leave and I believe he was taking,

he's had parent duties he had kids to run around we knew we were going to have them for the whole show and wretts back perfect i'm back i thought you had to go take the kids you scared i do in 15 minutes but you i had a mute on and you shocked me when you threw to me so then when i went to unmute i hung up so you were shocked when i was all going to you were shocked when i was going to allow you to ask a question. I'm not good at soccer questions. I'm good at stomping my feet and eating the progis at the cavalry game. Well, I'm sorry, I felt terrible because I knew you had to leave, but that was going to be later.

And then when you left, I actually wrote a note. I got this to Jack. I said, where's Red? Because I'm feeling terrible about the whole thing. I'm like, Red has questions. I want him to ask questions. And then it's like, what did I do? I insulted the man somehow.

He's hung up. He's taken his ball and gone home. Good. I've been arguing with the people on the YouTube's about all kinds of stuff. Well, you've had a good chat with Mr. Weilden instead of me interrupting and making a mess of things. All right.

So you heard some of the conversation? I certainly did. I would love to get into a night. I would love to sit and have a beer. or coffee and pick his brain about coaching and stuff like that. You got into it a little bit, but it would be fun just to explore, because I do think he has a lot of deep thoughts and has done a lot of,

I don't know if research is the right word, but he puts a lot of thought into how he's going to coach and how he's going to go about it, and he tries to learn from other people. So it would be fun to sit with them and just get to understand it. That's because I have an interest in that as well. I, as I do too. And you heard in that conversation, like, you know, what NHL coach is going to come to the podium and say,

yeah, I'm working with a, you know, a coach myself. Like, I love that, you know, that getting better, that self-improvement. But I think we would both agree that, you know, sports, especially professional sports, has long been, well, if you get to the top, you have to be the top, right? like, you know, everybody comes to you for answers. You know what I find amazing, Rob, is the guys that I played against, coaching or even played for, guys you knew, I knew personally.

And when they get in front of the media and they're at the rink and now they're coaches, all of a sudden, it's, I've got the answers and you shouldn't ask questions almost. You know what I mean? I do. It becomes a very standard stock answer thing. And it's like, well, that's not who you were, five, 10, 15 years ago. You didn't, you didn't pretend you knew everything. And yet you, they, I think you feel like you have to portray that.

Right. And I think it's sad. I think some of the best and most honest answers, and I think most people can see through the BS anyway is damn to find, though. I probably, you know, how refreshing would it be for a coach to go, yeah, I, yeah, I really screwed that. one up. I should have had that guy on the power play and I was I thought maybe this guy would turn out but geez, that was a stupid decision. Yeah. They'll never hear it. No. No, it's to your point, it's it's it's not an honest exchange of ideas anymore. It's become you know, in fairness,

there's responsibility on this side too because, you know, are you going to say something? You know, there's not a lot of context given. Again, I used a clip of you last week. when Boomer was talking about Daryl. And you just said, okay, hold on. So is, is Daryl the reason for everything? Like, you know,

the soft ice cream machine didn't work. Was that Daryl? Like, you know, I thought, that's an extreme, but you know what I'm saying? I thought that was an interesting point by you that it's easy to make a scapego,

it's easy to point to one thing and say, that's the thing. And I do feel like it's robbing us of honest interactions. Well, and it's it's odd because even the like I said, I was on the YouTube there talking to people are still talking about it because the flames fans are interested in the Daryl and the dynamics and I don't know if Sarah Valley and Drager came out with stuff about the guys not even wanting to play today or blah blah blah. So a lot of the listeners were talking about it on there and I was I was also texting into that chat saying the exact same thing where it's like I don't think Darrell was bad. on this year. I don't think it was his best year of coaching, but I also know Darrell wants to win as much as anyone I've ever met. Absolutely. So when you're not having success and he's continuing to do things that I questioned and lots of people questioned, it's not because he's an idiot.

Nope. No. He's he sees it as well. The results aren't there yet I'm going to stick with it that's not who he is it's not a and yes he's stubborn and you can have that trend in them but he's a results oriented person he wants wins and success and he wants it done a certain way and if it's not done my point being i don't there's more to this story than just a simple darrell's lost it and he's too dumb to coach now yeah and i would never say darrell's too dumb to coach. I wouldn't say that at all. He might be too stubborn to work with the modern player. Is that fair?

That is definitely a possibility. And it's a philosophy that he has. Yep. Yet Walker Dewar came in and had success. And Mangapani, who to me was still a young guy last year, had good success. Yep. So I agree with you.

I don't think he opened. opens the pearly gates to allow the young kids to walk through and just hand them. No. No. You know, ice time. That is an earned philosophy for Darrell. But not all players are the same either, right? I don't, no.

But I don't think he shuts the door foolishly on someone that might contribute to victories for his team. So, okay. And this is great then. Let's talk about, and I say this ad nauseum all the time. The one frustration I had this year was Matthew Phillips. When you look at all the numbers, right, 24 overtime shootout games, 32-1 goal losses. He was given two games, never to be heard from again. My understanding of Darrell, and you played for him, you worked for him too, so you have a couple of different insights on Darrell.

But my understanding of Darrell is Darrell was never one to believe that a player is developed at the NHL level. The player gets developed at the American Hockey League level, and then he comes to the NHL. And I was just a little frustrated that I thought Matt Phillips, you know, and it's easy. Hindsight, I get that. But I thought he should have spent more time and tried to develop that player.

I would say that's his one greatest weakness. Okay. And I would say that I agree with you. And that's the thing. I think when I respond with some of these points in 10, texts or conversation on people who are thinking that I'm trying to stand up for there I don't need to stand up for darrell there'll can stand on his own two feet he's got more victories and success than I can dream him so he don't need me to answer for all I say is there's a

it ain't just the coach there was a bunch of players on that ice that weren't getting things done now I think I think Daryl's missing and I go back to or three three or four we go to the finals there's a lockout and the next year darrell believes or at the time held the belief that we didn't win the stanley cup because we were too young yeah yeah and he went and got older yeah he brought in guys veteran mccarty yeah older guys you know finish wrapping up career kind of guys yeah and again not a knock against any of them we got great teammates and great people but i think in today's world the answer to your problems as a franchise in general is having young kids yeah coming up playing important roles and producing them the

opportunity to do that and producing on young early contracts today right yes and i think today's kids are groomed to do it at a younger age i don't think they need years in the minors anymore. Is it the end of the world if they go down there and play? Absolutely not. No. But I think kids spend to the, I think almost too much time preparing professionally. Going to the NHL for a kid nowadays is great.

It's the NHL and there's nothing better. But they aren't wowed by private jets hardly. They aren't wowed that they're getting fed meals. They aren't wowed by the dressing rooms. They aren't wowed by the buildings. Go play in North Dakota and college and tell me that there's a nicer arena than that. These kids nowadays are groomed from the age of 15 on.

To be able to, none of this is a big deal for them. And again, it's a big deal for them because it's the NHL. I'm not taking away. I'm just saying that, no, no. I went and came from Saskatoon. We had to push the effing bus in a snowstorm.

Right. Get it to the rink. And where... That shit ain't happening. And then where did you play the next year? And then where did you play the next year? Florida. Right?

Palm trees. Right? Yes. There's a great story. I think I was on the bus one day with Dion. And he points, he goes, that's a palm tree. He'd never seen a palm tree before.

He was in awe of a palm tree. Right? 100%. But I remember landing in Florida. But today's kids don't... Again, it's... They're prepared. If they do go playing the minors for a year or two, improve and earn,

I'm good with that. But don't hold them back just on a philosophy. So, and that they need that. And this has nothing to do with the flames, but I'm curious, is that a good thing or a bad thing that they're this prepared now? Or is there something to be, is there something, if you had your journey to do over again, would you want to be more prepared or would you still want to be wowed by it all?

But my thing, I, my, I wasn't as prepared. Right. I didn't know what an I didn't have an agent. I didn't have a trainer. Right. I didn't have a trainer my whole hockey career.

Right. I went to, I was my second third year pro. I went to training camp. Hadn't skated. Had not skated all summer. Now, it's me and being a stubborn idiot,

but that ain't happening to a kid now. Oh, God, no. No. Like, no. They're moving to. They're on the ice. They're always ready. And their training's better.

And I can remember the trainers in the NHL. It was archaic. Here's ice and a tens machine. At most, that was your treatment. And that was your, go ride the bike for 20 minutes. Okay. I can remember going to a thing in the, the Leafs trainer. I forget who it was.

If you ride the bike for a half hour. and your heart rate is above 160 you're in good shape totally irrelevant to the game of hockey totally irrelevant point being these kids are ready to play yeah open up let them run let them run yeah well and if they don't turn out you're not going to be worse off no and i said this about the flames team this year i don't know trevor lewis from a hole in the wall i'm sure he's a wonderful human but when you have down the middle lindholm cadry and backland you do not need a veteran fourth line center to play a defensive role you have you you don't need it you have three guys that are supposed to be tops in the game at that role why are you have a fourth one let a kid play yeah give him

some freedom and let them see what we got. Good grief. We might have a 50 goal score. Anyway, that's... No, no. And I'm thank you for answering the question because that was always my... And I agree with you. Like, Daryl's part of it, but management was part of it. Ownership's part of it. The building...

I stand by my point that the building's part of it, right? That, you know, that there's no joy in Mudville coming to that facility, right? You know, if you... What they're... There really isn't, right? And it's, it's actually surprising. I've talked to people about it because the rink here is no hell in Buffalo. It's, it's newer. Mm-hmm.

But it's like six or seven years newer than the saddle done. Yeah, yeah. But the way it's shaped and made, and maybe the way the team plays, it was a young team here in Buffalo. You get the, I don't know how to describe it, but you get the sound of the. rush moving up the ice right yep the players pick it up at our blue line and they're attacking in the offensive zone and the whole crowd is whoa you get that enthusiasm of they're gone the attack

and there's some noise being made i don't know if it's saddled open the way the sound carries in there but you don't get that sense and that it can be very loud absolutely but you just don't have that same atmosphere i agree i agree And a lot of the American buildings have that, right? And the newer buildings have that. Yes. And they have. But I say that as well.

Yeah. I say that as well. American people, they go to the game as fans, Canadian people go to a hockey game. They're observers. Yep. We're observers of the game. I've paid to be here. I don't have to cheer if I don't want to.

I'm here judging you on how you perform. You know when that's not here cheering you on. You know, when I. learned that we were in Washington and somebody took a shot and missed the net and it hit the glass and everybody went ballistic it was loud like it's loud or somebody makes a big hit it's loud it's loud right and and whereas we're going hold on why are they pressing with the f2 here no no no no don't do that right yes yes very judgy we're very we are not on this show but overall very judgey So I'm just glad you're not mad at me.

I was a little concerned that I somehow pissed you off and you left. No, it was it was fat fingers and Boomer and Pinder have always given me hell for having my mute on. But it's a anyway. All right. So, but I do have to run down. I know. I know. I love you, Rob.

Okay. Thank you, buddy. This was awesome. Take care. You bet you. Have a great weekend. You bet. There you go.

Retro. Oh. Hey, Jack. Like. Oh, who. Oh, Rob, can you cover for us? We're going away.

We just need you to come in for, yeah, sure. Tommy Wilden, Jr., great. Okay, retro's going to be on. Oh, wow, it's retro. And then, bang, he's gone. It's like, what did I do? I've been here for 10 minutes, and I've sunk this franchise.

Unbelievable. We are live in the Tower Chrysler Studio. I do want to recognize a lot of the great partners here that help Barnburner. Let's find one and talk about him, shall we? How about McLeod Law? How about McLeod Law? Call Peter Klein at 403-254-3864 or visit MacLeodlaw.com.

That's McLeod with a hyphen law.com. Follow us on social media at McLeod Law LLP. Personal injury, they are approachable, they are caring. This is not something that should be more tension for you. This is not something that should make life even more miserable for you if you have an injury. They take the stress off your shoulders. You're not alone. Let them handle your legal insurance, medical claims so you can focus on recovery.

Our personal lawyer, injury lawyers bring extensive experience and an understanding to your specific need. So that's McLeod Law. How about this? Why don't we take a look back at last night and then take a look ahead tonight in the National Hockey League. just two games on tap. Let's start with Florida and Boston. The Bruins at home, an opportunity to close out this series leading three games to one. Unfortunately for the Bruins,

and fortunately, if you're a Matthew Kuchuk and the Florida Panthers fan, Sam Bennett, I'll throw in there with local ties too. The Panthers who have had, I don't know, they just have had a reason this year to be successful against the Bruins. Lopsided and shots, Sergey Bobrovsky, in net for this one. So, you know, they make, you know, the young guy was the story, right?

But they go back to the veteran, the guy they're paying the money to. He was terrific, especially early on, I thought, made a couple of key saves. But, you know, they got it from all that up and down the lineup, right? You know, Van Harroway or Verherraway with the three assists.

DeClair comes in, gets a goal to get him on the board. But how about Matthew Kichuk, including the game winner? Two-point. And I don't mean this the way it's going to sound. Because I think you evolve into this. Last year, when the team lost out to Edmonton in the second round,

I'm not sure there was a whole bunch of players that you pointed to and said they were good or they gave all they could. And, you know, it was a little, I just thought that there wasn't enough bite. There was a lot of reasons, you know, Markstrom wasn't good, but there wasn't a lot of bite. But Matthew Kachuk, you knew could bring it and has brought it. He's in a world without McDavid. He'd be probably nipping at the heels of Dry Seidel as an MVP candidate.

He had an outstanding season. Only the fourth player in NHL history to score 100 points on two different teams or after getting traded. By the way, one of those players, Mike Rogers. One of those players, Mike Rogers. So I thought that was pretty cool. Gretzky and Jimmy Carson, I think, at the other two. That's off the top of my head.

But now we're going back to Florida. And now the pressures on the Bruins who don't lose a lot, but have now, you know, I think they lost twice in the regular season, both in overtime and shootouts, I think, to the Panthers, but twice in this series. Florida's got a puncher's chance. I still think Boston pulls it out. I think if you look at this series overall, as we are right now, seven points from Kachuk, eight points from, how about Taylor Hall?

Here we are waxing poetic. about Matthew Kachuk. But you remember Taylor Hall? Taylor, Tyler, you remember Taylor Hall? How about his series? You know, missed the end of the year. It comes back. He's got five goals.

He's got eight points in this series. He's been good. Brad Marchand's been good. Tyler Batuzi's in there. Orloff. You know, just want to, and again, it's a series. It's not a playoff run. But when you make deals at the trade deadline,

to Rett's point about us being observers, we tend to be more observers than fans, right? Oh, we're making too big a deal, too big a deal out of the trade deadline. Oh, this all-day coverage, nothing's happening. They're spending four hours at TSA and SportsNet with their fingers up their noses and they've got a llama, you know, why are they doing this? Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitri Orlov, come over at the deadline to the best team in hockey, and they're contributing to the best team in hockey.

Linus Allmark continues to be good. Maybe not regular season good, but, you know, he's been good enough in this series. Let's move on. The other series last night, I want to come back to Matt Kachachuk. Can we just throw up Matt Kachuk for a second before I go there? Yeah, I just want to do this. So here's Matthew Kichuk's career now in the postseason, 32 games, 22 points. So a lot of that now is, you know, seven of that, you know, in what, five games.

So if you go back, his board in Calgary would have been 27 games and 15 points in the playoffs. Guys get better. Something about what Rhett was saying is you get a little bit older, you know, put in in those situations, they're going to get better. I think Johnny Godroke is going to be better. He was better last playoffs than any playoff he had been for the flames. I always go back because around here we've got, you know, Red Mile fever. I go back to 2004 and the second round of the playoffs. which Ret Warner's team knocked off the Detroit Red Wings.

That Red Wings team had a couple of young players in Zediburg and Datsuk. Didn't play a lot. And you looked at him, you go, geez, you know, what are they ever going to contribute? Ha ha. And say what you will about the Siddings in that same time frame, 04, they were a second line in Vancouver. And I remember having conversations. Is that all they're ever going to be?

Ha, ha, ha. So anyway, I tip my hat to Matthew Kachukh. I think, you know, part of when you talk about the issues in Calgary and what Rett said, it goes beyond the coach, I think it goes on. It really is this stuck in the middle again, you know, Steelers' wheel. The flames are the penultimate middle of the pack team. Never drafted higher than fourth in Calgary. I just heard Ryan Pike's voice in my head.

in Calgary have never drafted higher than fourth. They've done that twice. Never had a first round pick in Calgary at a second round, I believe, in Atlanta. Always like this year. Didn't make the playoffs, but took themselves out of the really, really good player slot. What are they really good at? Foundation, absolutely.

Alumni, better than anything. But the building's old, which doesn't mean they have the toys that other teams have. They work like beavers down there to make the ice good. They work like beavers to make the game ops good, but they don't have the luxuries that other teams have. And they don't take a lot of risks. They're not a risky team. They don't take a lot of risks in the public. They don't take a lot of stands and that sort of thing.

And I think that's reflected. And Matthew Kachuk, you've got to find a way to be able to keep the next Matthew Kachuk in Calgary. Yes, he's an American player. I get that. But if a facility would have played a role in that, his role would have played a role in that. I mean, there's lots of things. I'm not saying you could have kept them, but you need to be in a,

have a fighting chance. Same thing with Adam Fox. I put this out on Twitter a couple days ago, because we talked about it on our show. What is the legacy of Radtcher Living if Adam Fox is a flame and, you know, he's the cornerstone of this franchise? So God bless people on Twitter

who immediately lost the kind of context of the question and immediately told me that, He knew he was never, I know that part. That's not what I'm talking about. But what if you were a destination? What if you, they took Adam Fox in the third round. Okay? They took them in the third round.

You know who else got taken in the third round? Shea Weber got taken in the third round. So teams, everybody had a crack at them before the flames. The flames had a crack at them before they took them. But they took them. You know, and yeah, American player, sure, wasn't coming here. Got it. Know that.

I understand that. I was there. Having said that, you know, this organization's got to get to a place where you can at least have a fighting chance of keeping these players. You know, if the only way that you're ever going to have a superstar player that stays from start to finish in your organization is if he's from Forrest Lawn and you draft him or he grew up in Springbank and you drafted him and he's predisposition to like it here, that's a failure. You've got to be able to go beyond that. Not sure how we ended up there, but that's what I think. Let's go to the other game last night. Seattle and Colorado. Take a look at the recap from Game 5.

No, Kail McCar. Speaking of the pride of Calgary, Kail McCar, last year's Norse Trophy winner, Kahn-Smith trophy winner, Stanley Cup winner was not, he's suspended, was not in the lineup. The Cracken, that Cracken go out on the road, not just happy that they're there for the first time, out on the road, out shoot Colorado at home. you look at the you look at the board here Nathan McKinnon doing his part,

ranting in a point. But look on the other side. Who are these guys? Well, we know most of them. Morgan Geeky, Jan Gordy, of course he's got that Tampa Bay pedigree. Ty Carty, his first ever NHL game, he kicks in a goal. There's Jordan Eberley who I know somebody's going to be listening on the Oiler Nation. and go,

oh, they took a run of, no, I'm not. He's a Calgary. He loved Jordan Eberley. But Jordan Eberley is now a really good second line player, but here he's getting it done.

And this is the old, and we've seen this before with teams, right? You don't believe in us stuff. We're underdogs. Nobody loves us. We're the new team, and we're playing the Stanley Cup champions, and blah,

blah. They're now in charge of this series, up three games to two. It's going back. A couple of times in this series I thought they were done, and a couple of times in this series I thought Colorado put their foot on their neck, and that was it. They haven't.

Nkush, Nekusian is out. I'm saying that wrong. My apologies. It's been a while. There's some controversy swirling around that. No Landiscaug. We know about the injuries. We know about the suspension.

No cadre. Like Gruberauer. There's Gruberauer. You know, Gorgiev, who they got from the ranch, I think he's going to be a. really good goaltender, but, you know, he's not right now. He's an average goaltender, and he's giving them average goaltending. And here we have a team that is heading back, facing elimination on the road. Don't think that Nathan McKinnon's eyes are going to get wide,

bug-eyed. I don't think he's too terribly concerned about this. Having said that, they've got to prove it. They've got to get it done. So as you take a look at this, now, can we we get the recap up for the series? If you take a look at the series going back to Seattle, or do we have the overview? Maybe I'm, this is the recap. I meant the overview. My apologies. Anyway, regardless, good situation for Colorado, or good situation for Seattle, not a great situation for Colorado. Wonder if we see a game seven in there. I think we're going to see a game seven in there. By the way, in 1993, the here. The here, the here, the here, the here hearing loss clinic was founded with a simple mission, make a positive difference in the lives of our

clients. It's never been about hearing loss or hearing impairment. No, no. It's been about empowering you to be socially active, more connected with loved ones, and confident in every aspect of your life. Men, women of all ages, and of course children can suffer from hearing loss. There can be serious health risks that are linked to untreated hearing loss for Calgary location. Shawnessy University District, Northwest in the Crowfoot Business Center and North Hill professional offices. If you feel like you're having issues with your hearing, visit one of their four Calgary locations for evaluation, a 222 Chamber of Commerce Professional Service, excellent award winner. Follow them on Twitter at the hearing loss. And this is a personal plea for me to other

waterfow hunters. If you've been hunting your whole life with a shotgun but not using hearing protection, please go in and get your ears checked because you might be missing part of the spectrum of what you're supposed to hear. All right, we looked at last night. Let's look at tonight. Tampa Bay in Toronto, the Maple Leafs up three games to one. Now, Leaves won the last two games in overtime. The last game was their miraculous come from behind, 4-1, third period victory.

Again, in OT. You know, they got their doors blown off in game one. That's the only victory in this game, series so far for Tampa. Bay. Vasilevsky, who I think has been the best goaltender in the world for the last four or five years, has looked average in this series. Four games, 8.56 save percentage. That's not what you're expecting. Now, on the other side, Samsonoff, no scream at hell himself.

876 save percentage. But look at that. Mitch Marner, 10 points. Okay? Matthews, 7 points. Nealander, 7 points. Ryan O'Reilly, speaking of pickups seven points. But it's Marner, it's Matthews, it's Nielander. If, if, and I'm saying if you bought into any of that soap opera that surrounds that team at the beginning of the year, every year, about Kyle Dubus going out and getting Matt Murray and Sampsonov is his goaltenders,

they do enough up top now. They were able to move things around and add Ryan O'Reilly, and he has been terrific for them. No doubt about it. But you look at Mark Giordano, and we know him so well here in Calgary. He's playing like he's 10 years younger. He's giving everything. He knows it.

T.J. Brody, I've always had a soft spot for T.J. Brody. He's playing really well. This is demon exercising time? Or is it? Is this when the bottom falls out on Kyle Dubus and the Toronto Maple laughs. go back to 2012 in Boston, game seven, up 4-1 on the Bruins, and they lost it. They lost it.

Yeah, this isn't that. I think, I think, honestly, I think Tampa's beat up. I think they're tired. You heard retro talk about it. You heard about, you know, how hard it is to win, how hard it is to play in these series. And they've been there three years in a row. They won twice and went to the finals last year.

they keep losing pieces. They keep adding where they can, but they keep losing, they do a great job there. I don't think they're disappearing. But unless Andre Vasselowski starts giving them 950 save percentage, like he has in the past,

well, not 950, but you know what I mean. This series is going to end tonight. If Vasselowski comes out, spins on his head and spits wood and nickels and Toronto can't get anything by him, and it goes back to Tampa, yeah, I can see some historical,

jitters in on the on the on the on the on the on the leaf leaves but I don't know I I just think coming home maple leaves have had to deal with this I don't think they're out of the woods I think winning one series and that's all everybody's been asking just win one series okay they win one series yeah they're going to have to duplicate that but it just things are going the maple leaf's way in a way that things don't normally go the maple leaf's way the rangers devils mea copa mea copa are All right, this is the dude who after two games declared the New Jersey Devils completely unfit, unfit for the NHL playoffs.

Good and young, be better next year. Got to learn to lose. That's what you got to do because that's what you do in the NHL playoffs. You learn to lose. Well, all they did is go into Madison Square Garden. Dougie Hamilton gets the overtime winner in game three, and then they get another win in game four. a series is tied at two, but you look at this.

All of this is on the back of Akira Schmidt, who has come in. There's 966 save percentage for the kid. Look at that. Where did he come from? Who is he? We were not waiting for him. He wasn't the American Hockey League goalie of the year. No, that's Dustin Wolf.

Well, let's go back. It's not an even path. Not a lot of kids jump. from the U.S.HL directly into pro hockey. It is a feeder league to college, but that's what he did. He came out of the U.S.HL. He went into the American Hockey League, played in a couple of spots. Numbers were okay in Utica, 9-11 save percentage.

This year spent 18 games up, so he's not wide-eyed and rookie. He was in the, but they had injuries. He was, you know, if their goal, Van Tcheck and Blackwood or, is it Blackwood? crap. I've forgotten my New Jersey devil's goalies, but let's go with the fact that he wasn't one of them. But he got some games because of the injuries. Look at his numbers in the American Occuli. 23 games. 2.6-2. Good. 9.05 save percentage. All right. Okay. This kid is like he's on the you know, a league minimum two year two way. 22 years old. You love this story. You love this story. These kids that come out of nowhere.

And he's done that. Two games, 966, fifth round pick back in 2018. You got to love when this happens. Anyway, completely wrong. I have no problem admitting I'm completely wrong. There's other guys on this network that won't admit they're wrong. I was wrong. I thought this series would be over.

I did not think they needed to keep the ice in in Newark. But clearly, Good for them for not listening to me. And elsewhere, Vancouver, or Vancouver, Winnipeg in Vegas. Vegas starts with a V. Vancouver starts with a V. That's where it all broke down there, folks. Anyway, Vegas up three games to one in that series.

Winnipeg without Morrissey, Shifley, just some terrible injuries. You know, it goes back to game three, trailing, rallying, but losing in overtime. You know, the ifs, what's, buts, could as, should, as, wouldas, all of those sort of things. I don't see a path forward in Vegas tonight for Winnipeg

outside of one, which is always there, and that's Connor Hellebuck. Because Connor Hellebuck's a hell of a goalie. He just is. He's really, really, really good. And I think he can steal you a game. And if this thing is going to go,

to a sixth game and come back to Winnipeg, it's going to have to go through Connor Hellebuck. That's the only way this happens. It's the only way it happens. And if it doesn't, then perhaps the Winnipeg Jets would like to join you golfing at St. Eugene Golf Resort and Casino, Championship Golf Course, Casino, Spa, and Restaurants, mountains surrounding you in all directions. It's time to discover or rediscover St. Eugene, Golf Resort and Casino. Get your golf game in gear with their spring swing golf package starting at just 259. You and a friend can enjoy one night at the hotel, one round of golf, including power cart.

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They're putting their name all over it, as they should. As they should. By the way, special edition of Barnburner tomorrow. This one you're going to want to tune in for coming up at 1045 a.m. If you're streaming it live or the podcast immediately following, special edition of Barnburner tomorrow. By the way, we are live in the Tyler. Tower Chrysler studio. You can see it, right?

Right there. Look at those trucks. Look at those jeeps. You should see the ones that boys drive around. Ooh, fancy. All right, let's wrap it up with Friday's schedule because that'll be the rest of the playoff matchups. Carolina taking on the New York Islanders,

up three games to two, the Islanders, staving off elimination with a road win. Carolina, to me, is just a superior team. But the Islanders are scrappy. They've gotten absolutely nothing from their big, you know, transition or from their big transaction, Bo Horvatt. But Brock Nelson, Kyle Paul Mary, they've been chipping in. There's more there.

Like there's, I think there's a more, more with the Islanders. But I also think that Carolina is a very, very, very good team. And the only other series we haven't talked about that is to more. and I'll get to the other two that we have. Well, you know, we're punt in one, too. We'll get to Edmonton and L.A. a second. Dallas at Minnesota. Dallas tomorrow night will travel to Minnesota.

I believe up in that series, three games to two is what we've got. Three games to two. How about Rupa Hintz? That's a pretty impressive line, isn't it? Isn't it? Four goals, seven assists. Oh, look at that. just happens to be leading the entire national hockey league. So if you are in the Barnburner,

kids sport hockey pool, and you have Rupert hints on your team, you're probably laughing. Evan Bouchard would be the other one for me that's a little bit of a, you know, an outlier. Taylor Hall, we talked about him before. But Rupé, how about that? Dallas, by the way, considerably better than last year when they lost to the flames in seven games. Jake Ottinger, doing what Jake Otenger does. It's Philip Gusterson's team in Minnesota. Minnesota, it was kind of what Rhett was talking about about a half hour ago. It just used up so much emotional capital to get back in the race.

Used up so much emotional capital to get there. You wonder what they have left. You know, no Caprisov, which is, you know, not going to help. And here they are, Ryan Hartman leading them in scoring with Matt Zuccarello. Tomorrow night, Boston and Florida, mentioned before Boston up three games to two. Seattle hosting Colorado, up three games to two. And then on, I believe, Saturday, it's Eminen and the L.A. Kings

with the Oilers up three games to two. That's the eighth and final series going back to Los Angeles, Evan Bouchard, Connor McDow... I just still think you had the Oilers. You were up with three-nothing in the first, You're running their show. They came back. You got a hit.

But the Oilers, that to me, L.A. L.A. has not been able to hold the lead with these guys. They've been able to come back on the Oilers, which I think is, you know, it's there. You can come back on this team. But L.A., with the offense that Edmont can throw out there, just cannot hold everybody in check. You know, Al J. Copatar, he's doing everything you could ask for in this. I believe that you're going to see Stuart Skinner.

I thought there was a little controversy about who's going to start from? Stuart Skinner got pulled, but Stuart Skinner is going back in. The thing about the Oilers right now, Red talked about way too much oiler talk. The thing about the Oilers right now, I don't know if there's anybody in the West that's going to stop them. Dallas could be tough, sure, because they're going to have to find an answer for Rupay. But it does not look like the avalanche or the avalanche of old that, you know, would be more than a match for the Oilers.

I, you know, there it is in the West. Vegas, Dallas, maybe. Seattle, no, I just think the Oilers rule. And I guess if we're going to do that, let's take a look out to East before we go. And again, Jersey, again, that's the one. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Toronto, as long as they win tonight, you know, they've got, what, a couple cracks at it. As long as they win tonight, three cracks at it, actually, they'll be okay. Hmm. All right, time now for Betway. We have a couple for you for tonight, for those who do partake. The first one, one of the pre-built bets on the Betway app, Mitch Marner, Nikita Kucherov. and Jack Hughes, I'll get one point or more plus 100. Okay?

And the second and last one for us. And the Leifes Lightning game, Mitch Marner, to get one or more power play points? I wouldn't say easy money, but I'd take it plus 115. So there you go. Those are the bets of the day, courtesy of Betway. And you see at the top, those are boomers. So don't worry about it, folks. This was not me.

I did not pick these. Anybody that knows my history knows that they should avoid anything. These are actually boomers. So these are boomers, bet way bets of the day. I mentioned it before coming up tomorrow. The boys are back, but before we go, back at 1045, but before we go, I forgot, we got tickets to give away. Should we do that right now?

Let's give away some tickets, shall we? the winner of the cavalry tickets. We will get a hold of you. We're going to DM you on social media. But you're going to the game. Congratulations. Chris Ainsworth. Chris Ainsworth.

You have won a pair of tickets to the home opener. You will hear from us. We will DM you. We will get you those tickets. Congratulations. And again, this Sunday, 3 o'clock, should be just beautiful weather, by the way. I believe, yeah, 3 o'clock, 23 degrees is what it should be. Just a beautiful day for the beautiful game.

Anybody else I got to mention, Jack? No, we're good. Okay. There's a lot to read around here. Thanks to Rhett Warner. Thanks to Tommy Wilden Jr. Thanks to you. Thanks to Jack and Alex, our outstanding producers for getting us on.

I've been Rob Curr just hanging out, helping out. The boys are back tomorrow. I'm back tomorrow afternoon if you're so intrigued. Just a game at streaming live at 1 o'clock podcast after three. Wes Gilbertson and David Legg are our guests as we will talk about the flames off season and also talk about the building announcement, which somehow miraculously we went almost two hours and never brought up once. Have a great day.

This has been Barnburner. We'll see you soon, everybody.