Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Frank Corrado: Toronto Mike'd #1242

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

In this 1242nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with former Toronto Maple Leaf Frank Corrado about his NHL career, Mike Babcock, playing guitar and his pivot to broadcasting on TSN. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, the Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1242 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Season 4 of Yes, We Are Open,

the award-winning podcast from Moneris, hosted by FOTM, Al Grego. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Moment Lab. Brand marketing and strategy, PR, advertising, and production. You need The Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pill pillars of the community since 1921.

Today, making his Toronto mic debut is Frank Corrado. Welcome, Frank. Yeah, thanks for having me. And you didn't hit your head. I want the record to show that you did not hit your head on the low ceiling in the TMDS studio here. You gave me fair warning. There was a few, you know, hey, watch your head. Watch your head again. What is your official? I don't want the height that's put on the hockey card, okay, Frank?

What is your true height? 6'1". And what went on the hockey card? I believe 6'1". And now I want to say I'm probably like a sliver under 6'1", but I definitely. Oh, you're shrinking. No, even when I played, I would just find an extra couple centimeters.

Not even inches. That's how much we're talking. Well, where this comes from is I once... We're going back to 2002. It was actually right after Team Canada won the gold medal at Salt Lake City. I remember because Pat Quinn had a team meeting. Pat Quinn was the coach of Team Canada and he was the coach of the Leafs at the time.

And anyway, long story short is I ended up having like a conversation with Ty Domi of all people. So I'm face to face of Ty Domi. And I had my uncle snap some pictures. And I still remember like looking down. I remember thinking, oh, I'm taller than Ty Domi. But I had his hockey card. And he was listed, I think, 5'10", I want to say. But I'm actually not 5'10".

And I'm looking down at this man. And I'm like, oh, they really fudge these stats. hockey card and he was listed i think 510 i want to say right but i'm actually not 510 and i'm looking down at this man and i'm like oh they really fudge these stats but you're telling me you're you're you're a true i think i would believe you're 6-1 i'm a true 6-1 but i think my one of my years playing in sudbury i i stuck a two and a half pound weight in my shorts for the way in because i had a hard time keeping on weight when i was younger i was 16 i think i went into the league at 174 and that might have been a stretch. And then the next year I was like, I gotta be 185. And I was not 185. And I found a way to get a weight in my short pocket. I knew there was some shenanigans going on with these measurements. Okay. So Frank, in fact, here, since I said the word measurement, you know,

I never know what a guest wants to measure. I don't ask any questions. But if you need to measure anything, I'm giving you right now, Frank, a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home, courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. Thank you. So keep that handy. You need to measure something to see if you've grown or you're shrinking. I got stuff to do around the house. You know, I got to frame some pictures, hang them up. This will come in handy.

You'll probably want to frame the picture that we take after this episode. You'll be in front of the tree and you'll be like, I finally, I, Frank Corrado, have finally made it. I'm on Toronto Mike. Well, it's funny. From time to time, I'll get people reaching out on various platforms, whether it's Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. Hey, can you do my podcast?

And some people have these really nice long messages about people that have been on the podcast. And I'm like, yeah, of course. Previous guests include. Yeah, like, of course, I'd love to do your podcast no problem you clearly put a lot of thought and effort into this message and then i'll get the one it's like very generic and hey can you do this podcast we talk about hockey like i gotta be honest i'll flush those ones right there's not a lot of thought that goes into it but when i saw yours i'm like i've seen this guy like i'm the real deal right like i'm i mean i'm not gonna make you look behind you but there's like a lot of thought that goes into it. But when I saw yours, I'm like, I've seen this guy. I'm the real deal, right?

I mean, I'm not going to make you look behind you, but there's like a cover of the Toronto Star. I don't know, Frank, in your illustrious hockey career, did you ever make the cover of the Toronto Star? I don't think so. No, maybe for like the wrong reasons of the sports section. Like local kid gets put on waivers again. Also, right.

Well, we're going to get into that because we got to build you up as an NHL superstar. Then we've got to break you down and make you what you truly have become, a great hockey analyst in sports media. This is going to be quite the episode, but I want to just let you know that a little pet peeve I have, you kind of brought up these other podcasts that are reaching out to everybody because I'm the OG. I've been doing this 11 years.

But what's kind of irking me, and tell me I'm being petty. I think I'm being petty. Okay. So I'm looking forward to you affirming that I'm being petty here. You know, it's one thing to say, hey, you know, you could, you know, click this link and we'll chat for half an hour or whatever. Like you can be in your living, you can be in your basement or whatever. You just go on your laptop, you click a link, you have a chat with somebody, you're never in the same room as them. Like to me, this barrier of entry has made it where it's kind of diluted everything. It's like, yeah, I had Frank Corrado on my show. He probably doesn't remember it because he was zooming in for half an hour on like a

Thursday night or something like that. Whereas what I, and because you're in the GTA, that's why. But yeah, I'm like, no, Frank, you have to make the drive. Okay. You got to make the drive to South Etobicoke. You're going to have to sit in my basement. Yeah, you'll get some measuring tape, and I got more gifts for you later.

But you're going to be like, you can literally reach out and, you know, punch me in the nose if you want. Like, we're going to be in the same space for well over an hour. Like, to me, that's what it's all about. I like it. Even when we do shows in studio at TSN, it's fun.

You can kind of read off people and yeah i understand there's times the energy is different right the energy is different there you can chime in a little better sometimes there's a little bit of a delay when there's when you're online um i get like the circumstances that call for doing something remote and and you know sometimes schedules are busy all that kind of stuff but there's really nothing that can replace like this like we're in person and I'm very much looking forward to the picture because that's like, I know the picture. I've seen it a million times online.

And it's going to haunt you. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. It's going to haunt you to your death. Like when people search Frank Corrado, they're going to see that photo. So just, I don't know if you've rehearsed your pose. Are you going to do a smile? I will smile. Yeah, I think that's par for my brand right now.

Like I'm smiling. I don't know like happy guy yeah if you know we're 10 15 years in maybe the smile becomes less and less you know right yeah right as the pigmentation disappears from the hair i think we'll see how many grays along the way although like playing hockey i think is more stressful than than this well you're a very young man i just want to let the the listenership know that sometimes you get these retired NHLers and they're grizzled old vets or whatever.

But can I guess? You're probably barely 30 here. I'm 30. I just turned 30 in March. Okay. See, what a great guess. Wow, you would have thought I did my homework there.

Okay. So you're only 30. How long have you been retired? I don't know if that's the right term or not. You'll tell me. But how long have you been... How distant are you from your NHL career career so my last nhl game was in 2018

but i i stopped playing hockey after last season and it's i you know it's weird i haven't really done this like big announcement that i've retired like you want to make it here i don't know not like officially but some people do like the big notes uh long paragraph and they post it on twitter and they thank everyone and i there's a lot of people to thank for sure because you don't get to that level without a lot of people helping you and supporting you along the way and then i i was thinking about it the one day i'm like i don't know if like a notes and my career wasn't illustrious by any stretch of the imagination but i don't know if like a notes tweet like puts it into perspective just how much support you get um so i haven't really like announced it but i'm clearly not playing hockey

anymore and i'm working in broadcast so my last hockey game would have been in september of 2021 in the khl wow um and that last game would have been in in moscow russia and what's that league like i mean i can only i'm just curious like you can compare it to the NHL because yeah in Vancouver you played here we'll talk about all that in a moment but what's the KHL like it's different hockey for sure it's very defensive hockey like I found that you have a little more time in the puck they don't really put a lot of pursuit on the puck per se as whereas the NHL it's a little more aggressive that way they're very conservative as far as how they play the game um which i actually didn't mind because you know i'm stepping on the ice and i wasn't obviously like i was injured at the time and i'm playing through an

injury and i'm like oh this is nice i have a little more time with the puck like there's not someone coming to put me through the end boards i can i can get by a little bit here right the issue you run into there is the amount of off-ice workouts and bag skates where they just make you skate laps around the ice and do stops and starts. Interesting. They really put you through the ringer in that regard over there, and that's what makes it difficult.

But as far as the games go, it's actually – I don't want to disparage the league, but it's actually quite an easy league, and that's rich for me to say because I only played seven games there plus two months of of pre-season hockey but um i feel like it's one of those leagues where if you're healthy and you're feeling good i mean you could carve out a nice long career there it's just it doesn't really put the hard miles on your body look frank that's not disparaging at all you're basically saying i might have a shot to play in the khl is that what i'm hearing here i should lace up my skates, give it a go. It's not too

late for me. Their skill, it's a skilled league. It's a big power play league. You can see a lot of those players come to life when they get a power play because a lot of the five on five is just kind of like sitting tight, waiting, packing it in near your net and then waiting for an opportunity and then power play comes alive. You're

like, wow, I hadn't noticed that guy tonight, but then he got three points and then he's one of the highest paid players in the league he's getting a ton of points so wait am i right in that you just said you played only seven games in the cage oh that's right yeah so you you're shitting on this league after seven games and you know what's gonna happen like you're you're effing with russia here i'm gonna get denial of service attacks on my server i mean i'm just uh i gotta brace myself get ready ian we got an incoming here we pissed off the russians well i was in i was in riga latvia so we were we were based out of there and it's like russia junior yeah no no belarus is russia junior

yeah they're they're a little more like they're i think they they have a little more of an eastern european right there and really nice people like my teammates there we had a ton of uh like basically the whole latvia national team played on our team in Riga and they were just the, the nicest guys and, uh, really fun to be around for sure. And, and like we had a Russian coach, Russian GM, we were, we were flying in and out of Russia. So there was definitely that influence there, but even living in Riga, there's, there's menus at restaurants in Latvian, Russian, and English, and just take your pick and everyone speaks English really well. So there is a, you know, it's quite North American eyes there. But you're back here now. And so do you think you're back here for good? Do you think

this, this next chapter of Frank Corrado's life? And again, I, again, usually I start at the beginning and move up, but we're going to start here. Like, do you think that this is your future? You are going to be in sports media? I would like to, yeah. I mean, it's obviously a landscape that's changing all the time, but I think the mindset that I have right now with this is I would like to be good at it for a long time. I look at it this way. My hockey career ended what I think is prematurely based on injuries and tough luck, whatever you want to call it.

Of course, I would like to still be playing, and I'm not, and I'm 30 years old. If you asked me a few years ago, I said, I would love to play hockey until I'm 35. So for me, there's five years there that I'm not playing that I would like to be playing. With that being said, getting thrust into this role with TSN and been given this opportunity has been unbelievable. Like I could not have asked for anything better. I love talking hockey. Like one of my favorite things to do when i was playing was going for lunch with the with the guys after practice talk about what's happening in the nhl what's what's happening like we were i was in europe so we're talking about swedish hockey russian hockey other guys that we know that are playing in other leagues did you hear this did you hear that so i'm talking hockey anyways now i just

have a microphone and more people are listening to it. So I would like for this to be something that lasts a long time and I'm good at and it's sustainable rather than get everything thrown at you right away and then fizzle out and burn out and be like, Ooh, I tried that. Yeah. That wasn't for me. You know, like there's just needs to be this, this sustainability to it that I would like. Well, we're only 13 minutes into this episode and I can tell you right now, you can do this, Frank. We can do it. And I got some nice notes. So firstly, the impetus,

like what caused me to send, was it a DM? I think I sent you like a Twitter DM. I can't remember actually. Maybe it was an email. Yeah, yeah. I don't know how I got ahold of you. LinkedIn or Twitter.

It was actually LinkedIn. LinkedIn, yeah. That's right. That's right. I sent out the request. I said, if Frank accepts my linkedin connect request i'm going to invite him over for an episode of toronto mike and that's because i was uh with a client okay so i'm recording a client uh we'll call him cooksy his son's a hell of a hockey

player by the way one day you'll be analyzing the cole cooksy's play but cooksy is talking to me about you and he's like he's really good and talking about how, you know, you're so young, you know, you're no longer playing professional hockey. But what did Cooksey write? He goes, it would be interesting to hear his journey to radio. He said, like, what is that journey like where you're an NHL guy and then your next thing you know, you're on TSN radio.

So I said to Cooksey, I said, I am sold. Like, I want Frank Corrado on Toronto Mike. Like, that was it. And then I reached out and you said you'd be happy to do it the rest is history because jeff o'neill said no i just want you to know he lives like five minutes away from here i think he could walk here but he gave me a polite no thank you deal so so just just so you know but most people say yes and they always have a good time in fact a lot of people come over just because they know they're going to leave with fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. And you, Mr. Corrado,

I believe that is an Irish last name. Am I correct, Corrado? Yes, very Irish. Yeah, we go way back in Ireland. Well, of course, is your mother also of Italian descent? Yeah, everyone's Italian. My dad was born in Italy. My mom was born here, but everyone's Italian.

My wife's Italian. It's not by design. It just happened to be that way. You don't choose that stuff. Yeah. It happens to you. It just happened. born in italy my mom was born here but everyone's italian my wife's italian it's not by design it just happened to be that way you don't choose that stuff yeah it happens to you it just happened but you know you're way around a good uh plate of pasta right yes and do you say pasta or pasta i say pasta yeah me too yeah i get a you know a few people are like hey it's pasta i'm like i say pasta and you know if you're good with it i'm good with it pasta you know, if you're good with it, I'm good with it. Pasta. You know, like, do you have a Nona who can bake a lasagna? Yeah, I'm very grateful. Yeah. Like both. So all my grandparents that I was, that were,

that were around when I was born are still around. I have one grandfather who passed away before I was born. So everyone's still around. Everyone's kicking. Very lucky to have eaten a lot of great food over the years, Sunday get togethers or, um, you know, all the holidays, best food in the world comes from Italy. And I'm saying I'm not Italian descent, but my opinion, the best food in the world comes from Italy. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's hard to argue that. Um, but yeah, like the, the menu, the extensive menu that we've been able to eat over the years and all the different kinds of pastas, like the homemade stuff is what really gets me as far as pasta.

Like my nonna will sit there and make every noodle by hand. And then she makes the sauce. And it's like, that's the good stuff right there that you can't, like, you can go to all these nice restaurants downtown and it's all great. And then you go there,

you're like, there's just nothing that beats this. Well, here, this is what I'm going to pitch to you. Okay, so just recently, last week, Rick Campanelli was here. He was also known as Rick the Temp on Much Music, but he is also of Italian descent, and he talked about his Nona and the lasagna that his Nona would make,

and he also said the best lasagna he's ever had that didn't come from his Nona, in fact, he said it really is neck and neck with his Nona. I don't think she's able to listen anymore, is from Palma Pasta. Okay, the Petrucci family, they have locations in Mississauga and Oakville, so I so i'm sending you home frank with a large meat lasagna love palma pasta thank you and you gotta report back and tell me i will actually so funny enough we're talking about

lasagna i've been to italy i've grown up in an italian family the best lasagna that i had was in sweden of all places i'm not even not. Yeah. We, we went to this restaurant once where I was playing in Sweden up, up in Northern Sweden and they put bechamel sauce in the lasagna and I don't, I didn't even really know what it was. And I had, I'm like, this is the best lasagna I've ever had. And now I almost like need the bechamel sauce with it. That's that's if you would made me guess, like what country do you think I had the greatest Italian food in? I don't think Sweden would be in my top 50. Just the lasagna.

Just the lasagna. Okay, okay. Yeah. All right. So where to begin? I'm going to begin with this. It's a piece of audio for you, Frank. So listen closely and we'll talk about your humble beginnings here.

You think of Peter Holland and what he went through? Actually, we're not going to start here. I'm changing it up on the fly. I hope you didn't hear that. That's going to be a top secret. I think I remember that. Okay. I've heard that before. That's coming later, everybody. I have missed. It's my first rodeo here, but this is what I meant to play.

As the Canucks send the puck out. Zaleski picks it up with the Calgary Blue line. Leasers Jensen. Rishat stopped. Rebound cleared to the side. Waiting is Corrado. He lets a shot go. Score! Ryan Stanton grabs the puck. First career goal for Frank Corrado. And the Canucks lead 3-0.

All those Twitter people who say you jinx everything. You reverse jinx Frank Corrado. There you go. What a shot. Screen shot. We can hear it. Click the post. Velasquez gained the line. Shot.

Rebound. Goes back to Corrado. You can see Billings is doing the damage in front of Kerry Rommel. Rommel makes the first save and then can't see this long wrist shot by Corrado. It's off the post and in. All right, Frank, there's a lot of what happened before then, but do you remember that goal? Very much.

First of all, I'm very grateful that it was John Shorthouse and John Garrett on the call there. That's a legendary duo, and obviously Cheech is done after this year. And they call such a great game. And they're calling the Boston Florida series right now, right? Yeah. I'm hearing lots of good things about them. They're the best.

They're so good. Anyways, that's really cool. Yeah. So what Cheech is talking about there about the reverse jinx, that was the last game of the season. And I had played, I believe, 17 or 18 NHL games at that point and I wasn't going to have another opportunity until the following year that is if I make the team and I get in some games right and I finally scored and I think the thing was I had hit a few posts already like in

the games leading up to that and it was like is this guy gonna score like it's the last game of the year like and then like oh you're jinxing it and then um as john garrett says you can't reverse jinx him so it was cool it's nice to finally get that goal especially after hitting a few posts and maybe uh i mean i obviously this won't be the deepest of dives into the frank corrado nhl career but uh maybe a little bit about you know like when did you realize you might have a shot and i'm always curious in somebody's life like when you realize hey maybe i can do this for a living because that's got to be you know that's like how many of us dreamt about scoring a goal in nhl and then how many of us actually did it yeah

earlier than you think i was 15 years old i was playing under 16 hockey which used to be called minor midget for the vaughn kings and started the season out and it's our ohl draft year and i wasn't really expecting much. I wasn't a great player before that. I thought I was just fine, just an average guy, and something happened over that summer where I kind of shot up a few inches, put on some weight. I was in the gym, and I went back that season,

and I started skating with the puck throughout the game, and I'm like, wow, I'm pretty fast now. I'm good now. I'm kind of like I'm carrying the puck end to end like this is fun like hockey's actually fun now when you're actually good at it and it was around November in that season we went to this tournament the silver stick tournament which is one of the bigger ones and I had a two goal game I had another goal the next game I'm like man this is this is quite the you know this is turning into something and the

next thing you know I got agents call in the house and i think as soon as that moment happened like my agent who joe resnick who i was with basically from 15 years of age all the way up until i retired and we still talk you know fairly uh frequently um he came over and he kind of said okay like this is how it works you know like there's the ohl draft you, you play two years in the OHL. You get drafted to the NHL, and then here's the roadmap. Here's the plan. Here's how we're going to execute it. Hopefully, ultimately, it comes down to your play.

And so I'm 15 years old, and I'm thinking, this guy's talking about NHL draft in three years. That's what kind of hit home for me as far as, okay, this can be something. And even going to the ohl as a 16 year old it wasn't sunshine and rainbows right away like i think i had a lot of games in the first half of my first year where i'm playing six seven minutes a night and i'm calling my dad after the game or i'm thinking to myself like how am i going to get drafted i play six minutes a night who's looking at that thinking we need that and it's funny how quick things change

it was probably December of my first year right after Christmas I remember I brought my equipment home so I could skate and work on some stuff like I think I called Daryl Belfry and went out to St. Catherine's and skated with him Daryl Belfry's like a world-renowned skills coach in the NHL went out there worked with him for a week came back in december and i was like a new player and i actually we had a player who was my age who was playing a lot ahead of me he went to the under 17 tournament um i think another player had an injury and i'm like oh man like i'm actually playing and i'm doing the same thing i just did last year in minor midget i'm skating with the puck i'm wheeling with it um and then it kind of turned into okay next year's draft year and it's go time and i can do this and ended up you know getting

drafted but yeah it was really early on it was imagine that 15 years old and you think okay it's not necessarily a dream anymore it's something i can actually do like there was a roadmap presented to you and you're like i can follow that road road. Yes. Yeah. I can do this. So just for, to be, the detail is that you were drafted in the fifth round, 150th overall. This is the 2011 NHL entry draft. If you ask me, 2011 was only a couple of years ago, Frank. That's how my brain works. And then you make your NHL debut for the Canucks in the 2012-2013 season.

They kept you for the opening round, right, against the Sharks? Yes. So this is the detail I always find interesting. That eats the first year of your entry-level contract. Yes. So that's kind of exciting for you. It was.

Yes and no. So in a way, it was great because it eats the first year of your entry-level contract. That's only good if you stay in the NHL and it's like oh now you're getting paid one year earlier and it may have worked against me and we can get into it and how it may have worked well tell me yeah i'd like to know so so because i would have had one more year of being waiver eligible okay so that means i can go up and down from the minors to the nhl no problem no one can pick me up and so the year i get put on waivers by vancouver toronto picks me up and that's 2015 and that's

2015 and obviously turned into a bit of a circus very well documented how things didn't go well we're documenting it now frank yeah okay don't assume everybody has read that document well we will we will be re-documenting it shortly um but yeah so if if i didn't require waivers i go down to vancouver i you know i'm down in the minors maybe i play way more really have an identity as a player and this and then and you know you go back up to the nhl you really feel ready um but all that being said like that's all hindsight at the time all you're thinking is NHL right now, get games, get points, get contract, get wins, all that kind of stuff, right?

You don't think about it in the moment, but when you sit here at 30 years old, you're like, wow, if I had a son, let's say, that was a 22-year-old defenseman and he was stuck in that situation, I kind of would want him to just go play and learn who you are as a player and just have that very important to point out d-man uh typically take longer to to develop oh man this is this

is the quote that always gets me now i hear people say this uh defensemen need 200 games in the nhl before you know what they're all about like do we just do we just hand out 200 games to people like there's plenty of defensemen who are pretty good who just didn't quite get 200 games for one reason or another. But there's other guys that it's like, oh, it's got to be 200. At 198, we actually don't know

what he is as a defenseman. Once he hits 200, we know. That's a great point. We're going to walk through this, but you never got the Jeff Finger deal here, but we're going to talk about all this.

So in 2015, shout out to Jeff Finger. Okay, in 2015, going to talk about all this. So in 2015, shout out to Jeff Finger. Okay. In 2015, you're claimed by the Toronto Maple Leafs. So remind us, you grew up around here, right? Where else did you grow up?

Yeah. So we lived in Bolton for a little bit and then mostly in Vaughan. Okay. Well, that's the city above Toronto, the city of Vaughan. Yeah. They don't use that anymore, do they?

But I have had on this program, I believe his name is Larry McInnes. I've had the gentleman who came up with that slogan. He worked at Chum FM, 104.5 Chum FM. And he came up, he's the guy who, the creative guy behind the city of Toronto. It's a geography thing, isn't it?

Just like we're- I think it's great. We literally border Toronto to the north. You're literally the city above Toronto. Yes. And it works on different levels. And when I think, because when I found out you were in Vaughan

and I'm like, oh, that's a long drive. I wonder i wonder frank will do it for me like kind of in that voice i i i think i even wrote back the city above toronto this is the first thought i have when i think of on yeah they don't they don't use that anymore uh i don't know if it's i don't know if it was like a backhanded slap at the city of toronto like hey we're we're above you i it was but that was good i think that but that's uh what are you gonna do right you're sleeping next to a giant right like what are you gonna do we can all work together we're just we're the gta and a lot of people who work in toronto like yourself uh they live in vaughan like this is just the way of the world that's my like my wife had to drive to work today she's

works at you know in midtown toronto right right yeah so you know vaughn is a great place to to live but you'd probably end up working in toronto because that's where the jobs are yes see i've done i've done the math for you okay so i'm wondering of course you must have grown up a toronto maple leaves fan big time yeah because you're 30 frank and we're going to talk about this but because you're 30 i'm doing the math on when those final four appearances with gary roberts i would have been 10 11 12 like that's that's right in my wheelhouse there early 2000s i had like that wearing the jersey at school uh big matt sundin fan big cujo fan like playing street hockey saying you know i'm i'm tucker i'm mccabe right like i think was you gave it your favorite defenseman who is brian mccabe

for sure oh yeah like i used to i used to wear the the mohawk so we played in right i played for the mississauga reps in minor adams so i think you're nine or ten years old and we were a bad team like really bad we were in the bottom four of that league in the gthl and what you do is when when the playoffs go on for the one through eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, playing a little mini tournament called the King Clancy. Right. To be the best of the worst. And we got to the finals of the best of the worst. And I told my dad, like, okay, I'm going to the game dressed like Brian McCabe.

Like, I want the mohawk. I want, like, the gel in my hair. Like, I'm going to be Brian McCabe today. And we went and we actually won the game. We won the finals. And I have pictures at home where it's like, we got the King Clancy trophy and I still have the Mohawk going after the game,

the McCabe Mohawk. Well, kids today are doing that with Bo Bichette. There's a whole bunch of kids around that age who are playing baseball and they're growing their flow and they're wearing the headband like they're Bo Bichette. Yeah. I mean, listen, it's nice to have, I guess, role models or athletes that you can look up to. And you might dress like them, think like them, act like them, whatever.

But they're positive role models. You know what I mean? And I feel like Bichette is one of those guys. Just like a quiet guy. He kind of carries himself. It seems like the right way. And he's such a gamer, right? Like he's such a guy who's easily likable

for the way he plays the game. Right, right, right. It's funny watching McCabe out there now. So tonight there's a game. So tonight there's game four. Yeah, we have a new McCabe in town. It's so retro. It's like, there's McCabe, he's back.

It's like, okay, he's like a 55-year-old man or whatever. But we're going to talk about the current day Leafs at some point because, of course, you're at TSN talking about we're gonna get your get you to tsn but i'm wondering when you find out you're claimed by the toronto maple leaves on i guess it was october 6 2015 or something when they claimed you because you got put on waivers on the 5th of october 2015 what's your guttural reaction like uh your dream come true right this is your hometown team yeah disbelief like could not believe it and i know they were they were quite high in that uh priority as far as picking players i think they were the fourth highest um really really shocked like i'm not even gonna lie like i broke down in

tears like that's your childhood dream coming true and you got to look at it this way like being put on waivers by vancouver was the worst feeling in the world imagine i i thought i would be in vanc Vancouver a long time. That was where I drafted. I really came to love the city, the way of life there, everything about that team and being a Canuck. And it didn't work out, obviously. And it's just the worst feeling knowing that you're going to the minors.

And, you know, you can kind of read the way things work sometimes in some of these meetings. And you can tell when it's like one of those things where, okay, it's just, you know, just go down there, do your thing. You'll be right back up. As long as you keep you hold up your end of the bargain and necessarily get that sense there. I think it was a little more like it might be better for you somewhere else. So that was a tough feeling knowing that like little did they know. And then, and then I do get picked up by Toronto and it's like, Oh my God, like this is what I've been.

I've been chasing this NHL dream for so long now. And now I'm going to get an opportunity to do it in Toronto. And one of the things, which was crazy, crazy to think this at the time. Yeah. Obviously seeing Babcock was the coach there. Right.

And I remember saying to myself and even talking to my dad, it's like, could you have asked for a better opportunity, a better coach to play for you? Like all you need to do right now is a, be a sponge, execute on whatever the guy is teaching you. And you're literally going to be an NHL defenseman.

Like you're going to be an NHL defenseman. You're going to be Lidstrom. Not Lidstrom, but like for a long time, you will be an NHL defenseman you're gonna be lidstrom for not lidstrom but like for a long time you will be an nhl defenseman that's all you need to do right like just hold up your end of the bargain and let the rest take care of itself and little did i know like that was not even close all right let's talk about i should point out so i've been holding on to some of these notes i got when i said frank carotto is finally making his toronto mic debut uh a bunch of them are about tsn so i'm holding on onto those till we get you to TSN.

But what came in here? Okay, so Leifer1984. Ask him how he feels about Mike Babcock. Okay, I know I'm being set up here and I know where this is going, but Michael, I also, Mike DeStefano. That's Al's brother. Do you know who that is?

Tell me who that is. That's Al's brother on TSN 1050, Mike DeStefano. He's my guy. DeStefano, I really but50 mike di stefano he's he's my guy i really butchered that oh my goodness he's my guy like we'll get it he's actually a big reason why i i got going at tsn okay so we'll touch on that this is gonna come back come up yeah okay so the the note from michael see i can say the name michael i can't even spell it okay but di stefano i gotta get that right okay corrado does one hell of a babcock impression okay so let's slow down here i'm kind of i'm kind of warmed up here now should i start recording this frank okay i'm all warmed up here

but now we've got you in toronto the head coach is mike babcock legendary red wings coach come on i'm a lot older than you are this was pretty exciting when babcock was coming to town very much yes you should have seen how excited i was i was gonna play for the guy i'm like this is the olympic coach this guy's coach ledstrom he's coach rafalski like yeah wow okay i don't know where to begin here maybe i'll let you drive this truck but you regardless there's like 10 weeks or something where you're a healthy scratch but why don't you tell us what happens when you arrive as a toronto Leaf? So I arrive and obviously like when you play hockey nothing is owed to you you're not entitled to anything you're only as good as your performance you always have to keep that in mind whenever you talk about these conversations as far as

lack of ice time lack of games played you're just you're never owed anything with that being said I was 22 years old and I hadn't played a ton of hockey over the last few years, whether I had been called up to Vancouver and maybe been a healthy scratch there, or there was a point where I tore a muscle in my oblique. So I was out for a little bit with that. It's like, it's an age where you need to be playing a lot

and find your identity as a player. It's different than a 27 or 28 year old player who's played in the minors and grinded his way up to the NHL. And now you've, you've arrived, you've been there for a couple of years. It's like your game is your game, whether you play 56 games a year or 75 games a year, there's not much variance there for a 22 year old kid. Um, it, it was tough mentally to handle that because you, you know know you see your teammates out there every single night and you walk into the room every single day and you see you're you're not playing and it does

something to you because all you want to do is you want it you're chasing it i was chasing this dream of the nhl and being an nhl defenseman like we talked about for for a long time and now you you're still trying to chase it but you're not you're not in a position to kind of grasp at it and achieve it and attain it um so it really starts to weigh on you and and screw with you mentally um and you know even got to the point where it's like you're watching a game up in the press box and you almost like have to look away like you can't even watch anywhere because you don't like what it's doing to you internally, because obviously you want your team to win. You care about all your teammates on the ice and a little bit of you inside is just like so jealous and so envious that like, why am I not getting that opportunity? And then you look at your, you know, other players, maybe guys that

you have played against in the OHL or guys I'd played against in the minors, whatever the case may be. And I'm like, well, that guy's playing over there. I'm better. Like, I think, I think I'm better than that guy. Right. And Oh, if I was there, I would be playing 17 minutes a night and I'd be playing every night. And it's like all these things mixed in with the fact that you're also playing for your hometown team or, you know, you think you're playing for your hometown team. It's like, that's a lot for a 22 year old kid to kind of digest and you know people talk about like maybe blocking it out like there's no blocking that out that weighs on you every single day and we always need to say too like you play in the nhl it's a very privileged place to be

there's a lot of perks there's a lot of positives that go with that so i was definitely able to enjoy that along the way um but as far as, you know, like not playing, it definitely had a mental toll to it. Yeah, I mean, that's 10 weeks of, I think about 10 weeks of being a healthy scratch. What was the reasoning there? Like, who spoke to you and told you why you're not playing for 10 weeks,

even though you're raring to go? And again, as you've established, like you need to play. And you're 22-year-old defenseman. Like, you need to get some reps in and play yeah it was just one of those things where it's like yeah we got a plan for you you know keep keep sharp in practice and you know we'll get some injuries it was a lot of stuff like that um it was worse the next year because at that in in the 15 16 year the year that we basically bottomed out after the all-star break after the trade deadline basically it was a mass exodus of our of our dressing room and our roster

so i was able to play um at that point but it was really the next year where it kind of got to me the most because that was you know i had played two games basically up until february or late january that year so in, 2016, so following that season, you sign your, I guess it's like a $600,000 one-year deal. Yeah. One-way deal. That was, that was another one. You know, you check off a, you know, check off a checklist as far as, um, everything was a two-way deal before entry level. It's like, this is a one, one-way deal. You're getting paid the same, no matter what you're in the NHL or HL. So you got a little security there. But you're still a healthy scratch.

Yes. I mean, did you take this start? Wait, at what point do you start taking this personally? Like, like, like who doesn't like Frank? I don't, I don't care who doesn't like me. Right. Like, like that was one of the quotes that kind of got taken out of context. Right.

I said something along, well, if the coach doesn't like it, you don't play. And I think it was more about my play. I know, I said it. It was more about my play on the ice or whatever you want to call it, practice games, even though there was no games being played. But going back to that contract, so I signed that contract, and one of the messages I got from the team was, okay, there's a one-year, one-way deal. So I signed that contract. And one of the messages I got was from the team was,

okay, there's a one-year, one-way deal. Do not assume that you're on the team because you're signing this contract. You're going to have to make the team at a training camp. Like that'll be up to you. And so I took that to heart. Like, you know, the Michael Jordan meme there where he goes like, I took that personally. Right.

And he's sitting in the chair. Right. I took that personally. So I had a great summer. i you know six foot one i came back that summer like 205 pounds and i was you know i was feeling good anyways going to training camp right i have a goal in the first preseason game against ottawa i have a three assist game against the buffalo sabers and one of the next games overall very good training camp. I could honestly sit there and say I left it all out there, and that was awesome. And so I break training camp with the team. There was never really a conversation

had as far as, hey, you're on the team. It was just, all right, I just keep showing up until they tell me not to. And then that was one of my things. I was like, okay, I put myself in a position now where I should be able to get in the lineup at some point because I had a good training camp and I got one game in early November in Pittsburgh. And it was also a very good game. I thought for, for my standards and I'm very hard on myself and quite critical of myself at times. And maybe that's kind of worked against me throughout my career. And then it was like, that was it. No more games until the end of January. Okay, let's play that clip.

I almost played out of order here. So let's listen to this. You think of Peter Holland and what he went through and not being with the team and Frankie Corrado and the trickle-down effect here. Well, it's interesting. They share the same agent, Joe Resnick, and Peter Holland out of Toronto got traded, and Frankie Corrado's been waiting to play.

He's played one game this year, and he's really been on the bench for close to two years, ever since he was picked up on waivers from the Vancouver Canucks. And I don't have a problem with them not playing him. This is a merit-based job. If your coach thinks you're a player, you're a player. If not, you're not. What I don't like is how much he's been on the bench. And today, you know, Corrado's been really good about not talking.

And today he spoke to a reporter, David Alter of The Athletic, and there you see it. And I think the last couple lines, the coach is the one who makes the lineup, and if the coach doesn't like you, then you're not going to play. I think I see Nick Corrado seeing Holland getting out, and he's saying, I want to get out, and this is how I'm going to force my way. I think he's tried to be polite he's tried to be reasonable but I do agree I think his career is really good you can certainly sense the frustration in his quotes do you think he's saying he doesn't like Frankie Corrado doesn't like Frankie Corrado's entire game because it

seems to hint at a personality conflict there no Darren it all ultimately it matters and how you play and on the ice and if they're not comfortable to put them in the lineup then that's that's what a hint at a personality conflict there no Darren it all ultimately it matters and how you play in on the ice and if they're not comfortable to put them in the lineup then that's that's what you're judged on but my biggest beef in all of this is okay you don't want to put him on waivers that's fine but there is a two-week window to get him playing on the ice he should have been with the Marlies by now and why on a conditioning on? On a conditioning stint? On a conditioning stint. Give him two weeks to go down. That hasn't been the case.

They don't want to do that. There is some sense that they would do that in the new year, but it should have happened by now. It's his career here. I agree. I don't think it's anything personal. Mike Babcock's had battles with players before. Like I said, I think it's purely he doesn't believe

he's one of his six best defensemen, which is fine. But I have not liked this. I just think as a young player with a career ahead of him, there's got to be a better way, or at least just put him on waivers and see if anyone claims him. He's 23 years old, so this isn't a guy that's just toiling around and collecting a paycheck.

He's got desires to take it beyond just what he's doing in the National Hockey League. All right, Frank, here we are. I know we're rehashing some old stuff here, right? But I heard you making commentary during that clip. Please respond to those. I mean, just, you know, Kiprios, Friedman, Alter was referenced there. All three. All great guys.

And all FOTMs. I just want you to know, Frank, you're now an FOTM, a friend of Toronto Mike. Nice. Welcome to that. I really like those guys all the way. All those guys are awesome. Okay. So it obviously had nothing to do with personality.

I couldn't care less if the coach liked me as a person, although I think like a pretty likable guy. So far, so good, Frank. Yeah. So I was obviously talking about my play on the ice. You know what? And I heard Elliot there talking about how maybe I saw it as my opportunity to get out of Toronto. It was never about, it's a good point.

It was never about getting out of Toronto. I think it just came down to the fact that what else can they do? I'm already not playing. Like I've already been not playing for such a long time. It's like there's nothing left to lose really. like I've already been not playing for such a long time it's like there's nothing left to lose really um and if in fact if I did get moved somewhere else it probably would have benefited me which you know for a short amount of time it did um yeah that's that's kind of what it came down to man there was just there was nothing left to lose and it's funny like so I would do these

these um conditioning skates when I wasn't playing, and DJ Smith would run them. And I really enjoyed playing for DJ Smith as the D coach and some of his banter. And he would make me do what's called a mountain. So a mountain is you start on the goal line, you go blue line back, red line back, blue line back, all the way down and back. And so the first one, he would say, first one's got to be under, I think it was 47 or 48 seconds. Okay. And then he goes, second one's got to be under 52 seconds. All right.

And it was 90 seconds rest in between or two minutes rest in between. And we were doing this basically every game day. He would be nice about it and give me the odd game day off because it is quite a miserable thing to have to do every time. And there was one time where he looks at me he goes all right 48 on the first one 52 on the second one and then i go or what like or what you're like you're just you're not gonna play you're not gonna play me right yeah like what what are we doing here and to his like he had a good chuckle about it and he understood but i think it was just one of those days where the frustration comes through.

You also have to think about it this way. When you're 22 and you're trying to make your way in the league, I'm obviously not a first-round pick. I'm not like a loud, boisterous guy. I'm not trying to ruffle feathers. And as much as things maybe didn't work out for myself in Vancouver, when you get a second opportunity, all you're thinking is do not mess this up

because you don't know how many opportunities are going to come around so what I mean by that is you don't need to be the loudest person in the room you don't need to ruffle feathers you don't need to rock the boat right really what you want to do as a player is let your play do the talking and that was the frustrating part you never really got an opportunity to do that and I mean there was literally a free Corrado social media campaign yeah corrado yeah there was you know what it was really weird um going on twitter after a leaf game and we would lose a game i don't know four two five two and then it's like there's my name being like free corrado i'm like i've never seen an eighth defenseman get so much attention after

a leaf's loss a guy who has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. Because I think fans could see that there was some, for some reason, Babcock wasn't interested in playing Frank Corrado. And you're so young and you're a defenseman. How do we know what you are if we don't give you some playing time? Right. Yeah, I agree. And I had played NHL games at that point. I think that was part of the frustrating thing for me is,

you mentioned my NHL debut was in 2012-2013 20 year old played in the nhl playoffs and that was with elaine vigno and rick bonus and newell brown like awesome coaching staff right and then things changed in vancouver because that that i guess group had if you want to say run its course a little bit and then torts came in and that was a whole new coaching staff. So as a young guy, you have to reestablish yourself. And there's a lot of guys ahead of you. And there's a lot more insurance players that a new coach is thinking,

okay, I'm not necessarily ready to go with a young kid as my everyday regular guy. And then the torts staff got liquidated. And then the Willie Desjardins staff comes in. So that's three staffs in Vancouver in three years, and you're 20, 21, 22, and you're trying to establish yourself. Good luck, because every coach, you know what they're thinking?

I got to keep this job. And there's development is... And the NHL is not a development league. It is a winning league, but the best coaches in the NHL find ways to bring their young talent from you know maybe nhlers to big time nhlers well you know in the uh corporate world an expression i would often hear you know would be uh nobody ever got fired for buying ibm like it's like like there's no incentive to you know risk losses uh because you played a young defenseman that you're kind of

working in like it's you're kind of incented to play the proven horses because you need to win in these situations that you're describing i was always good enough in the american hockey league to get myself to the nhl like i i always knew if i went down to the ahl at that age and early on in my career i was like okay i know i can do this and that and I'll get back to the NHL. Where I struggled, the big roadblock was obviously staying in the NHL. Like doing, asserting myself enough in the NHL that it was like, no, we need this guy now.

We can't send him down. So when this is going on, this friction, if you will, we heard a lot of that with the Elliott Friedman, Nick Caprio's clip there. Babcock situation. What's happening with Lou Lamorello? So at this point, the GM is Lou Lamorello. What's the word from Lou? Do we have word from Lou on this situation? Yeah. I mean, with Lou, he was mostly upfront and honest with me and he would sit down and have a conversation, which I was happy about.

There was one time during that second year where I texted Lou. I just, I don't know, I was just having an off day. I wasn't feeling great about things. I said, Lou, can we talk at some point today? He goes, yeah, get to the game at 6.30. Come on up to my office. We'll have a chat. So basically, we went to have a chat. He goes, listen, I understand you're frustrated. It hasn't worked out. It hasn't gone well. He goes, you know, do your best to stay patient with it. If at some point down the road here, you know, we know we're kind of done with the situation. I'll try and find somewhere else for you to play and we'll move on from it. I was like, OK, thank you.

That gives me a little something to hold on to. Yeah, you get something there. And on my way out of his office, looks at me and goes, oh, and by by the way thanks for not trashing my office i'm like what he goes yeah i've had i've had this meeting before and you know i've had guys kind of like wow get a little riled up said lou like you obviously don't know me well enough if you think i'm gonna trash your office thank you for not trashing my studio friend holy smokes yeah so january 19th right this is the final game, I guess. So Morgan Riley, the, the hero from Saturday night, Morgan Riley, my daughter loves it when Morgan Riley, like she doesn't really watch, she's only seven, but she doesn't really watch, but I always give her the updates on how Morgan Riley having a very good playoff season so far.

Yeah. He's playing unbelievable. Yeah. So I'll always be like, cause she knows that this, we had, she has the same name as this defenseman, number 44, Morgan Riley. And I'll be like, so the next morning I'll be like, no, Morgan Riley, I can't remember, I had four assists last night or something like that. And then yesterday morning I'm like, oh, you won't believe who scored in overtime for the Leafs to win, Morgan. It was Morgan Riley.

And she's very proud of herself. Like she somehow, you know, so it's always fun when Morgan Riley has a good game. But Morganiley was injured and you got a game in on december 19th and uh what happens after this what happened what happened in that game and what happens uh following that it didn't so we i played with connor carrick early in the game who's a an awesome guy and we actually still keep in touch to this day so we get scored on early in the game and like oh man here we here we go. And then the rest of the game,

like I found my footing. It started to go a little bit better. Then I took one penalty. I'm like, oh man, that's the last thing I need. Then it's a neutral zone face off. Puck gets one back to me.

I'm going to make a pass to my D partner. And at the wrong time, the puck hops right over my stick. And I think it was Michael Grabner who's playing for the rangers at the time he grabs it and he's going in on a breakaway so i hook him so now i'm minus one i've taken two penalties and i haven't played a game in four months right and i feel like i'm sitting on the bench and i can feel like my my throat like closing up it feels like the walls of my NHL career are closing in on me. And I'm like, this could not have been any worse

because Babcock didn't do me any favors that morning with his pregame media availability. He basically in the morning said, oh, you know, so a lot of people want opportunities in the NHL, so tonight you're going to get one. And, you know, there you go. There's your opportunity. I think he was asked something else like opportunities in the NHL. So tonight, yeah, you're going to get one. And, you know, there you go. There's your opportunity. I think he was asked something else like that in the media.

We need more of that. You do. Whoever told me, who was it? I want to give the proper credit. Al's brother. Michael. Yeah. DeStefano did tell me you did a hell of a Babcock impression.

And I would like to agree with Michael. Yeah. I have plenty of practice with it. Trust me. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah so yeah it was like uh oh so i wanted opportunity for a long time so we'll get that tonight and uh it'll be up to him like a guy uh four months without playing hockey and then playing an nhl game is not exactly like even though this is years ago and you've moved on and you're doing well in your new career if you will like i feel for you because that's not how you're supposed to be judged in a sport like where it's like you're not supposed to go shift by shift like like you need a longer sample

size to kind of let well that's a great point actually you bring up a great point so i went on a conditioning stint after um elliot kipper and darren talked there that clip in there millard right darren millard now ve's in Vegas now. Yeah. So they were talking about, I should have been on a conditioning stint earlier on in the season. I got put on a conditioning stint right after the Centennial Classic, so New Year's Day.

And I was wondering the timing on that, right? It turns out that was right before the father's trip for the Leafs that year. Right. So we were doing a father's trip in New York and Boston, I believe. And so Lou tells me after the centennial class, he goes, you're going to go on a conditioning stint. I'm like, okay, it's two weeks.

You got seven games down there with the Marlies. Go play, whatever. And then I tell my dad, he goes, yeah, it's probably a good idea. They sent you on a conditioning stint i i probably would have said something to babcock on that trip like what do you mean he goes i don't know man i would have said something for sure could you imagine your dad what's your dad's name sal can you oh i would just love to like overhear sal confronting babcock five foot eight chest puffed out i think he would have he would have had something to say

oh my god we missed out on that because i'm pretty sure like i'm pretty sure my dad would have he would have said he would have made a bit of a scene which i actually don't blame the guy at all i think i would do the same thing if that was my kid my dad's like my dad's the most easygoing laid-back guy when it comes to hockey he never like if there was ever an issue, like, as a kid with a coach or whatever, like, hey, you want more ice time? Here's the phone. Yeah. You call him.

Right. You're 14 years old. You make the call. Learn how to be an adult. He goes, I'm not doing this for you. And I'm sure you have a lot of friends that are hockey parents or whatever. And like, I don't know, maybe hockey coaches. How many parents do you think call these minor hockey coaches on a regular basis wow yeah all right man and you know you had those seasons

in the past where like i think it was hbo was like documenting everything for uh oh you could have documented this for sure because babcock i remember that one season i think of the leafs uh i think the red wings and leaves are on the road but they did that document imagine i was there i was i was there that was that was there. That was the year. That was the year. Okay, see, it's all a blur now to me, man. We're going to get to current day Leafs stuff. But, oh, man, imagine having that documentary footage of Sal talking to Mike Babcock.

That would have been good. Yeah, that would have been one of those ones where no one's filming it and the boom guy with the mic isn't necessarily on the ball there, but it's like, oh, switch over. Like, we got some action. You see the boom guy just running into the back of the scene. Oh my God. Amazing.

So what happens on, what does Lou Lamorello do with you? I guess in February 4th, I guess it was. Oh yeah. So we were in Boston. That was the day I got put on waivers. So we were in Boston. I went to the morning skate. It's funny to see things happen in real time.

So we're on the bus. It was an optional skate. I'm on the bus on the way back to the hotel to eat pregame meal or pre, you know, hang out the rest of the day meal. And I'm on Twitter and I see Toronto claims Alexey Marchenko. Like, oh, he's a right-handed defenseman.

That would mean we have nine defensemen. And I said, my phone is going to ring in about three minutes here. And then like 30 seconds later, I see Lou Lamorello come up on the screen. He goes, Frankie, we just made a transaction. We picked up a defenseman. When you get back to the hotel, can you come up to my room, please? So I go up there and talk to Lou. He goes, listen, we made a transaction.

We picked up Marchenko. He goes, we're we made a transaction. We picked up Marchenko. He goes, we're going to put you on waivers. Wish you the best of luck. Like it was a really nice conversation with Lou. Like basically, sorry, things didn't work out here. He said one thing that I thought was really nice. And I don't know if he like meant it or not, but he goes, don't ever change. He goes, stay true to who you are.

I don't know what he meant by it, but I don't know if like I'm a pushover or whatever. But anyways, I thought that was really nice. And that was it for me as a Leaf. And that leads me to a conversation I had with Kyle Dubas that I think was one of my favorite conversations I've ever had as a professional hockey player. So when I got down there, he brings me in because he's the GM of the Marlies at the time. He brings me into his office and he goes, listen, you've been down here on two conditioning stints, and I'm not going to lie. Every time you're down here on a conditioning stint, it looks like you play not to make a mistake because you know everyone is watching you. Every shift, there's

reports, there's, you know, you want to play such a simple kind of game because you don't want to mess up and you want to play the way you think you need to play in the NHL. He goes, I want you to stop doing that here because I want you to do basically whatever you want to do on the ice. If you want to take the puck for a skate and try and go end to end, do it. He goes, play with the puck, play the game that I liked from a long time ago because he was the GM up in Sault Ste. Marie when I played in Sudbury. So we kind of go way back, even though we weren't together.

Very familiar. He goes, I want you to play that game. He goes, play fearless, play like no one's watching. That's the way you need to play down here. You need to kind of just get back to what made you a good player. And I left that conversation and I felt so good about the opportunity that was

there. And I actually did quite well with the Marlies after that. I can't remember if I played 18, 20 games before I ended up getting traded to Pittsburgh that year, but I was playing a lot. I was having fun. I was skating with the puck. It was like this whole rejuvenation. And I thought to myself, okay, as much as I wanted an opportunity elsewhere, maybe in a different organization, I could be pretty okay with just finishing the year here with the Marlies and then seeing what the summer holds because I felt like I was really coming alive as a player.

And then I ended up getting traded to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline. Okay, so now you're no longer a Toronto Maple Leaf. The dream is over. Hey now, hey now, don't dream it's over. Okay, then you're no longer a Toronto Maple Leaf. The dream is over. Hey now, hey now, don't dream it's over. By the way, before we get into TSN, actually, I have a whole he shreds section of this podcast. So here's a teaser because this guy shreds. Now give us the Reader's Digest version here.

What happens in Pittsburgh? Good opportunity for me. Really good opportunity for me. Stanley Cup winning team in my first year and i i'm down in the minors same same deal there go play have fun whatever um really bad high ankle sprain like six months recovery horrible um basically put me out for like whatever pittsburgh's potential playoff run was gonna be i could have been around could have been. There may have been a chance to get in the lineup. Sucks that happened. But end up rehabbing my ankle just in time for the next regular season.

Get off to a really good start in the American Hockey League. Get called up to Pittsburgh. Play some games. Go back down to the minors. Tear my ACL. And then nine-month recovery. Pittsburgh, obviously, I wasn't going to be ready until November of the following year. So Pittsburgh moved on.

I get a call from Kyle Dubas. Hey, we need a defenseman for the Marlies. You're back from your ACL. Do you want to come play for the Marlies? We'll put you on an AHL deal so you don't have to worry about anything as far as Babcock being there or, you know, being tied to us as an organization. It's just we need a defenseman. Things went well for you down here and come on out. And I did, and I wasn't the best version of myself as a player coming off the ACL.

And then I actually tore my quadriceps tendon that year in February. That knocked me out for another nine months. And that was crazy. Like that's a whole other story in itself, the quadriceps tendon. Like I did 85 sessions in a hyperbaric chamber, um, or else my quadriceps tendon was not going to like clear the inflammation. So I did that over the summer. Well, among many other kind of like rehab modules. We'll save that for your sequel, I think. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get back

here. We'll do an injury podcast part two. I do that so it was yeah it was it was it was a rough i guess like four or five years and then what really happened was from high ankle sprain to acl to quadriceps tendon to hip to groin next thing you know here we are in your basement so you mentioned these uh great lasagna you had in sweden right because you're so that's with the moto hockey yes you're playing there. So that's like 2020 or whatever. And then, again, we're yadda, yadda, yadda in a lot of this, but you mentioned the KHL off the top,

and you were playing the seven games of Riga. And then I guess you, is it another injury? What happens? Yeah, that was it. That was the last straw for me. That's it for you. Yeah, there was too much going on in my hip that I just couldn't stay healthy

for a long enough period of time. Like get through a game, but if you have two, three games a week plus practices and workouts, all that kind of stuff, like I was barely walking around at one point. So Frank, straight up, does it haunt you at all? Like have you been able to just let it go and realize that here you are 30, healthy now,

and you can go about with a new career because you're very good at this? Or did you ever lie in bed and just think of like how close you were and how maybe a different coach a different time a different opportunity you'd be on this uh playoff roster right now i i had that like not not necessarily about the playoff roster but i had that for excuse me for years that's the b you know i was gonna say you cracked open a beer no you haven't cracked because it's early usually usually i have a cough button. Like I'm a nervous, like I have a nervous stomach. But you can't reach it because it's like literally right there.

Yeah. Maybe you'll edit that out. Who knows? But just keep it actually. It's the authenticity. I'll keep it because this is real Frank Corrado. Yeah, this is the real. He belches on Toronto.

Do you belch on TSN radio? I use the cough button. You have a cough button. You'd be shocked at how many times I have to burp on the air. Hey, Howard Stern burps on the air. He does. And people seem to like him. So no judgment here.

No, but I had that time in my life where I just sat back and thought, man, what about this? What about that? What if this? What if that? And then you just get to the point you're like, I'm done thinking about this.

It's time to kind of move forward. And I think the opportunity at TSN has really helped that because my brain is now so invested in what I'm doing now and I feel like I'm very productive. So I don't look back on it and dwell on it as often as maybe I used to. Okay. So here's what we're going to do. I do have a couple more gifts for you. And I did talk about the fact that Frank Corrado shreds. Okay. And we're going to have a little evidence of that and talk briefly about that. Then we're going to get you to TSN and then I'm going to pump your tires a little bit. You need your tires pumped.

But who is this on guitar? I'm just going to play something I dug up. I have a beef with that clip. Let's hear it. So Canucks TV did a feature where they were following some players around for the summer and they came to see me. And they're like, oh, you play guitar. Like, can you play us some stuff? I played like Thunderstruck is fine.

But like I played a number of other things that I would say are like higher quality um like executed for for me name check these jams i want to hear the songs like like i i'm pretty sure i played like the crazy train solo like perfectly um and then i i think i played like some zeppelin stuff and then one of the people on the crew was like play thunderstruck i'm like okay i'll play thunderstruck and then that's the one they used for the video crew was like, play Thunderstruck. I'm like, okay, I'll play Thunderstruck. And then that's the one they used for the video. I'm like, I don't want to lead with... I like Thunderstruck, but I got other stuff.

I'm glad you're hearing this grievance, right? Yeah, I got better stuff. Yeah, I'm glad you did that. So here's another clip there. Maybe this will help redeem me here. Come on. I forget that part. If you're in a guitar shop, there's like unwritten rules. You don't echo someone. So if someone's sitting there playing Day Tripper, you can't be the guy next to them

and just play Day Tripper, you know? Stairway you can't play. Don't play Crazy Train. Woo! It's been a while. I think it was the lockout year, that 04, 05 lockout year. I was just so bored because there was no hockey on TV. Decided to pick up the guitar and kill some time.

That movie School of Rock came out and that was one of my favorite movies. So I took lessons till I was, not even, yeah, four or five years, till I was 16 I took lessons. This one's Probably my favorite guitar that I have it's it's an old 1982 Fender Stratocaster I got it in Chicago. This one is an acoustic

1970s Ibanez old I like old guitars like kind of Classics and that like kind of classics. That's kind of a rare one you don't see very often. Before junior, I used to play with some people and we'd get together and learn some songs and kind of write our own stuff. If I wasn't at hockey practice, I was probably play with some people and we'd get together and learn some songs and write our own stuff. If I wasn't at hockey practice, I was probably at home playing my guitar. Or if I wasn't outside playing street hockey with buddies or something, then I was inside.

Anytime I was inside, I probably had the guitar in my hand. So that's from the Leaf Blueprint. It's a little more Frank Corrado shredding. A little guitar content. Yeah, I don't play as much as I used to. I would like to play a little bit more, but during the hockey season, I even find it hard to play at times.

It felt like it was a summer thing, and it felt like it was one of those things that I did a lot of my adolescent years, my teen years. You should pick up the axe again and get back to it, man. I'm finding right now, like a lot of the new music that comes out, I have no desire to play.

And all the old stuff, the Zeppelin, Ozzy, ACDC, Van Halen, I've played it all a lot in my life. I just, I don't know if I have any more capacity to learn new songs. Wow, listen, you're not trying hard enough, Frank, that's what I would say. But yeah, you're right. There's so much great music out there.

Yeah, maybe you don't like some current stuff, but even if you go back, there's such a wealth of guitar content out there for you, Frank. So here's what I'll pitch to you, okay? Because, you know, we talked about doing 90 minutes on your injuries, but like sincerely at some point, maybe in the summer, you come back, we kick out the jams, because I'm now very curious,

like what are your 10 favorite songs of all time? you'll need some i'll need to think about that for sure you got some time here because uh you know you got it we got we got to finish the uh maybe after the maple leaf stanley cup parade who knows but you come back kick of the jams and i wanted everybody to know that frank's not just a talented broadcaster who played a high level of hockey you know nhl is as high as it gets you can also shred. So there's the Frankie Caraglia. Thank you, very nice of you. And because you love music,

I'm going to give you something, but you got to promise me that you'll listen to something else with it. But this is a wireless speaker for you, Frank, courtesy of Moneris. And with this wireless speaker, you're going to listen to season four of the Yes, We Are Open, which is a award-winning podcast from Moneris,

hosted by FOTM Al Grego. By the way, Al Grego will be at TMLX 12, which is taking place May 11th at 6 p.m. I'll see you there, Al. That's going to be awesome. But I want to tell everybody they should subscribe to Yes We Are Open. Enjoy seasons one, two, three, and four,

which is now available, and you'll be inspired because he's been traveling the country talking to small business owners about their stories, their perseverance. And I've been inspired. I'm a small business. I'm as small a business as it gets, man. Me, myself, and I work here at TMDS. You've got a nice setup here.

I like this setup. Thank you. Okay, let's spend 90 minutes on that, Frank. You can hold on to that. Yeah, this is a great setup. Are you kidding me? You've got the cameras, mics. We're ready to go here

and you're welcome here anytime. Just don't hit your head when you drop by. Yes. One note, though, when you have your old, I don't know, you have your old

8-track player, Frank, because you're 30 years old. Of course, you had an 8-track player. Ha, ha, ha. But if you had your old tech or your devices, your old phones,

don't throw that old technology in the garbage because then it ends up in our landfills and there's these chemicals in there and it's very bad for Mother Earth. You're going to go to recyclemyelectronics.ca and find out a safe place to drop that off

because they've been accredited by EPRA. So thank you, EPRA, for recyclemyelectronics.ca. And one last thing, because then we're going to get you to TSN and do the sports media portion. I feel like you have this profile. You are Frank Corrado. You played for the Leafs.

Now you're on TSN. You need the Moment Lab. And I would be more than happy to introduce you at some point to Matt and Jared at the Moment Lab. The Moment Lab specialize in public relations. They have a team of experienced professionals who know how to craft stories that resonate with your audience and generate positive media coverage. Whether you're launching a new product, building your reputation, or managing a crisis, the Moment Lab has you covered. I actually have a call later today with the Moment Lab and a very famous former athlete. So if you want me to introduce you to Matt and Jared at the Moment Lab, happy to do it. They'll

help you achieve your public relations goals. So speaking of your brand, please give me the origin story. How do you, former Leaf, who does a great Mike Babcock impression, but no longer in hockey due to injuries at the age of 30, I guess you were younger than that. How did you end up on TSN?

Give me the sports media origin story. Yeah, so I had done a few things as far as calling stuff um and i had known jamie mcclennan a little bit before i had met jeff o'neill before um so i had keith bauer who is known as the grappler for overdrive he's the producer he's had me on a couple times over the years mostly in the summer where there's it's a little less newsy and they don't necessarily need to have the hard-hitting stuff coming out of a game or day of game. And that was while I was playing.

And then when I came home from the KHL, Michael DiStefano, Al's brother, who we mentioned earlier, he reached out to me. He goes, would you want to do a radio hit on the Leafs? We're going to be talking Rasmus Sandin. It'd be pretty easy stuff. So it's Al who reached out?'s brother okay michael michael de stefano's name is al's brother we don't yeah it's it's that's a whole other thing toronto al's brother yeah toronto al's brother reached out so yeah i said no problem i'd love to do the hit so we do the hit and about a

week after that he uh calls me, he goes, hey, my co-host Julia is going to the World Juniors. Do you want to co-host Leafs Lunch with me two days? It's an hour show at the time. I said, yeah, no problem. That would be awesome. So Stephanie Apolito, who's the assistant program director at TSN 1050,

she walks me through everything. She kind of prepared me, made me feel very comfortable with it. Is it in studio or are you doing this remotely? This was in studio. Okay, cool. Yeah, this was in studio. It was really cool. So it was just me and Al's brother sitting there talking Leafs. And where is that? That feel very comfortable with it are you doing this was in studio okay yeah this was in studio it was really cool so it's just me and al's brother sitting where is that that's agent court where are you going agent court yeah nine channel nine scarborough 401 and mccowan right uh but you didn't bump into lloyd robertson because he's

long retired yeah yeah so we do the two shows and shortly after that i got got a text from someone at TSN who I had known who works on SportsCenter. And he goes, hey, what's your phone number? He reached out to me on Twitter. He goes, what's your phone number? I have a TV producer who wants to reach out to you. And so that TV producer turned out to be Sam Cicerello, who reached out to me. Is everyone in the story of Italian descent? I just want to know.

No, no, not everyone. The SportsCenter anchor was not Italian. So Sam reached out to me and said they have a new property starting up with the CHL, OHL, WHL, QMJHL, and asked if I would have any interest in doing the TV side on that. And I said, absolutely, yes. And then Stephanie Apolito asked if i wanted to do leaf games with jim tatty pre-games wow games so all tatty yeah yeah okay i can't say it you know we're

not allowed to say it no guy careful careful uh you know how many invoices i received from jim tatty because i i co-host a show with Mark Hebbshire. Okay. Every Friday morning. So we, Jim Taddy comes up a lot because I'm a lot older than you. I'm of an age where

Sportsline on Global was everything. In fact, I only know Mark because I invited him over here because I wanted to talk about Sportsline. We hit it off.

I now produce and co-host his show, Hebbsy on Sports. Nice. By the way, TSN's great, but you should also subscribe to hebsey on sports available wherever you get your shout out to hebsey hebsey by the

way sent me a note when he heard you were coming on okay he's great on tsn 10 50 hebsey thinks you're doing a great job that's because i work with tatty so i do the pre-games intermissions and post games with tatty i'm not sure that works in your favor. Please continue. Taddy's great. Like he puts it on a tee for you. All you need to do is know your stuff. Yes, guy. So yeah, so that happened. And then it turned into, okay, anytime we need someone to fill in on Leafs launch,

we'll give you a call. And then it turned into like a little bit of overdrive. And the CHL TV coverage turned into, hey, we'll give you a little bit of run here with some NHL stuff from time to time, some sports center from time to time. That's hockey. And then basically like this hockey season. So I started off in September doing some stuff. It was going to be like a little bit of a let's see how it goes.

Right. And now I'm probably working 25 to 27 days a month between TV and radio. And honestly, that's a full time job. I love it. Like, I honestly love it. I love going to work every day. I love talking hockey. I love watching hockey.

I love sitting with a producer in a boardroom watching four games and talking about what's the storyline here. Like, this is what happened there. I just I don't know. I feel like I'm back. This may sound weird. Tell me if I'm wrong.. I feel like I'm back. This may sound weird. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I feel like I'm back in the NHL. Like I feel like my job involves the NHL.

So I feel that purpose again. I totally get that. This is your way. This is why, you know, some former players become coaches or whatever, because that's their route back into the game. You're in the game. Yeah. I feel like I'm in the game.

I feel like I'm involved in the NHL. I don't really care about my voice per se. I just like the fact that I feel purpose. Whereas when I was hurts or that hurts now it just feels like I'm going to the studio we're talking hockey we're like I'm working with unbelievable people um I have not met a bad person yet like it's it's not one it's not one person it's been amazing like like from start have you met Gino Retta oh yeah I love Gino me too I'm just good yeah he's an FOTM as well he's nice yeah I saw there was there was, there was quite a, quite a list of some TSN people. I say, one thing I'll say,

I think most TSN people are happy to visit and are genuinely seem like great people to me. I've had like super. You've had Duffy. Duffy. You've had Laura Dyken. Dyken. Yeah.

You know, Laura Dyken's dad lives across the street. Oh, no way. Laura's one of my favorites. She was, she was the first host I ever worked with on TV. And you got to imagine what that would have been like for her, not for me, because she's a host.

We're doing live TV and we're doing the CHL on TSN and we have a double header. We have Kingston versus Sudbury. We have Prince George versus Vancouver. And I had never done a single rep of television. Couldn't even tell you like they printed out a lineup and I have no idea what I'm looking at. I have no idea what's going on in my ear. I don't know what a roll-in is. A roll-in, by the way, is the video that plays while you're talking. I have no idea what that is. Like they're saying, they're in my ear, like tend to sound. I'm like, I don't know what tend to sound means. Is there a sound that's going to come on? Like, I don't know these things. And then, you know, even something like work in the camera, you know, there'll be in my ear, like take one, like, I don't know what that means. Like, and,

and Laura, like, God bless Laura. She basically coached me through the entire thing as along with Carlo Koliakovo, who was right next to me. Thank God I had Carlo next to me because I was like a deer in the headlights. But having those two and Laura as a host just puts it on a tee for you. And she makes her analysts look very good because of all the prep that she does and she knows what she's talking about. Well, small world story is that tomorrow

I'm going to produce a Donovan Bailey's podcast. So Donovan Bailey is going to be here, but his co-host for the show, he'll be sitting there. You'll be in the Jason Portwondo seat. So Jason Portwondo, and Jason Portwondo would often, when you'd see like a Queen's Plate, I guess it would be called the King's Plate now, but the Queen's Plate

horse racing from Woodbine that would air on TSN was often hosted by Jason Portwondo and Laura Dykin. And I met Laura's husband for the first time recently while I was at dinner with Donovan Bailey bailey like did he help you pick out the wine you know but you know who that's a that's a a fun story too like uh who do you think helped me pick out the wine well i would imagine it was laura's husband no actually because there's a sommelier on on uh the roster there uh keep guessing this You're never going to get it.

I'll never get it, no. I've never been there, so I don't know. Joey Votto's mom. No way. Yeah. Oh, my God. Joey Votto's mom

is a sommelier at this place. That's hilarious. And she helped, and I'm more of a Great Lakes beer man myself, but helped Donovan select his wine, which was quite sad.

But yeah, so Laura, I got a lot of time for Laura. She was going to tease us with her jam kicking because I wanted her to come back and she hasn't yet, but maybe she will one day. We'll do a show like you, myself and Laura. I've got the mic. Let's do it. I would happily do that.

So a couple more notes. One more from Chris Cooksey actually, who said you got to get Frankie on and I said I'd love to. He says that you are great on Overdrive. So how often do you sub on Overdrive? Whenever, so Jamie McLennan will do Sens games. He's the color analyst. So he'll be out of town from time to time.

And then if O-Dog has, you know, like vacation days or whatever, I'll fill in, I'll fill in then. So it's been fun doing Overdrive. Really enjoy it. And here's a jam you could play guitar to. You're too young for this, but I want to know if you've heard this.

But let me play it a little bit. I'll bring it down because the Gen Xers listening know exactly what I'm listening to. Because, of course, this is from the Pat Burns era of Maple Leafs in the early to mid-90s. But you cover the Leafs, of course. You're an analyst. You're on TSN all the time. You mention all of that. They're paying you, right?

This isn't pro bono work that you're doing. Yes, I do receive a paycheck. Just want to make sure. Because you missed out on the... You got money for regular people like me. You got huge compensation. But you did miss out on the life-changing

contracts that fly around the NHL. Yes, I missed out on that. It's funny. You see some guys who made so much throughout their NHL career and you're like, man, you're grinding. You're really grinding for a guy that made $30 million, you know? That's a good point. You need to work for a living.

You're doing a great job. Love it. Let's be remiss. I want to just talk about the current edition here because we stunk out the joint in game one and then we were setting the barn on fire. I don't know if you want to borrow that analogy. I just made it up. We we kicked ass in game two.

And in game three, we had the Ryan O'Reilly late goal to force overtime. We showed a lot of grit. We came back. Funny little goal by Morgan Reilly that found its way to the back of the net. And here we are up 2-1 with game four tonight. What say you, Frank? Well, it's goals they don't score often. Like Ryan O'Reilly scoring in front of the net like that.

How many times throughout a Leafs playoff series have you just wanted to see that garbage goal from a guy who's kind of just planted himself in front of the net? And even the Morgan O'Reilly one, it seems like those are the kind of goals that go in an OT. It's just a shot from the point with a ton of traffic. Even Matthews' goal, the tip-in goal, it's like they're finding ways to score goals

in ways that they haven't in the past. And when the offense has dried up for them in years past, it's because they want to score from distance. They want to score from the high slot with no one in front of the goalie. They want to beat the goalie clean. I understand having skill, and skill helps you possess the puck a lot and get offensive zone time, all that, like get your good chances.

But at the end of the day, there's something to be said for kind of wearing teams down, wearing down the opposition's goaltenders. And speaking of goaltenders, their goalie keeps them in that game. Like game three, that's the Samsonov game. He made a number of saves and they're big saves for sure, but it's at the right time. Like that's the samson off game he made a number of saves and and they're they're big saves for sure but they're it's at the right time like that's the one that that really sticks out for me is the fact that in the past it's like tampa can break a puck out or whoever they're playing or boston or montreal they just break a puck out they fly down the wing and they score and it's like oh man that's a deflator like you're working from behind again but it hasn't been the case yet so now the challenge for the leafs is is quite simple actually can you keep your foot on the gas pedal because you know

tampa's tampa's going to give you more but at the same time that last game that's pretty much all tampa's got and you found a way to beat them right like the leafs have more in the tank there they like they if they have a better game and everyone does their job the way they did last game it should be i mean it you always have to temper expectations because of this team and what what you know i feel like we have ptsd but they should be able to win i was gonna say i feel often with as a leaf fan and again i have so many decades on you of leaf fandom which just means i have more of that aforementioned ptsd but like we've been here before in recent history,

we've been up two to one in the first round several times, I think, over the last few years. And we all know that we haven't played a second round game since Pat Quinn was the coach and that was 2004. So I do feel sometimes as a Leaf fan, I feel like Charlie Brown, right? Like in this, like, Lucy's got the football. I'm going to take my run.

And this time she's going to let me kick it. And I always end up on my ass, right? Like in this, like there's, Lucy's got the football. I'm going to take my run and I'm this time. She's going to let me kick it. And I always end up on my ass. Okay. And I just, I feel like we're right. We are recording this. So this could age very badly, but I'm watching a team. I believe can win the Stanley cup.

And I believe that they will be Tampa Bay in this first round. Am I just Charlie Brown trying to kick that football again? No, I think coming into the series, I thought the Leafs would win this round. And I thought they would do it. I made the analogy on SportsCenter the one day that they need to do it like a Band-Aid. They just need to rip it right off. Yeah, exactly.

Because the longer they've let teams hang around in series, whether it was Montreal, they're up 3-1, and they lose game five. And you're like, okay, they got two more cracks at it. Well, they didn't get it done. And then in Tampa Bay last year, they had game six to win. They lost game lost game six like they need to find a way to step on it and finish win has eluded us for so it has and almost 20 years oh yeah yeah and i know it's the hardest it's the hardest game to win for sure but i think the fact that the leafs won game three that way where it's

like they didn't deserve to win necessarily but they No, we did not. We were outplayed and I also thought it took a lot of luck. Like that one goal that didn't count because I guess the ref intended to pull the whistle. He intended to pull the whistle, yeah. So like that puck never was, you know, we got a little lucky there. Well, how many times has that happened to Tampa over the years? Right. Right. Like

Tampa, you don't go to three straight Stanley Cup finals without a little luck or some bounces going your way. It's not just because you deserve to win. It's about time the bounces go our way. Yeah, it's a strange game three because it's like the bounces went our way and it all worked out and we won.

And it's like, oh wait, that's usually what happens to us. Yes, yes, exactly. And you just, at some point it's going to happen for them. They're too talented. They're too good. They make too many smart decisions as an organization for it to not go their way. they've like they've made good um good additions to the team that have helped out like ryan o'reilly the thing that i love about that is the fact that he scores that goal to send

it to overtime and that's the way he scores so you know that there's certain players you're going to get what they do right you you've added players that will do what they do best on a more consistent basis. And it makes a difference. There was some talk, you know, hey, Ryan O'Reilly, Nick Foligno 2.0, but clearly not. No, absolutely not.

Shout out to Nick Foligno, of course. I love Nick Foligno. No disrespect intended here. But, oh my God, Frank, what a debut. Like, I've loved this. Is there anything, like on your drive here from the city above toronto and you're on your way and you're uh thinking i gotta make sure i tell this story or tell mike that this is your chance because i don't want you driving home and

being like i can't believe i forgot to say x i don't know i don't know this was this was fun i'm excited uh i'm excited to come back at some point we'll get the jams yeah we'll get into some more stuff this was uh thank you so much for having me i kind of think you should kick out like the 10 best uh jams that you'd you'd play guitar to like uh there's probably those 10 guitar jams that you love yes there's like a there's like a little playlist that you hit up every time you pick up smoke on the water is that one of them no that's that's quite elementary at this point. There's got to be Eric Clapton in there, right? Well, Cream would be in there, right?

Yeah. Zeppelin. A lot of Zeppelin. A lot of Zeppelin. The best riffs, arguably. What about Guns N' Roses? Yeah. They tune their guitars down half a step, though, so that's a little bit of a nuisance sometimes.

Frank, love this, buddy. Damn, don't forget I got that lasagna in the freezer for you we gotta take that photo that'll follow you to your death shout out to Ridley Funeral Home thank you and that brings us to our

1240 second show you can follow me on Twitter I'm at Toronto Mike tell us the best ways to follow you, Frank Corrado. On Twitter, FrankCorrado22. And on Instagram, Frankenduces. Spell it for me. What is that, Frank?

Frank E-N. E-N. Deuces. Okay. Yeah, like 22, deuces. Gotcha, okay. It's so silly. Racked up like a deuce, another runner in the night.

Blinded by the light. Okay. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Moneris is at Moneris. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. The Moment Lab is at The Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH.

See you all later this week. can hold or will do for me and you but i'm a much better man for having known you oh you know that's true because everything is coming up rosy and gray yeah the wind is cold but the smell of snow won't speed the day and your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who

Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true Yes, I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you?

While they're picking up trash And they're putting down roads And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn Because everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold

But the smell of snow Warms me today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Because everything is rosy and green Well, I've kissed you in France And I've kissed you in Spain

And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold

But the smell of snow Warms us today And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away Cause everything is rosy now, everything is rosy Yeah, everything is rosy and gray