37: Tangents & Tributaries (Interview with Sean Furfaro)

0:00Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:00Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:01Justin: Hey, Sean.

0:02Sean: Hey, Andrew. I did it on purpose.

0:06Andrew: He blew it.

0:08Justin: Yeah.

0:08Sean: Let's do it again.

0:08Justin: Let's do it again. Sometimes you can't have Good guess.

0:10Andrew: That's true. I mean, sometimes you just get stuck with the one and only Sean Furfaro

0:15Sean: I thought we were. I know it's Justin. I thought we were going, like, there's a cadence to it. I thought we went alphabetical time.

0:20Andrew: Justin. You didn't. Yes. And.

0:23Justin: Okay.

0:23Andrew: Okay, here we go.

0:25Sean: Also. Hey, Justin.

0:28Justin: Hey, Sean. Hey, Andrew.

0:30Andrew: Hey, Sean.

0:30Sean: Hey, Andrew.

0:33Andrew: Yes.

0:33Justin: Plan out the window.

0:34Sean: Right off the bat.

0:35Andrew: We had something written for the introduction. I will quickly run through your. Your X bio is essentially from Voice of the Guelph Griffins, Brampton Honey Badgers, KW Titans and the Kitchener Panthers.

0:48Sean: Correct.

0:48Andrew: You need to update that. That's not in there right now.

0:50Sean: It's not in there.

0:50Andrew: It's not.

0:51Sean: I can only do so many characters.

0:52Andrew: I am aware. He is the host of this Week in Rangers Nation on Rogers tv, as well as the game day host for every single Rangers home game. That's right. We already blew the surprise. It's Sean Furfaro Surprise, surprise.

1:06Sean: Should I rise up, like, for those of us who want, like, a phoenix, like, just out of the ashes, like an unnamed bird?

1:12Andrew: Of course. Yeah.

1:14Justin: We don't have the rights to Phoenix. Yeah, I know about that.

1:16Sean: Yeah. I used to work for a company called that. And we're like unnamed bird.

1:22Andrew: Welcome to the AudPod, where we're

1:25Justin: talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls

1:28Andrew: themselves, Andrew and Justin.

1:32Justin: Take it away, fellas. Okay, so, like, really, our first question, like, all of these things. You do so many things, Sean.

1:44Sean: That's a drop in the bucket.

1:46Justin: Exactly.

1:46Andrew: Yeah.

1:46Justin: Of course we know that. We know there's other stuff.

1:48Andrew: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So. So give us a rundown, if you can, of these different things that you host, because I know that there's all of these things when. I mean, we do our research. We googled you. There's so many things that pop up that you host that are one offs.

2:05Sean: Yeah.

2:05Andrew: So, like, just give us, like, try and give us a roundup of just, like, even the last 12 months.

2:10Sean: Sure. So I'm the voice of the Guelph Griffins. I've been doing that for 18 years. KW Titans in season seven. I took a break for a couple years, but I've been there since day one. Kitchener Panthers, I did for a decade, is actually where I got my start. And I just returned to them with my son, Lucas Brampton. Honey Badgers is my fourth CEBL team. I did the Guelph Nighthawks, the Brampton Honey Badgers, the Hamilton Honey Badgers, the Scarborough Shooting Stars as well. I've been with the CEBL since day one. I do KW Junior lacrosse. I've worked in a number of different leagues. That's just sports. I also do freelance hosting and emceeing. I do a cross country dance tour every year from March through May. It's my 13th year doing dance.

2:49Justin: We noticed you missed some of the Rangers.

2:51Sean: I missed some of the Rangers games, yeah, I sure did. And then, I mean, I just did Canada Day for the city of Cambridge. I host an event with the Oakville Milton Humane Society every year. My fifth year coming up, I work with Ron McLean. It's called Prancing with the Stars. It's kind of a fundraiser. It's great. And actually, that's a great story. And a lot of different things like that. So there's a lot of one offs that I do that you mentioned. But in terms of, I mean, you know, from the TV side and the PA side, there's two different. There's really four different elements, right. TV hosting and play by play that I've done in different sports. Public address announcing, freelance hosting and convocation. Name reading is the other thing that I've been doing for. And then voiceover work. So there's really five different things that I do. I essentially see a microphone. I'm like, I'm gonna talk into that and send an invoice and just hope for the best. Yeah, that's pretty much it. That's it.

3:47Justin: That's the script. No, I can keep talking.

3:50Sean: People ask me often how I got started, and I don't know if we're gonna talk about that, but my grade eight teacher, Bob Sharp, who is a Canadian basketball player, played for the Olympics, Guelph Griffin's hall of Famer, told me when I was 12 years old in his class that I. He said, you, my son, have verbal diarrhea. And because I never shut up in class. So I made it my life's mission to get people to pay me to talk. So that's the short version.

4:12Justin: Nice work. And are you succeeding in people paying you to talk?

4:15Sean: I am.

4:16Justin: Okay, good.

4:16Sean: Yeah.

4:17Justin: I didn't know if you did any of this volunteer. I'm sure some of it is.

4:19Sean: I have. I have a maximum number of volunteer gigs I do a year now. Everything else is because in 2017, I mean, I've been doing this for 26 years now. And the Aud years ago, I made the decision. I'm like, I don't think I need the office job anymore. I think I can make a go of this. And I did. And, you know, you bet on yourself, and. And things are working out great, and it's been a lot of fun.

4:42Justin: What was the office job? What was the alternate career if it didn't work?

4:46Sean: I went to the University of Waterloo and I got an English degree, and I actually used it. Unlike many people who get the English degree.

4:53Andrew: You've just impressed us with the fact that you bet on yourself and you also used an English degree.

5:00Sean: So I spent 15 years working for a library wholesale company.

5:04Justin: Okay.

5:04Sean: I could tell you more about it, but we'd all fall asleep, right?

5:07Andrew: Yeah, we do have listeners, Justin. So when you asked about the office

5:09Sean: job, I was like, I did that for 15 years. And then I did some announcing on the side, and I wrote the catalogs. I edited catalog, and then I ended up writing. So I'm actually using the degree, which was great. I left that in 2013. And then I went and worked with a friend that I knew. He had a heating and air conditioning company. He wanted me, as a logistics guy to manage their service department. I did that for three years. And then I was like, let me just do the math on what I'm doing. Okay. I'm a dad. I got my son half the time. I think I can just scrape by and pay the mortgage if I do this. So I'm going to give it a shot.

5:42Justin: Cool.

5:42Sean: And I gave it a shot. And everything has been a massive uphill trajectory since the Aud I'm so, so lucky.

5:49Justin: Amazing. I can see why. But that's cool. That's a great story. It's like a pretty inspirational story.

5:56Andrew: It was scary.

5:56Sean: Like, it was like, at the time, I was. I was. I was just getting by financially.

6:02Justin: Especially when you have a kid that's like. That's like a layer that most people don't encounter when they're like, yeah, throwing it all in.

6:08Sean: Yeah.

6:09Andrew: Yeah.

6:09Sean: And he was a big factor in a lot of the things I did. I said no to a lot of the things because I only had him half the time. Yeah, Right. And I couldn't lose that time with him. I didn't. At the risk. I'm not going to get into that. But my. I didn't have my dad around when I was younger. Right. So I'm like, I'm never going to do that to my son. So when I had to do Guelph Griffin Stuff. I'm like, we need to find something for Lucas. So Lucas is my son. And Lucas would come and he would start sweeping the floor when he was 12 years old or 13 years old. Then he started DJing when he was 14 and 15 and that piqued an interest in him. And maybe we'll talk about that later. But he. Even when it came time to become the full time host at the Kitchener Rangers, they offered it to me and I said no. I immediately said no without thinking. Like, I said, no, I can't. And they said, why? I said, Lucas is 15. We have season tickets, like Friday night. It's it. He wants to go to the game with me. I can't. I can't not do that. Yeah, I'll pre tape the stuff for you. I'll still keep working intermissions. I'll still do the voiceover stuff and I'll fill in when you need me to, but I can't be the full time host. I'm going to miss 34 games with him.

7:10Justin: Yeah.

7:10Sean: And the next day my producer came to me and said, we have an idea. What if we train him to be your cameraman and you guys can have the games together and he'll be your cameraman between the benches. Would you do it the Aud I asked Lucas and he said yes, and I said yes. So he was my cameraman down there for three years before he started becoming too busy to do it.

7:34Andrew: That's so cool. I mean, we have seen him out there, I believe, in the. In the Aud suit on the ice. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

7:40Justin: I always like it when they announce. They're like, oh, we're gonna have the on ice camera in the next game. We're like, oh, yeah, it's Lucas. Yeah.

7:47Sean: Well, because we were. We're only allowed to have them for just due to some restrictions at the rink, we're only allowed to have them for 10 games a year. So we have to pick and choose those games pretty quick and then we have to reserve some for the playoffs if we want.

7:58Justin: Oh, so it's 10 games, playoffs inclusive.

8:00Sean: Yeah, that's right.

8:00Justin: Oh, wow.

8:01Sean: We're hoping for more this year, but last year it was 10 games, so we chose, you know. Okay, Guelph's here, London's here. Teddy bear toss. Remembrance Day. Picked it.

8:08Andrew: All right.

8:08Justin: Yeah. And that teddy bear toss, like all those images with the overagers, like punch poses with their teddy bears.

8:14Sean: Yeah.

8:14Andrew: Oh, yeah, it's beautiful.

8:15Sean: It's pretty awesome. And then I mean, for a kid that grew up loving this team and living this team, and he and I would go to the games together, he said to me, the first time he did on Ice Camera, he said, I came off and he goes, dad, they score a goal. The goal horn goes and I'm on the ice. I've never felt that level of adrenaline. It's like, I scored the goal. He's like, it's just all funneling down to the center of the ice and you feel it out there. And so he's really come into his own. And you see some of those blow by shots. He knows where to place himself. Like on the Pridham penalty shot goal from last year. How he. He did this perfect follow with him and it was. It made everything. It was.

8:48Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

8:48Sean: He's becoming really good at it.

8:50Andrew: Absolutely.

8:50Justin: Well.

8:51Andrew: Oh, you just brought me right back to the Pridham penalty shot.

8:54Justin: Yeah.

8:55Andrew: Which I mean, is now. Goosebumps, right? Goosebumps. I mean, we said in. In our last episode, that was kind of the moment. Right. That was the moment where I think 7,000 people, we can do this. Yeah. It's not even. We're like, we're doing. It's happening. Yeah. And I was in the stands for that, that game and I was like, oh, man. Like, I can't believe this is happening, but this has been the identity of this team the whole year.

9:18Sean: I'll tell you this. And I mean this honestly, not just Homer E stuff.

9:23Andrew: Yeah.

9:23Sean: I never was worried in that series until it went to overtime in Game 7. I wasn't worried at all, even when we were down. But then when he hit that goal, when he made that goal, and I saw everyone else's eyes and I'm like, now you get it.

9:36Andrew: Everyone.

9:37Sean: Now, I didn't lose any sleep over this. I didn't sweat over it. I know these guys well enough. I know what it's like down there.

9:43Andrew: Yeah.

9:43Sean: I know their belief.

9:44Andrew: Yeah. Now, you know you're close to the team, right. And you're actually like, you're picking up on the vibes directly off the players. So that's really interesting because obviously, like, you are that close. Rangers nation, our town, we're really only getting things, you know, secondhand and. And trying to, you know, we're all believing in the Aud I think the thing for us following that team last year was that we knew they hadn't played their best hockey. We knew that Jackson Parsons hadn't played his best hockey. We knew that the offense hadn't played their best hockey we knew that the special teams wasn't clicking in those first three games.

10:18Sean: Yeah.

10:18Andrew: There was so many things that was like, you know, it just if, you know, if it. Positive regression, I kept saying in my mind is like, if this just all regresses back to the way that they normally play, this is this. The worm could turn. Right. So, I mean, we've, again, we've gone tangential. Tangential. Now we're talking about the playoffs.

10:38Sean: Can we do a record scratch when we come back?

10:40Andrew: We should.

10:40Sean: Let's go.

10:41Andrew: We should. This is a great time for a record scratch. You did, you talked about all that stuff you did, and you talked about the stratospheric rise. However, you didn't talk about one specific thing that we, we did, in fact, dig up on you.

10:52Sean: Okay, all right.

10:53Andrew: 2009 was a big year for you. We, Rangers Nation, are sitting here with the man who finished 217th in the

11:03Justin: world Series of Poker.

11:05Andrew: I did no Limit Hold'.

11:07Justin: Em.

11:07Sean: No Limit hold'.

11:08Justin: Em.

11:08Andrew: Yeah. I even know how much she took home.

11:09Sean: 2885.

11:12Justin: Yeah.

11:12Sean: Such a random amount.

11:14Justin: Yeah. I love it. Yeah.

11:16Andrew: Which, I mean, that's like, that's my career earnings page. 15,000. 20,000 nowadays.

11:20Justin: Yeah,

11:23Andrew: yeah. Before the, the market went crazy. You bought the Waterloo house.

11:27Sean: Yeah, that's right.

11:27Justin: Yeah.

11:28Andrew: Yeah. You got to tell us about the Sean the Shark.

11:31Sean: Okay. So I've been playing poker well, pretty much my whole life. My brother taught me when I was 12, we would play like Ramoli and then we would play, you know, kings and little ones. And he teach me how to play five card draw with his friends when he was in university. And it was never for real money. It was just we all had crown royal bags filled with pennies, and that's what we played with. And nobody kept anything. It was just learning. And what a great big brother to teach me how to gamble like that. It was great. But then in university, I took it a little more seriously. I understood the math behind it. I've always been a bit of a logistics guy. And poker is math, right. It's probability and patience. And so I learned a lot about it and started playing Texas Hold' Em and played in some small games around here. And the Soo we had a league and the, the winner of the league got to go and represent the league in Las Vegas. So I won the league that year. Now, I had already played in the World Series in 2007. Okay, I played in 2007. But the winner of the league got two buy ins for it was a $5,000 prize, you know, fifteen hundred dollar buy in and your trip to Vegas and spending money and everything. But everyone else in the league got a prorated share of anything you won just for playing in the tournament, you know, So I got to keep half of what I won and the other half went to the guys who played. Not how they finished, just how they played. So we didn't actually, we reserved the money for the prize and the Aud all went back to the players.

12:51Andrew: Right.

12:52Sean: So had I come first in that it was three quarters of a million dollars?

12:55Andrew: Yeah.

12:55Sean: I did not. I came 217th.

12:57Andrew: Right.

12:57Sean: And I played two events. I played one two days later and I just missed the money by under an hour in that one.

13:02Andrew: Well, that's pretty good. I mean you're, you know, that's, that's. You went from Waterloo to the World Series.

13:08Sean: Yeah, I played. I played a fourth time a couple of years later too. Yeah, I still play poker quite regularly. Yeah, I was at a game last week. You know, it's a big part of my life. Good friends.

13:18Andrew: That's cool. So you, you said that you're like, it's like math and analytics and whatever. But see, you strike me as also a very creative and artistic kind of guy.

13:27Sean: I am.

13:27Andrew: Just from, just honestly, just from your color coordination, I'm like, okay, this guy has an eye for it. So tell me about how that blends in and how that makes you like, in my opinion, such a good interviewer.

13:39Sean: The analytics.

13:40Andrew: Yeah.

13:41Sean: I look at things from a logistics standpoint. Part of my job when I was working in the library wholesale company was logistics and I did catalogs, but I helped with shipping. So I need to know where things land. So I started to learn a logistic mind. And I have to think, well, A leads to B leads to C leads to D. I've always been really good with quick mental arithmetic. And that's when I figured out that poker was really good for me. I'm also, as you can tell, a people person. I love talking to people. I love engaging with people. I like finding the human stories in sports as opposed to the numerical stories. That's what I try to share on our weekly show on our regular broadcast. Knowing that that takes a lot of interaction. Poker is big on interaction. Reading body signs. So these were things I was already relatively, I'll say, decent at in my regular life. And I'm like, why don't I put these together and try and win some money? So that's how that worked. But in terms of how it affects my job. When somebody comes and stands beside me for an interview, I don't want to tell you what their goals against average is. I don't want to tell you what their goals are like. I want to tell you the story behind it. I want to tell you why Cam Reed chose to go play in Lambton instead of at home. I want to tell you how hard Jackson Parsons worked mentally to get through his first two years and then the injury in his third year. I want to tell you about the 35 times we had a conversation before the game, before we ever had an interview on the air. And the reason that interview was so good on the air is because he's comfortable. Because we've had 35 previous conversations. It's never going to be, hey, look at me. I want to look at. I want to look at the guy beside me, and I want to show you how great he is. My Andrew mindset is I'm trying to showcase this human being beside me. Not the player beside me. No, the human being beside me. And you can learn all you want to learn about number 32 from anyone. But I'm going to tell you about Jackson. So I think that's where that interpretive skill comes in, and I think that's where I. One of my strengths as an interviewer lies. If I'm not pulling a muscle, patting myself on the back too much.

15:57Justin: No, no, definitely not. And we see that when we're. When we're watching, I mean, and we. We shout you out a lot because we really love your intermission. We can't make it to all the games, which. The only benefit of that, really, is that we get to see, like, we get to hear Dan and Jason in the booth, which they're great at calling games. And then we also get to see all your interviews with the players, which actually gives us a chance to learn about the players. And that is a very unique difference with the Kitchener Rangers broadcast versus not all the other broadcasts, but some of the other broadcasts, they are that super analytical. Oh, you only had three goals in the last two games. Can you tell us how exciting it was to score this goal tonight? It's like, that doesn't tell us anything because it's a stock hockey answer that we get. We don't get stock hockey answers with you.

16:43Sean: Well, I don't want stock hockey questions. Right. If you're never gonna give me a stock hockey answer. If gonna. If I give them the same. If I lob the softballs over the plate, and I don't. I don't Try to be. I'm not an investigative reporter. I try to tell the guy, you know, let's peek behind the curtain for a second. I tell all the guys what I'm gonna ask them in the commercial.

17:01Andrew: Oh, yeah, all the time.

17:02Sean: I always tell them, give them a chance. And if the Soo they're like, if they're nervous, I'm like, well, let's talk, let's talk through. We got 90 seconds right now. Yeah, yeah. And let's clean up that answer. But maybe just, you know, be a little more honest about that. And I push them on things. I have an idea of what I'm gonna ask. I don't always ask it. I listen to the answer and then I maybe go a different way. Tangent, squirrel. That's me. So that's what we do. But I also, the comfort is really important. I've had guys come out and not want to do an interview and I have to, you know, give them a little kick. I got some stories about that. But yeah, it's, it's. Yeah, I appreciate what you say. The intermission, we're fans intermissions. When you go grab a beer, you go to the bathroom, you make a phone call, you check your phone.

17:40Justin: Yeah.

17:41Sean: I love that you guys are actually watching the intermission.

17:43Andrew: Hey, hey.

17:44Justin: I watch the, I'll shout out. I'll call him out here. I watch the flames. I don't stick around for the intermission. Right.

17:50Andrew: Yeah.

17:50Justin: I come back for Rangers intermission.

17:52Andrew: Yeah, absolutely. That's the same thing. Like the NHL. The NHL, It's a different level. It's stock hockey questions. I don't need to see a guy in a towel, out of pucks and deep answering. Yeah. Like, finish our checks, keep doing what we're doing. Maybe we played a little bit better than the result we got in this, in that first period. Right. Like, it's like, yeah, I know. I'm, I'm there, I'm watching. Right. Like, I mean, like we're all there. What I do appreciate, and this, like, obviously isn't just the pump your tires, it's just that what you just said is you're dealing with, with young men, you know, I dare I say boys in some case when you're talking to just Fresh faced, like 16 year olds. Like when you stood next to Evan Headrick and interviewed him, I was like, this is a young, young man. But the, the answers that were coming out of his mouth and the questions you were asking him, that was like a pro hockey player.

18:36Sean: Yeah.

18:36Andrew: You know what I mean? So but knowing what we know in our brief time talking to people doing this, we know that a lot of the reasons the answers are good is because the questions are good.

18:50Sean: I appreciate that. I think one of the things I try to bring and it's, I bring it because I want it back. I try to throw it out so I get it back is authenticity. I try to be unapologetically myself. I'm asking questions that I want to know the answers to. I'm asking questions that I want to highlight. And I hope that you, as the person answering the question are going to give me something real and not some BS on screen. That's my goal. I feel like we do a pretty good job achieving it. It's nice to hear that it's working. Like one quick story, like, so, Michael Vukojovich, he used to play here. He was a defenseman and he wasn't great at the interviews off the top, he was by the time he left. And I feel like that's my job. You better be good at the interviews by the time you leave here or I haven't done my job properly. He came out, they were losing seven nothing to the Erie Otters. Second intermission. Came out in a miserable mood. He looked at me and he goes, they usually come out, we small talk, we talk about what? The interviews. And he'd done a few with me already and he said, I'm gonna go wait. He's sulky. I'm gonna wait in the stick room. You tell me when there's 15 seconds left and we're gonna, we'll all come out. And I went, all right. Turned my microphone off, walked in the stick room. I looked him right in the eyes and I had a really good relationship with him. I took a chance, I pointed at him in the face and I said, you are an NHL drafted defenseman. You are gonna have to give, and I swore, a ton of interviews where you're in a terrible mood and the game is not going well. Use this as practice. Come out with me in 10 seconds. Don't give me any BS answers, don't give me pucks in deep. I'm going to ask you questions. Be yourself and give me a great interview. And I walked out and I'm like, this is either going to go one

20:28Justin: way or the other or he's not going to show up. It's going to be a great interview

20:32Sean: either way, however it ends, we've got a story.

20:35Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

20:36Andrew: It's going to be a great clip.

20:38Sean: So I waited and waited and 10 seconds later, he came out, came and stood beside me, waited, did the interview. Did a great interview.

20:46Justin: Yeah.

20:47Sean: Send it to commercial. Normally they walk off, and by the time I throw it to commercial, they're already in the room.

20:51Justin: Right.

20:51Sean: He stopped just past the camera, and he turned around as soon as we went to break, and he looked me right in the eyes and he said, thank you. I needed that. And he never. And he never did that again. Yeah, right. Although the next time, he did try to give me pucks in deep. I said to him before, I'm like, don't give me pucks in deep. And then in the interview, he looks at me and goes, you know, we're just going to get pucks in deep and smiles at me. And I'm off camera. And I called him on it, and I looked right at him. I went, pucks in deep, huh?

21:19Andrew: I think that's part of it, though, is you do have this rapport with the guys, and it's natural. It comes natural. It doesn't feel forced. It doesn't feel like you're up there trying to be, like, buddies with these guys. I think you just have genuinely fucking formed bonds and relationships with these players by being authentically yourself, which I think they appreciate. And they can feel, especially being guys in the situation that they're in, some of them are, you know, NHL draft picks. Some of them are vying to be drafted. I think essentially what I'm curious about is how many of these guys, you know, do you keep in touch with? For example, we were kind of amazed to see your family go out and. And see, like, Hunter Brstavich play his first professional game. And then we kind of get the vibe that, like, you know, even just like, your relationship with. When ando played his 200th game, there's an extra aspect of it that definitely makes the Rangers community and your involvement with the team feel much more like a familial thing.

22:17Justin: Rip Hunter Brustevich.

22:19Sean: Yeah, Memorial.

22:21Justin: Memorial.

22:22Sean: By the way, let's appreciate the fact that I had to borrow a jersey to get out there for that game, so thank you for that.

22:27Justin: Anytime. It can come back. Signed next time.

22:30Sean: I could have done better on that. Feel like I thought about it after

22:36Andrew: I may have misled him.

22:37Justin: I was like, I bet you your jersey comes back.

22:39Andrew: And he was like, let me put

22:41Sean: it this way, that jersey is going to eventually get signed for you. I'll ensure that.

22:45Andrew: Okay.

22:45Sean: A lot of these guys end up feeling like family, right? They're. I told you those 35 conversations, I have before. That's why it works. This is a real conversation. I tell them the camera's not there, the light's not there. This is just you and I talking. Let's just have the same conversation. We always have some connections. Become stronger. Riley Damiani was at my wedding. You haven't lived until you've done the cha cha slide at your own wedding beside a former Rangers captain. It's pretty fun. I talked to Matt SOP yesterday because we're gonna catch up. He's home for a couple weeks. We're gonna catch up. I went out for a dance competition in Halifax and I went to see Reed Valad took me around the St. Mary's Huskies stuff. In two weeks, we're going to Aylmer and we're shooting a special feature on Cameron Reid We're going to his home. We're gonna tell you the story of Cameron Reid hockey journey. It was originally gonna be a 10 minute feature, but we were making it a half hour special which is actually gonna be the lead into the home opener. So I'm really excited for that.

23:42Justin: You heard it here first.

23:43Sean: Breaking news, breaking news, breaking news. You're gonna be able to see it in August on rogerstv. And my show this week in Rangers nation is normally the lead in on Friday nights on September 19th. That's going to get pushed to six. So it's going to be this week in Rangers Nation, then the Cam Reed Special, which title TBD. And then our home opener on the the Soo you got to watch me three times in a row. Sorry about that. But we're going to tell. But we're taking you inside. We want to learn more about Cam's journey and about Cam's family and why that family unit is so strong and how they all got to that draft in LA and got drafted by Nashville and things like Cam's grandfather who used to be an equipment manager for the Erie Otters. Like these are stories you don't know. Or the fact that there's a bar in Aylmer called Size that has a picture of 8 year old Cam Reed and Rene Von Balmo from the London Knights beside each other playing on the same team. So these are the things I want to tell. I want to show you that side of it. Anyone can tell you how many points he got last year, right? I don't really care. You can look that up on Wikipedia.

24:45Andrew: 55.

24:46Justin: Yeah.

24:47Andrew: You know why? Because we called it.

24:49Justin: Yeah.

24:49Andrew: We do things.

24:51Justin: Yeah.

24:52Sean: You were a little off on the swick, but you nailed the rain.

24:55Andrew: We'll have a chance to make it up to Swick.

24:57Justin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

24:58Sean: But tangent. So there we were again. But those relationships are important to me. Someone asked me, what's your favorite, what are your favorite moments? What are your favorite moments? And I'm like, okay, well I can tell you about Yansis's 50 50th goal, or I can tell you about Petizian's goal, or I can tell you about this shutout that happened. But my favorite moments, honestly, one of my favorite moments just happened. It was the NHL draft. And we'll go back to Cam Reed. Did you watch the NHL draft? He opened it, they asked him about his jacket. He showed his jacket. And I was at a poker game. Shockingly, we're watching the NHL draft. One of the guys at the game goes, are you on the jacket? And I turn around and there's a picture of me and Cam on the inside of the jacket. At the moment the Soo this is all the people who helped me get there. Yeah. Oh, the emotion I felt in that moment when we're trying to make these human relationships. And I see that, to me that's success. That's not that you're gonna ask me what my favorite moment is, but if you were to ask me, we know

25:58Justin: it's the Baptisian goal. Yeah, I do.

25:59Andrew: Yeah, that's true.

26:00Justin: We don't need to ask this one.

26:03Sean: That's right up there. I mean, recency bias, that just happened a couple of weeks ago. But that you asked me that in 10 years I probably won't be able to tell that story without getting emotional.

26:10Andrew: Yeah, of course.

26:11Justin: I mean, going, going back to what we were talking about earlier, like we were watching, watching the draft. We know you're a big part of these kids lives. We Sam O'Reilly number of rangers go. There were interviews with them. They like the one, the ones that we saw like great interviews, better than the average NHL draft interview. And we know that that comes from the fact that like you are one of these people who's. All these things that we just talked about as a part of their journey, like just makes, makes these guys better. We talked to Ando a couple weeks ago and like we got tons of comments that were like, wow, this guy's so well spoken and stuff like that. And we.

26:45Sean: Did you see his 16 year old interviews compared to your show? Yeah, World of Difference.

26:49Justin: Right. He, he admitted it. He said, you know, I broke out of my shell in my second and third years and, and you, you know, we knew that this was a part of it. Like, you're a part of that journey for these kids, and, like, you're making them better at the side of hockey that I bet most players hate.

27:06Sean: Yeah, they really don't like it. Yeah, he doesn't like it. Like, if you watch that first interview with Matt Andonofsky, he said dream come true, like, 13 times. And we joke about.

27:14Justin: We call it that.

27:15Sean: We call it the dream come true day. We call it the dream come true interview. But I told you guys, too. Like, I messaged you guys after that Ando one, which was a nice surprise. I didn't know you had him. And I'm like, you got some stuff out of him that I didn't even. And I. I feel like there's no one in this league that knows that guy better than I do. And you got some great. I learned things on your show with him.

27:35Justin: That's cool.

27:35Sean: And I mean, compared to, like, how you guys started, like, I mean.

27:39Andrew: Oh, yeah, we don't talk about the early.

27:41Sean: Using your own words. Using your own words. Like, I. I listened to the first few and I was like, of course these guys don't know what they're talking about. They're trying. I'm gonna keep listening because they're trying.

27:51Justin: Yeah.

27:51Sean: And. But by the time, like now, if you would have told me back in September, you're going to do an in depth interview with Ando and I'm going to learn something about Andonoskia, I'd be like, I'll take that back. I would have lost, because you guys did a fantastic job on it. And I sat there watching. I'm like, man, you guys are getting really good at this, and I love it. And I'll tell you why. Some people in any market, in any sporting endeavor or media endeavor, they're proprietary. They're like, no, no, this is what I do. This is what I do. I'm like, no, man, there's enough room for all these voices. I love all the different voices, and I love that there was two different voices talking about something we all love and giving a different side of it. And I think the reason I gravitated to your show was because authenticity is two guys laughing and goofing off with each other. And I can tell you guys care about each other. And you guys, like, sitting around and talking to each other, right? And to me, when I teach broadcasting, I say, don't memorize anything. Don't write down what you want to say. The camera's your best friend. Imagine you're sitting in a chair across from your best friend, what would you say to him or her about what is happening in this game? That's the best things to watch. That's what makes it relatable. And I think that's why I was drawn to what you guys do.

29:09Justin: Cool. Thank you very much.

29:11Andrew: And we'll end it on that note. Thank you very much.

29:19Sean: You're welcome.

29:19Andrew: I really appreciate that. You can come back anytime.

29:22Sean: Yeah, but that's effort. No, but. But honestly, like, let's talk about those first couple episodes, because I'm like, you guys don't know the overager rule.

29:29Andrew: No.

29:29Sean: You don't know. You're calling him Francisco Pinelli. I'm like, you don't even know the names. You couldn't say Ms. Eljevic to save your life.

29:36Justin: Ms. Aljevic.

29:37Sean: Yes. I think one time you said you looked at something, and I could see that you were struggling. You went panofemise instead of panofima. And I'm like, you totally bailed on it. You didn't commit to them. Like, one of the things in Convocation name reading is like, even if you're wrong, say it like, you're the authority on that name.

29:54Andrew: Yeah.

29:54Sean: And you were like, you can do so much better. And then you guys did and chipping away, and I'm like, nah, Now I'm looking forward to Fridays.

30:01Andrew: Well, I really appreciate that, Justin. When we started this, we started this for us, right?

30:06Sean: Yeah.

30:06Andrew: I mean, and I think that's probably what you're talking about. Authenticity. Coming through. A couple of guys just having fun. We started this for us. The fact that we're sitting here now,

30:14Justin: like, talking to you about this is. We.

30:17Andrew: We just. We just keep looking at each other, like, can't believe this is just taking off like this.

30:21Justin: Yeah.

30:22Sean: I love it.

30:23Justin: Yeah.

30:23Andrew: This is so fun. But we. You said something to me in those early meetings. You said, I really like when podcasters learn on the go, and I get to learn with the Aud it took all the pressure I felt, like, off of me, because I've always been the type of person that if I'm not good at it the first time, I don't want to do that.

30:42Sean: I don't want done.

30:43Justin: I don't.

30:44Andrew: I don't want to do that, because I've been lucky enough that I've tried some things in my life and been good at them right away, and I'm like, these are my things.

30:50Sean: This is what I do.

30:51Andrew: And podcasting was not bad and certainly not the Aud pot. Maybe A different kind of podcast I might have been good at right away, but the AudPod we're definitely not good at right away. And I just feel like you took the pressure off and then you and I just kind of had fun because we figured no one would ever listen.

31:08Justin: Yeah.

31:09Sean: See, and that's. Then you hit the find out.

31:14Andrew: That's true. That was a turning point for us.

31:16Justin: Yeah. We made a podcast for us because we were like brand new Rangers fans.

31:20Andrew: Yep.

31:21Sean: Yeah.

31:21Justin: We were like, wait a minute. As a new Rangers fan, what the hell is the ohl? Like, we didn't know anything. It was like, we'll learn and tell people out loud. We'll just say it out loud. And yeah, maybe someone will learn something or maybe what someone will be like, ah, skip ahead.

31:36Andrew: And we'll get to get. We'll get to hang out and talk about hockey every week. And our wives can't say anything because it's a project. Just make a project out of hanging out.

31:47Sean: Yeah, it works.

31:47Andrew: Yeah. This brings me back to something you were talking about was a lead in with. With Cameron Reid And I just want to jump back, was our first introduction to you was last year's lead in, which was the UCAH hocus.

31:59Sean: That was great.

32:00Andrew: The Denny Lemieux slap shot sketch.

32:02Sean: Oh, yeah, that was good.

32:03Andrew: Which I was sitting there being like, first of all, this is so well done. Because my first. My first reaction to anything like that is like, is this going to. Is this a good idea? But it's going to suck because they're hockey guys. Obviously didn't know who you were and didn't realize that you see a hocus, even though he is the quintessential Finnish hockey player turned coach, he was totally into it. So please take me through that creative process because now, knowing what I know about coach, a hocus. How did you pull that off?

32:36Sean: This was great. This was one of my favorite things. So we did this six years ago with. I mentioned the story about Michael Vakojevic. We did it with Michael Vakojevic. We recreated. He was fantastic. And I said five years about the time to maybe try it again. And I think it would only work if we did it with uc because of the accent and because you see has that visual air of disinterest that Denny has in that scene.

33:00Justin: Right? Yes.

33:01Sean: You know what I'm saying

33:04Andrew: Now I

33:05Sean: have to tell you that in UC's first year, we talked every game, we talked off the ice, but I did not have a personal relationship with UC whatsoever. I only knew game Day uc, We talked sometimes we didn't talk, we didn't joke, we didn't text. We didn't do anything until one person told me. UC has a really great sense of humor. You just got to get to know him a little bit. And I said, okay, well, I don't know that I'm in that circle. Do you think he'd be interested in doing this? And I kind of braced for the answer, expecting a no. And he said he would be so into that. You just have to ask. Sent the email in to ask. He's like, yeah, I'm flying in from Finland this day. We can do it the next day. And I'm like, okay, here's the script. Came in, nailed it. We did it in 35 minutes. We did five takes. The third one was the usable one, and we did the whole thing. It was fantastic. He nailed. He nailed every element of it.

34:05Andrew: Yeah.

34:05Sean: Yeah.

34:06Andrew: Well, and you're also. You were also, like. It was a continuous shot.

34:08Sean: Yeah.

34:09Andrew: It wasn't like you were cutting. It was like a full scene. Like he was acting, like, in a stage play.

34:13Sean: Yeah.

34:14Andrew: And you filmed it.

34:15Sean: Yeah. And a funny story about that is. So we do it verbatim, every word for word, except the line where Denny says, probably some English pig with no brains. We changed it to Sam O'Reilly Sam O'Reilly want you to say probably, and you're going to start to say London night, but you say london and I cut you off. I said, but it's your choice. You can say London night and I'll cut you off, or you can say English pig, because I think it's funny with your Finnish accent. And he says, I want to say London pig. And I said, I don't think that'll work. And then he goes, okay, so if you watch it again, I wasn't expecting the London pig. I was expecting the London night. And he said it so fast that I couldn't cut him off in time. And then he smirks at me, like, got you. And I have a legit laugh because I did not expect the London pig line. And so that's what you're getting with uc. So that process was great. And that kind of opened a door to, you know, he and I chat a fair bit now. And. Yeah. Yeah, he is a. He's a really wonderful guy. And, you know, we were pretty.

35:23Justin: Like. I would say that we were legitimately scared of the coach that we so affectionately call the Juice.

35:28Sean: Yeah, I was too. I was too off the top.

35:30Justin: Yeah. Like.

35:30Andrew: Yeah.

35:31Justin: I mean, we've never met Him. But like, even. Just like, his presence on the bench is like.

35:36Sean: Yeah.

35:37Justin: Pretty intense.

35:38Sean: Yeah. And you don't get to hear what I hear down there.

35:40Justin: Oh, no, I know. Absolutely not.

35:42Andrew: We don't. We don't need to.

35:43Justin: It's.

35:44Andrew: But even just a look is scary.

35:46Justin: But then, like, there was. There was a couple interviews that you had with him at the end of the games on tv, and it was like, oh, yeah. Like, then. Then we started to learn that he had a sense of humor like that. Pretty good for a rebuilding team. And, like, I think you showed him a picture of him as a child and.

36:01Sean: Yeah, I did.

36:01Justin: His feature started, like, belly laughing. Like, I got.

36:04Sean: You gave me a star for that. Oh, yeah, for sure. I was like, yeah.

36:09Justin: I was like, oh, man, this guy's a gem.

36:11Sean: In the first. In the first year, I didn't try to do any fun things. End of the game, just post game, win or lose, we gotta do whatever. And now I'm like, okay, now we're gonna try some things. So I would. I would try to close with maybe. I've tried some. Some rudimentary finish, which makes him laugh, and, you know, and then I try that thing with the pictures, and then I. Yeah, we just try to have some fun. Yeah, right. And then sometimes he surprises me, like, on my birthday, I wrapped up the interview, and he stops to make sure I get a birthday wish. And so, yeah, it was.

36:37Justin: It's.

36:37Sean: You know, we have a pretty good relationship now. And I was in Thunder Bay for a dance competition. And Thunder Bay has a massive Finnish population, which I knew nothing about. Over 14,000 Finns and more than Toronto, actually. And somebody told us, you got to go for Finnish pancakes. And I'm like, what the heck are Finnish pancakes? Yeah.

36:56Andrew: What?

36:56Sean: So we went for finished pancakes the next morning, and I texted, you see the menu? And I said, I'm going for finished pancakes. Do I get. Do I get the sweet or do I get the savor? And he texts me back. He goes, get these and these and these and these. You won't be sorry. And I'm like, sure enough.

37:09Justin: That's awesome.

37:09Sean: I was not sorry. They were delicious finished pancakes. Everybody try them.

37:12Andrew: Oh, what?

37:13Justin: Okay. What makes it.

37:14Sean: Yeah, it's like a. It's like a crepe. It's like half crepe, half pancake.

37:18Andrew: Okay.

37:19Sean: I think it's very similar to what some people call Dutch babies.

37:22Justin: Okay.

37:22Sean: So it's another form of European morning pastry goodness.

37:26Andrew: Yeah.

37:27Sean: But it was wrong.

37:28Justin: They really got it nailed over.

37:29Andrew: Yeah. I was gonna Sam O'Reilly can't really

37:30Justin: go the whole continent.

37:31Sean: Really, it was pretty good. And the place I went to, it was like a half pancake house, half sauna. You could, like, just pay.

37:39Andrew: That is so very.

37:41Sean: It's not a joke.

37:43Justin: No, no, no.

37:44Andrew: We know enough about fins from drive to survive to know.

37:48Sean: So anyway, that's the process through the slap shot thing is phenomenal. And I'm. I'm really fortunate that I have a lot of goofy ideas. Let's do this, let's do this, let's do that. And the level of trust that Rogers and my other contracts give me. Oh, I can't even tell you what that means to me. In 21 years on Rogers TV, twice I've had an idea where they've said, I don't think that's good. Everything else, they're like, sure, let's give it a shot.

38:13Andrew: That's it.

38:14Sean: Twice they've said no to me. So I'm pretty lucky.

38:17Andrew: I mean, that's great because we were going to ask you about, you know, 21 years at Rogers TV. How has that changed local television station in 21 years? Obviously you can take us through, like, how you started with them, but, like, just generally, like, take us through the difference in 20 years that you've seen in that sort of a medium.

38:38Sean: Okay, so I got started. It's funny, you had Mike Farwell on recently, and my story is remarkably similar to his.

38:43Andrew: Okay.

38:44Sean: He went to the mall and I actually just sent an email. I had been doing public address announcing for five years until one day a basketball coach said to me, you know, Sean, you never shut up during a game. And I was like, oh, thank you, Eric. That's nice to hear. And he goes, no, what I mean is you should have a microphone and you should be doing this on Rogers tv. So that was a Wednesday, that was a Tuesday. And he said, you should email the Soo I looked up and found an email address and had to delicately word say, hey, I think I can be better than the guys you have on the air right now. And I'm a bit of a wordsmith, so I did that. And he's like, what are you doing Saturday? You want to come out? I'm like, okay, just like, Mike's story. No screen test, no nothing.

39:24Andrew: Just you were just there.

39:25Sean: Come out. Saturday. Color commentary for women's basketball. I did it. He was like, that was great. You want to come back next week? I'm like, sure. You need a sideline reporter for the next game. And they're like, sure. You ever done interviews? I'm like, yep, did it. I ended up hosting OUA sports for 10 years based on that one.

39:40Justin: Just an email. Just putting yourself out there.

39:42Sean: That's it. And the funny thing is, Mike told that story. Same guy. Chris Schooley is the same guy that hired me in 2004. And then when Mike made that move from Guelph to Kitchener, they offered me the role in Guelph. And I said no, because My son was 4 years old. And honestly, I didn't know enough about the league. I said, I don't want to do it. And I was a little intimidated by the ohl. And you guys can appreciate that when you're learning. And I said, how can I be the guy that sends an email that says, you guys don't know enough. Let me be the expert. And then you want to throw me into something that I don't know enough about, and I'm going to try and BS my way through that. And I don't. I can't be that guy. So I just kept saying no and no and no for years until finally one producer said, what is it going to take for you to do ohl? We want you to do ohl what will it take? And I said, give me two years. Give me two years to learn the league. And then ask me again.

40:31Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

40:32Sean: And then I did, and then I started. But to answer your other question, how has it changed? Not a lot, really. We used to have mobile trucks that would show up, and now we don't always have that. We run things from the studio, but other than that, the show is remarkably similar. More digital graphics, obviously, but in terms of the production, it's human beings and volunteers who are learning the job and will make mistakes. So your score bug will be wrong sometime and your camera cuts will be wrong sometime. And sometimes you're gonna miss a goal. But you know what? It's because we're teaching people how to do things. And you can't do things well unless you do things wrong at some point. So that's why, you know when you see Facebook comments or things on X or call in shows and people are like, how come they're not doing this? And yell at Cloud? It's like, you know what? Come on out. Yeah, come on out and try it. And then I'll defend you as hard as I defend that guy or that girl that worked their butt off and that game on my camera tonight.

41:31Justin: There was like an early season, like volunteer appreciation or something on. On Rogers tv. And I remember texting Andrew. I was like, these are all volunteers doing this. Like, I had no idea. I was like, this is remarkable production quality. This is remarkable production quality.

41:48Sean: All volunteer.

41:48Justin: And the Aud like, and these are all volunteers. Like, that's crazy.

41:51Sean: On air, on air talent. We're not volunteers. The producer, technical producer. Everything else is volunteer. Yeah, everything.

41:57Andrew: Yeah.

41:57Justin: All the camera people. Everything. Like, it's nuts.

41:59Sean: Yeah. I had eight different camera people down in my position this year.

42:02Andrew: Yeah.

42:03Sean: And they were.

42:03Justin: That feels consistent. Really.

42:05Sean: But they were all great. Yeah, they were all great. And if they weren't great, they're going to be better next game.

42:09Justin: Yeah.

42:09Sean: The one thing is, you know, whether you're doing that or whether you're doing this or whether you're doing what I do. Like, I've done 26 years of public address, 25 years of hosting. I've done over 3,000 games. And one of the guys said to me, why do you still go ask for pronunciations? I'm like, because there's never a ceiling. There's never a ceiling. Every game I do, I did a lacrosse game last night and then a baseball game the day before that. And I have a basketball game tomorrow. Every game try to get a little bit better. It's. I try to equate it to golf. I'm like, nobody ever came off a golf course and said, you know what? Nothing to work on. Yeah, that was a perfect round. I've got nothing that I could do better. Same with broadcast. There's always something. So if you watch your stuff or you listen to your stuff or, I don't know if you guys go back and look at things. Like, I still evaluate my stuff. I'm like, I use my hands a lot. Sometimes I look up to the side when I don't want to. Sometimes I Sam O'Reilly little too much, but that's just me. When you turn the TV on, you're not getting a character. You're getting Sean with the volume turned up a little bit and 100% less swearing. That's really all it is.

43:12Andrew: We love that.

43:13Justin: Yeah.

43:15Sean: But that's what I'm saying. There's always. Don't find a ceiling. Don't ever be complacent. Yeah. Whether you're the Aud tech, whether you're doing a podcast, whether you're, you know, hosting Hockey Night in Canada, there's never a ceiling.

43:26Justin: Take notes. Hockey night in Canada.

43:31Sean: Speaking of, let's just one thing. Tangent. I almost did something today that was gonna. You guys were both gonna love and Hate. At the same time, I almost showed up in a Calgary Flames shirt and an Edmonton Oilers hat.

43:45Andrew: I wish you had.

43:46Justin: Wow, I'm glad you didn't.

43:47Andrew: That would have been a cheap.

43:48Sean: Because I'm like. You guys would have been a roller coaster just sitting there looking at me. Right?

43:51Justin: Yeah.

43:52Andrew: Yeah.

43:52Sean: I did it once in Vancouver. I went to a Canucks Oilers game or a Canucks jersey and an Oilers hat. Every single person hated me.

44:00Andrew: Yeah, they hated me.

44:01Justin: Yeah, I know you. You wouldn't have done it because the orange and the blue look terrible with the red. Like, they do not coordinate. They clash. They clash like the Battle of Alberta.

44:10Andrew: Do you ever clash? And. And, I mean, not to cut you off there, but I was gonna ask, like, how many closets do you have? Like, how many closets full? Is there a storage unit somewhere in

44:20Justin: rural southern Andrew I want to just.

44:23Sean: Okay, first of all, it's only a couple closets. Second of all, I was at the storage unit today. My son is moving home from Calgary, so I had to make some room in the storage unit. So I went there today, and I opened up looking what's in all these bins? And I opened up the bins, and I'm like, oh, there's those shoes from the slap shot sketch that I couldn't find. That happened today.

44:50Justin: Perfect.

44:51Sean: Cool. So, yeah, there's a lot of clothes.

44:55Andrew: Yeah.

44:56Sean: I mean, this. I'm wearing shorts right now, but I mean, I've got. Yeah, color is a thing.

45:00Justin: Do you have to do a seasonal swap?

45:02Sean: No.

45:03Justin: Oh, okay.

45:04Andrew: Well, that's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. So, no.

45:06Justin: So you got Sam O'Reilly got some more regular you stuff and Sam O'Reilly

45:09Sean: I don't leave the house without something matching. Right. Like the glasses. I got 15 different pairs of glasses.

45:15Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

45:16Sean: I mean. Got the custom dunks on today.

45:18Justin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell us about the dunks. You were talking about it a little bit before we started.

45:22Sean: Okay. So the players got custom Nike dunks to celebrate a great first season.

45:26Justin: Yeah.

45:27Sean: And they know I'm shoe guys. I'm a shoe guy. And so Matt Andonovsky and Cameron Mercer designed the Aud they gave me the specs. And while they didn't buy me the shoes, they gave me the specs so that I could order my own and match the guys. I'll take one off and show you here if you want to see. So these. So on the back here, on each of these, the guy's got. So Ando has one. On one side it says Ando, and the other side says 05 or Mercer says Merce and 14 and I got SF on the back. They told me I should have got SF and tv, but I got SF and sf, but these are the exact specs, so.

46:01Justin: That's awesome.

46:01Sean: Yeah, it's pretty fun. But, yeah, I le. I mean, even if I'm just wearing a hoodie or something, it's like, well, what glasses and what phone case you got at? Right.

46:08Andrew: So right down to the phone case. That's pretty cool.

46:10Sean: People are like, how much do you spend? I'm like, temu is great.

46:13Andrew: I was gonna say.

46:13Justin: Yes.

46:14Andrew: I was gonna say some of these things are easy to match.

46:16Sean: Yeah, real easy.

46:17Andrew: So you mentioned your son coming back from Calgary. Yeah, Talked about him a little bit earlier. Just obviously he's a huge part of the choices you've made, when you've made them, how you've made them. You've incorporated them into the Rangers. What's he doing out in Calgary? He's coming back.

46:31Sean: Well, it's my stepson that's out in Calgary. Sorry.

46:33Andrew: Yeah.

46:33Sean: So not Lucas. Declan. I refer to him as my son. We're all one big family. He's coming back, but he. He was at the Hunter Bruce game that your jersey made its way to. We were out visiting and the Soo he's coming back home and we're really excited about that. But he loves the Rangers too. He did some work with me. He did some DJing at some other things. But it's gonna be cool to have both the boys back again.

46:53Andrew: Absolutely.

46:54Justin: How is it with. Obviously, Lucas is trying to steal all of your jobs. How is it mentoring your replacement?

47:00Sean: It's funny because people are like, he's way better than you. And I'm like, first of all, you're so right. He really is. The only thing he hasn't done yet is tv. He's done all the behind the scenes stuff, but I feel like it's not. There's not going to be a day too far down the road where he's not. He's filling in for me. He wants to try it and I think Rodgers wants him to try it. He's getting much more comfortable in front of the camera, PA announcing. Even though I have way more experience than him, he is better than me. I will say that. He is better than me. He's bilingual. He's done five national championships.

47:35Justin: Wow.

47:35Sean: He is carving his own path as a football announcer, which is spectacular. I know that I can. If I can't be somewhere he can go. And again, people say, what's it like Working with him. I don't work with him that much. He does his own thing. He's got his own contracts that he's built on his own. We do a couple things together where we do Kitchener Panthers together. We're the announcers. We do lacrosse together. We're the announcers. Convocation. He technically works for me. Like, he's one of my readers, but other than that, everything's his own. And he's doing a really, really good. I'm super proud of him. Yeah. And it's. You know, sometimes he comes to me for help. He's like, you know, I don't know what to say in this email or I don't know how to handle this. And I'm like, well, here's what I would do. But, you know, if you need help, let me know. But I know you'll know the right thing to do. Cool. He's gonna be 24. And then he started when he was doing stuff when he was 15. His first Enos. First game when he's 15, he's just gonna be coming up on 600 already. That's nuts. I mean, to be fair, he does softball, and sometimes there's triple headers. So he's padding his number. Okay.

48:36Justin: Right.

48:37Sean: That's what I'm saying. I say to him, like, how much he does junior football. He does five in a day. I'm like, I can't keep up with that. You're gonna lap me.

48:45Andrew: Yeah.

48:45Sean: It's not fair.

48:46Justin: Well, you know his number. What's your number?

48:47Sean: I didn't keep track. And that's why we keep militant track of his.

48:51Justin: Okay.

48:51Sean: Because I don't know my milestones. I know. I know loosely where I am, okay? Because I realized when I was gonna start really doing this, what am I at about? And so I use that as my about. And then I kind of know when I'm passing, so I don't know any of my milestones. But we know all of his, right? So we know when he's done his 500th game, when he's done his 200th basketball game, when you know all these things. So I said, you do all your own invoicing. You do everything. But I just need to know where you're working, what you're doing, what you're committing to, what's in your calendar. So I can just keep a ledger so I can track your milestone games. That's all I do for him, is that I. And that's really selfish, but I just don't want him to Miss Anyways, I don't want him to miss out on knowing the things that. That I didn't know. Like he didn't know his 500th game was coming up, and then I knew it was coming up. And he had a basketball game at Conestoga, and it was the Remembrance Day game at the Aud and I'm never missing the Remembrance Day game. And he's like, are you coming? I'm like, no, I can't make it. And he's like, you're gonna miss my 500th game? I'm like, well, it's the Remembrance Day game. What am I gonna do?

49:51Andrew: Yeah.

49:51Sean: But meanwhile, I went to the Aud had my pre game meeting with everybody. My wife picked me up. We literally raced to Conestoga College, walked in the gym five minutes before the ceremony for him and surprised him, watched the ceremony. He was shocked. I was there the second the basketball game tipped off. I said, we're leaving as soon as the first whistle happens. There was nightgowns. We ran out. I got back in time for puck drop.

50:16Justin: Amazing.

50:16Andrew: That's what it's all about. That pretty much speaks, I think, to your character and your relationship with your son. You're keeping track of his milestones, and that's the milestones that matter. Right?

50:26Sean: I mean, well, thank you. That's. Being a dad is pretty. Is a pretty big job, I think, you know, you guys get it. Oh, yeah, right?

50:33Andrew: Oh, yeah.

50:34Justin: So, like hockey, we're new to the

50:35Andrew: season, we're pronouncing some names improperly, and we're doing things a little wrong, and we're learning.

50:42Sean: But there were times when Lucas was playing, and Lucas didn't ever get to a huge level. He played select hockey. Never played, you know, MD or anything like that. But even his house league games, like, if there's a hustle game the same night as the Rangers game. I'm not at the Rangers game. That other game at the Albert McCormick arena is the most important game on this planet to me right now.

51:00Andrew: You don't know milestone games, but I am very curious.

51:03Sean: Okay.

51:05Andrew: Have there ever been broadcasts or games or events even. Let's open it right up. That have gone completely off the rails? I'm sure there have. Is there a story that stands out that you want to share?

51:16Sean: We were in the playoffs, 2011, and we were doing a pregame show for the Kitchener Rangers We were playing the Plymouth Whalers, and it was my. The pregame show was going to be. Come in, Sean. Introduce everything. Go to a quick break. Come back, do a one on one with the play by play, do a one by one on one with the color, do a double box with the host, and then tie a tidy little bow on it and go on our merry way. Can you do that? I'm like, yeah, sure. Okay. You just got to come up with an intro. I said, okay. So it was Game 3 of the playoff series against Plymouth, and I think we were favored. Well, we weren't favored because we weren't games one and two, but we shouldn't have been down two zero, and we were down two nothing. Coming back to Kitchener, and our producer at the time, he always liked us to do a run through. So like 15 or 10 or five minutes before we do a practice run through of what the intro's gonna be. And I was kind of trying to figure out what my intro was gonna be in my head and. And I started just spewing things out. This is just in the run through, just in the run through. And I'm like. So I'm here, I'm looking at the camera. Gary and Andrew, the play by play and color are right over here. And I said, welcome to the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. Yada yada, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. And if you would have told me that the Kitchener Rangers were coming back here trailing to nothing, and then I just froze and I went, wouldn't have believed you. And you know when you see the words come out. Yeah, you see the words come out and I saw their faces and they both went

52:48Andrew: in theater and we call that being in the Aud room.

52:51Sean: You get it? I was in the Aud room. So it happened. And then there was this real pregnant pause. Let's go dramatic. And in my ear, the producer just goes, because we did this late, we were like five minutes of game time. He goes, yeah, you got three minutes to make that better. And that was it. So I was terrified. I made it a little better, but it was not my finest hour. I have said Sam O'Reilly made some mistakes on public address announcing before. I had a coach storm off of an interview because he did not like my question. Troy Smith left an interview one time. It was a. Sometimes from here to here, it doesn't sound the same. It sounds great here, and the Aud comes out here. I still don't think the question was that bad. I should have identified that it was a really emotional day because again, we're playing Plymouth and we had just been eliminated from playoff contention in a year where we were in last place. So this was the Game that we got mathematically eliminated, and I was hosting, and we were trailing two nothing. And all season long, our team, when they fell behind, they just fell. And it just kept getting worse and worse. But we were trailing two nothing came back to the Aud two. Two lost four, two got eliminated. So my first question in my brain is, let's talk about the resiliency of the team. And not phoning it in after trailing to nothing. But I phrased it in a way that said, all season long, the team has struggled playing from behind. How happy were you with how well they played tonight? And he said, sean, I resent the question, and I don't think that's a fair assessment. And he stormed off. And I was like, okay, we're gonna go upstairs.

54:20Justin: Thanks, guys.

54:22Andrew: Yeah.

54:22Justin: Yeah.

54:23Andrew: What else can you do?

54:23Sean: What else can you do? Live tv.

54:26Justin: We've taken up a lot of your time. Andrew. I know you got it. You had. Andrew sent me the list of questions for you.

54:32Sean: Yeah.

54:32Justin: Did we get.

54:32Sean: Did we even get through half of them?

54:34Justin: I don't think so.

54:34Sean: No.

54:35Andrew: We didn't even close. But we have to before. Before we wrap this up. Yeah. We have to talk some Rangers hockey.

54:40Justin: Correct.

54:40Andrew: Coming. Looking back at last season, looking at this season. Okay.

54:43Sean: But before we do.

54:44Andrew: Yeah.

54:44Sean: Can I just ask you guys a question?

54:46Andrew: Sure.

54:47Sean: Because I have a bit of a bone to pick with you.

54:49Andrew: Okay.

54:49Sean: Okay. Okay. And I told you something was going to come up during this. This conversation. Yeah. I think I have to show you a video first.

54:59Justin: Okay.

54:59Sean: Okay. I have not shown you the video yet. This will be the first time you see this video. And then after this video, we're gonna talk about it. Okay?

55:06Andrew: All right.

55:06Sean: Okay. All right, so roll the video, please. Kitchener Rangers hockey and Rogers tv. I am your host, Sean Obi Wan for Faro, Plain and simple, Kitchener's version of Yoda. You see, a hocus has turned the Padawans from last season into the Jedis of this season already with names like Reed and Romano and Lamb leading the way. So who's going to step up tonight? Will it be Luke Skywalker? Elynas? Will it be Matt the Andalorian? Andonovsky the Andalorian. And ANOVSKY the Aud DeLorean. For nine months, you guys have claimed to have come up with the nickname the Andalorian.

55:49Andrew: Yeah.

55:49Sean: And I've been biding my time. I've been waiting. I've been waiting. I've been liking every post. I've been supportive of everything. And I'm like, one day, guys, one day. We're going to have the chat and we're going to talk because I did my research. Even today I went back, I looked at the transcripts, I looked at the old. The first mention from you guys of the Andalorian, November 8, episode 9, which was entitled the Andalorian.

56:15Andrew: Yeah.

56:15Sean: But not mentioned even before that. October 20th.

56:18Andrew: UBS. Yeah, October.

56:20Sean: Now that's not to say nobody's ever thought that before because to be honest, when I was told we were having a Star wars night in July and I danced around the room like a child, I was so excited.

56:29Justin: Yeah.

56:29Sean: I was like, I'm gonna say Andalorian.

56:32Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's funny because I feel like it was just made because of Ando.

56:38Sean: Yeah.

56:38Andrew: Mando wasn't able to.

56:39Sean: It wasn't even Star wars thing.

56:40Andrew: No, it wasn't. It was just literally the Saginaw. It was, it was one of the only games we got. I got to in the first half of the season. I went with my wife and of course was the Saginaw, the brawl at the end.

56:51Sean: Yeah.

56:51Andrew: So that was one of our best performing clips and it sure was. And well, here we have it here. Set the record straight. Hey, hey, hey.

56:59Justin: I want to Sam O'Reilly We always said we would never do gotcha journalism. So we'll just cut all this out.

57:07Sean: Well, I told you it was a good natured bone to pick. I'm certainly not the first person to ever put it out there, but in our little world of Rangers media, I just want to Sam O'Reilly I think I nudged you guys a little bit.

57:19Andrew: Sean Furfaro coined the term. Yeah. the AudPod popularized it.

57:25Sean: I can't even argue with that.

57:28Justin: Teamwork.

57:29Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

57:29Sean: Teamwork. Well that's what Jedis are all about. Support each other.

57:32Andrew: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

57:34Sean: Unless there's some younglings in the room.

57:35Andrew: Yeah. We're all in tune with the force.

57:37Sean: Yeah, for sure. What are midichlorians?

57:39Andrew: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

57:40Justin: We still don't.

57:41Andrew: Exactly.

57:41Sean: Yeah.

57:43Andrew: I mean, before we end, I do want to talk just briefly about hockey.

57:48Sean: Sure.

57:49Andrew: Because it is a hockey pod. What can you say? Jackson Parsons, he was signed to the Aud Senators on an entry level deal. Can we proclaim it here with Sean right now that we are going to make him a grot?

58:03Sean: Yes, absolutely. This past year is a candidate for the greatest goaltender season in the history of this franchise. I. I said it all season long. People laughed at me, mostly from London when I said that this is the best goaltender in the league. And they're like, haha. No, he's not. And I'm like, yeah. Not only is the best goaltender in the league, they told you he was the best goaltender in all of the leagues in Canada. And then he ended up with a contract out of this whole thing. So we kind of know what we're talking about. We know what he's doing here. Well, Justin Elliott did this. I'm like. But Justin Elliott only played half the game.

58:35Justin: Half the game.

58:36Sean: If I've maintained. If London went 68 and. Oh. And Justin Elliott went 34. Zero with 34 shutouts. And Medvedev went 34. No. With 34 more shutouts, neither of them can win goaltender of the year because playing an Andrew season is part of what calculates the award.

58:52Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no debate there.

58:54Justin: No, no. Yeah. We've helped perpetuate exactly what you just said on Reddit and Instagram and all the other places.

59:01Andrew: Yeah. I mean, the AudPod was basically a Jackson Parsons fan.

59:04Sean: Sure. Was your guy. He's your guy.

59:06Andrew: Our guy. Our guy. Another thing I want to talk about Jack Pridham.

59:10Sean: Yeah.

59:11Andrew: All we know is that he decommitted from Boston University. Floor is yours on that. On that. Because we don't know what that means.

59:20Justin: Yeah, we don't.

59:21Sean: I'm not. I'm not the kind of guy that's breaking news around here, but I'd be shocked if you don't see Jack Pridham scoring goals with the Kitchener Rangers next year.

59:28Andrew: I think this is happening.

59:30Sean: The fact that he's decommitted means he's obviously trying to make the Blackhawks. Yes.

59:35Justin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

59:36Andrew: And that's what we want for Jack Priddo.

59:38Sean: If he does not make the Blackhawks. And he had a press conference where he said this in Chicago. If he does not make the Blackhawks, he's coming back to Kitchener. Did you see that press conference?

59:46Justin: No, I did not.

59:47Sean: I'm guessing by the look on your face you did not see that you're

59:50Andrew: breaking that news to us.

59:51Justin: Yes.

59:51Sean: Well, Jack Pridham, if my understanding is if he is not on a. If he's not a Chicago Blackhawk, he is a kitchen arranger. And if he is a kitchen arranger, next year, I'm going to tell you right now on the AudPod that this is a guy who could be the top scorer in the league. And we just had back to back Lio Lalonde winners, the overager of the year, and Matthew Sop and Jackson Parsons, you better be coming hard for Jack Pridham as your back to. Back to Back guy.

60:20Andrew: Oh, yeah.

60:20Sean: No pressure, Jack.

60:21Andrew: No. Ferrari F. Pridham.

60:23Justin: Yeah.

60:24Andrew: All right. And lastly, but not leastly, Adam Valentini signs with the Rangers in the off season. What's that going to bring to the team?

60:32Sean: Speed, scoring, excitement. I had a great chance to talk to him the day we we announced that signing. The team announced that signing. You know, he's one of those guys. We're going to have to work on the interviews. Sure. A man of few words, young guy, but I think he's going to do great. And as excited, excited as we were recently with Cameron Reid going so high in the draft, I think we have the potential of seeing something even higher with this guy. So I think it's going to be a pretty exciting time.

61:00Andrew: I mean, especially once he's got his media training from the school of Sean,

61:04Sean: you know, no more pucks in deep.

61:06Justin: No more pucks than deep. We learned from Endo that he. That they probably draft Ottawa, probably drafted him because he had unique answers to their questions.

61:15Andrew: That's true.

61:16Sean: Yeah.

61:16Andrew: All right. And last. I don't know. I already said last but not least, the final thing.

61:21Justin: We'll get your least question.

61:22Andrew: Yeah, the least question. Are the Kitchener Rangers the favorite for the 2027 Memorial Cup, and if so, what will that bring to the community and to Rangers fans and the Aud pot? I.

61:35Sean: Okay, I don't know. Let's start there. I have no inside knowledge on the process of what will happen. At the time we're recording this, they still haven't officially placed a bid, but if you're looking at the signs, there's been verbal declarations that they want to place a bid. The fact that all these construction and renovations are happening at the Aud Those are the kind of things you do to prepare for a Memorial Cup. I would have to think this team is the front runner for it, but I just say that with no knowledge whatsoever. What it will bring is an excitement that we haven't seen here for a long time. I remember the last time we hosted it and the Tommy Kut to the final. It was pretty, pretty exciting. Even if Spokane broke the trophy after they won it. I don't know if you've ever seen that clip. Pretty spectacular.

62:18Justin: That's what I expect from Spokane.

62:20Sean: Yeah, I know. Classic. Classic Spokane. Right? If I had a nickel. I think the next two years are going to be really exciting. Really exciting. I think this team, the makeup is great. I think they're going to be the favorites for a championship, whatever that means to you. OHL championship or more cup championship. For the next two years. Yeah. And I think it's going to be different because the last two years there has been no expectations, and now there will be expectations. The big thing people are saying is, what's going to happen in net? There's going to be a real drop off in that. I'm like, you can take the best goalie in the OHL and put him in the Rangers net. And it's going to be a drop off in net because it's not Jackson Parsons. So I think if you get average to above average goaltending, I think it's gonna be pretty exciting. I think this team's gonna score a lot of goals.

63:08Justin: Yeah.

63:08Sean: I don't think you need the guy in net that's gonna give you all the shutouts. I think you're gonna win a lot of five, two games. I think you're gonna win a lot of six, three games. This is just me. I know that.

63:19Justin: I love everything you're saying.

63:20Andrew: Yeah.

63:21Sean: I know that. When the. The Knights swept the Rangers and swept them on home ice. That's hard.

63:28Justin: You don't need to say that over.

63:29Sean: Well, here's why. I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told many of the players because I went the next morning to the exit interviews, and I do as I do every year, and I sit there and I wait and I talk to them all before they leave. And I said to almost all of them, remember how you felt last night? Remember how much that hurt? I know you don't like to hear it 12 hours later, but that's fuel. Yeah. When you're going to think back, I get a little emotional talking about this right now. You're going to think back to what it felt like. How many guys had to take pictures before you could salute your crowd out there? How many. How long you had to wait and feel that and hurt. That's fuel. And when you're raising a cup next year or the year after or both, you're gonna remember last night and you're gonna remember how much it contributed to you lifting that cup.

64:21Andrew: I'm ready to run through that wall right there.

64:22Sean: Yeah.

64:23Justin: So the man of inspiration.

64:25Andrew: All right, well, before we do our little sign off, will you come back?

64:29Sean: Sure. Am I a friend of the show now?

64:31Justin: You are. Oh, yes. Absolutely.

64:32Sean: Let's go.

64:33Justin: Yeah. Let's go. Official. You've been unofficial friend of the show.

64:36Andrew: Yeah, you have.

64:37Sean: So I need to. I want to reveal something to you guys, though, as well. I mean, I know we shared this before that I Got the Aud potty, right. That is proudly displayed in my office right now. It holds my paper clips. I use a lot of paper clips, by the way.

64:51Justin: Well the Aud an honor. Yeah.

64:53Sean: It's not a joking thing, but I'm pleased to report, and I've mentioned this on the broadcast, that this week in Rangers Nation is back for season two. We're changing the set a little bit and the Aud potty, because it is an award, will now have a spot on my desk for every episode. I am very proud to have won that odd potty. It will be on the corner of my desk for each episode unless I break it somehow. It is porcelain. I mean it's delicate.

65:20Andrew: If you break it, try and work it into a bit.

65:23Sean: But I'm just hoping, you know, not to put anything out there that later in the season I might be the first repeat odd potty winner for something because you know, it's gonna look great on one corner. But you know, if we can have some sort of symmetry of bookends. I have to earn it. Let's be honest, I gotta earn it.

65:43Andrew: It will be earned, I'm sure.

65:44Sean: But if I. If there's something that's odd potty worthy, if that's a term and if it's not, sure is now. Yeah, it is.

65:51Andrew: You coined it much like the Andalorian,

65:54Sean: but you're gonna make it popular much like the.

65:58Justin: I am going to say for legal reasons to this camera right here that when we gave Sean that award, we did Sam O'Reilly would never ever make another one.

66:10Sean: Fair enough. the Aud parties don't happen again. Know that the one physical odd potty that exists, it's the only one, right?

66:18Justin: Yes.

66:18Sean: I don't want to misrepresent. Will have a home on this week in Rangers Nation Weekly. Unbelievable. Fridays at 6:30 on Rogers TV.

66:27Andrew: Well, I think we've reached the top of the mountain for the podcast. Yeah, yeah, we can kind of wrap it up now.

66:32Justin: Yeah, it's good. We're just. We'll phone it in for the rest of the year.

66:35Andrew: Yeah, yeah. If we record it all.

66:37Justin: Yeah, we got to of course, thank Ken Born director of branding and marketing.

66:42Andrew: Yeah, Papa Born We got, of course

66:44Justin: we got to thank the prodigal producer, Liam, the feedback. We forgot to shout him out in the last episode. But we gotta thank Tim Uniacke, our. Our savior of our audio. So thank you, Tim. Thank you, Tim. We even posted about him on Instagram. So now we all know about Tim and his sins. Fan.

67:02Sean: If Tim does your audio. I'm sorry I'm so loud.

67:05Andrew: Tim is a Sens fan. He's not from Ottawa. He's from this region, but closer to London. Yeah, he's in his heart.

67:10Justin: He's from Ottawa. Yeah.

67:12Andrew: For the NHL, I think.

67:14Justin: It's just he hates the Leafs and that's whatever.

67:17Andrew: I don't hate newest leaf Matthew Hlacar though.

67:20Justin: Yeah. No, definitely not. Yeah. And you can find us on the

67:24Andrew: socials at the AudPod on Instagram and TikTok. You can also find us on the YouTubes @TheAudPodcast. Kitchener Rangers. Just search us in the search bar will come up.

67:34Justin: Oh, and thank you to the Kitchener Public Library for hosting us yet again. Our home away from home. And as always, you can find us

67:42Sean: at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

67:47Justin: See at the odds.