73: The Flynn-terview Interview with Brad Flynn

0:00Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:01Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:02Justin: Hey, Brad.

0:03Brad Flynn: Hey, Justin.

0:05Andrew: Hey, Brad.

0:07Brad Flynn: Hey, Andrew.

0:15JJ (voiceover): Welcome to The AudPod, where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin.

0:25JJ (voiceover): Take it away, fellas.

0:26Andrew: Welcome to The AudPod. Today we're sitting down with Brad Flynn, Brad Flynn, a veteran coach of all 3 CHL leagues, a Memorial Cup champion, a Nova Scotia-born boy, and son of a legendary coach himself and a Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Famer, Danny Flynn. Tell me, Brad, what it was like growing up in Nova Scotia and playing hockey. You talked to us a little bit right before we hit record, and you mentioned a pretty famous guy that you may have played with. But I want to hear about a little bit about growing up in Nova Scotia and playing hockey before we get into potentially that Hall of Famer. I'm not talking about your dad, the other Hall of Famer that we're talking about here.

1:14Brad Flynn: Yeah. Thanks for having me on, first off. And secondly, I got to correct you there. I was actually born in Ontario. I was born in Belleville, Ontario. Yeah.

1:23Justin: There you go.

1:23Brad Flynn: Hometown Nova Scotia. That's the running joke. I'm a bit of a vagabond, so.

1:29Justin: Okay.

1:29Brad Flynn: Yeah. Born in Belleville and grew up, lived for the first bit in Sault Ste. Marie when my dad was coaching the Greyhounds. Then we moved out east to Nova Scotia. But that's where I played the majority of my minor hockey. So elite prospects will say hometown, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. That's where I identify as my hometown.

1:47Andrew: There you go. So we have a running joke on the AudPod that we always get things wrong and we haven't got anything wrong in a couple interviews. So it's priceless that we open this with the wrong birthplace. I should have said You're, you're a, a Nova Scotia-trained hockey player. There we go. So let me know, let me know what that was like, maybe being a vagabond, kind of, kind of going around, you know, chasing your dad, your family, being like in different places, different leagues. Uh, I could go on about your dad's, uh, accomplishments, but this is not about your dad. This is about you. So let me know what that was like growing up. And, and did you know, obviously, like, this was your path forward as a hockey player?

2:29Brad Flynn: Yeah, absolutely. It was actually awesome. My dad was in Belleville and London or Sault Ste. Marie, and then he ended up after he won the Memorial Cup, he went to St. Francis Xavier University for 10 years, which was great. And a lot of times in our business, as you know, you can't just leave your job and work across the street. You gotta usually move. So there was a couple times when he was coaching major junior where that happened. And I got to about the age of— I guess I was going into my first year of rep hockey in Atom. And him and my mom made the decision instead of kind of chasing the NHL dream to get the best of both worlds and to be able to coach full-time, run a university program, and then give us a solid place to grow up and have a minor hockey stable family. My parents were pregnant with my brother, so that's when we went out to St. FX. So we got to stay there. And I think you talked about it earlier, he's in the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame. But for me, that's being a Hall of Fame dad. He kind of put his career a little bit on hold. In saying that, he went and rebuilt a program at St. FX that had like, I think there's 15 people paid when we got there. And by the end of it, there They'd gone to a few national championships and had won one. So I'm always proud of his time at St. FX. It kind of goes unheralded a little bit, but more for the fact now that I'm a father, knowing that he went there and kind of let me have my minor hockey career and set that up as a family person. And I think that goes unnoticed in our league or in our game a lot and the strain it has on your family. It was awesome, and I couldn't be more proud. I love working, living in Nova Scotia. I always say it when I come back east. People out east are super kind. Everybody helps each other out, and it's just an easygoing place to live. So working or growing up, I had the same minor hockey coaches pretty much from peewee on with Clary Melanson and George Frazee. They worked at the Michelin dealership or Plant, they volunteered and they came in and Greg McLean also coached with them and they coached us a lot about just working hard and being good teammates. And that was the best lesson you could get, I think, in minor hockey at that time. And the skill stuff, that all came down the road. But it was a great place to grow up and learn the game and fall in love with the game.

5:01Justin: Oh, that's amazing. And how often do you and Mackers have debates on whose dad is better at hockey? Like, it knows more hockey things.

5:10Brad Flynn: Never. But it's funny because we Sometimes when we're talking hockey and we're talking older stories, I'll have one from the past, and that's the best part about our game. And he has another one, and they can kind of intermingle a little bit. Or there's older guys that both our parents would talk about that we never met, maybe like a second away from them, that we get to connect on and stuff. And that's always cool. But I think that's one of the best things that I've learned about our game is you pass it down a lot with stories and not even Just it's generational stories and passing that down to the players. It's fun to do. So helping them and they don't even know some of the guys anymore, which is hilarious to us.

5:50Justin: It's even Andrew and I when we talk like I'm a— I can remember stats like intense stats about NHL, the Kitchener Rangers, whatever, from like the last maybe year and a half. And then I forget everything after that. And Andrew is like, he's the guy that remembers. He's like, I'm like, you weren't even born about this story that you're talking about. But he like knows the history of everything. And I'm like, we've watched like the same amount of hockey in our lives. We just like, we just have vastly different memories of these things. I know that.

6:20Andrew: Fortunately, I didn't, I didn't use that to, uh, to pick my career. I just, I just, I just used it to learn useless sports knowledge. Um, but I guess you, you know, you can't, uh, help what you're passionate about. So you mentioned right before we jumped on that you played with Sidney Crosby while you were playing minor hockey. What was that like? I mean, obviously there was kind of like— it was— it was— he was the next one. That was, you know, we knew he was coming up and that was going to happen. So what was that like being around that type of player?

6:54Brad Flynn: Oh, it was incredible. He was— everybody knew about him. That's first and foremost. The things that people didn't really know At the time, and I say this with like the obviously the utmost respect, but when he was younger, the older people around the arenas would talk about how immensely gifted he was, how competitive he was, how intelligent he was. But he wasn't the greatest skater, and I think people don't realize that that he wasn't a naturally gifted skater. And it wasn't until he was a little bit older. He wasn't the skinniest kid. He was a little. You see his pictures? He had the little chubby cheeks. He worked extremely hard, but. He became a better skater, and I think that's one thing that I've talked to a lot of players about: is everybody talks about skating. They think about Sidney Crosby. They think about the big legs he has, but that's because he developed them and he worked at his game. And I think that really goes unnoticed. But we were younger. There's a little town 45 minutes away named Antigonish, Nova Scotia. They had some summer ice. He'd come down a couple times. I think he came down and skated with us a couple times, but. Typically, he was two years younger than me playing up at our level in Nova Scotia because we have a smaller population. You don't play with your own age group; you always play with either a year older than you or a year younger than you. So when I was a second year, he was he was two years younger. He was playing up, and usually when I was a first year, he was playing up in the league ahead of us as well or with us. So it was it was awesome to play against him. We played in our home Bantam AAA tournament against him. We had some success in that, but. He's been an unbelievable person. I've seen him in passing since. And again, just the guy from Nova Scotia that the people that he's met and nothing but a gentleman, just unbelievable human being.

8:39Justin: You talked about it being a small population, but there's like a huge amount of like really successful hockey people coming out of that, like that Nova Scotia area. Like what, what drives that or what, how does that How do you have like generational talents just being born left, right, and center there?

8:58Brad Flynn: Yeah, it's— I have a theory on it, and I think it goes back to like, I think the demographic, it's a lot of just good, hardworking, honest, simple people and kind people, and everybody works with each other. It's not as much of trying to outdo each other. It's getting everybody on the ice, getting everybody opportunity. Creating a love and a passion for the game. Like people forget, for the size of the population, the amount of universities that are down there and the amount of teachers that live there, there's a ton of there's a ton of teaching in that province. And the fact that now there's more exposure to skill development, there's more exposure to ice during the winter or summer. Sorry, they just continue to grow and develop. And and that whole University Sport League in AUS East. It used to be called the St. FX UMD. All the national championships out in that area, a lot of those former players were really good players that ended up with teaching degrees or settled in Nova Scotia, and you're seeing the product of their kids, right? And not necessarily with Sidney and Brad Marchand and Nathan MacKinnon or Andrew MacDonald, but lots of good players. But it's because the minor hockey system is growing as well. Still affordable too.

10:18Andrew: Yeah, that helps.

10:21Justin: That makes a big deal. Yeah. Yeah.

10:23Andrew: Well, you mentioned the universities. You were— you attended Brock University and the University of Southern Maine. I want to get this right because I already got something wrong. What can you say about university hockey to young players? What can you say to these players who are maybe aging out of the OHL, or maybe it's, it's not in the cards that they're going to play junior hockey? Junior A or OHL hockey or whatever for forever.

10:47Brad Flynn: Yeah, I really think you're going to get out of it what you put into it. And depending on how much you love the game, if you go to Brock University, you go to the University of Southern Maine, that was Division 3. If you go in with the same mindset that you would have if you had a Division 1 scholarship to play at the University of Minnesota and you trained and you developed every day, There's so many good coaches. These programs are run by excellent coaches. You still have an opportunity to reach your goals, and maybe your goals shift. Like my goal, obviously from the time that I was a young minor hockey player, it shifted from being I wanted to play in the NHL, score the winning goal in the Stanley Cup Finals in the driveway like most kids to all right now I'm getting into Midget Triple A. I kind of see where I'm at. You know what? I just want to play pro hockey. Well, how do I do that? I play as many games. I develop as much as I can in junior. Play till I'm 20 because there's no time limit on my degree. Once I'm done, I go and I have my four years of university. I come out. I'm 25. I make a decision. Do I want to continue on with this, or do I want to? Do I want to get in the real world? Some people go and travel for a year after their university degree. I look at it that hockey players go to work. They decide that then they're going to go to university. A lot of times when guys go in at 20 years old. They have a better understanding of what they want to do at university. They don't waste time. They've taken classes all the way through, so they don't even have to graduate on time. They're there for a less amount of time. They can focus on hockey and they can focus on school. They can get their degree and then go on. But I think it's really important for players not to rush the process. Play junior right out until the end of your 20-year-old year. And I don't mean that there's certain— there's going to be that 1 to 2%, just like the guys that leave at 1 to 2% can make it to the NHL. There's going to be that next little layer of thin layer that those guys are ready to go. But then that next layer, why give up games? That's my question. It's— you're, you're, you're getting your development time, game time paid for, for gym time and in school that you don't even usually end up graduating with. So if you're going to go to university, you're going to take that path, then be all in, but give yourself all the hockey time you can because you can't take that back. You can't go back and say, I want those 68 games. You can always say I want to go to school a year later.

13:10Andrew: Yeah, I absolutely love this because I think we've had this kind of debate on this podcast a little bit where, where people have kind of come in with this like doom and gloom about the NCAA. And I've, I've talked with people even off the podcast about like, oh, like, oh, junior hockey's in trouble. Like, you got a junior hockey podcast and now all of a sudden it's in trouble. I'm like, no, I think that like, I look at, I look at what some of these guys on the Kitchener Rangers did. where they basically played out as much as they could in the OHL and still got that NCAA opportunity. I mean, I look at like Humps, who left, came, got more skills, more hockey, more practice, like a world-class experience in winning the Memorial Cup, and he still gets to go back and play at a Division 1 school. Like, if that's not an obvious, you know, feather in the cap for the OHL and this, this new world we're living in where the NCAA and the OHL have to coexist with the same kind of talent pools, I don't know what is.

14:10Brad Flynn: Well, I don't understand. Like, I agree. And at the same time, you can look at it from, from our perspective, like you have— well, what did we have last year on our team? I think we had the most in the Memorial Cup, I believe, with NHL drafted or signed players. Right.

14:27Justin: I think it was like 12 or something like crazy.

14:29Brad Flynn: Yeah, 12. Correct. Goalie, defense, big defense. So then you look at everybody else that isn't. That's the way that I kind of look at it sometimes, right? And you look at the Arquettes, the Anstis, the Bileckis, like for, let's just say for argument's sake, since February, they played against the league, but when they weren't playing against their competition, they're practicing every day against Sam O'Reilly.

14:54Andrew: Yeah.

14:54Brad Flynn: They're trying to score on Kirsch. All of these guys that just won a national championship as the best junior team in the country, the guys that weren't the NHL-signed guys are younger guys that have to play against the best players in the world that are winning these games, that are the big contributors. You know what I mean? So where, where are you going to develop more than that? And even when you're not in the games, it's not like we go out there and we have no-pads practice walkthroughs. Like, It's intense. It's very competitive. So the development side of that as well is just people don't even think about— they see the 68 games, but then it's the practices as well that they're playing against those top players. Sam O'Reilly practicing against Alex Forrest, I believe, had a positive effect on Alex Forrest's year playing in Cambridge. And then he comes up and he's able to go through the run with us. And every single day he's practicing against Sam O'Reilly and he's practicing against Jack Pridham and Christian Humphreys and all the other players, Dylan Edwards, to give him a different type of player. Like, these are the best junior players in the world that the guys that even weren't maybe in the spotlight got to develop with. Schaub. Yeah, he's taking shots from every day.

16:07Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

16:09Brad Flynn: So, and, and I, and I'm just saying that, that When I look at it now, they go in and that's why they're prepared to go play at the next level and why those schools are interested, because they can come in with great practice habits and details and understand the level of commitment it takes day in and day out to be a pro. And if they're not being a pro, they might not be landing— what do they say— landing on the moon, but they're falling in the stars. Like, you know what I mean? They're landing in good programs.

16:36Andrew: Yeah.

16:37Justin: Yeah. And it seems like even some of these guys, they got a bump up in sort of the division that they're going into in the NCAA. Some of the guys who Decommitted and then have now recommitted. So yeah, exactly. Like better opportunity all around. Humphries said that when he was on our podcast last summer, he's like, why do I want to play 3rd line minutes when I can play, you know, 1st line, 2nd line minutes and, and power play and play more games and exactly all the things you just said. 7-game series in the playoffs. Like, yeah.

17:04Andrew: He didn't realize at that time he would get 90 full hockey games and all the practices in between. But like, you know, that's what he got. And so you see that kind of like it's just getting the best. And I think a lot of fans— we got an opportunity to go to practice and sit and watch like a morning skate and a practice. A lot of fans, I think, forget that these guys are constantly working against each other. And I think it, you know, it's even like, you know, I've seen comments about like, you know, Oscar Hemming was at the OHL kind of championship. He was, you know, he was on the sidelines and whatever. And I'm like, you don't realize like he was a part of the organization for for months, like he was there in the building, like he's a part of it. Like he made guys better. So it's really refreshing to hear that from, from you to just kind of like bring that out so fans can think about this, especially. And we're fans too, but we at least we got like one little look into it. So we kind of understand that there's so much that goes into practice.

18:02Brad Flynn: Well, it's cool too. And like, it just shows me like the respect level too and like how much they care about each other. And they do become a family. I know it's a real cliché thing, but like you talk about Oscar Hemming, who couldn't play, Big part of it was at the OHL final, was here when we came back from the Memorial Cup because he had the combine. And then the best part is his walkout for the draft in the first round. He plays Hell's Bells. He's not even with the team, but he gets to choose his walkout song. And because they were so close for the first half of the year and they became real buddies, even though he wasn't playing the game, it was just the He's playing the theme song, our theme song, to come out to be drafted in the first round. It's pretty— it's like, those are the things in junior hockey that people don't realize sometimes, especially players and parents and in colleges, that you build those bonds.

18:58Justin: We saw him decked out in his Kitchener Rangers gear. His brother was playing on Barrie when—

19:02Brad Flynn: yeah, exactly.

19:05Justin: The very easy— could— he very easily could have cheered for Barrie in the, in the OHL final.

19:09Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

19:11Justin: But he was one of you guys for sure.

19:13Andrew: I was just going to add that, like, you know, he's also a kid. Like, these are his friends. He's here, you know, he's here in Kitchener. This is who he's spending time with. So, like, it's, it's, it is really awesome that you guys have created a culture in Kitchener that it's, you know, it's important to be who you are off the ice as well. You got to be professional and, and, and give back to the community and realize that is, you know, it's a community-owned team. You came in from— you've been, you've been all over the place. You have, you have legitimately— I can't, I can't go through all of it, but it's— you were in Red Deer in the WHL. You did a year in Saginaw before you came to the Rangers. Tell me about what it was like coming into this atmosphere here with your, with your previous experience. And how was it an adjustment coming in under a European head coach?

20:07Brad Flynn: I think we adjusted pretty well because I'm back and we won a Memorial Cup. But it was awesome. It was great. So like I said, and we talked about it earlier with my dad and family, I knew for a long time that I wanted to coach. I've always enjoyed it. Even when I was in school, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I kind of wanted to lean towards history and teaching, but I was kind of more or less charting my coaching career path and what I thought could be the best for me. And part of that is I love the teaching side of it. So I love junior hockey. So when I stopped playing, I wanted to get into coaching full-time. That's why I took the job in the Manitoba Junior A-League in Swan River, Manitoba. It was like 7.5 hours north of Winnipeg. Little small town, 4,000 people. And it was an awesome experience. And you know what? Myself and the head coach, Dwayne Kirkup, He was a part-time plumber as well, but like it threw me right in. I had to do the— I did video, I did— helped our equipment manager, uh, Wade Davey, who, who was a full-time garbage man. So I was doing all the equipment stuff to help him when he was at work. He'd do the laundry at night, that kind of stuff. But I got to really understand the ins and outs of the business, right? And then moved around junior to Corpus Christi and then, and then up to, uh, Bathurst and then back to Corpus Christi to get some head coaching experience and kind of Tie everything I had together, and had a real successful first season there. Lost in the finals to go to the national championship in game five, one nothing in overtime. And and I remember losing to the guy. Yeah, and and the team that that we coached against his name is Dan Wildfong. He's a very very good coach in that North American Hockey League down there in Lone Star. But he he barked at his guys all the time, and I was always an assistant coach, so I was like the. The quiet, like, hey, calm down, and like positive Ted Lasso, I guess you could say, kind of mentality. Yeah, good cop, good way. Yeah. And I was looking across and Fonger would just be barking at guys, but his players played for him. And I remember losing and just like looking over and being like, I got to find a way to get a little bit harder with these guys to get more out of them where they still respect me and they care. So fortunately that year a job came open in Red Deer and going to work for Brent Sutter, that was his MO. And it was almost like for me, I said, it's like I always want to work for guys that I can really learn from and kind of add to my repertoire. We get professors in school. If you're going to be a teacher, you want to kind of pick them out, right? So I applied. Unfortunately, I got to go there for 3 great years. So ended up coming back to be close to my daughter, and she's in Ancaster. So took the job in Saginaw for the year and then ended up getting closer and coming here and worked at Brock for the next year. Was fortunate to get called by Jussi and Mac and interviewed, and we did a Zoom call and it was similar to this, same interview kind of process. And then we just kind of talked about how we saw the game and what I could bring from the different places, and our visions aligned on how we kind of understood the game. And a lot of the same details and habits that I learned from different guys along my journey, I saw Jussi having a really good understanding of them. So it made my job easier because I had great teachers in the past as head coaches that working with Jussi, and obviously we know what he's done and the kind of coach that he is, and he kind of— he's already brought them all together, right? So for me, it was very simple, I should say, not always easy, but simple to get into that same mindset and see what Jussi saw. So It was an awesome experience working with him as well.

23:53Justin: Who's more intimidating in a Zoom interview, you or Mackers?

23:56Brad Flynn: Pretty quiet interviews.

24:01Justin: You seem like a guy who can talk, so it's like maybe they were like, oh good, like someone to break the silence.

24:11Brad Flynn: I think that's the part, the best part about hockey is they As soon as we start talking hockey, it's just you see our, our real identities come out and, and it's no different. It's just that, that atmosphere, right? So those guys, yeah, it was awesome. It was a great experience for me anyways. And I was really fortunate to be able to get that job and be part of this whole process.

24:37Andrew: You talked about being a little bit more intense on the bench, which is a perfect segue.

24:44Brad Flynn: Yeah.

24:45Andrew: To obviously we, we, yeah, we have an ongoing joke on the pod, Brad Boys for Life, where you've been ejected, perhaps maybe ushered is a better word, out of the building a couple of times. One time recently in February, you were suspended for 2 games and we're all, we're all still scratching our heads there because that was, that was the weirdest one. You don't have to comment on that because I know things can be sketchy with, you know, suspensions and stuff in the league. Although I don't know if anybody from the league listens to this, but it's—

25:22Brad Flynn: I'm sure they do. They get the clips.

25:24Andrew: Yeah, yeah, they get the clips, that's for sure. But I'm curious, like, you know, you mentioned to us that you were— you're actually kind of the chill one compared to the 2 fiery cohorts behind the bench. Just take us through, you know, what happened, at least in at least one of those ejections that You're, you know, all of a sudden you're being, you're being asked out. Does that affect you coming into the dressing room or is that just something that like it just happens? It's hockey.

25:54Brad Flynn: Yeah, it's just like the guys, the guys know me pretty well and they know like I'm a, I'm a pretty calm person and I try to find the positives in a lot of things. And I did have some penalty minutes when I played, so I do have that kind of That kind of temper, but it's it's more directed when something happens to to somebody I'm close to. I kind of have a protector-like mentality, I guess you could say, and I I let a lot go. But I remember the the first one was in Peterborough, and I felt Matt Andonovski got cheap shot up pretty bad. And while he was getting helped off, and and he was coming back out on the ice or getting off the ice, and we were talking to the referee about it, and it was pretty calm. And then Next thing I know, Cam Reid was— it was his draft year at the time. And as I'm distracted, this guy slips off the bench and now he's going to go stand up for Ando because Ando was the captain. And we've always kind of talked about if we're going to say we're a tight team, we got to stand up for each other. And that's just the way that we play. And I believe in it. And our defense kind of plays that way and stands up for each other and stands up for themselves. So Next thing I know, there's Reader and he's run up to the player that he felt took a liberty with Ando at the faceoff. And I'm saying, oh no, this is not the guy that has to go out and do this right now or should be doing this. And next thing I know, Reader's in one and credit to him, he's tougher than he looks and he did a great job. But I just come to the bench and he was all bloody. So I just got a little angry because I didn't like how it all kind of shook out with with those 2 guys getting injured. And, uh, I just let my feelings know to their coach, and the referee didn't like it and turned into a little— turned into a little— might have watched a little SummerSlam from '91 or something before and got a promo going from wrestling. But, uh, anyways, the guys liked it and ended up being a pretty good season, and we move on. So yeah. Learned my lesson.

28:00Andrew: Yeah, there you go. That's— I think the league will be happy with that answer right there.

28:06Brad Flynn: Yeah, yeah, I definitely— I crossed the line. I deserve to be, to be tossed out on that one. But I'm also going to stand up for my guys if I'm asking them to stand up for each other. So that's the way she goes.

28:17Justin: We at one point we had, we had toyed around the idea. We were like, we could do some— we didn't know. We didn't know what set you off at this point, but now, now we know. But we were like, we could do a segment where we ask Brad questions. We call it Breaking Brad, and we try and piss you off and see if we can get some of that out of it.

28:36Brad Flynn: That'd take quite a bit to do, I think.

28:39Justin: But now you're the calm guy.

28:41Andrew: Yeah, you're the Zen guy. But you not— you mentioned the penalty minutes and I— okay. I mean, I always look up the HockeyDB. I always look up the elite prospects. You had— this is actually hilarious. You had 253 penalty minutes. In 37 games for the Weeks Crushers. How many people did you have to stand up for? It sounds like an entire arena worth of people you had to stand up for during that season.

29:07Brad Flynn: Yeah, that was a fun one. That I think— yeah, that was my 20-year-old year. I think, I think if you look at it, I had like 5 points, maybe I had a goal and 2 assists or I think my first game of the year, I think I had— it was the home opener. I had 2 goals and an assist and I had 2 fights and was kicked out. So came back out for the first star. And then I just said like, oh, this 20-year-old year, I was already going to go to Southern Maine. I kind of, I enjoy this part of the game. This is kind of fun and I don't have to play as much. So got caught in a few more tilts, got my first star for the year, got that experience out of the way and then just enjoyed it. But don't recommend that for anybody. Obviously, I, it's, it's not where I wanted to end up and how I wanted to end up playing, but, uh, Yeah, it was, it was just something we back then in the Maritime Junior A-League, we didn't— everybody had kind of a tough guy on their team that played in that 4th line role. And I was more of an agitator, but I wasn't going to back down. So it was something that you did and I loved the team, so I did it.

30:09Justin: How do you, how do you change that? Like, you know, obviously you can do things on the ice, but like, how do you change your reputation if you're like, you become a bruiser and all of a sudden you want to You want to show that you have other skills. Like, how do you, how do you work on that and how do you push forward?

30:24Brad Flynn: Honestly, it was learning the defensive side of the game because I wasn't going to be able to outscore anybody on my team. Like, I wasn't a great skater. I was a terrible skater. I always battled my weight until I got to university. I played for Murray Nystrom and I really learned how to train. And he just said, like, if you come back in better shape, you're going to play more. And I said, well, if it's that easy, I can do that. So That was an inside job, I say, and I had to do that. But to answer your question, I really— I started watching my dad's players. I talked to my dad a lot more, understanding the game. I needed to understand the game and not be a defensive liability so the coach could trust me to play. So whenever I was playing, I was playing. I'd still be able to play like a 4th, 3rd line role. It was interesting because I always played on the top 2 lines in the playoffs. But in the regular season, I could just play lower in the lineup and then bring that extra grit in the playoffs. And I was capable of fitting in with guys. But it was understanding the defensive game. And it's interesting now, like, now I coach defensemen for a living, right?

31:29Justin: Yeah.

31:29Brad Flynn: Like in-season, out-of-season. And I always joke, like, I kind of wish Elite Prospects would just change that to D because then I'd look like a tough stay-at-home little undersized D with those, with those points and peddling minutes. Yeah, versus being a left winger that they're like, geez, you had no talent. I'm like, yeah, just switch that to say I was a defenseman. I was the 3rd defenseman out there, please. But no, it was, uh, it was great. And that's just— that was it. Be a great guy in the dressing room. I, I had to be well liked by my teammates, and, uh, I had to be somebody that, that worked harder than everybody because I always felt every day I was on the chopping block, whether that was to be in the lineup, out of the lineup, off the team. So work hard. Uh, my dad used to tell me all the time, never was a big, uh motivational guy or anything, but he would just give me like every time I went to the rink, to school, and I— and it's funny, I deal with my daughter, I do it with our team. Um, Reader had heard it before, he had it in his jacket at the draft, but work hard, have fun, listen to your coaches or teachers because they're there to help you, and do your best. And if you do those 4 things, you can figure out a way. If you're a good person, uh, you can figure out a way to get to where you want to go. So that's kind of all I did. I just kind of scrapped and grinded, and I wanted to play pro hockey, so if it meant getting in 200 50 penalty minutes a year. That's what it took. It meant getting a degree and being the 13th forward at Brock and being the best practice player I could be because Murray Nystrom ended up making a call to Rapid City where I met Jeff Kyrzakos and then ended up playing in Huntsville. Like, that's what I had to do. But I got to get pro resume on my, on my resume and or pro hockey on my resume. And that's what got me into coaching. And that was my goal.

33:06Justin: That sounds like you've also, like, you know, you have the respect of your guys in the room now as a coach. It sounds like it probably translates like You had to learn how to do these things so you can also now teach them how to do these things and, and so on and so forth. Like, it sounds like a good progression for that.

33:22Brad Flynn: Yeah. Yeah, it was fun. At the same— like, I tell them all the time, we laugh, I joke. I was like, hey, like, back when I scored 2 goals as a 20 in Junior A, like, this is where I would have went. Low blocker on that one. Like, it's fun because they all know they're a way better player than I ever was. But I've really worked hard to understand the game and work on my own skill development that I that I can still teach it too, right? So I've earned their respect as a coach and as a teacher, I think, regardless of my playing career. But I get to relate to them from a player that wasn't as talented.

33:52Andrew: That's great because I wanted to ask specifically, you're coaching the defensemen. It was like, I will never forget this group of defensemen. I mean, it is like in 20 years I will be that old guy talking about this past year's defense corps and how everybody laid it on the line. Was there anybody, like you said, you said they're all so talented in comparison to yourself, you felt like they were, you know, better players. But was there anybody that you saw yourself in or you just thought like that, that's the type of player that like, you know, you just admire from afar specifically? And being that like 13th forward and being that guy, are you the guy in the dressing room or with your defensemen that kind of like tries to keep those guys engaged in practice that maybe, you know, we saw like, you know, Kaden Schneider didn't get in the lineup a lot. Max Dirracolo kind of was on the outside looking in for, for, for quite a bit there at the end. How do you get through to those guys? I mean, I'm sure that, you know, some of them are just super motivated, but when somebody starts to kind of have those second thoughts or maybe, you know, are a little bit down that they're not getting to play, how do you approach those guys specifically?

35:03Brad Flynn: 3 great questions there. I want to answer them all right away because they're all impactful for me. I mean that. And like, as you were saying that with this group of defensemen, first off, the 3 years I've been in Kitchener, like I start back with like the Hunter and Motts and Ando and rookie Reader and Soupy when he came from Sarnia.

35:23Andrew: Build a statue.

35:24Brad Flynn: Build a statue. Yeah, exactly. They should. What a deal that was. And like, Nieler was an AP and we had Olivier Savard. And like we had Schmitter and we had all those guys then. And then the next year we had like Ando back as the captain. Like that was an unbelievable group as well. Like, and that was really the core for this group coming forward. And Chromie was a huge part of that. Like, man, like every one of those guys, you ask me if I see anything of myself in them and you know what? Like, and your second question was, do I admire them? Well, I admire each and every guy that was on the team this year and I'll get emotional saying it, but like, I hope I see myself in them because they're all good guys. Like, they're that—that's like the basis of it. And they all cared about each other. They cared about everybody on the team. They cared about the fans. Like, it was a special, special group of individuals, of special individuals that made a special group, I feel. So I got the opportunity to go to Team Canada Under 17 as a guest coach, and right away I thanked those guys because they don't do their job. I don't do my job, right? And They've been unbelievable. We still keep in contact all the time. And I know it's only been like 2 months, but it's like we miss, miss being around it. And sorry, what was the last question? I was thinking about them so much.

36:44Andrew: Just with the guys that are, that were kind of like on the outside.

36:47Brad Flynn: On the outside. Yeah. Yeah. Those, those, those guys have always been my guys. Like whether it's, it's the 7th and 8th defenseman or it's kind of like the 4th line and the extra forwards, like finding extra time to hang out with those guys a bit, whether it's on the ice or off. The ice. And that's just— I understand what that player goes through, and it's different than everybody else. And I think I said it to Josh Brown this year, like, the guys that were the black aces and they didn't play, they were a fabric. They were part of the fabric of our team because of how hard they worked. And we talk about as coaches, we sell the Rudy story all the time. I always did until I was part of the winning. But you saw that it really took all of those guys, Max Dirracolo, like Andrew Vermeulen wasn't playing a lot in the Memorial Cup tournament, but he was coming out of his shell. He's usually the quiet guy. He had guys laughing and he was keeping the mood light when he needed to, but he was contributing in his own way without playing because they knew there was still a fabric of the team and part of the fabric instead of just being on the team, right? So yeah, those guys, it takes everybody. And that's the nice part about our staff is everybody on our staff connects to everybody too. But I always have like a soft spot just because I know, I know what, what it's like to be that guy that works their ass off for, for 6 minutes. And, and you got to be real proud of that 6 minutes and know that you feel like you contributed with those 6 minutes.

38:14Justin: The one thing that I saw when, when we were going to morning skates and practice and stuff like that was like you start to learn who the guys who aren't going to be playing in the game that night or the next game coming up. It was unbelievable how hard they were working. you know, on their own techniques and their own stuff. And I know that strength and conditioning is really important for the Rangers specifically. But then we saw that translate into the, into the actual games. And it was a— it's a long tournament. Obviously, the Rangers played almost as few games as they possibly could going through the OHL and in the, in the playoffs. But like, you know, like, how does that— like, I don't know, just tell us about how that all works together. Like, what makes it so important to this team and, and what makes that such an important part of the culture?

39:02Brad Flynn: Well, Brandon Merli's been around for like 18 years and he just re-signed and is back again. And really, he's, he's the secret sauce behind it. So you're going to have to have him on and have a great chat with him about all the sports science and the training. But he works them. He doesn't work them. He works them smart. They work Extremely hard, and even the guys that stay on that he works on a lot of strength and conditioning and getting the sports science side of it. But he's also really good at player development, and he stays on and does the skill development work with them. Like he's been here since like Spotter and all those guys. So he's had great head coaches that he's learned from, and all these different coaching staffs, and he's been the one constant that he just hasn't been on the bench full time, and he. He's kind of a secret ingredient for us, I feel, when it comes with the defensemen and the forwards. Like, when they're not in the lineup, we know that when they get put in the lineup, they're going to be able to fit in seamlessly because their conditioning is probably going to be better than if they were in the lineup for 2 or 3 games in a row and they weren't playing a lot. But they're going to get their touches. He's going to do a great job with them. I help him out. Cracks helped him out. Last year and stuff with some extra skill stuff, like in terms of jumping on and just being another coach with him. But he did a really good job with that, and the players come back motivated. I think a little bit of it is they don't want to skate with him anymore, but they'd rather skate in games than skate with Merles. I would too. I'll be honest with you. But it's huge, and it but it just says to the player as well, like they understand now when they get an opportunity on a team like that that they can't take anything for granted. So they want to be ready to go, and they have the right attitude, and they're the right kids.

40:45Justin: There's been a Pretty significant coaching change now in the— within the team. So, yeah, Jussi, Jussi is gone and they promoted Jeff and obviously you're still with the team and now they've hired 2. I think it was just yesterday we got the announcement that there's 2 new coaches coming in. How— how you're— you're now the— you're now the vet of the room.

41:10Brad Flynn: Like, I don't want to sit here and feel like Nostradamus or anything, but at the end of the day, I think like We you look at it in in Jussi's track record and like the winningest coach in Kitchener Rangers history or whatever with the winning percentage that he had and coach of the year Memorial Cup like he he's just we could see that he was going to be moving on and like he he did an unbelievable job and then Jeff has been a great leader and and we could just see the writing on the wall there as a as a staff and and the team and and. Everybody's just super happy for him, and it's it's going to be awesome. And and with being promoted to associate head coach and kind of filling in that role, I'm excited for that position and those responsibilities that come with it. I I'm not going to change who I am, but yeah, it's just going to be it's we got Spalls coming on now. Nick Spaling championship resume. We're really excited NHL pedigree real great guy to have in. So yeah, I think it's— I'm really looking forward to it. And Jake Paterson coming in as well with his playing background and his experience and who he is as a person. We're really excited to get him in our coaching room too. So just like the players, when you see guys like Tomas Pobezal move up and move on, you're more than excited. And then you're excited for the other guys to step into their roles and get that opportunity because, you know, they've been working hard at it and they're ready for it. And And they've proven that they've done it all the way. So I'm just— I'm pumped up for the season and excited to get going.

42:42Justin: Do your responsibilities change moving up into the associate head coach role, or will you kind of still have the same purview?

42:49Brad Flynn: Or— yeah, same, same stuff. I'll work with the D and the penalty kill and give feedback to the players when I can. And just the same, same situation.

42:58Andrew: We've taken a lot of your time here and we really appreciate you joining us, but We did chat via DM and we did mention that we had to talk about some old school wrestling.

43:10Brad Flynn: Oh, yeah.

43:10Andrew: Yeah, we have to talk about it. So you told me the day that you guys were going to win the Memorial Cup, as we knew, as we didn't know then, but we knew in our hearts, you were deciding which shirt you were going to wear. I think you had Macho Man or Stone Cold. Which one do you remember? Which one you wore?

43:30Brad Flynn: Oh yeah, I wore the Austin 3:16.

43:32Andrew: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Awesome. Awesome.

43:35Brad Flynn: So I want that kind of attitude.

43:37Andrew: Yeah. So, so growing up, who was your guy? Was it, was it, was it Stone Cold?

43:42Brad Flynn: Well, you know what, I'll be honest. Growing up, it was The Ultimate Warrior. Okay. He was the guy. And then, then I got into that like little Stone Cold phase, a big one. And then Probably my era where it faded out. It was like NWO and DX, and then kind of got out of it for a long time. So yeah, that was like the fade out there. But yeah, it started, and then I got back into it probably during COVID a little bit before, but I didn't come back to the new era stuff. I'd go back and like watch all the like the '90s stuff and the documentaries on all those old school guys, and I was like. First off, I can't believe I like The Ultimate Warrior. Like, there were so many better promos, there were so many better characters, and I fell into like all the Ric Flair and the Macho Man, and just watching them cut promos just cracked me up. So it was great.

44:40Andrew: Oh yeah, for sure. It was, uh, yeah, it's, it's live theater. It's probably one of the most successful live theaters, uh, in the world. Um, side note, random suggestion, I don't know if you've, if you've watched WWE Unreal on Netflix. But that show is like, I think, better than the show that they put out. That's all the behind the scenes stuff, right?

45:00Brad Flynn: Well, that's what I'm into it now. That's how I know like the main characters. So I got into that. Like, I love the behind the scenes, whether it's like the All or Nothings or anything like that. So now once I saw the wrestling one, I was like, this is unreal. And yeah, kind of picture what if they would add an old school one with like Jake the Snake and Marty Jannetty and all those kind of guys. with, with this current, uh, behind the scenes would be pretty electric stuff.

45:24Andrew: Oh yeah, I, yeah, I think a lot of it, a lot of it would be, uh, it would be unrated, let's put it that way. Um, so before you go, you got to tell us, uh, you can't pick Hell's Bells. If you were a wrestler, what would your, your entrance music be?

45:39Brad Flynn: Oh, I think it might have— I might go with like a country song, uh, I'd probably go with 8 Second Ride. I think it's like Jake Owen, maybe 8 Second Ride.

45:53Justin: I got to jump. I got to jump in. I'm sorry, I don't know anything about the wrestling world, but yeah, you were, you were in Red Deer for how long? Were you in Red Deer for?

46:16Brad Flynn: 3 years.

46:18Justin: 3 years. Okay. As you probably know, Andrew, Edmonton guy, Oilers fan. Me, Flames fan from Calgary. You have to go to a Battle of Alberta. Who are you cheering for? You can only choose of the 2. Like, this isn't your team for life. This is—

46:32Brad Flynn: No, no, no. I'm just saying, this upcoming season.

46:37Justin: Or whenever.

46:39Andrew: Yeah. Whenever. Anytime.

46:40Justin: Sure. Anytime.

46:42Brad Flynn: If it was in the '80s, it would definitely be the Oilers I would have cheered for. For sure. Terrible, terrible.

46:48Justin: There you go. Terrible choice. He's a winner. He's a winner. And, and how would you rate the donut mill? That's the other question.

46:56Brad Flynn: Oh, the donut mill was electric. That got like a solid, like 9.1. It was.

47:01Justin: Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah, I love it. That's— I think that's the best part of Red Deer is the donut mill.

47:06Brad Flynn: The donut mill. The people are good there too. They're good people there.

47:09Andrew: The people who started the donut mill especially.

47:13Brad Flynn: Yeah, there you go.

47:16Andrew: All right. Well, Brad, thank you so much for joining us. That was incredible. We loved what you, what you had to say, especially about that special defenseman corps. That was just— Oh my gosh.

47:26Brad Flynn: I mean, it was—

47:28Andrew: I was trying not to get emotional. You're such a motivational guy. You have such great Instagram stories about like what you're reading and, and what's going on. So I know for a fact that you're, you're, you're about practicing gratitude and, and coming from that place. Tell me like 3 things that you are grateful for right now.

47:48Brad Flynn: Oh, I'm grateful for my fiancée Amanda and my daughter Madison. So I'm grateful for my family. I'm really grateful for Kitchener Rangers organization for having me back and extremely grateful for Rangers Nation. Everybody says they're the best fans in the league. I think they're the best supporters. We're like Green Bay, Liverpool level supporters. Those are the 3 things that I'm grateful for right now.

48:14Andrew: Awesome. Well, we're grateful you're here with us. Thank you so much.

48:17Brad Flynn: Thank you. Appreciate it.

48:19Justin: Brad Boys for life.

48:20Brad Flynn: Brad Boys for life. Appreciate it.

48:23Justin: Well, Bad Boy Brad Flynn, uh, pretty lovely human being.

48:29Andrew: Yeah, not so bad. Not so bad at all. In fact, I'd say good to great to grand to wonderful.

48:35Justin: Yeah. Wonderful.

48:36Andrew: Wonderfully superb. Yeah, we, we love Brad Flynn on this. We stan Brad Flynn.

48:42Justin: Yes. Yes. Well, we will continue to have Brad Boy episodes though.

48:47Andrew: Of course.

48:48Justin: If he gets, if, if anything happens and he's standing up for his guys, because that's what we want.

48:52Andrew: Exactly.

48:53Justin: He is, that's a protector.

48:55Andrew: He's a protector.

48:55Justin: His guys get hurt, his guys get messed with, then he, then that's when Brad Boy, Bad Boy Brad Flynn comes out.

49:05Andrew: Exactly. All bets are off, right? So. So it's, it's when—

49:10Justin: what did he say? Wrestling. It's not my thing. What did he say his favorite wrestler was?

49:15Andrew: The Ultimate Warrior.

49:16Justin: That's when the Ultimate Warrior comes out.

49:18Andrew: Yes. His alter ego. We'll have to figure out what— you know, we won't put the face, the AI face paint on him, but, but we could. But we could.

49:27Justin: This episode might be called Brad Boys 3: The Ultimate Warrior.

49:32Brad Flynn: There you go.

49:33Andrew: I'm, I'm down to— we've been calling it behind the scenes, we've been calling it the Flynn-terview.

49:38Justin: The Flynn-terview, actually, that's probably the better one. Yeah, everything in our, in our notes and stuff has been the Flynn-terview. So the Flynn-terview, oh, it's perfect.

49:47Andrew: Yeah, yeah, uh, it was, um, well, it was, it was amazing. I mean, I feel like we could have talked for another hour with Brad. It was just like effortless, uh, chatting with Brad and like I think we got in everything and then there's still things that I'd love to talk to him about. So hopefully we'll have Brad back on, you know, after the penalty kill does really well at some point this season.

50:10Justin: Couple back-to-back, you know, zero, zero hitters. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

50:15Andrew: Oh, force for the other team. Well, yeah, forget it. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

50:20Justin: Hey, Andrew, we have done an interview and we didn't really announce it. Um, we're a part of the Hockey Podcast Network now.

50:27Andrew: We are. Yes. That's a really exciting announcement. We didn't really do a formal announcement, but you may notice that there, there may be a little commercial break at some point or whatever, but that's not because we don't love you. That's just because we have this opportunity to make our brand better by partnering with another brand. And, uh, we're really excited that, uh, we're having, you know, we're part of this network now.

50:51Justin: Yeah, it's a, it's a pretty cool opportunity and it's, you know, it came about in an interesting way and it was, it felt a little validating for us. So it's pretty, pretty great that it feels like the podcast is moving forward and this is sort of our progression. And thank you to the Hockey Podcast Network for joining, for joining us, for acquiring. I don't know what they did. Partnering. Partnering with us. Partnering. Partnering. Thank you. Yeah. Kyle.

51:14Andrew: And thank you for listening to us because that's the reason why we, you know, we have anybody reaching out. Which we do, which is really exciting. We have people reaching out to us semi-regularly now, which is kind of insane.

51:28Justin: We got our usuals in the DMs, you know?

51:31Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. And, and now there's people who are providing not just engaging banter, but also opportunities. So we thank the people who are listening and commenting and following and all that kind of stuff because like, that's the reason why we're getting these opportunities. Is because of you, not because of us. We're just, we're just 2 idiots laughing into a microphone and asking semi-engaging questions to your favorite hockey players and coaches.

51:59Justin: And some not engaging questions.

52:01Andrew: Oh yeah, some disengaging.

52:03Justin: They make it sound good.

52:04Andrew: Yeah, they do. They do. And we laugh. That's what we do.

52:08Justin: We did announce last week that we have a new website. The voicemail Is up on there.

52:14Andrew: Yeah, we'd love to hear from you.

52:16Justin: Please send us stuff in. We might do a, we might do a mailbag episode towards, towards the end of the, the, the offseason as we get into the regular season. So send in your voicemails, send in your, you know, send us in the DMs or whatever, like however you want to. You can send us at hello@theaudpod.com as a, as an email address if you feel so comfortable using that. So yeah, feel free to, feel free to send us some questions and stuff for that. And I know we got more interviews kind of in the pipes, don't we?

52:47Andrew: Well, we always do. You know, you know what it is I'm finding is you got to nudge these guys a few times, but get them eventually.

52:55Justin: Yeah.

52:55Andrew: Yeah. Yeah.

52:56Justin: And so, yeah, if there also, if there's somebody that you want to hear on the podcast, let us know. We'll, we can try. I know.

53:03Andrew: And it's open to trying. We have already, we've already, we've heard your, your, your Sam O'Reilly requests. Listen, we would have Sam O'Reilly if Sam O'Reilly enjoyed doing media. We've talked to him. Maybe one day, I think it's in the cards, but I think in the brief period before hockey starts, that's going to be a no right now. But yeah, outside of that, you tell us who you want to hear from.

53:28Justin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sam O'Reilly, you know, we heard from his mom. Maybe, maybe not.

53:33Andrew: Yes, we could probably get his sisters. What do you want to talk to my sister for? But that's, you know, that's, that's the best we can do. Okay. All right.

53:44Justin: We can have an O'Reilly on the podcast. Right. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

53:50Andrew: That's, that's, yeah, we've heard you. We'd love to have that. That's just maybe not in the cards. You know, we'll see down the road. Down the road, you know, Kitchener Rangers alumni, you never know. But check out the website. Justin worked really hard on it. And so thank you, Justin. And we have to do thank yous. That's my segue.

54:11Justin: Great segue. Thank you to Ken Born, director of branding and marketing. Papa Born. We've been, we've been plugging away. There's some stuff. There's some stuff in the works.

54:23Andrew: There's some stuff in the works. You asked and we almost possibly delivered something.

54:29Justin: We're working on delivering for sure.

54:31Andrew: Yes. Yes.

54:33Justin: Thank you. Of course, shout out to the prodigal producer, Liam.

54:37Andrew: The phenom.

54:38Justin: We got to shout out Tim. And of course, shout out to JJ for doing the voiceover at the beginning of our episode.

54:45Andrew: Yes. Thank you, JJ.

54:50Justin: JJ also made a nice little post about Days Till Hockey. So thank you for doing that too. Yes.

54:56Andrew: And if you— and if you feel so inclined as an AudPod listener to do something like that, you can always tag us and we'll, we'll at the very least post it to our stories. We're always excited to share stuff. If, if you're listening or if you're, if you're engaging with us, we love to share what you— your content. So just, yeah. Yeah, join in. We love it.

55:18Justin: Get in, get in there. Thank you to the Hockey Podcast Network. I'm going to start saying that now so I get used to saying it because these thank yous, they're pretty ingrained. Yeah. Changing things is hard. I know. And I don't know, the Kitchener Public Library is looking for a board member, Andrew, if you want to join them.

55:37Andrew: Me? No, you can. You have more time than, than I do right now. I don't.

55:42Justin: I don't. I'm not a Kitchener community member.

55:44Andrew: Oh, right. That's fair. That's fair.

55:46Justin: I don't live in the— I don't live in Kitchener. That's—

55:49Andrew: I would, but you use, you use it so, you use it so much, use it more than most Kitchener citizens, I'd say.

55:56Brad Flynn: Yeah.

55:56Justin: I think, Andrew, I think it would be good for you. So, or if, if anybody out there listening wants to become a board member, we're not there this week, so I wasn't going to thank them, but I did see that they were looking for a new board member.

56:07Andrew: That's cool. Yeah.

56:08Justin: I feel like, you know, if one of our listeners was on the board, who knows what would happen? Who knows?

56:14Andrew: Justin just wants me to get in there and just start buying gear for us to use. Yes, in the studio. Yeah.

56:20Justin: Mostly I want a way into the booking system that isn't midnight on a Sunday. Andrew, in September, I guess, or maybe sometime in the future. Fan Fest? August?

56:36Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

56:37Justin: The August long week? No, Labor Day weekend is Fan Fest. I can't remember.

56:41Andrew: Yeah, I think it's right before. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

56:43Justin: I'll see you at The Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

56:48Andrew: Yeah, you're stepping all over me.

56:50Justin: See you at the— see you at the— at the Hod, as Justin said.

56:56Andrew: The Hod.

56:57Justin: Brad boys, Brad boys, what you gonna do?

57:03Andrew: Now we're—