NHL Legend GARY ROBERTS gives one of the most INTERESTING Interviews ever - CTC Live

On a very special Clearing the Crease episode, former NHL player and now THE fitness coach of the NHL, GARY ROBERTS, breaks down everything related to his career: from playing over 1,000 games in the NHL to now building up legends like Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I was playing online with Tid and I went in the corner to help him, you know, and he just had like two guys on him. And so I'm in the corner where I spent most of my career trying to help him. He says, Rob, just get the hell away from me. I'm like, as a kid standing out there.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

You need help in here.

SPEAKER_05 0:47

Although today you might be the second favorite Stanley Cup winner. There is no question about this. We got an absolute rock star here in the house today, and also like the maybe the rock of uh professional hockey, Gary Roberts, um, man Stanley Cups, uh, you've kind of seen and done it all. Thanks so much for doing this.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

I really appreciate this. No, you're welcome. Nice to be here.

SPEAKER_05 1:09

I I want to start I want to start in Ottawa because as a kid who grew up in Ottawa and going to 67s games, there you were winning Memorial Cups in 1984. Um but when I started in the media business as a kid, going to college, I covered the 67s. Right. And Brian Kilray was the general manager, and Brian is in his 90s now and still alive. Hi, Killer. But you also went to the school of Brian Kilray as well. Like, what was that experience like? I mean, it was still cigars.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I was burning my memory, that was 40, 40, what, one year ago or something? I mean, it's pretty fresh. Like we had our reunion last year, so I organized a wooden sticks 40-year reunion for the Ottawa 67s. So for our Memorial Cup team.

SPEAKER_05 1:50

Darren Pang was part of that. Bruce Castle.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Bruce wasn't able to be there because he was in playoffs. Yep. And we had an amazing time. And Brian Brian Kilray, like we were all amazed. He was 90, I think he's 90. And still sharp as attack. Just turned 90, sharp as attack, was still like at midnight. I'm falling asleep in my chair, and he's still running the room and still telling stories, and his memory was amazing. I mean, you know, certain people that had an impact on my life. My dad, and then I'd probably go to Brian Kilray. Wow. As a 16-year-old leaving home, going to Ottawa, not getting off to the best start in Ottawa. Like I had two fights in high school in the first month. Okay. It was not good, right? And he almost said. At the high school, I was a 16-year-old going to Ottawa. And for whatever reason, got in an argument with a student in the class, and the teacher, he wanted to he wanted to shut the door or shut the window or something, and it was too cold in the room or whatever. And I'm like, whatever. Like, you know, he got pissed off at me for not shutting the window and took a swing at me, and then the teacher got involved. And then he shoved the teacher. And then as soon as he shoved the teacher, I guess that was my free pass to drill him. So anyway, that's how you're talking about. So the principal pulled and pulled me down. I walked through the lobby. I still remember seeing my teammates, right? I'm the six, I'm the youngest guy in the team. And I got blood on my shirt. I'm going to the principal's office. And I remember getting another rink that day, and Brian Curry brought me in and he read me. And he said, Hey, like, you're going home, we don't put up with this. Sure. I remember crying and just sitting there crying, saying, Killer, like, listen, I didn't, you know, if anything, I was defending the teacher kind of thing. And he uh he he looked at me and he said, uh, okay, don't let it happen again. And he let me off the hook, right? And I think the the teeth the teacher basically called and said, Hey, this wasn't Gary's deal, this was the other guy. So they saved me, right? Mr. Tolman, I still remember his name. There's certain things. I think there's certain things in your career that you kind of you're like, I remember that guy. Like he saved me. If that he didn't say that, I'm probably maybe I'm not sitting here today. It's crazy. Yeah, I could have got sent home. But that's a decision you make when you're young, right? But so, anyways, uh about two weeks later, his friend took a run at me in the hallway by the locker. I was just about to say what happened in the second bike at home.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

So two weeks later, the guy's buddy. The guy's buddy came after me. I would imagine he learned a lesson. Well, at least that wasn't good. That wasn't good either. No.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

So I was back in Brian Curry's office. So then I'm back in Brian Curry's office, and now he's all over me. Right. And then once again, I was very fortunate. Uh, the you know, the principal, uh Tommy Ray, I still remember him and uh Mr. Tobin. They went to bat for me and saved my junior career, basically. So I was that close to being sent home, my first year in junior hockey. Um Brian yelled at me on a regular basis. I uh you know, one day I remember saying to him, Killer, like, why are you always yelling at me? And he says, Kid, when I stop yelling at you, that's when you'll know I've given up on you. It was like it was like, okay. Yeah, yelling at you because I like you. Yeah, and you know, you're 16. It's like even six-year-olds today, they'll go to junior hockey. I see it. I'm just having two boys go through it. You want to fit in. You want to be at the party, you want to be playing cards, or you want to be everywhere. I remember a killer saying to me, like, this is your draft year, my second year, I'm calling you every night for curfew. Wow. And if you're not in, you're going home. And he said you got a chance to be a player. But he said, if you if you hang out with the 20-year-olds and try and play cards and drink beer and smoke cigarettes, you're probably not playing hockey. So, anyways, it was so what my my whole point to that about killer is he had a huge impact on my career.

SPEAKER_05 5:39

He taught respect, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:40

He taught respect.

SPEAKER_05 5:41

I used to be a different way than you teach it today.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

You know? Yeah. But I mean, for me, it worked. I knew like if I crossed the line, he he called me on it.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

I I taught us, I told a story years back to when I was I was doing the public address announcing for homes games for the 67s. This is like 97-ish. And I've told I may have told the story before on the podcast, so sorry. But uh but I it Ottawa was blowing out Oshawa one night. It was like a 7-2 game for a matinee game. They have a crowd of about 7,000 in there. 50-50 winner, randomly enough, uh guys from Ottawa, uh, from Oshawa who wins. So here I am being 22 years old and cheeky, going, well, you won't believe it, everybody, but uh Andrew Raycrow from Oshawa is today's 50-50 winner. So, like, you know, 7,000 fans in Ottawa, boo, right? And then I follow up on the microphone thinking I'm all cheeky. Well, they gotta win something today, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:37

Hey!

SPEAKER_05 6:37

And a lot of laughter, right? Well, I get down to the room afterwards, and Brian, uh Brian Campbell and Nick Boynton were still playing with the 67s at that time. They're walking out of the room as I go to collect my $40 that I would get for you know working this uh public address now. They're like, hey uh, did Killer see you yet? I'm like, no I'm like, oh, he's fing pissed. See ya, and off he goes, like, wow, is he talking? I came around the corner and like Killer's holding court with the media doing his post-game scrum, and he lights me up. Like he sees me and he's like, shut the f up. You are a fing idiot. You they already want to kick our ass bad enough. Shut the f up. And I'm like, oh my god, like, you know, and he's yelling at me in front of like that one, basically that wasn't funny, right? You don't need to provide any more motivation. Yeah. Kind of lit me up. And then as we kind of got into his room with Bert and you know, and and uh Tank and all those guys, and you know, handed me a beer and kind of smirked and kind of like, yes, it was funny, but kind of just look, be respectful, right? And and just kind of taught me a very valuable lesson as only he could, right? But like lit me up, gave me my lecture, but then also kind of gave me the wink and the nod that, okay, yes, it was funny, but time and a place.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Z-ball never square never swears. We can tell them that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 7:57

I mean we're all square with the yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

We're all square under certain stories for sure. But I mean, you could I could sit here all day and tell Brian Curry stories, and we did that night at Wooden Sticks uh last May. We had an amazing time. Oh, that's great. That must be a good thing.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

I want to go I want to go to Calgary with but we found a weird hack on your stats. You got seven American League games in the middle of junior. You got four seasons of junior, and all of a sudden you got two games like in your second year in junior, you got seven games of Moncton?

SPEAKER_01 8:25

So I we didn't make the playoffs in Ottawa, my third year. Okay. And uh so I went from I went from Ottawa to Moncton to play seven, seven American Hockey League games.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

And you were dominated.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Gotcha. Yeah, you were doing that. I was eighteen, but I was also, yeah, I was also scared to death because we were playing Freddie Beach or we were playing, you know, Halifax. I mean, Freddie was going to Freddie, they got Gordonelly on the other side, and Jimmy Mann. Yeah, sure. Remember Jimmy, I had random Jimmy Mann, my first game. I had no idea who Jimmy Mann was. Right. All of a sudden everybody was. It was my first year pro after being drafted. Remember Jimmy Mann chasing me around the ice. Nobody's going, he's a lefty, be careful, he's a lefty.

unknown 9:08

I'm like, oh, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

You know, Jimmy Mann threatening my life. And I was just young and like, okay, how am I? You know, I mean, hey, listen, like, we all find a way, right? You gotta find a way to have your to make it. Yeah. You know, Brian Curry said, you know, I knew what he meant. Yeah. You know, and he didn't never tell me to fight, but I knew what he meant. Yeah. So I kind of fought my way into junior hockey and started to score, and then I kind of fought my way into pro hockey and started to score. So I was fortunate to I always say I was prepared to do a job that some weren't. Yeah. So it gave me the opportunity to play with better players. Yeah. And then it made me a better player. Yeah. It's kind of as simple as that. Yeah. So you gotta find you gotta find a way to, okay, how am I gonna survive every night that I'm not a healthy scratch? Yeah. That was my thing when I went in the games. Okay, middle of the second period, if I haven't done anything, I'm like, shit, I better do something tonight. Yeah. You know, or that when the when the coaches are in there, you know, game's over, and the coach is like, how was he tonight? And everyone's like, Well, didn't notice something. And then you're in trouble. Then you begin on that side of it. So I always had that, you know, I guess some some you know, some lessons early in my career that kind of taught me that uh not to take anything for granted and be ready to play every every chance you get. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Let's take you out west. Uh out to Calgary. We chatted there a couple of times, and you guys got a great group, the 89 Cup team, obviously. It seems like you guys are tight. Yeah. I guess my first off, had you been out to Calgary much before?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

I try to go. I would always I was always I'd like to go to Calgary. I have wonderful friends still in Calgary, keep in touch with them. And I would always try to go to Calgary, whether it was Gordy Howe, Alzheimer's man. I always try to go every May. Um I built some gyms for my buddies in Calgary. So whenever I go, I got a I got a free room near the gym in their basement. Yeah. So uh so I make a I try to make a point of going back. What about when you were young?

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Like I mean, like Did you know it? Before you started playing for the like when you went out there, was that your first time kind of over? First time ever. That's why I failed. Yeah, that's what I was trying to do.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

That's why I failed all the fitness tests. Okay. I was a lacrosse player. Right. Lacrosse player, like you know, lacrosse, you're tough as nails. You play lacrosse. Yeah. I protected Joe New Dick all summer. Yeah. So I had my had my fighting was good well in tune because I was taking care of him playing lacrosse. So I always tell him how to take care of him. But uh, but I get to Calgary and I'm like, oh, two-mile run. I'm gonna bury this thing. I could run long distance. Yeah. And uh I was had asthma my whole life. I've had asthma my whole life. So I'd you know, use inhalers, but I only used them in Ontario when I needed them. Yeah, whenever I got a cold, I'd start using my inhalers. Got to Calgary and I had an asthma attack during the two-mile run. So I'm a first-round draft pick, 12th overall, going to Calgary. The altitude just fried me. I'd never been to Calgary.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

So here I am. I'm I literally don't finish the run. And Badger Bob was a fitness guy, well, way ahead of his time. Yeah. And our players were way ahead of their time back then. We had a bunch of college guys that had played three, four years of college, and they were weightlifting at college back then. Junior hockey players weren't weightlifting. And I got a really rude awakening of how far away I was from being an NHL hockey player. Yeah. And Badger Bob, uh, I still remember, I'm in a room with 70 guys at training camp. And he stands up and he starts talking about fitness testing, he said our our first rounder was our worst uh uh worst uh prepared player at camp. Said that in front of everybody? Everybody. So I sat there. Because that's how we did it in those days, though, right? I sat there and I was like, did he just really say that? If you I always tell I tell the story all the time, but if you could have beam me up at any time in the you know my career, that would have been it to get me out of that room. I couldn't get out of Calgary fast enough. Yeah. My first NHL training camp. So when I left that, I went back to Ottawa. I we we had a strength coach in Ottawa medium of Lauren Goldenberg. Yeah. And uh and I started working with Lauren. I spent my whole summer in Ottawa next year, and I said it was never gonna happen to me again. I'll never fail fitness testing again. So I'm probably sitting here today, and that's another lesson I learned early in my career. I wasn't prepared to play, got embarrassed badly, and made a decision. I either quit or get in better shape. And uh and that was kind of the start of you know me finding my way, and uh and it's another experience that you go through that you either turn left or turn right, and you know, fortunately I turned the right way. Yeah, yeah. So, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

I I didn't want to bring Barnaby up, but he he told me I I should ask him. Oh my gosh. Good thing I missed him. I thought he should have recovered today.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

I might have Barney, but I must have had a shiner before the episode today.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Barney said it to me, he told me last night, he goes, Well, ask Gary this. He goes, and he and he he did say he goes, it was one of the most impressive things that I I've ever seen. You got hurt in Calgary, and he said it was your first game back, and Barney was running his mouth, and he said, Yeah, I ended up, I I fought Gary, and uh he goes, I'm not gonna tell you what I told him, but it wasn't very nice. Gary was pissed. He was chasing me around all game, and then I think he laid a licking on him and scored four goals. I think I said three or four goals.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

No, I had the horse collar off at the time. I'd gone through my rehab. Yeah. So I had rehabbed two neck surgeries, and then I sat out for like a quite a long time. And then uh and then I came back to play. And it might have been, I don't know if it was the first game or third game, but I thought it was maybe the third game back. But anyways, yeah, Barnaby made a gesture towards me and basically said, I don't really care about your F and neck, I'll run you from behind, is what he said. That is rude. And I came unglued, gloves off, trying to chase one. You probably find the highlight. Yeah. And then I I I stepped on his stick and I went down and then I went back up and was chasing him around. Yeah. Uh so yeah, I I was not, it was not impressive and not impressive. But I mean, that's what he did, right? He got under people's skin and he he found a way to under my skin that night. It just worked out that I got a few goals as well. So uh it didn't feel quite as bad when the game was over and we were home. I think they were against Hasick too, so it was pretty good goal. Well, Barney was probably pumped about that. Pretty good goal, pretty good hat trick on. So, and anyways, yeah. Him and I are still buddies. We still I think the last time I saw Barney I said this, he was doing push-ups in a hotel in Calgary at a Gordy Howell Alzheimer's event. He was trying to show me he could still do push-ups. Problem is it was like two o'clock in the morning at the lobby of the hotel, and there was a there was a wedding or some kind of some kind of party ending, and everybody was watching this guy do push-ups on the hotel floor. So, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

All fun and games. Yeah. From Calgary went out to Carroll. How did you end up out in Calgary? Did you get trained, or were you still?

SPEAKER_01 15:14

So yeah, so when I made so when I finally retired, I came back from that comeback and uh I got hit against Chicago one night in Calgary and had the burners again. Kind of came back, right? Lost the feeling of both my arms. And I said after all the rehab, after the surgeries, if I got bad burners again, I was gonna retire. So I basically got hit before playoffs. Robbins, what year is that? That was ninety um four. No, sorry, not 94, 95, I think. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 15:40

And then how did it first start?

SPEAKER_01 15:42

I got hit from behind in Toronto from Bob Rouse. Okay. From behind I dumped the puck in at Maple Leaf Gardens. Yeah. And Bob Rouse was playing for the Leafs, and I was playing for Calgary. And it was like early 90s, maybe, or late, late, like maybe 90, 91. Yeah. And he hit me from behind. And I went to the boards and carried me off on a stretcher at Maple Leaf Parents. So I had no feeling in my arms for like guys, like I'm talking 30 minutes probably. I couldn't feel my arms. And they took me to Wellesley Hospital, they cut the equipment off me, and they put me in a scan. And uh they just said you've got severe nerve damage. Like you're, you know, your nothing's broken. My neck was, you know, wasn't I didn't have any disc issue at the time. But that was the start of the narrowing of my disc, right? I started to lose feeling in my arms. And you're still late 20s here, right? I was late twenties, yeah. I just yeah, I'd had a couple of good years. And then it was probably, I think it was 27 when that started to happen. And then I played with it for three years. Like literally, just playing through it. Yeah, literally, I mean, hey, listen, at 30, and listen, I mean, everybody has their story, and everybody's played hurt. So I'm not but still. But you were kind of a medical market. And when Burray scored in triple in uh I think it was I don't know if it was triple over time, but it was overtime he scored. Yeah, we were up 3-1 in the series, Vancouver came back, beat us four games to three.

SPEAKER_05 16:59

It comes up uh as somebody who lives in Vancouver, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah, like I literally couldn't defend myself. I couldn't cut my food. I couldn't cut my food. Like I could have Ronnie Stern would help me get dressed. And you're playing in that series. Yeah, I played in that series. Ronnie Stern would help me get dressed. I would could barely tie my skates. I had no feeling in my right arm at all. Like if I put my right arm up, it would just fall down. Oh and uh and then I that was and we lost that playoff round. And I'd say so like the one time in my career I was happy I didn't have to go to the rink the next day. Right. Because I couldn't defend myself. It's winning to play. I would just go in front of the net, and you know, a friend of mine who I play with in Calorie, Dana Merzen, would just cross-check me from behind, and I'm like, bastard, yeah. But I couldn't do anything about it. You couldn't do anything about it, yeah. Yeah, I couldn't really do anything. So I took a I took a beating. I took a beating. So, anyways, that's why I ended up obviously retiring and getting away from the game, and then kind of, you know, and reinventing myself. I went away from the game in uh gosh, losing track now, ninety ninety-six, right? And then I uh stopped playing, and then I I took a whole year. So from April of 96, I retired and came back to play in uh in September of 97. So basically 18 months away. And just tried to play golf for the first few months in Calgary, me and Flurry. Uh and they were it was off season for Calgary, so it was kind of fun. But all of a sudden September came and my phone stopped ringing. All my buddies were back playing hockey. Uh I was 30 years old, going like, uh, okay, what am I gonna do with my life? I was hanging out with Wayne McBean and Calgary. He had a he had a golf, he had a uh golf corporate company doing like logo hats and t-shirts and stuff. So I said, Oh heck, I'll go in and hang out with Beaner. So we became real good pals and hung out together. Uh, go play squash in the afternoon, have a couple beers and some wings. Uh did that program for a little while, and then November rolled around. I went to a Flames game, and I remember going to that game and leaving. Couldn't I couldn't watch the game. You know, all my buddies were playing, I was 30 years old, retired, and I remember leaving that night, and I just said, Shit, I gotta get my shit together. I can't live like this. Yeah. And I was 30 years old, so I saw I got saying to myself, like, where am I gonna be at 40 if this is how I feel at 30? Yeah. Obviously, we all go through it. We retire, feel sorry for yourself, get depressed, you know. Yeah. Uh probably make choices I shouldn't have made. Yeah. And then uh kind of got my shit together, started studying nutrition training. Met some great people that were in my corner, obviously. I was very fortunate to meet a lot of great people on the way that said, Hey Robs, when do you do this? When do you do this? And I kind of took their advice and just started to reinvent myself to come back and play. So I was very fortunate, very grateful I had those people in my corner uh during that two-year period when I was trying to make a comeback. Yeah. So I was, yeah, very grateful that I had that second opportunity to play until I was almost 43. I retired just before I was 43.

SPEAKER_06 19:48

I and that's just taking like so from that moment to now what you're doing with the training and the amount of NHL guys you've you've had uh huge influence on going back 10 years now, 15 years, and and even when you were playing. Like I remember while you were playing, half the half the guys that I knew were training with you up north of Toronto. Um the Mike Smiths of the world, those guys, that crew stands. I just saw Smitty yesterday, actually. Yeah, anyways, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

He's in town. His boys are in a hockey tournament in Toronto. Talking about that after. Yeah, but anyways, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:22

So all of that came from from your injury, but just talk about how how important that's all been and and and not just for you, but for s for the league in a way.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Yeah, I was like I say, I I felt, like I say, I was so compelled to share what I learned. And when I retired at uh in 2009, I retired. We had just, Michelle and I just had our second uh baby, uh Sam. And uh I had retired in Tampa. Uh Rick Tockett called me and he said, hey, he said uh, you know, we're talking about sending Stamcoast to Minnesota to stay in a hotel all summer.

unknown 20:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Because I'd played my last year with Stamcoast. Yeah, yeah. Stammer was on that team. Yeah, he we he hung the whole year with me. Yeah. And we'd meet in the gym every morning and train, lift weights. Yeah. And my goal was to get him stronger during that year, and that was the year that Barry Melrose was coming out and saying, hey, we should send this kid back to the game.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

Yeah, he's not ready to junior.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

He's not ready. And I was walking into uh the ownership and and uh Barry and say, Listen, just let me train the kid. Yeah, let him I'll meet him every day. You know, it'll be fine. He's too good to send back to Junior. Yeah. And uh, you know, thankfully they they didn't they didn't do that. I think Barry was fired 16 games if or something. And then talk it took over. Yeah, and then uh I think Stammer scored 20 goals from Christmas to the end of the year.

unknown 21:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

And then then that summer, basically, uh instead of him going to Minnesota Hotel, I started training him. So I was training Stammer that summer out of my house in in uh Uxbridge. Wow. I always knew I would probably be doing something like that. Didn't know it was gonna be right away. Yeah, and absolutely fell in love with it. Like found in love with helping him. And I was still training with them. I remember when they were seeing Michelle in the kitchen one day, she was making us shakes because he used to always have a shake when we were done. And I said, You know, I think I'm going to get a PTO. I'm feeling too good. I'm not retiring. And I was 43. Samurai was 18. He asked her 19. And then my wife was looking at me and she's like, Are you crazy? And then uh the next day, sure enough, next day, we're doing a heavy rear foot elbow split squat, and he was getting really strong, starting to push the weight. So I was trying to keep up to him, and I and I tore my quad, and he knows the start. I tore my quad doing an exercise. And then I walked into the kitchen and I said to my wife, Well, I think I'm back to being a coach. I had my one 24-hour period that I thought I was going to make another comeback. And then I woke up and said, Ah, I think I'll just be a strength coach. So that's what I did. And then uh from that time, like next year, we had four or five guys come to the house. Then we had 10 or 12 guys come to the house. Then we had another second daughter, Sydney, who was uh was 2010. And uh then we had three young kids in the house, another older daughter that wasn't living with us at the time. And my wife looked at me, she said, You got to take this circus somewhere else. Like I had guys suntanning in my backyard, you know, Michael Del's auto that finishes his workout. Oh my gosh, Delhi's got a speedo on by the pool, you know, and I got my nannies up against the window checking up Del's auto. And my wife's like, You got a complete circus going on here because the guys would never leave. Right. They'd work out, they'd have a swim, they'd be the Deli would show up with his bathing suit and his suntan lotion. At the resort. At the resort. Basically, and then we'd go, and then the guy's like, hey, can we play wooden sticks? And then I was organizing tea times. I had a full concierge service going on. So my wife only said, like, you gotta get this out of here. So then I ended up doing a deal with Fitness Institute in Toronto, and then we moved the company there for a while, and then started to help St. Andrews re kind of build their facility. And that's when I kind of got into doing facilities.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Really enjoyed building gyms. So it was kind of like that, it was kind of a side passion for me. And so I helped them build their gym, and then I moved my business to St. Andrews College. And that was there, I think, for eight summers. Um, and then recently have we I got into a new facility in Bonn.

SPEAKER_05 24:07

This is a a very broad question, but what's the method to the madness when sculpting a gym?

SPEAKER_01 24:13

I think uh For you, obviously. Recognizing the athletes you're training, number one. Okay, right.

SPEAKER_05 24:17

Know your clients, your clients.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Who are your clients? Yeah. You know, like there's always putting equipment in that no one's gonna use. Yeah. Um, and nowadays, like we need more space than machines. You know, you go to the gyms that are all cluttered with machines and you're kind of working around, like players need to move now. Like, you know, have to work out their move. Yeah, but they're uh yeah, we're we're doing some type of some type of sprint with a strength, work out something. Yeah, you need we need you need space. So my you know, my my current gym now is a real big turf area in the middle, and then all my all my heavy racks and stuff on one side, and then my kind of performance trainers and dumbbells on the other wall. So just to you can kind of cycle people in and out, is what I try to do. So we recognize in our facility, pros train in groups of eight, and then our young elite train in groups of 12. So you got to have space for players to move around. It's if you were to see the operation, like it's it's it's full go. It's full go all summer, 6 a.m. till 6 p.m., our place is full. And uh we've got a beautiful new facility in Vaughn that I'm really proud of. That's me. I mean, I've been doing this for 16 years.

SPEAKER_03 25:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Since I retired from playing, I've been doing this. So to have our own facility now that's year-round. Uh, we do executive wellness, we do uh elite athlete development programs after school all winter, and then we run a whole off-season program that that the gym's busy basically for the next four months. You know, so April till September, we'll be smoking busy.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

How what about the business side of it?

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Did that come to you like easy or was that Yeah, I think it's hard harder just because, you know, like there's only so much you can charge, you know, it's like anything else, right? Like players weren't even prepared to pay so much. But I I really felt like I knew the system worked, I knew what I did worked. My goal was to put everything under one roof. Yeah. I knew if I could get a facility, because being in Toronto, anybody that spent any time in Toronto, when you got to go from the gym to the rink, to the treatment, to the yoga studio, to the Plotties, like you spend four hours a day in your car.

SPEAKER_06 26:16

Disaster. So you drive and drive. So what's your time worth, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 26:19

And what's your time worth? So I'm like, my players come between they show up around 6, 6, 30, they start to show up, and they'll be there till noon. And but they have everything. They have the food, they have the training, they have the on ice, they have the treatment, they have the cold tubs, they have the saunas, they have everything they need there. We do their laundry, uh, they have breakfast, they have lunch, they have s uh snacks, they have protein shakes. So we've so I've tried, I'm not just you know, for me, I was like, okay, this is how I keep them all here for a long period of time. And and then they can go off and play their golf or whatever. And I even that I try to manage with some guys because you don't repeat day after day after day if you're playing golf every day. Although, you know, everybody says, Well, golf's you know, it's not taxing. I'm like, it sure is. It is. Every time after a golf game, for me, you're it fries your nervous system, you're dehydrated, you very rarely eat the right foods. You know, and if you if you choose to have a couple beers, then all of a sudden you're you know you're coming the next day and you're flat as a pancake. So I'm like, guys, you you know, map out your golf. Here's your training days, map out your golf around your training. So the benefit you're still getting the benefits of the training. I know they got to go play golf, but you don't need to play golf five days a week and try and be a pro hockey player if you're a guy that needs to gain something in the gym. Because yeah, you stay in shape, but you don't make gains if you don't sacrifice something. You have to sacrifice in order to make those gains. So it's time, and you gotta be willing to put the time in. And the the great ones do. The great ones do. And uh so fortunate to have obviously, you know, a pretty good stable players. Yeah. And when other players see those players work, they're like, huh, that's how hard I have to work. Right. It's easy to see. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:01

So that's all right, but that was my question. I was coming and watched it.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

When you come in and watch him trade, and you're like, you know, like he's he's as dialed in as all of them. And uh, been fortunate to have good people in our in our program that continue to help us drive the business too, right? And they're I mean, they're our best salesmen, right? Our pro players that do it year in and year out and prepare to play and sacrifice to be as great as they are. That's what the young guys learn from. I think that's what makes our facility what it is, is that my young players, you know, I built an eatery upstairs, 50 seat eatery, and we'll have our NHL guys that'll be at a table. And I was worried about it at first, that was kind of the dynamic of it all. But then we've got our 17-year-olds at another table eating, and the pros eating at a table, and everybody's minding their own business, and we've developed a real nice culture where you you know you mind your business, you but my younger players get to see how those guys operate, see how they treat our staff, see how they see how they operate every day. They're pros for a reason, right? The majority of the guys that make it um do things the right way, you know, when it comes to appreciating the people that do stuff for them. And and I've been fortunate to build the team, like and I say, like, I had people that supported me, and yes, I drove all over, I flew all over, I tried to get healthy, it was a big job. Like it's not easy. You get a big injury and you need support. And uh and I've been fortunate. I've hired I've hired people that have been with me for over a decade. So I have had hardly any changes in my company. Loyalty, yeah. And I've and Adrian and Sylvia are now partners with me in the business. Uh so um so I'm really fortunate to have them. I'm fortunate to have the strength coaches that we've hired. And it's not just me, it's a it's a team behind the behind the athlete that that makes it successful, which is which has been amazing for me.

SPEAKER_05 29:45

That was uh like just the idea that I think it's no coincidence that McDavid has been around you, Stammer, who is you played with him as well, and has a long reputation of being a fitness junkie. Yeah. Uh and then you also played with young Sid, right? I mean, you kind of taught you kind of alluded to this, but what makes the greats great?

SPEAKER_01 30:06

And they're yeah, they have to be a lot of people. Do you see an alignment with all three of those? Of course. And I watched it with Sid as a player. Like, I mean, I was I'm so amazed by Crosby. I really am. Like, you know, I t tell this story all the time. I remember I got to Pittsburgh and I was playing online with Sid, and I went in the corner to help him, you know, he just had like two guys on him, so I'm in the corner where I spent most of my career trying to help him. He says, Rob, get the hell away from me. And I'm like, How's a candy saying that to you?

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 30:34

You need help in here. He's like, I know, I don't need help. Take someone away from me. You know, I'm good. Yeah. And I was like, the light went on for me. I'm like, this kid at the time, you know, I was 41, and he was coming to the corner. You had two guys on him, he came to the corner with a puck. I was always amazed at how good he was, how dedicated he was.

SPEAKER_05 30:52

Gary, Peter Socorro once said, and just to quickly jump in, because you can speak to this probably more. I remember Peter Socorro kind of at the end of his career was in Pittsburgh as well, and I said, What makes Sid great? And he said, his his body build as a hockey player is the perfect build. Like his he talked about core strength at a time that I don't think core strength was really a thing 20 years ago in hockey. And so you were kind of going that way. Like, could you speak to that in terms of his strength?

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Yeah, his compete strength? Yeah, he was just a he was a man amongst boys, really, when he was a junior hockey player. And he had the lower, he had a huge, I thought I had big legs. This guy had huge legs, huge butt, um, really, really strong, low center of gravity. Like you always watch Crosby and you're always amazed. It's almost like he was born with the stick in his hand. It's always in the right spot, it's always on the ice, it's always like a heavy stick. Yeah. Like you go to use the stick, guys, and I'm like look at this and go, how do you use this thing? It's heavy, it's stiff, it's straight. Think about that. Like a young hockey player today, if you said heavy, stiff, and straight, they'd be looking at you and go, I'm not using that stick.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

No.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

I need whip and I need a huge hook. So the stick that he used and the game that he played, um, it was eye-opening for me. It was. Mark Recy and I would sit in the back of the plane, and we would just marvel at that how all of us, even us as older players, would watch Sid. And I remember So you knew. You knew. Oh, yeah. I knew. You knew, you knew. We didn't. Everybody talks about a veteran leadership in Pittsburgh. And yeah, we thought we had great veteran leadership back then. We didn't have to do much. We had an amazing group of young players, Jordan Stahl, Melkin, Latang, Crosby. I mean, those three guys I played with are still playing. It's amazing. And I like I actually like I'm like I got I'm like, are those guys still in the same team? They're still playing. Yeah, yeah. And it just absolutely amazes me. And they were like Tanger was kind of like a kind of you know, free spirit, kind of goofy young guy, uh, didn't have a care in the world, played like it, but played amazing. Yeah. And he he was so good because he had that attitude. And and Sid, I watched him off the ice. I watched him have an ankle injury at one point, and he had he had lace bite really bad, and I was out at the same time injured. And he was in the back with an obstacle course for 45 minutes, just stick-handling through this obstacle course. And he would take the time to cut his stick off, so it was like he was in his skates and he would stick-handling through this obstacle course. Okay. So, of course, me, right? Think of that. You and I, like you're like, so I'd go in the gym, right? But that's when I saw the game turning, you know, not just gym, but more skill, right? And Crosby was like that, Stamcos was like that. But I remember going in and I uh I said, Here, let me try that with Sid one day, right? And within like five minutes, I was knocking over sticks and wrecking the obstacle course. I had to burn in my forearms.

SPEAKER_06 33:37

Get out of the corner.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Robbs, get out of the corner, get out of the corner, Crosby makes the look at me, so Robs. You're wrecking my obstacle course. Get out of here. So he kicked me out of working at my stick handling. You know, I was 41, sorry to work on my stick handling. I'm like, yeah, I think we're a little late for that. But anyways, but but it was good for me. Like I got to see, like I got to see how sit prepared. I got to see just how much time he put in, you know, and I like I just reflect on showing up showing up at the rink at 8:30 in the morning, and I hear the guy on the ice, and I go out there, and I'm like, we just played the night before, and I'm looking at him, I'm like, I open the door, I'm like, what are you doing out here? And it's Crosby. Yeah. He's out there with Mike Yo. And he says, Robbs, I hated my hands last night. And I looked at him and I just said, How do you think the rest of us feel? If you didn't like yours, yeah. I think the rest of us feel, you know, so but that was what he did. And and uh and I don't think I mean he had all the other attributes. He had the strength, he had the skill, he had the the will uh to be as good as he was young, so it was good for me. I got to see a lot, and then I went and saw, and then I played with Stammer, and that's when I started to see that we're gonna have to adjust all the off-ice training for the amount of on-ice training that these young players are doing. Because they actually skate too much, in my opinion now. But you have to be careful you don't over-program a player in the summertime because he still wants to skate. They still want to be out, they still want to touch the ice because that's where they're they feel like they lose their feel. So I'm all for it within reason. Um, but if your goals are gonger, you do need to take that time off to develop the strength you need to play. Right. And and that's where our challenge is with players today is trying to get them to rest a little bit and get off the ice and get in the gym more. And uh, and and make you know that's your three months where that's your it's your foundation you're building on every summer. You're building on that foundation for longevity. And you start missing summers, whether you play late, yeah, you know, like our Euler friends playing late a couple years in a row. But guys, I I think people totally underestimate the wear and tear in the body when you go to the Stanley Cup final two years in a row, and to top it off, you don't win. Yeah. And now you're back in the playoffs again with two summers of basically just staying even, I call it. Like you're not making gains. You're just trying to get healthy to go back to training camp.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

And and I don't think people, I think uh uh people underestimate just how hard it is on the body to play that long, year after year, and try to repeat it. It's it's basically impossible. Especially today.

SPEAKER_05 36:10

In today's not sustainable, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

Not with this, not with the speech.

SPEAKER_05 36:14

Like we're not gonna see another Islander's four straight cups or the halves or four like. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

I think the parody's too great. I think you guys can look at it right now. We could all probably pick a different team that's gonna win the Stanley Cup right now. Yeah, yeah. And I'll be wrong. Yeah, yeah. That that's so close, that's how close it is. And that's we're really good at getting it wrong.

SPEAKER_04 36:28

Yeah, we are.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

You good?

SPEAKER_04 36:30

Maybe no, you're good.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Well, I think I said something that's the other day, and I out of the blue, like, I love Roddy Brindemore. He was a teammate, and I love what he stands for. And I I picked Carolina. You know, I said I think Carolina's gonna win the cup. Yeah. And that was after watching them play Ottawa. But obviously, uh he's got their team playing pretty well, but like I could be you know dreadfully wrong, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

So to touch on what you were just saying, so McDavid just uh, you know, the Oilers just lost out a couple nights ago or whatever. Like ideally, uh when would you like him back in the gym? Or are you telling him not like hey, I don't want to see you for a few or take a couple weeks, or like how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 37:04

Based on the last few years, I mean he was in the gym five days after they lost last year.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

And and that and he you know respectfully, I don't you know, tell his business, but he he um but he had a busy summer ahead. Yeah. And they he knew it was gonna be a short summer because they went through it the year before. He's a smart guy. He's like, heck, I don't I don't want to spend too much time. I got you know, I got three weddings to go to. Yeah. All right. So it's gonna eat your summer. Well, you know, I always tell my guys a lot of pretend drinking this weekend, yeah. But it's but it's true with all these young guys, like it's true. You get so you got a late season, and then all these young guys, I get it. Your your teammates are getting married, you're going to weddings, you've got, you're staying in hotels. It's tough to stay disciplined. And and I know for him, he just thought that he didn't want to get out of shape. He knew he had weekends already planned that he was going to be away. And uh that's that's him. But that's kind of what you have to do. You have to, season's over, quick evaluation. How's my body feel? What do I think I need to do right now for the next two weeks to get my body ready to train hard? And if it's if it's if it's rehab because you're injured, then then it's rehab. But if it's just rest, a mental rest, then go get your mental rest. Go away, do whatever you gotta do, play some golf, go stay active. But within two to three weeks, guys, guys, you're back in the gym. Yeah. Because you you literally don't want to get out of shape. You know, you have your nights, go out and have your nights.

SPEAKER_05 38:30

How long does it take to get out of shape? For for anybody like the the average person, real quick.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Well, I mean, the way command lives, probably just a couple of days. Day and a half. Yesterday. Yes, yesterday. Maybe it was in shape. But like two other shape now. Yeah, I think. We're both on the same program when we see each other.

SPEAKER_05 38:50

But as an athlete, like a highly trained athlete, like does it take a week? Yeah, we have to start something.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

I say if you just if you go and have you know lots of fun for a week or say two weeks, yeah, um, you're starting to get out of shape. Aerobically, I think you get out of shape quick. Quick? Yeah. Like 72 hours. Like if we don't have it, I believe that if you don't practice hard in season, eventually it affects your your game pace. Okay. So I'm a big advocate. Like I've I I help with uh the Brantford Bulldogs currently in junior hockey. It's been really fun to kind of be part of that in an advisory role. And also Adrian and I go in and we help with the strength, strength, and development there, conditioning. Um, and it's been it's been really good. Um, but I feel like if our team doesn't practice hard Monday or Tuesday early in the week, we don't play with pace on the weekend. So you can get into that. Too much rest isn't good. Uh too much rest, you lose, you lose your game pace, uh, you lose the physicality. Like I need to see some contact in practice. I was a player that I was asking for contact because I wanted to feel that that how tired you feel when a guy's hanging on you like this guy, or he's hanging on you and your heart rate's up 15, 20 beats. If you never feel that in practice, I think at some point during the season you pay the price for that. Because you lose your fitness. Yeah, and then if you're not a guy playing more than 15 minutes, you get out of shape pretty, pretty quickly. So I'm a I'm a real, you know, I I believe in studying ice times, pace of each shift, how you're recovering. And if you're not recovering between shifts, then you need to do more off the ice. And I think it's uh it's a real fine line. That's why I think the you know what we do well is we take that player and we look at his ice time all year and we look how, okay, you didn't play much this year, right? And you didn't practice hard. Uh we'll give you one day off and you're getting back to work. You know what I mean? Because you a lot of guys, I believe, aren't in aerobic shape because they don't do enough off the ice to keep it, and then they don't play enough minutes to get it on the ice. So you and you can't treat everybody the same. No. You need to look at your roster. You can look at your 25-minute guy and say, okay, yeah, you're doing a light spin, some mobility, cold plunge, you're and eating. Yeah. But you play eight minutes, yeah, and you may get 12 minutes next game. But if you don't train like you get 12 minutes, then when you get those 12 minutes, you won't be prepared to play.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

And that's what I, you know, I so I'm watching games, that's what I'm studying. But that's what you're watching, yeah. I'm watching. Yeah. I'm watching can you repeat your pace every shift every shift? You get out for a long power play, uh, a skilled guy plays a two-minute power play. What's his next five-on-five shift like? So that's the stuff I look at when I'm looking at are you able to recover from going full out and repeat your shift? And if you're not, you're not in good enough shape to play.

SPEAKER_05 41:38

This is fascinating. And I think we all probably have 10 million more questions that we're like, we would love to do this again sometime, Gary, because it's a lot of people. I'm tired of me rambling on the new pillow. Honestly, I'm really gonna get we can start. You knew it was a problem, you knew it might be a problem. We didn't even talk about your run with the Leafs and a stack roster from those early 2000s. So I mean, uh I think to just to close this out, um, thank you very much. I think I'm a big believer of the line Attitude Reflects Leadership from the movie Remember the Titans. Yeah. I think the stories that you shared today, Killer, Mr. Tobin, uh, you know, people who believe in you, uh elements of leadership, but you look at three of the greatest players of this generation in the last 20 years, Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Stammer. I think there's no coincidence that the fitness whisperer, the hockey whisperer, like that you have kind of shared some of that knowledge and they are better players for it. So thank you very much for doing this. Really appreciate it, yeah. There you go. Um of the most fascinating stories in hockey to be a 400-plus goal scorer, Stanley Cup champion, Memorial Cup champion, and to reinvent himself now as one of the greatest fitness minds in the hockey world today. Gary Roberts, Economy Razor, I'm Stavolski, and see you next time here on the Click of the Cruise podcast, powered by Ozdoon. Well played.