Taste testing strange jelly beans with Eric Comrie!

0:00SPEAKER_04:So, what point in your Ninth L career did you stop fanboying?

0:04SPEAKER_03:Anybody? I still fanboy Connor Hellibuck, so I don't know. You just sit there and go, Yeah, yeah.

0:10SPEAKER_02:I go, wow, how are you so good?

0:21SPEAKER_04:All right. Uh pleased to welcome the podcast, Eric Cromry, uh goaltender for the Winnipeg Jets. Easiest question first. I call you comms. A lot of people call you comms. Who calls you Eric?

0:32SPEAKER_03:I don't know. Anyone calls me Eric. Maybe my wife if she's mad at me. Right.

0:39SPEAKER_04:Which only makes sense.

0:40SPEAKER_03:My mom if she's mad at me, but that's about it. I get E. Mom calls me Bear. My yeah, and then comms.

0:48SPEAKER_04:I thought for sure mom. Like that's like feeling.

0:50SPEAKER_03:No, mom doesn't really call me. No, mom doesn't call me Eric. Then in Buffalo, they called me Ricky. What? Yeah, Eric Ricky, you know? Oh. Yeah, and actually that stuck around pretty good.

1:01SPEAKER_04:Okay. Ricky. Okay. We're gonna have to hang on to that one. So um did you grow up wanting to play? I knew you grew up in Evans for a little bit, then went to California. Did you grow up wanting to be an Euler or a King? Or neither?

1:14SPEAKER_03:I grew up probably wanting to be a New Jersey devil. I love Martin Breder. Okay. Yeah. Fair. I love Martin Brother and I love Scott Stevens growing up. So I I love those two guys. It was, I mean, I mean, I was obsessed with Marty Breder. Like, I mean, I used to do everything to be Marty Brother, and then uh even as even as stick handling?

1:33SPEAKER_04:I mean, did you work on that aspect?

1:34SPEAKER_03:I wish I worked on that a little more. Yeah. That would have been good for you.

1:37SPEAKER_04:Not the easiest thing in the world to do.

1:39SPEAKER_03:Um and then actually I had the luxury of playing for the New Jersey Devils with Martin Boder as uh one of the uh staff there. So that was kind of cool.

1:47SPEAKER_04:Did you did you tell him that you uh grew up idolizing him? No, I didn't do that.

1:50SPEAKER_03:No, I didn't want to be the fan fan of the show. Yeah, because you're in the NHL at that point. You can't go on Mr. Bernard. I was like, oh, hey, just a heads up. Like I did everything for you. No, I didn't want to do that.

2:01SPEAKER_04:No, no, no, no, no. I was so what point in your NHL career did you stop fanboying?

2:07SPEAKER_03:Anybody? I still fanboy Connor Hellbuck, so I don't know what I did. You just sit there and go, Yeah, yeah. I go, wow, how are you so good?

2:16SPEAKER_05:Yeah.

2:18SPEAKER_04:Um we'll go back to Heli in a second here. So the fact that you're the highest drafted member of the Comri family, does that hold any type of clout during family gatherings?

2:27SPEAKER_03:Oh, I mean, I I try to do that. Yeah, I try to hold, like I try and tell him, hey, but then Mike comes back with me. He's got he's got a lot of points down in his job. He's pretty good. He does. He was pretty good. Uh Paul was actually really good. Even my younger brother with Ty was fantastic. He's a really good player in junior. Uh pretty good. My dad's four for four with four four sons and four NHL training games. Pretty dang good.

2:48SPEAKER_04:Okay, so my favorite part of asking with big families is the power ranking. So where do you rank right now? Like if you could rank the four brothers according to your parents, where would you where would you slot everybody?

3:02SPEAKER_03:I'd be pretty high, I think. But I I mean we're pretty both mom and dad? We're pretty even. I'm trying to think. I mean, Mike's always he's we we call Mike the golden child. Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of what he is.

3:15SPEAKER_04:I covered Mike when he was in the Western Hockey League.

3:17SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, he's it just felt like he was the golden children. Yeah, my dad really, yeah, they really he's probably the golden child. And then Ty is Ty's up there too. Ty is Ty does a lot for the family that people don't realize. So I'd say Ty, and then I don't know, maybe I'm I'm kind of in the middle.

3:32SPEAKER_04:Yeah. You're like a modest guy, so I knew you rank yourself. So what what's something that Ty does for the family that people don't know about that gets them moving up the power rankings?

3:40SPEAKER_03:Well, Ty is like he's kind of like so he's doing a what he's taking over the family office, family, family business. So he's doing everything in charge of like the family stuff like that. So he's he's been. Oh yeah, he's got an in right there. He's yeah, he's uh he's doing pretty well for himself. So I'm really happy for him, and he's been unbelievable. He's my best friend in the whole world. He's like everything for me. So he's he's unbelievable, and uh how how smart he is and how unbelievable he is business and how dedicated he is to what his craft.

4:03SPEAKER_03:I mean, he just finished playing hockey, and a lot of people have a hard time getting out of it and finding something else to do, and he was right away into something else he found passion for, and I was really impressed with that.

4:13SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that that is something to be impressed with. Did your friends growing up, did any of your friends ask for free furniture?

4:18SPEAKER_03:I still could ask for free furniture. I say, hey, we don't have we don't own the company. No, we have nothing, we have nothing to do with it. We have there's nothing to do with the company anymore. I'm sorry, my dad sold it, and I can't do anything.

4:27SPEAKER_01:Hey Jets fans, this is your chance to win big with Winnipeg Jets 50-50 tickets presented by Play Now. All proceeds will support the True North U Foundation. Get your tickets now by texting Jets to 20450. I'm Connor Halbach. This is the Ground Control Podcast.

4:52SPEAKER_04:Did you keep all your your swag from the Jets?

4:56SPEAKER_03:I have a lot of swag from the Jets.

4:58SPEAKER_04:So like when you came back, it's not like you didn't have anything, you know. No, no.

5:01SPEAKER_03:I got a lot of swag from the jets. I can't remember. I was drafted in 2013. For sure. So it's been, I don't even know how many years that is.

5:06SPEAKER_04:That's so you got rid of it or gave it to friends or anything like that.

5:09SPEAKER_03:I I mean, eventually I've had so much stuff that I had to start giving stuff away because you have after year after year after year you start giving it away.

5:16SPEAKER_04:But who's your favorite go-to to give your stuff to? Like who asks? Or does it just it's automatic, you give it to blank?

5:23SPEAKER_03:I'm not gonna lie, it's not my job. My clothes apartment is my wife. I haven't bought clothes myself in, I don't know, seven, eight years. I don't know the last time I bought myself something. People tell me my shoes look like I'm wearing grass cutters all the time. They make fun of my shoes. It's unbelievable. I I walk around my shoes, they got stains in them, everyone's wearing these nice shoes, and I'm like, well, they get the job done. That's right.

5:41SPEAKER_03:Well, what are you supposed to do? Like, you're not supposed to wear the shoes that are grass stained? I don't know. I mean, it's unbelievable. That's what they think it's a fashion every single day. I'm just trying to get I say, hey, I work, I get to walk to my place I want to go.

5:52SPEAKER_04:Um, how happy was Scheif when you came, announced you're coming back, or did Heli tell him too?

5:57SPEAKER_03:Scheife was very happy, but they once again they all kind of knew like it always kind of works out in the weeds that I always wake my way back, I always snake my way back. So no one was surprised when you came back. Nobody was surprised.

6:05SPEAKER_04:I don't think we were even, like, even the media.

6:07SPEAKER_03:No, the media was like, ah, there he is again.

6:09SPEAKER_04:Oh, this guy. So for me, uh, I think I might have been the most surprised guy. Yeah, that see now that like you're the one that found out last that you were coming. So honestly, honestly, I probably was. Um, best advice Connor Hellbuck ever gave you.

6:26SPEAKER_03:That is a hard question because if you honestly, we talk so much during games and during intermissions and during stuff. It's it's a constant thing. We also watch video together as a t as a tandem, which is not a lot of teams do, not a lot of teams get to watch that stuff together and really be a part of that. So we are constantly learning from each other, constantly getting better. And I mean, just little things like how to play position, how to play on your post, when to come how to play aggressive, when to do this, when to do that, just mindset things.

6:52SPEAKER_03:Even like I remember Rachel went to dinner with LB and myself in Chicago. And how hell and myself in Chicago. And after dinner, we were kind of walking back and said, What like how's your mentality so good? And he just kind of went ran through his um his mental makeup and what got him to where he was, and it's pretty unbelievable.

7:08SPEAKER_04:And so you guys are pretty tight with LB still as well, I guess, because it's all a fraternity at this point. Yeah, I mean, goalie's all like you're gonna be. So it's like you're coming back next year. We have to stick together. He's like, honestly. My contract's up in two years. Like, I know it's kind of like the flip-flop again, you know?

7:20SPEAKER_03:We gotta keep.

7:22SPEAKER_04:I don't know. Okay, so constantly you see people, uh goaltenders having conversations during TV timeouts. What's one of the funniest things Heli said to you during TV timeout? Or fun, one of the funniest conversations you guys have ever had.

7:33SPEAKER_03:I I think it was in Philly, and I was Gritty was sitting next to me. Yeah. And he goes, I couldn't help but laughing. He goes, Combs, you gotta ignore it. You can't look at him. I couldn't help, but I was dying laughing because Gritty was making some. And he's he's a funny character. Don't you have that big belly and he was shaking that belly? I was dying laughing. And he goes, Combs, you can't be laughing, you gotta ignore it. I said, I can't help it.

7:53SPEAKER_03:It's like out of the corner of your peripheral vision kicks in. I was looking, I was like I was staring right at him, I think though.

8:00SPEAKER_04:Is flats as serious as he seems.

8:02SPEAKER_03:Flats? Yeah. Flats isn't serious at all. He's joking around always, but he's he's the best at what he does at his job. He's unbelievable what he does. He knows more about goaltending than I think almost anybody in the world, and he's just unbelievable turning in game situations into drills and working on the things that you want to get out of it, and just showing you how to get better and making the best out of any goal he has. And it's uh it's impressive, and I'm I'm very happy to be with him.

8:25SPEAKER_03:And he's but he's always screwing around and happy.

8:28SPEAKER_04:When you talk to him, it feels like he's serious all the time. Like I've seen him joke maybe a couple of times. I don't talk to him as much as you do. He's always got the serious looking at the end of the day. We talk a lot. He's almost like Sam the Eagle from The Muppets, like just his facial expression.

8:40SPEAKER_03:He's honestly very, very relaxed and calm and very happy. Happy guy.

8:44SPEAKER_04:Uh, does he ever when he goes over video with you guys, does he point out you should have stopped that one? Or is he a little bit more? Oh yeah. Okay. Oh yeah. It's never. So what's one that what's a flats classic one where you should have stopped it? What's what's the type of goal that goes in where he's like, Come on, Eric.

9:00SPEAKER_03:Um We actually haven't had too many of those this year.

9:03SPEAKER_04:Well, not this year.

9:04SPEAKER_03:No, but um I mean there's been a couple videos where he's like, well, we want to have that one. We just want to stop that one. I don't know, I can't name the exact scenario because every scenario, hockey's such a random thing, it's a random sport. It's like, but it's it's kind of like you gotta think about like uh just like it's the typical goals, like the shots that go in, beat shots that beat you clean or something like that. He's gonna say, uh he kind of says like this, ah, probably want that one comms.

9:26SPEAKER_03:And it says in a tell. It's a button left corner, it says teaching. He's like, oh, a teaching clip, uh oh.

9:33SPEAKER_04:It literally says in the video teaching. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

9:36SPEAKER_03:In the clips, it goes like different things and different different like little things. And his anyway, when someone you do something wrong, it says teaching. You're like, uh oh.

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10:03SPEAKER_03:What a save my cutter heli!

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10:13SPEAKER_04:Uh part of being a professional athlete means you're competitive. I didn't realize you had this other competitive side to you until we started. I went with on a road trip. We were in Sunrise, Florida. We had a hotel that the Jets stay at beforehand. There's an NHL trivia. Every NHL team of Stays or goes through it. You are one of the few two-time winners of the NHL trivia, right? I'm a two-time winner of the trivia.

10:34SPEAKER_03:But you know what though, I think What happens when you win the trivia? You get a putter, which is outstanding. I have actually, funny thing is, I so when I was in Winnipeg, I won the, I was so excited to win this putter. I was leading by one. I remember. I was leading by one, and I was going around kind of trying to mess with people, kind of kind of giving the wrong answers, trying to make sure they weren't getting the right answers. I was very, very well on this putter.

10:53SPEAKER_03:Next year in Buffalo, I won again. I crushed it.

10:55SPEAKER_04:So back-to-back years.

10:56SPEAKER_03:Back to back. Uh, two years. This was, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was back-to-back years. But they only had a lefty putter. So I have a lefty putter and a righty putter, so I can put both weights in my putters I've won so far.

11:06SPEAKER_04:For those of you that don't travel in the charter, you you carried that putter around over your shoulder.

11:10SPEAKER_03:Yeah, over my shoulder like a trophy. Exact same thing in Buffalo, too. I rocked in the plane, walked in that plane like this, over my shoulder. It held it like a trophy.

11:18SPEAKER_04:It was legendary. I'm like, this is another side of comms I didn't know about. So it's yeah. Um, so we're gonna bring in a Cameron penny. So this is gonna be on TikTok, and it's blind wide receiver rankings in the National Football League, and we're just gonna chit-chat while you do it. And as you just name the name the receiver when he pops up. Zay Flowers. Okay. Zay Flowers from the Baltimore Ravens.

11:39SPEAKER_03:He's pretty good. But there's there's better. I'm gonna go seven. Okay. I like that ranking. Not consistent. Christian Kirk, he's good too, actually. He's pretty good too.

11:52SPEAKER_04:Not bad, but I think I think that's lower rank, don't you?

11:54SPEAKER_03:I would go lower too. Yeah, I'm gonna go lower just because of uh not consistent enough. He's a little injured this year, too.

11:59SPEAKER_04:Yeah.

12:00SPEAKER_03:Okay, eight. Christian Watson.

12:03SPEAKER_04:Once again, a guy that cannot be healthy in college, has tons of potential. But a guy, he's like a boomer bus guy. But he's good though. He's good. He can be pretty good.

12:15SPEAKER_03:No, no, no. He's he's still below. I think he's number nine. I wouldn't have almost his number.

12:21SPEAKER_04:I think that his number.

12:22SPEAKER_03:Yeah, Michael Pittman Jr.

12:23SPEAKER_04:Oh. So if Indianapolis had a bigger one.

12:26SPEAKER_03:They don't have a quarterback, no.

12:27SPEAKER_04:I mean, he's not bad. I mean he's top five.

12:29SPEAKER_03:You think he's top five?

12:30SPEAKER_04:I think so.

12:31SPEAKER_03:I think he's number six personally. I'm gonna throw him in number two. This is your ranking. This is my ranking. Yeah. Tyreek Hill really is. Oh my gosh.

12:38SPEAKER_04:So outside of this year, Tyreek Hill is the best receiver in football. No, no, no, no, no.

12:42SPEAKER_03:Yes. I I'm gonna put him. I'm not sure if I'm gonna get my top guys, but I'm gonna put him number two. Okay. I can't go wrong with that. I feel that's just disrespectful, but it's okay. Diggs. Diggs, I was a Buffalo fan. I became a Buffalo fan when I was in Buffalo, so I like Diggs.

13:00SPEAKER_04:But he's top five. He's he's number five. He's number five. He's number five, he's number five. Okay.

13:05SPEAKER_03:Where we're going from here. Keon Coleman. He just rookie, rookie, tiny, rookie, rookie. I agree. He just hasn't. Show yourself. So he's good though. Yeah. He used to be good. Tough. What's now? Who's next? We've really made a mistake here. What? We've got Kadarius Toney. Oh Kadarius Tony.

13:25SPEAKER_04:We've really mistake. So listen, Kadarius Tony. This is the only reason why you're getting ranked, is because there's no room in the bottom ten for your bottom one. You know what? He has potential.

13:33SPEAKER_03:You know what, though? He won a Super Bowl.

13:35SPEAKER_04:If he can just stay healthy.

13:36SPEAKER_03:He won a Super Bowl. He's got a great personality. He won the Super Bowl. Number four, unfortunately. But Jalen Waddell, good, but not as good as Tyreek Hill. Yeah, so you gotta put him below his team. I gotta put number three. Who's left? I gotta get someone. Number one's left.

13:49SPEAKER_04:Garrett Wilson, not bad. Okay, Garrett Wilson would be like great. Number two. He beat number two. At Ohio State, he'd be he was from fantastic. But if he just had better quarterbacking, he'd probably be a much better receiver.

13:59SPEAKER_03:I don't love it, but I don't hate it. It's not my best list of all time, but it's not my worst.

14:03SPEAKER_04:I think we I think we got a little too excited with I forgot Kadarius Tony was sitting in there somewhere. Yeah. So we're all done. We're all done. Okay, so we're gonna move on to fantasy football. We're gonna move on to fantasy football now. Okay, here's first speaking of disappointment, and like you were so welcome back into the dressing room, but you're not in the in the Jets dressing room specific league. Now, is it is there a name for the league?

14:25SPEAKER_04:Or is that cannot be revealed to the game?

14:27SPEAKER_03:I don't know if there's name for the league, actually. I think it's just a fantasy football league.

14:30SPEAKER_04:Okay.

14:30SPEAKER_03:Everyone's got their own team names, but I can't replete the leader of the thing. Yeah, I know I've heard a lot of some of the teams. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're funny. Yeah, that's all that matters. But I couldn't get on the I couldn't everyone had a GM and an owner, and the uh nobody was selling a team.

14:41SPEAKER_04:I heard last year uh Morrissey said that he was gonna try and get Ealers to do fantasy football. I don't think that ever panned out. So he does fantasy soccer. If Ealers gets on the fantasy football league before you, that you should file a petition.

14:53SPEAKER_03:Well, he has got seniority.

14:55SPEAKER_04:I mean true.

14:57SPEAKER_03:But he does fantasy soccer and he's really got fantasy soccer.

14:59SPEAKER_04:Yes, he's got quite the passion.

15:01SPEAKER_03:He knows a lot about soccer. I don't know much about soccer. Soccer's a lot. He like he always gets really mad at me when I call it football. He goes, it's not football. Football is soccer. I was like, no, that's soccer. So we got into a little debate about that.

15:13SPEAKER_04:Okay, so you are in a guillotine league with uh Schife and J-Mo, right? Yeah. Okay, so what Schife I know is the defending champion of the Jets dressing room. Does he walk around like a champion when it comes to the game?

15:24SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's really good at fantasy football. Actually, so he actually didn't make playoffs this year in fantasy football for the Jets League, but he finished with the most points in a league. Okay. So he he wins he wins a little bit of uh clout. Yeah, yeah, a little bit of summon for that.

15:38SPEAKER_04:And so he's just misfortunate, unfortunately.

15:39SPEAKER_03:In our guillotine league, actually, the one that we're in, he actually is now in the finals for the second straight year. The finals is this week, and he's uh so he knows what he's doing. He knows fantasy football, and I actually lost out pretty early in fantasy football. Apparently, with my rankings, you could tell that I weren't wasn't so good. But those are blind rankings. Those are blind rankings. Kind of a draft is kind of a blind blind ranking too, because you don't know who you're gonna get, you know?

16:01SPEAKER_04:That's right. Um do you know do you know anybody in any fantasy league that's like there's always a loophole guy, a guy that exposes the rules to his benefit. Do you have you known anybody over the years in that aspect that would be a loop-name somebody in the dressing room that would be a loophole guy that would just find some rule to expose for his own good, like Lex Luthor? Great ideas, but not for the benefit of management.

16:21SPEAKER_03:We don't have any evil villains in the game. Good point. All good guys. All good people. Yeah, no, no evil villains.

16:29SPEAKER_04:No evil villains. There's no villains. See, you're gonna stay for three more years just for that. Yeah, there's no villains. We're all good guys. Everybody, even in fantasy football, great ideas, but none for the benefit of mankind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have friends like that, don't you? Not saying they're bad people, they just have great ideas, not for the benefit of mankind. No, I don't have any.

16:48SPEAKER_03:I don't have any evil geniuses friends, no, I'm sorry.

16:51SPEAKER_04:Speaking of evil geniuses, this is how we're gonna close this thing this thing out here today. Okay, this is some jelly beans here. My daughter has this. I'm not gonna tell the name because it's just a game. You pull out a jelly bean, you taste it. Some of them taste absolutely terrible. There's dishwater, dirty dishwater, there's bloody band-aid. I can go down the list because or else I'm gonna you're not gonna understand. I don't know. They actually I don't even know how you find the chemicals to make something taste like a bloody band-aid.

17:16SPEAKER_03:But I want to know who is sampling the bloody band-aid.

17:18SPEAKER_04:That's what I want to know. That's bloody band-aid.

17:21SPEAKER_03:I'd like to know who's actually sampling the bloody band-aid and seeing, oh, this is gonna be a good flavor right here.

17:26SPEAKER_04:Yes, this we have to use this one. We have to use this one. Okay, so you get you want to pick first, or do you want me to go first?

17:32SPEAKER_03:See, I think the strategy here is to choose the ones that look least.

17:36SPEAKER_04:But they're all but see, there's this the the colors are the same. Um, the bad ones and the good tasting ones, so it doesn't even matter. So they could all be good tasting ones for all we know. We all know. So there's six of them sitting here. We're gonna go all through all six. Three.

17:48SPEAKER_03:And it could be six good tasting ones.

17:50SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they could be. So that's the fortune. So I'll go first because oh gosh.

17:56SPEAKER_03:Not good? Oh what do you got there?

17:58SPEAKER_04:It's awful. Oh. What do you got? I don't know. What's the what's the white one? The bad tasting white one. Okay, you go. We have to keep this rolling. I want to know what it is first. Oh my gosh. Bad tasting white one. Oh. Dirty dishwasher. That's the one.

18:20SPEAKER_03:Oh.

18:22SPEAKER_04:Okay, hold on, let's see what that one could be. Oh, birthday cake? Or? Or dirty dishwasher? Go. You're in the clear? I feel like you're in the clear. Delicious. Yellow. Rotten egg. Buttered popcorn. Alright, okay. You gotta mix them together. What's this? Uh that one could be uh uh stinky socks or tooty fruity. Stinky socks, yeah. How bad could it be, really? Tootie Fruity. Dang it! What's going on here? Okay. Pomegranate. Oh my god, that's awful.

19:16SPEAKER_04:Oh, if I had my glasses on, I'd be able to tell you. Oh yeah, old bandage. I got old bandage. Oh, last one. This is gonna be the 2D fruity again. Or sneaky socks. See, this is what happens when you have good karma because you're such a good guy. 2D fruity. I win the game. Eric Karmer, everybody. I've won the game. Eric wins again. He wins a game. I won the game. Thanks again.

19:46SPEAKER_03:Oh, thank you. It's sticky though. Oh my god. That's awful.