Halford & Brough in the Morning - A Candid Chat With Canadian Tennis Legend Daniel Nestor

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Canadian tennis great Daniel Nestor ahead of his Canada Sports Hall of Fame induction (3:00), plus they talk some Canucks with radio PxP man Brendan Batchelor (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

7.01 on a big man Tuesday here on the Halpern and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Halpern and Breff of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Canadian Sports Hall of Famer Daniel Nestor is going to join us in just a moment here. They kick off Hour 2.

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Our next guest is a pioneer and an ambassador for tennis in Canada. And this October, he will go into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Joining us now on the show, Daniel Nestor, here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Good morning, Daniel. How are you? Morning. Good. You guys?

We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. And congrats on the induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Let us and the listeners know what it was like to get that call from the hall. Yeah, it was pretty exciting. Obviously, humbling considering all the great names that are already inducted. And then the same for the ones who are being inducted this year. It's an amazing group, so pretty happy to be part of it.

You had such a long and successful career. How are you enjoying retirement retirement what are you up to these days i enjoyed a lot uh the manager of the jays like 10 years ago said he's really good at doing nothing and that kind of uh resonated with me do you still go out and hit balls once in a while i hit with my kids i play i haven't played much this year for myself just to stay in shape. I do other things to stay in shape. But, yeah, I mean, I'm still a little bit involved with Tennis Canada here and there. And, yeah, but basically a retired life. I do stuff around the house, family stuff, that kind of stuff.

How old are your kids, and are they top-flight tennis players yet? No, unfortunately not. They're okay okay but they're not that passionate a little bit too much of a country club mentality but uh the the genes the the hand-eye coordination didn't maybe their kids will be uh at least i gotta try and convince them to have kids uh at a young age so i can help their kids well tell tell us about tell us about your childhood why why did you how did you get so good where did you learn the focus at such a young age to be able to go out and and practice because in an individual sport like tennis i realize there

are team aspects and of course doubles aspects which we'll get to but you need to be able to and you know correct me if i you need to be able to and you know correct me if i'm wrong here be able to go out and spend a lot of time by yourself just hitting balls against the wall or practicing your serve whatever yeah that's exactly what i did i mean remember 40 years ago or 45 years ago we didn't have the distractions that we do now so going to hit the wall i lived beside the school that I went to and I just you know walk across the street and took my racket from Kmart and my one ball or two balls if I were lucky and I pretended I was Jimmy Connors playing against John McEnroe, Borg,

whoever and I just played against the wall for hours and that's how I spent my time and I played other sports which helped me, you know, with footwork and conditioning and all that, like soccer and basketball. And then, you know, being a little bit of an introvert, I stuck with tennis. But yeah, it's a, you know, a sport that you need a lot of repetition.

So, you know, maybe not the most fun sport for a kid. Like I just took my kids to a junior tournament on the weekend. And, you know, it's pretty tough because, you know, you're responsible for calling your own line. So there's a little bit of that honor system that's intact and that you don't really have with other team sports. So it's, you know, it's not the most fun sport for children, I would say. I mean, it is fun considering you're running around and hitting a ball and doing something that is fun. But the competition aspect may not be the most fun sport for children, I would say. I mean, it is fun considering you're running around and hitting a ball and doing something that is fun,

but the competition aspect may not be the most fun. You're not really in the team atmosphere that you can celebrate with your friends and win and lose with your friends and that kind of stuff. So if it wasn't fun or if it's not fun, why did you find the enjoyment out of it or why did you find your passion for the game, even if you were spending a lot of time just by yourself

hitting the ball against the wall? I loved it. I mean, again, everyone's different. You know, my personality, I didn't mind, you know, being on my own and, you know, partaking in that kind of activity. But I don't see it necessarily that attractive for all personalities. But, you know, I see it, you know, it's a sport of a lifetime. I see it, how it caters to people from all ages.

And, you know, it's something you can do to stay in shape your whole life. And, you know, it gets started at an older age and enjoy and all that stuff. And, you know, it's a sport where you're active where you're, you're active and moving around and you can, it's a pretty good fitness workout, but just, I'm just saying from a young age, I was fortunate enough to enjoy it a lot. I mean, there are, I mean, there are kids, I mean, these, some of these kids are amazing from a young age nowadays and it's gotten very competitive and, you know, these kids seem very motivated and you know they're

you know maybe a little bit different than the average kid that would just rather just you know look at a screen or or purchase something that's uh less stressful we're speaking with canadian tennis legend daniel nester and i'm not afraid to use that word canadian tennis legend uh the first time i ever saw you playing tennis on TV, you were playing Stefan Atberg at the Agrodome in Vancouver, and you ended up winning that match. He was number one in the world. You were not.

What do you remember about that match? It was, I peaked. It was all downhill and singles after that. But yeah, no, it was one of those things. I went into the match thinking, I don't want to get embarrassed. And once I kind of kept it close at the beginning, then

different mentalities set in that I kind of felt like I could hang. And then I kind of got in a little bit of a zone. And then I had some issues with my serve halfway through the match and then, you know, kind of found that rhythm. And then, you know, the rest of my game felt like it was in the zone and everything just kind of fell into place.

And, I mean, it's one of those things where you have, I mean, you're playing for your country, but at the same time, no one really expects that much from you. I mean, it's not the same typical feeling of playing for your country where you feel like, you know, if you lose, you're letting your country, your team, all yourself down. But, you know, in that situation,

you know, no one expected much. So I kind of was swinging for the fences and everything kind of went in that day. In terms of the doubles game, you won pretty much everything there is to win at that level, including the Olympic gold, you won pretty much everything there is to win at that level, including the Olympic gold, all the major tournaments. You reached number one in the world in doubles for the first time in 2002,

and then you held that for 108 weeks. So I got to ask, why did you excel so much at the doubles game? Well, I was just better at doubles, even from a young age. The main focus was singles always and then you know i stopped playing singles when i was about 30 when i was you know i was doing pretty well at singles but i was just getting injured quite a bit because i was still playing doubles and so my body couldn't really handle playing all those matches when when i started playing well on singles i you know i started playing a lot quite a few singles matches

and then i was always playing a lot of doubles matches. So my body kept breaking down. I had to have surgery at the end of 1999, which was my best singles year. And then guys like Ryan Connell that bled away for so many years, he was pretty good at singles, but he made a name for himself and put Canada on the map internationally because of his doubles. So he was kind of a role model.

And I'm hoping that he gets in the Hall of Fame too because he preceded me. So I think he deserves it. He had some serious accolades too, and he's a Vancouver guy. But I kind of lost my train of thought. What was that? Why were you so good at doubles? Why did I go to doubles? Yeah, but as I said, I was always better at doubles.

So one example was just from a really young age, I got a wild card in singles and doubles at the Rogers Cup or NBO, whatever it's called now. And this was when I was 16, 17. And I wasn't that competitive in my singles match. But then in doubles, we played like, you know, maybe not the best team in the world, but two guys that were established. And, you know, we lost in three sets

and I felt really comfortable at that level, you know, you know, playing doubles and just my skill set, you know, hand guy, you know, being good at the net, good feel for the game, you know, good serve, that kind of stuff. You know, I didn't really enjoy engaging in long rallies. So if, when I did play singles, it was playing quick points, trying to get to the net, trying to finish the point quickly, going for, going for my shots. I kind of only had a plan A in singles. So if it worked, it was great. If it didn't work, you know, I wasn't usually going to win, but in doubles, you know, my, my attributes kind of just made, made a lot of sense. So when that time came, when it just became too much of a burden on my body to do singles and doubles week in, week out,

it made sense to just go to doubles. And then all my best results started to come after that. The really interesting dynamic about it, to me anyway, is that it goes from being one of the most individualistic sports going to all of a sudden you have to rely on someone like so for example jason my co-host and i have been working together for 20 years we've had a partnership for 20 years and it's been great right yeah it's been exhausting it's been fantastic anyway uh so when you're out there tell us tell us how you broke up with Mark Knowles. Yeah, like, are you doing...

What's that conversation like? Because I want some advice. It's a long one. Yeah, you guys played together for, like, a long time, and you guys won a lot together. You had a great amount of success together. Like, for example, are you guys close now? I mean, he lives in Dallas.

He's got a family. He's busy. I mean, when we see each other, we obviously reminisce and talk about the old, good old times. But, you know, we did have a little bit of a difficult breakup and it's not so dissimilar to, you know, a relationship that, you know, where you're, you know, spend time with someone that you care for and then all of a sudden, you know, it's, you know, you're not that into it anymore for whatever reason you know it's hard you know

to compare it exactly to a partnership uh romantic partnership whatever but it's it's it's somewhat similar considering the amount of time you spend and how difficult it is to you know to you know say that you want to do something else and you know for in that particular instance we did things that get a little bit stale and uh and i felt like maybe i was giving a little more to the partnership or maybe a little more professional at the time and mark was starting a family and and uh you know he was a year older and and you know maybe not to having the same aspirations that i was and so i felt uh you know it was time for a change, and that was a personal thing. Fortunately, it worked out for me, but at the time, it was not easy.

Just having played with someone for 10 years and just getting used to the off-court relationship, too, of being friends and family friends, and families get to be friends and all that. And then all of a sudden that stops. It's a little bit uncomfortable to say the least, but, you know, that's something you have to deal with. And I guess it's similar to being traded, you know, like an NHL team or something to another city.

You know, things don't work out and it's time to move on type of thing. What did you look for in a partner? And what did you say that you brought to the table? Well, I, for sure, my attributes were, you know, winning at the net. You know, that's how I played singles. That's how I wanted to play in doubles. I mean, the game has changed quite a bit over the last 20 years. I mean, if you watch doubles now, there's a lot more play from the baseline.

But I think that's the result of, you know, when I was growing up playing singles, most of the guys had similar game styles. Everyone was, you know, more in attacking mode. Now it seems like people are more in the defensive mode. And, you know, they're standing five, ten feet behind the baseline engaging in rallies. And I think when someone decides to stop playing singles nowadays, and if they want to continue in doubles, they're bringing those skills to doubles and, you know, those skills aren't necessarily winning at the net.

So now you'll see a lot of big serving and, you know, one guy standing on top of the net and the guy, the other guy standing at the baseline and, you know, a lot of cross-court baseline rallies, down the line baseline rallies with two guys at the net trying to intercept those balls. And that's just basically from how the

sport has evolved. Again, I've lost my train of thought. I'm just going off on a tangent. You know what? That's good. That's very befitting of our show because sometimes we just start saying sentences and we don't know where they're going to end up. This is all good. We're speaking to Daniel Nestor, Canadian tennis

legend here on the Halford & Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Here's another tangent, your international career. So you were a member of the Davis Cup team in Canada from 1992 to 2018. You were a member of that first team to reach the World Group Semifinals. What was it like? How important was it to you to represent your country in the Davis Cup? Miami was huge. I mean, Davis Cup Olympics were definitely my favorite competitions over the years. And in the latter part of my career, that's one of the reasons why I continued to play

as long as I did, just because of the group that we had. We started to produce superstar singles players, which we'd never done. And there was an opportunity to win the Davis Cup, which they ended up doing. I think, unfortunately, there's a little bit of a relationship between me retiring and them winning. So I don't know. Right, right, right. I don't think it's your fault.

I try to keep that quiet, but it's pretty obvious if you're paying attention. But no, I really enjoyed the camaraderie, you know, the team and, you know, we had that run in 2013 in the semis. That was amazing. We had other, you know, good moments in Davis cup. And then I was part of a team that made it to the final, helped coach the guys that made it to the final in 2019. So those were all like really fun experiences and, and something that, you know, I always cherish looking back on,

the time spent as a team, something, again, that we talked about at the beginning. We don't really experience in tennis from a young age. Those are things that are really special. What was your biggest win? I'm wondering if it's Wimbledon or was it the gold medal at the Olympics? They were both, I put them both in the same level. I mean, Olympics really helped my career because I hadn't won a Grand Slam up until that point. And, you know, it was just around the time where I was just starting to play doubles.

And, you know, a few of the Grand Slam finals that I'd been in before that, I didn't feel like I was playing, you know, a few of the Grand Slam finals that I'd been in before that, I didn't feel like I was playing, you know, necessarily well enough. And that match, I felt like I stepped up. Obviously, my partner did too, and we played a great match. And that kind of helped me moving forward after that. You know, I was working with a sports psychologist, so it kind of all came together. And then, you know, I started playing better in the bigger moments.

And so, you know, winning Wimbledon obviously as a tennis player is uh it's the biggest thing you can achieve and so those those two are I think I always say are the the two most important in my career. You just mentioned working with a sports psychologist and uh you know in reading about you and researching for this interview a lot of people lauded your your calmness under pressure and in the big moments being able to keep your head um what advice did you hear what advice what have you learned about playing under pressure and succeeding in the big moments well just because it looks that way it doesn't always mean that i'm actually as relaxed as I'm sure to be. A lot of it to do, again, I wasn't physically the best athlete,

so a lot of it was conserving energy. If I started yelling and screaming and getting fired up, I mean, I think I'd be done after one set. And a lot of people questioned why I was playing singles. They were saying, well, you're not running after every ball. I'm like, yeah, because I'm trying to get ready for a full match here. I can't afford to waste energy on uncertain points. I'm not the guy that's going to chase five balls in the corners

and dig out a point that way. But so, again, seriously, I think I'm getting seen out. But there must have been. We're talking about your coolness under pressure. My coolness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I keep going off and then I can't remember the original. No, that's okay.

We do that. That's our show. You're fitting in perfectly. People have to be patient. Yeah, so with a sports psychologist, you know, it's, I think Fred, I didn't hear about the, I didn't hear the actual speech, but he gave a speech recently to a graduating class. I believe it was at Dartmouth. And I think the main thing he was focusing on was just, you know,

playing one point at a time. I mean, it's easy to say, but if I, I definitely found that I perform my best when I was able to just let things go in the course of a match. So, you know, you have a game plan, you have goals that you want to achieve and, and, and things that you want that, you know, you have a game plan, you have goals that you want to achieve and things that you want, you know, that you can control yourself. And one of those is, you know, how you react to situations that happen during the match.

And if you're in a good mood and doing the right things and, you know, mentally fresh, then, you know, you lose a tough point, you do the right things, you say, okay, that didn't work out, you're ready for the next one. So if you're able to deal with the distractions you know tough points that you lose and just move on to the next one i think that's that's the most important thing you know in the course of a match you know uh i think from a mental standpoint if you're if you're able to just you know you hear the the comment focus on the process type thing. I mean, tennis, 90% mental.

You hear that from a young age and you don't understand how important or how realistic that is. Because, you know, you think that if you hit the ball better or you have a better forehand, better serve than your moments where you're during a match where you're where you're maybe struggling or you're ready to play a big point and just you know keep uh keep doing what got you to that situation there's a lot of times where you know you're in a winning situation and you get passive and wait for your opponent to lose the match rather than you kind of seizing it so it's all these little things that are kind of playing over the course of a match that, uh, you know, you need to perfect. And, and I, yeah, I still think that, you know, even the, at the highest level, perhaps players aren't, you know, utilizing that, uh, that aspect

that that's actually so important. I think the, the, the physical aspect in tennis has, has improved dramatically. The players are so athletic now. And I think the technical aspect is just as good as it's ever been. But then, you know, you wonder, like, I don't know if you guys know this stat, but I'm going to ask you guys, put you guys on the spot. So Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal are, you know, the three most dominant players of all time. What percentage of points won? I hope you guys haven't actually read this because it's actually interesting.

What percentage of points won do you think they have won in their career? In the course of a match, like on average? Federer mentioned this during his speech. I can't remember the number. There you go. You know. It's 51.5. Is that right?

I think it's 55. You would think that someone that's that dominant would win 80% of their matches. That, they win 80% of their matches. That means they win 80% of the points, but it's actually only a fraction over 50, right? Right. They're playing the big points better. Obviously, they can raise their level because they're more talented

and more prepared, more disciplined, whatever. But at the same time, they're mentally stronger, too. I mean, that's a huge aspect, too. Speaking of statistical accomplishments, did you see what Milos Raonic did on Monday? Yeah. Yeah. Someone reached out to me, and they were like,

I want to talk about what Milos did yesterday. I couldn't even, like, imagine. I just imagined his first-round match at Queens. Like, what could have possibly happened? And then 47 aces in three seconds. It's pretty crazy. It's unbelievable. We were wondering if the other guy forgot his racket.

Yeah, he didn't show his hands. I don't know how that's possible. But he's not your, I mean, if you guys watch tennis or, you know, I guess it's the equivalent of a baseball pitcher. I mean, he's picking the corners. That's why he's hitting aces. I mean, you know, you play a guy that's serving huge, but they're serving to you.

You know, you get used to the speed, and you're putting that ball back in play. But that's why I regard his serve as, you know, him and Sanford are the best servers I've ever played against. I mean, he has all the spins, and he has the pace. So it's remarkable how good his service is. Plus, he hasn't played basically a year and he's coming out and beating these guys

because he does have such a huge weapon that you can't really understand. No one wants to play him. It doesn't matter if he hasn't played a match in so long. No one wants to see him on their side of the draw. Daniel, this was a lot of fun. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it.

Congrats again on your induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. It is well-deserved. Okay, guys. Thanks a lot. Thank you. That's Daniel Nestor, Canadian tennis legend here on the Halford & Breff Show on SportsNet 650. That was awesome.

That was so good. We actually don't talk about doubles in tennis very often. We don't talk about singles on this show. But I think it's such an interesting dynamic because it's this, you grow up and you are an individual. Because nobody's like a junior player, like, I really want to be good at doubles. Everyone starts as a singles player. Everyone starts, and Daniel Nestor started as a junior player. Like I really want to be good at doubles. Like they, they want to,

they want to be. Everyone starts as a singles player. Everyone starts. And Daniel Nestor started as a singles player. And, you know, he realized that his body wasn't keeping up to the singles game. So he got into the doubles game and started committing fully to, he didn't play singles.

Yeah. After a while. And he was really good at it, but it is interesting. that whole talk about the, the partnerships and what it was like to essentially break up with Mark Knowles. You have to have some tough conversations. Like you imagine having that conversation.

I mean, he said it on the air. He's like, he was like, yeah, I didn't think Mark was, uh, you know,

he, he didn't, he wasn't as ambitious as I was. He was starting a family, so he had other priorities. And then you have to have that conversation. You have to have, I think it's time we play with other people. Like, that's weird. It's not something we really see a lot in sports.

Well, if you go through the chronology of it, he spent, I think it was 12 years as a doubles partner with mark knowles so probably the guy he's most easily identified with in that realm but if you look at the trajectory who i have word i've been using a lot lately um of his career he had more immediate impact and success with his subsequent partner, where they won on Wimbledon in 08 and 09. They won more titles in a shorter period of time than he did over this longer career. Well, one of the frustrations with Mark Knowles was that they would reach the Grand Slam finals, but they wouldn't necessarily win them.

Right. If you go, I mean, just look at Nestor's Wikipedia page. Like there's a bunch of finals like grand slam finals losses yeah with noel so it's a very interesting conversation and a very interesting guy that was very cool to get caught up with daniel i too remember him beating stefan edberg at the agrodome it was like one of the first tennis matches i ever sat down actually watched start to finish and we were going crazy because it was such an upset at the time and nester was so young and so skinny so skinny they should do a local documentary

on the agrodome. All the things that have gone through there? that have happened there. Where was it? It's at the Peony. It's right next to the Coliseum. Oh, sorry.

The agrodome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just don't think of it as that. Okay. What did you think of it as? I don't know. Some other building. God, you're fun.

You're adorable. You just thought of it as another building. Yeah, I always forget that it's called that. Oh, Adon. And there's that building and there's another building. Well, you're fun. You're adorable. You just thought of it as another building. Yeah, I always forget that it's called that. Oh, Adon. And there's that building, and there's another building. Well, we played minor hockey there, because that was the home of, I guess, Hastings,

and probably still is. And you would go in there and be like, it sure smells like horses here. And yes, make the joke, it made me feel very comfortable there. Yeah, never felt more. Every time you played in that. All my family was there.

It was the only building that I've ever been hit over the boards at. Really? Yeah, right over the boards. I was like, shouldn't there be glass there? And knocked right over

the boards there. All right, Brendan Batchelor is going to join us next. We'll talk a little Canucks on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. But before we go to break, I need to tell you

about the BC Lions. The roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions' 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 733 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

You see the guy put the compilation together, right? Yeah. 7.33! Justin and East Van. Number one Halbro listener. Jason, just off the cuff the other day, it was a brief moment in the show. I wouldn't have been surprised if most people missed it. He said someone should put together a compilation of Halford coming back from break around

7.30. Because I do the same thing every time. And thank goodness someone put the work in. Some inflection, same tone. It's the same thing every time. I'm just like a robot. A radio robot. You know the meme of the professor coming into class wearing a different shirt every

time and it's always like, hello, hello, hello, hello. That's me. That, hello, hello. That's you. 734 on a Tuesday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor without compromise.

You can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. A lot of memories of old rinks coming into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. Todd has bad takes, texts in. Did you ever play at the old Carisdell Arena? The benches are elevated above the ice, so when you step onto the ice, there is a large step down.

And Todd says, I remember watching my son play there for the first time, and each kid would step off the bench and end up on their keister. There was a viral video a few years ago of there was a rink with like a solid three-foot drop. And there was a camera just right at the boards. And every kid on the ice, wipe out. Yeah.

Wipe out. No, I. Faceplant. So I played a lot at Carousel Arena growing up. And I coach there now once in a while. And I'm literally, literally dragging kids off the ice onto the bench because getting down if you fall you fall but some of them cannot step up onto the bench and i'm like they're eight years old and i'm like we're gonna get a too many men penalty get off the ice and

it's like oh you've got to separate your shoulder now sorry about that yeah there were some great old barns that I played minor hockey at. I played at rinks where there was mesh instead of glass. Nice. Yeah. Like fence? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The chain link fence. Oh, man. Classic.

Chain link fence indoors? Yeah. No, it wasn't chain link fence. It was like, well, I guess it was, but not like you would see in someone's garden. It was chicken wire. It was chicken wire, yeah, yeah. Like cage fighting UFC match. It was crazy, though.

I think, I want to say Burnaby Lake had that back in the day. Now you're going old school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Copeland now. And they're building a whole new one. The UBC mini rinks would have that, but they would actually have it behind the boards so there would be a ledge on the boards. I'm like, that was fun to be hit into.

You're like, God, my ribs. Like, is this not a safety issue? Like, aren't any of the parents watching? You must have played at least a game at Kensington Arena. Oh, yeah. That's old. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my hood. That's got every Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my hood.

That's got every old school, like, rink fries, the very, very tiny rental window. It's got all of it. Everything you could possibly want. Yeah. Soccer with chicken wire. Sorry, hockey with chicken wire and soccer on gravel pitches. That's how I grew up.

That's the best. Okay, let's go to the phone lines. Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Batch. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys?

We're good. How did you enjoy the first match of Euros for our beloved English? Yeah, I thought it was a good performance, albeit maybe not as high-flying as some people expected, but that's tournament football under Gareth Southgate, and they got the win, which hasn't always been the case in the past.

So I'll take it, and we'll see what they have in store for us in their next match coming up here this week. What are you looking forward to tonight in the Stanley Cup final? Do you think Florida is going to end it tonight, or do you think Edmonton's got a chance to not only break the canadian drought but break it in spectacular fashion

yeah i think tonight is the big swing game uh if the oilers can win it because uh obviously you know the panthers going back home now if they can close out the series, they win the cup. They put, you know, any sort of pushback from the Oilers to bed. And that's that. And we move on into the off season. But if Edmonton wins tonight, finds a way to get it done in Florida, suddenly it's not a three nothing series. It's a three, two series going back to Edmonton,

where we saw what they were able to do in game 4 in their own building with a crowd that you know is going to be raucous and is going to have more belief with their team rattling off a couple of straight wins. And we know what happened in 2011 with the Canucks. Now, you know, that was different. That was 2-0. It wasn't 3-0. But still, it's about that seed of doubt, and it's about regaining confidence and and turning it into

a series again when really this was a a done and dusted thing that we thought it was and it's still very well maybe and and that will sort of be the the test tonight for the panthers is they're back on home ice you want to get it done you don't want to have to fly all the way back to edmonton because you we know the travel in this cup final i believe has been worse than any cup final in history so that will play a factor the more games you have to play too and uh the the more life you give the oilers the more opportunity they have to claw their way back so if you're the panthers i think you really have to win tonight because if you don't then you could be staring a game seven back in your own barn

straight in the face and and be talking about being the first team to blow a three nothing lead in the stanley cup final since the war which um you know is not something that i think uh i think any team would like to have on their resume uh having watched the oilers as closely as you did especially in the sevengame series in the second round, did you get the sense that they might have figured something out or unlocked a certain key? Because one of the things that Knobloch did do well, not just in the second round but throughout these playoffs,

is either figure some things out or move some pieces around or just let things evolve to the point where there's a problem, they solve it, and then they move along. I'm not sure one game is enough of a referendum for that, but did you see anything on Saturday night let things evolve to the point where there's a problem, they solve it, and then they move along. I'm not sure one game is enough of a referendum for that, but did you see anything on Saturday night that suggested the Oilers might have either figured it out or gotten things going? Nothing huge, although I'll be honest,

I've got two little kids, so I had like one eye on the game and one eye running around chasing the kids. So I didn't watch it as closely as I might have otherwise. But, you know, obviously Bobrovsky didn't have his best game. So if they found a way to get to him, then that becomes a problem because of how effective he was through the first three games of the series. But, you know, for the Panthers, back at home now, they control the matchups.

So anything in terms of, you know, situational parts of the game where they can get their top guys out in favorable matchups, you can take that away again. So you hope that that's enough to kind of limit McDavid and Dreisaitl as effectively as you did through the first three games of the series. But, yeah, you know, that's one thing. I'll give Chris Knobloch a ton of credit because he did this in the series against the Canucks too,

and he's done it throughout the playoffs. He hasn't been afraid to make big decisions to try and help his team. And a lot of those decisions have worked out, whether it was going to Cal Pickard in the series against the Canucks and giving Skinner the break and then coming back to him. You know, whether it was some of the decisions he made with his lineup, you know,

elevating certain guys into the top six and demoting other guys or, you know, playing McDavid and Dreisaitl together in certain situations, playing them apart in other situations. I've been really impressed with not just his understanding of his team with the adjustments that he's made throughout the playoffs but also his fearlessness in making some of those changes and you know in some cases pulling guys out of the lineup and and sort of rotating through and using some of his depth so um you know whether they've unlocked something or not i guess we'll i guess we'll find out tonight but um i think a lot of this comes down to Sergei Bobrovsky and how well he's able to play because we know the Oilers are going to push.

We know they're going to be desperate. I would imagine the Panthers have a greater level of desperation tonight than they did in Game 4 now that it is a situation where the Oilers can sort of claw their way back into the series if you don't get it done tonight and it's going to be fascinating to see whether Edmonton can do it or not. Speaking of coaches did you happen to hear the Rick Tockett interview on the chirp with Darren Millard? I didn't hear it but I saw some of the clips and some of the quotes. Yeah well one of the quotes that I found really interesting was Rick Tockett saying that he kind of needs to reinvent himself and not because he had a terrible

season. He didn't. He won coach of the year. But I think most coaches head into a season with, okay, what are the things that we're going to focus on? What are the things that my players can latch on to? and this year it was pressure meets pressure it wasn't running away from the challenge of trying to get off to a better start and they succeeded in that capacity what do you think it could be heading into next season because if he goes back with pressure meets pressure, the players are going to be like, I don't think you did much this offseason. Yeah, I think the conversation going into next year is going to be more about offense than it was going into this year, right?

Like this year, it was just all about the don't have a bad start. Don't cut yourself off at the knees right at the start of the season. Don't have to chase all year to battle for a playoff spot and they had such a tremendous year and they were so good defensively especially in the second half of the season that the questions i think rightly so especially with the way things ended in the playoffs are going to be around offensive generation and how do you create more

and how do you find different ways to create offense and find some more depth scoring down your lineup and you know these conversations are all going to be colored by what they do or don't do in free agency and who they sign uh to come in and replace guys that leave or whether they end up re-signing some of these guys that they haven't been able to agree to uh extensions with at the moment. But I would imagine at least externally, you know, sort of from the outside looking in about what we're going to talk about, I think offense and offensive depth is probably going to be one of the big talking points. And, you know, for Talkett in terms of the things that he tries to hammer home or beat the drum about internally.

I think he's done a pretty good job of changing that message. Like we can remember not this past season, but you know, his first season where he came in in January, you know, it was, you know, we got to take it one game at a time, one bite out of the elephant at a time. And he was talking about guys need to have big summers and these games are important late in the year. And those were sort of the, the things we heard from him. And then early in the season,

it was a lot of pressure meets pressure and, and all of that conversation. And some of that conversation I think went away later in the year and his messaging kind of changed. So I think he's capable of it. And I think coaches always have to be aware of, of the need to reinvent themselves and not have a message that will get stale and find a way to continue to get through to their players season after season.

And, you know, I think Rick will be totally capable of that. I think he's already shown that he can sort of tailor his message to the, the situation and the group that he has. So that's going to be the more interesting part for me is what does the group that he has look like and what are we talking about going into the year and what are some of the areas that they're going to need to improve in or need to solidify? Because as much as I say, we'll probably talk a lot about the offense and generating more goals and trying to produce and and overcome you know what some saw at times this past year as luck in terms of um you know shooting percentage and things like

that which will likely regress next year we're also looking at a situation where a bunch of the personnel on the blue line might change. And in fact, you might have to refocus again on, on being a smart defensive team. But I think talk, it's already sort of admitted that, you know, training camp this past year was a lot about getting his systems in and a lot about, you know, the way they wanted to play away from the puck and how they want it to defend. And I think it might've been at the year end press conference where he talked about the way they wanted to play away from the puck and how they wanted to defend.

And I think it might have been at the year-end press conference where he talked about how training camp next year might have to be a little bit more about creativity and about generating offense and some of those things. So I think he's already starting to tailor that message and tweak it a little bit ahead of training camp and ahead of next season. You know, it's not that the Canucks had a terrible power play this season, but it just let them down when they needed it the most. What was the difference between, I guess, let's say early in the season when it was clicking and later in the season when it wasn't? It seems to me, and I'm not a coach,

I'm not a systems expert, so I'm sure there are technical things that you can look at of a power play that changed. But to me, it seemed mostly to be a confidence issue where early in the year, they were snapping it around. They looked confident. They were, you know, taking shots at moments where you'd want them to. They were, you know, making great passing plays that allowed them to score goals or finding ways to, you know, put the puck in the back of the net.

And when that stopped happening, the confidence seemed to dip. And then you've got guys second-guessing or double-clutching or holding on to the puck for too long or trying to force plays that weren't there. And I don't know if the power play struggles were directly connected with Pedersen's individual struggles, but at the same time, we know how much of a key player he is for them on the power play.

And when things weren't going as well for him and he didn't look confident, I think that probably affected the man advantage too. And then when they really started to struggle, it looked like nothing that they tried to do could work, whether it was zone entries or whether it like nothing that they tried to do could work whether it was zone entries or whether it was the plays they wanted to create and set up in zone and and that was really hard for them to overcome and ultimately they didn't overcome it and that's why they ended up losing to the Oilers in seven games so uh you know part of me wonders if you know uh you know

Rick Talkett I think at one point during the season, broke up the power play units and said, guys sometimes just need time away from each other. So does the offseason provide an appropriate amount of time away from each other that, you know, they can get back and start snapping it around again to start the season and look more confident? And then also potential personnel changes, right? You know, we're not expecting Lindholm to be back at this point,

I don't think. We are expecting them to go and try and find another top six winger to help bolster Patterson's line in particular. So, you know, are any of the guys they bring in this offseason capable of helping boost that power play? And in particular, I think finding someone who could play that bumper role in the high slot, because we know Horvat did that so effectively when he was here.

And, you know, they never really found one guy to be that guy in that spot that could score those goals with regularity after he left. So, you know, those will be a lot of the conversations about the power play. But that was it for me more than anything else was confidence or lack thereof. When things started going against them, they couldn't get it back on the rails. And ultimately, they never did. Batch, thanks for doing this, bud. We really appreciate it.

Enjoy the rest of the day. We'll do this again next week. Sounds good. Thanks, boys. Thank you. That's Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We have a few minutes before we go to break. I wanted to discuss Rory McIlroy because after Bryson DeChambeau's big win at the U.S. Open on Sunday, we came in Monday morning.

We talked about everything that happened on the course. Bryson's amazing sand save. Rory missing the two short putts. Then we talked about the aftermath, which was Rory McIlroy peeling out of the parking lot spinning his tires on a gravel parking road and leaving not speaking with the media that's probably over people are now imagining him just fishtailing out of their little rocks flying up hitting reporters in the face ah i may be over making this more dramatic

than it is anyway uh rory sort of spoke yesterday. He issued a statement, I suppose, and addressed everything that was going on or what had happened. And Rory finally addressed what happened on Sunday at Pinehurst. Yeah, and he offered congratulations to Bryson and basically said, like, I'm going to take some time off, but I will be back at it soon. And he's going to have to be back at it soon because the Open, some people call it the British Open, is next month,

and he's also going to defend his title at the Genesis, I think. What did you want to get into it? Because you wanted to talk about this. Yeah, because I said at the time, yesterday, I went back and listened to the show, The Best of Halford and Brough, which airs at night. You listened to that? It was on.

It's okay. It was on in the car. I was like, you know what? I get it. I understand why Rory didn't want to meet with the media. Between the way that he lost and all of the personal drama that had sort of uh enveloped him in the last little bit and uh everything i could understand why he'd just be

like you know what i'm not gonna do this i'm not gonna go up there and face this barrage of questions the problem is the problem the problem is that inevitably he's gonna have to be it at the genesis or at the open. Yeah. He's going to have to eventually tell you. Does this have anything to do with your divorce that became a non-divorce? Is that a thing? Is live still bothering you?

What happened on those putts? All of it. You're still going to answer. So is the decade long drought bothering you? It doesn't just go away. Yeah. Eventually you're going to have to face the music. I suppose.

I just bring this up because yesterday at the Euros, I don't know how much of the France-Austria match you watch, but there's an Austrian defender. He used to play for Leeds United. He's still property. It seems he's out on loan. He scored on his own goal. Max Wober.

Yeah. Wober. With a woeful header into his own net. So, I don't know if you're— Did you see the look the goalie gave him? He was not happy. What are you doing? That's our that's our net hey max wober they're supposed to head that away from our net not into our own net so yesterday and i don't know how many of you are familiar with international football but sometimes sometimes these individual errors can make someone the scorn of a nation,

like anyone that's watched the Beckham documentary and his infamous red card against Argentina. It's also ended in tragedy, going back to the 94 U.S. World Cup with Colombia. So instead of hiding from the cameras or whatever, Wobur went and actually threw himself right into the fire, and he went to the podium for the post-match media availability. And he said, this is his quote, after a game like that where you're the nation's idiot.

Now remember, he's talking about himself. It's not a bad thing to stand up and do your part so that the whole thing is over with. And I can concentrate fully on the Euro once again i'm not saying one is right and one is wrong like i appreciated rory being like peace i'm out i just can't deal with this right now well phil mickelson famously said at one u.s open where he blew the u.s open because of a a dumb club choice hit driver when he shouldn't have he went up there and he went i'm an idiot what can i say but the problem was it didn't really go away.

No. It was kind of like some, sometimes you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you know, hold yourself to account. Yeah. But then people will latch onto that. Or, you know, but you know what else with Phil is that became a soundbite. Yeah, exactly. Right.

It's interesting. Like we often talked about the interesting juxtapositions in the world of sports and there was a classic one where someone was like i just don't want to deal with this right now and i was like you know what i appreciate that just take your time and figure it out and then in the same day max wober is there going out he's like you know what i'm gonna get this over with right away i don't think there's any perfect way to deal with it because you're screwed. You've choked or you've made a big blunder and you just have to deal with it.

The only big difference, I suppose, is that Rory's playing one of those individual sports where it's all on him. He makes the putt. He misses the putt. It's Rory that's controlling it. I know he's playing against it. What was his name?

Woeberg? Woeberg. W-O-B-E-R. Oh, he should have been like, we needed some more offense. We're not going to win if we don't score a goal. Yeah, at least I'm scoring. What about the other guys? Austria, my fellow Austrians.

But, you know, to have, I did the other jumping off point. I was like, to have that much pressure on you, because I don't know if you've seen the crowds from Europe. I mean, the European Championship, part of what makes it so alluring is that there's not a lot of travel for a lot of these countries. It's not that hard for Austrians to go to Germany.

It's right there. There's a reason there's 9 million Dutch people at every Dutch game. It's just right there. Just go. There's such an enormity of pressure that you have the entire country watching you. And now you're, as he put it, the nation's idiot.

And all he was trying to do was clear a dangerous cross from him. Yeah, it was a very tough play. Yeah, and it just went horribly wrong for the guy. But kudos to Max Wober. I don't know if you're coming back to Leeds off loan, but if you do, please don't score. After his press conference, though,

even when he faced the music, you know what he did after? Peeled out of the parking lot. That's the best way to... The moral of the story is always make sure you peel out of the parking lot afterwards.

So long, stink down. Okay, 8 o'clock hour coming up. We're going to do a little bit more BC Lions talk here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. The new running back

for the team, starting running back William Stanback is going to join us. We will talk to him about being reunited with Vernon Adams in BC, about being the lead back in somewhere not Montreal in the CFL. Two-time CFL All-Star William Stanback is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.