Halford & Brough in the Morning - Aatu Räty Is Making Things Interesting

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

In hour one, Mike and Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), they talk a couple of pre-season losses for the Canucks on Friday & Saturday (6:00), plus Sportsnet's Kyle Bukauskas (30:36) joins the show to discuss the latest stories from around the NHL.  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.

da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da Disneyland with my kids. Bayfield directing traffic. Trip receivers to the left. Looks that way. Looks that way. Throws that way. In the end zone. Oh, ball! Touchdown, Tampa Bay! Good collision there. Knocked down line A. And line A is sliding into the corner and holding on to his knee. On the penalty kill.

Stepping up, trying to make a hit. He's sticking knee out on a superstar. Irresponsible. Good morning, Vancouver. 7 o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Alfred and his bruv at his Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live

from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and bruv of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, 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. Since we just fast-forwarded to Hour 2 of the program, Hour 2 is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then definitely don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Don't do it. Visit him online at Jason.mortgage, not.ca, not.com, Jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for?

Kintec. So, we only have two guests today on an abbreviated Halford & Brough show. 7 to 9 o'clock, two hours, two guests. 7.30, so coming up in a half hour time. Hockey Night Canada Sportsnet host, co-host of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Kyle Bukaskis is going to join the program. We'll talk to him. All the news and notes from the weekend in the National Hockey League. Him and Freedj were down in Los Angeles.

They were down in El Segundo with Dom. I can't think of a better way to take in El Segundo than with Dom. What were they doing down there? Just talking about the California teams? Yeah, specifically the Kings. And they just happened to be down there right around the time of Drew Doughty's catastrophic injury. So, yeah, we'll talk. So there's a conspiracy theory there.

You see? You see how the script was already written? Freedj took him out. The tail is wagging the dog again. The media. We're through the looking glass here. Oh, wow. Just happens to be a massive hockey story as soon as Freed rolls into town.

Very interesting. And the Kings are like, can we have a better one next time? Because we just lost our best defenseman. Kyle Bukoskis is going to join us at 730. 8 o'clock. Satyar Shah. That's right. Sat from right here on Sportsnet 650.

We'll look back on everything that happened with the Vancouver Canucks on the weekend. Not necessarily game results. Spoiler alert, Canucks lost both preseason exhibition games over the weekend. But we'll talk about some of the major storylines coming from the weekend and what to look forward to because this, Jason, is the last week of preseason hockey for the Vancouver Canucks. Yay! You're going to play the Oilers tonight and then also the Oilers on Friday,

and that finishes off their preseason. So still, as far as I'm concerned, plenty of questions about how the Canucks are going to look, not only their actual roster, but how it's going to be deployed once they start the regular season in like nine days. So we will also be doing some NFL talk today. Of course,

tonight it is the Seattle Seahawks in action against the Detroit lions on Monday night football, a Monday night football double header. You've also got Tennessee and Miami. If you want to subject yourself to that, all NFL coverage on this show is brought to you by the Clayton public house pregame to post game. The Clayton public house is your home of football.

Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online at the Clayton pub.com.com. Okay, so that's what's happening on the program today. Satyar Shah at 8, Kyle Bukaskas at 730. Let's tell everybody, Laddie, what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving you the best tools, training, and learning on your safety

site. Visit them at bcconstructionalliance.com Okay, we will start with the Vancouver Canucks very briefly. They did play two games over the weekend. And like we said in the intro, we're not going to get hung up necessarily on the scores. But for those curious about that kind of thing,

they lost both. 3-1 in Seattle to the Kraken on Friday. 4-2 to the Flames in Calgary on Saturday. Do you want to know the goal scorers? Sure. Tyler Myers scored the lone goal against Seattle. Oh, the Kraken hate Tyler Myers scored the lone goal against Seattle. Ooh. The Kraken hate Tyler Myers.

Can't stand that guy. He's front and center of every game. He must be. He scored the lone goal on Friday in Seattle. And then on Saturday in Calgary, it was Jonathan Lekaromacki. Sort of. I guess you can give him credit for the goal. It was a weird one. It was a very fluky goal.

Hey, you got to shoot the puck. He shot the puck. He did it on purpose. It hit a Flames defenseman's shin pad, I think, and then went way in the air and looped into the goal over the goalie. No, that was a skill move. He did that on purpose. They don't ask how.

They ask how many. Unless it's your first goal, and then they'll ask how, and you have to tell that story. So Atu Ratu also scored one of these stories from training camp thus far. That was it for the Vancouver Canucks as they lost 4-2 to Calgary. End of scores. So, here are the storylines we're going to discuss in the next few minutes. JT Miller still

hasn't played. Atu Ratu is the breakout star of training camp and we're still trying to figure out who's going to start on a line with Petey and DeBrusque. If you have anything to share on those topics or if you want to add a topic, text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650,

the Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. Let's start with JT Miller and the fact that he still hasn't played. Now, it doesn't sound like it's anything serious, if it's anything at all, but I think it's worth noting, and we have noted a few times on

this show, that the Canucks did advertise that Miller would play in the first exhibition game against Seattle last Tuesday, and he still hasn't appeared. You remember, we were talking about that because we were like, oh, the Canucks are now telling the fans who are going to attend these games who's going to play so they don't show up and feel ripped off or wondering, you know, like, where's this guy? I came here to watch this guy. And the way it was going to play out was that Miller and Besser, one of the, you know, two of the guys from one of the top lines

was going to play in the first exhibition game. And then remember the very next night, it was going to be in Abbotsford and that's when Petey and lines was going to play in the first exhibition game. And then remember the very next night it was going to be in Abbotsford and that's when Petey and Hughes were going to play. Well, Besser played in that first game, but JT Miller hasn't, didn't. So we're all kind of like, that's interesting. Maybe they lied to us. The Canucks sometimes are liars, but I think the intention was that he was going to play.

And some people have said that maybe he got a little banged up in a scrimmage. Now, JT Miller has been a full participant in practice, and he said via IMAC after Thursday's practice at UBC, he said, I'm obviously ready to play. Well, I don't know if obviously is the right word to put there because you haven't played yet. But he said the preseason it's never pretty let's be honest it's all about just trying to worry about your habits and trying to get um those in

the right spot then hopefully typically by game six we play pretty close to the full team and it feels a little better as we go i'm obviously going to get in soon i'll play a couple of games probably so i respect this so much yeah probably i don't know who knows so if he plays tonight end of that story but if he doesn't then we're gonna wait and see um if he plays in the final uh preseason game which is supposed to be okay it's at home rogers arena typically in the preseason, you play your stars in the home games. And that would make sense as like, all right, we got the group together. Let's go.

So I don't know if he's going to play tonight. I don't know if he's going to play Friday. But I do think it's something worth monitoring. And not just because we're worried that JT Miller's got this significant injury he does like I'm not worried about that if he's practicing that's fine I'd actually just like to see him play I'd like to see the power play get out there as a group together and have at least one warm-up game together the first unit power play have him play in a game with Danton Heinen you you know, and just have him play one preseason game. That's it. I'm not asking him for it to play tonight. I'm not going to lose my mind if he doesn't play

on Friday, but I do think this is something worth monitoring. Sometimes you gain an appreciation, more of an appreciation for players when they do stuff off the ice, right? Sometimes it's like charitable events or, you know know they go out of their way to sign an autograph for a kid or they do a really nice gesture and then sometimes you gain appreciation when they become super relatable and so for me i really like the fact that jt miller is all but basically saying he's like i don't want to play these games he's like i don't like the preseason there was the you said the longer quote where he was talking about he doesn't even like necessarily getting back into shape

for the season to begin with. He just wants to try and hold that off for as long as possible. No, you misread that quote. Until it's time to get away from the wife and kids, and then it's time to kick it into overdrive and get into shape. So I respect his approach entirely. This is good. I don't want people to think that JT Miller said something like,

I don't like getting back into shape. What he said was, in the offseason, typically now he doesn't take a lot of time off. Because the reason is, because if he takes time off, then he's got to get back into shape, right? So typically he just wants to stay in shape. And then he, this is the most relatable thing about JT Miller for, especially for guys our age. He's like, yeah, once I've taken 10 or 12 days, I'm ready to get out of the house anyway. Now it's time to get back in shape.

He's always like, oh God, I got three young kids. Get me out of here. I'll go to the gym. I'll do anything. Now for all of you texting in, they're like, guys, this isn't a story, guys. This isn't a story. It kind of is because as we've seen over the last 72 to 96 hours,

the preseason is fraught with risk. You can't go suiting up in the preseason. We've already seen two pretty significant players knocked out long term. We don't know the severity of the Patrick Lyon injury, but it sure looked bad. And we saw Drew Dowdy get hurt in his first preseason game. Now, this is obviously one of those like both sides make good arguments type thing,

because you do need a warm up. You need some games. You need to get your legs back a little bit and get into a game. At the same time, every time you step out there in a meaningless game, there's a risk involved that you're going to get hurt in a game that means absolutely nothing to nobody. And we've seen what happens in the preseason. Every year, it's kind of the same thing.

There's a bunch of young guys that are running around, trying to make a name for themselves, trying to make the NHL team, going up against a bunch of veteran guys who are already in that spot and are just looking to get through the 60 minutes without getting hurt. i think at the end of the day what i think is going on here is jt miller is maybe a little bumped up you know um then he's not gonna go out of his way to risk anything to play in the pre preseason so if you're saying this isn't a story at all fair enough it's not much of a story so on you know if he doesn't play in the first regular season game, then maybe we'll revisit it.

But there is a good story because there's a guy coming for JT Miller's job. I don't know about that. But let's talk about Aturatu. The guy who might be sweating Aturatu's play is Nils Amon, but we can get into that later. Aturatu is, I think we can all agree, the breakout star of training camp. And Rick Tockett was saying before Saturday's game, he said he's got some stiffness in his game.

And Rick Tockett loves stiffness. Do you remember who the other stiff player was? Who was the stiff? Brogan Rafferty. Oh, Brogan. He liked stiffness on his stick. But that was greener. That was a different type of stiffness.

Tuckett said, we like his game. He's a good face-off guy. I think he's really improved the last couple of years. So we're going to give him a long look. Ratu then went and scored against the Flames and he's been centering maybe the best line for the Canucks of the entire training camp and preseason. And that would be with Garland and Nils Hoeglander. Now, it's still anyone's guess if Ratu makes the opening night roster because there are all sorts of considerations that you have to throw in there. Injury, right?

Where is Bluger? And if you want to add Miller in there. But Bluger would be the guy that I would wonder most about. He's practicing as well, but we don't know when he's going to be, um, out. And the Canucks came out and said right before training camp, like this guy's got a lower body thing. He had a minor procedure. So he is, you know, week to week, I think at that time. Um, there are salary cap considerations right now.

The Canucks do not want to go into LTIR so there is talk that they might only be able to start the season with one extra player so 21 players as opposed to the 23 that you're allowed and I think there are waivers considerations as well when we come to a guy like Nils Amon would the Canucks even if they like Ratu's game slightly more than Nils Amon's game, if they have to make a decision on a player in terms of sending one down to the AHL, would they risk putting Nils Amon on waivers if it came to that? Yeah, we've seen that situation play out before, where it's not necessarily your play that dictates your roster spot.

It's CBA rules, waivers, and everything else, because there's probably a decent case to be made that if Amon tried's cba rules waivers and everything else because there's probably a decent case to be made that if oman tried to get past their waivers he'd get plucked by someone he's had a nice little career rejuvenation in vancouver where he went from being sort of a flamed out prospect to a guy that can play he's a big dude he kills penalties yeah um he's not great on face-offs which is a weakness but which is where Ratu's thrived. If you're looking for, you know, centers are always in need. You know, and look, if you look at the Canucks, Miller, Petey, Bluger, Suter, and Amon

are all guys that can play center. And then you really do have to add Ratu to this question now. And maybe if you're being generous and you want to add someone else's name, Max Sasson's name is one that should be considered because he's getting a lot of hype from the team. Well, not hype, but they're just like, you know, he brings something to the table.

He's got some speed. So there's another guy that's competing with Nils Amon for a spot. Listen, this is all short-term stuff when it comes to Atu Ratu. I think what you need to do in this situation is take a step back from the opening night roster and all that sort of stuff and be grateful that this guy seems to be panning out in a nice way for the Canucks. Just listening to him talk, I really like how humble he is. And, you know, the reporters were desperately trying to get a quote out of him

where he was saying, like, I'm really happy with how my preseason is going. And he's kind of like, yeah, I've still got some things to work on. You've got to respect that. A level-headed kid knows he's got a lot of things to work on in his game. Yeah. And he was talking about,-headed kid, knows he's got a lot of things to work on in his game. Yeah. And he was talking about, you know, whether it's face-offs or,

and he even said, like, as a team, we've got to box out better in front of our net. Center's got to do a lot of that. And then his skating, which he's really worked on,

and I loved reading and hearing him talk about working on his skating this off-season and how he had a couple of light bulb moments that must feel really good as a player who works on something. He's like, wait a minute. Like, is this the way I'm supposed to do it? Right.

Oh, okay. That's cool. that means that he is, you know, actually thinking about this stuff and, and intentionally putting the work in and not just going out there and going through the paces and going like, okay, well, I guess I got to get better at skating. So I'll go out there and skate. I actually wonder, you know, Atu Ratu is an interesting guy because he was considered, honestly, the word phenom was put out there a few times when he was young and there there was talk when he was 15 or 16 that he might be a first overall pick type of player. And then that never happened because he plateaued a little bit.

I wonder some of these guys, if they're just such naturals when they start, that they don't even really have to think about, like, how am I skating? What does my stride look like and then they get to a point where you know some of them i don't know if they ever you know they're such natural athletes like i don't think otani has to sit there and be like how do i run that's right you know i do it better yeah but he just he just does everything naturally right but maybe ratu got to a point where he actually had to mindfully think about his skating stride and realize that he couldn't just go out and do everything just because he naturally knew how to do it i think does that make sense yeah i think

it's an interesting point because we've talked a lot about it where guys have to alter their profile like their style of game when they get to the NHL level. Guys that grew up and even in junior were massive point producers and the best players on their team and the captains and the leading scorers and the MVPs and the guy that gets all the trophies. They go to the NHL and it's like, you're a fourth line checker now. And that's a tough thing for a lot of guys, not just to accept, but also to understand that they have to go back

and work on something right and that's kind of what i mean in a way what ratu's doing okay so we've asked we've asked two questions when is jt miller going to play in the preseason uh who has been the breakout star of training camp the third question i have for you jason who's going to play with leas petterson and jake debrusk i don't think it's going to be lecker mackie i think he's going to play with Elias Pedersen and Jake DeBrusque? I don't think it's going to be Lekker or Mackey. I think he's going to start the season in the AHL. Could be wrong there. My top two candidates would be Hoaglander or Sprong. And I think right now, if I was to bet on it,

it would be Sprong because I think Hoaglander has done such a good job replacing Dakota Joshua on a line with Garland and whether it's going to be Ratu or Suter or Bluger if he's back at that three seat position, who knows? Um, but we haven't really seen Daniel Sprong with Pedersen and DeBrusque.

Do you know what I mean? So yeah. What's that? Yeah. Yeah. Really at all.que. Do you know what I mean? Not at all. What's that? Not really at all. But you know what I mean, right? So I do wonder if we'll see that combination in some games this week or some practices. Lekker Amaki did score over the weekend against the Flames, but according to iMac, and this is iMac, so don't shoot the messenger.

I didn't watch the game. He had probably his least impressive game or scrimmage since the young Stars tourney. And I think the right move is for him to start in Abbotsford. I just think it's the right move for him to do that.

I'm not running the team. Maybe the organization feels differently, but I would like to see Sprong get an opportunity there. For all of you that texted in, that gave us the gears when we were talking about the Jonathan Lechromackie playing on the top line and getting this extended look and being intrigued by it, do not come back and say that we have to eat crow now,

because I do remember bookending ending that conversation starting that conversation ending the conversation with one phrase it's probably still very unlikely that he makes the opening night roster like it was nice that they were intrigued by it it was nice that they were talking up it probably shows that they're excited about his potential and they wanted to give him this dangling carrot in the hopes that, hey, maybe, maybe there's that 5% chance out there that he rises to the occasion and is able to exceed our expectations. It's an exciting thing. If you want to go big picture on it and not be really myopic, tie it into what we were saying about Ratu. All of a sudden, there's genuine excitement about a couple prospects in the American League who might be either NHL ready or very close and that's a nice thing to have because this

organization has kind of been short on those guys I'd rather see Lekker Maki be a mid-season call-up or if he stays the whole year in the American League it's not the worst thing on earth he's still very young he's still very green yeah if he can go down there and dominate for a season it's not the worst thing on earth. He's still very young. He's still very green. Yeah. If he can go down there and dominate for a season, it's not going to hurt his development. It's really not. Ratu might be a little bit of a different scenario because he might be a little bit more primed to make the jump because he's older.

And also he can play a bottom six role. Right. And he's been developing already in Abbey. And he's a big dude. He's a big, strong guy. Like Ratu might be. Lechermackie is not. Ratu is like the path for Lekermackie, maybe,

because, you know, he gets some seasoning down in the AHL. Hey, dog, how did you pronounce that? Lekermackie? No, wrong. Lekermackie. Lekermackie? Nope, there's no re. Lekermackie.

Lekermackie? Lekermackie. Lekermackie. There you go. Lekermackie. There you go. Lekermackie, Lekermackie, Lekermackie. Okay, real quick before we pivot to what the BC Lions did

or more specifically didn't do over the weekend. The Canucks did make a bunch of cuts over the weekend. The one I really want to mention is Vilmer Ulrichsen because he got cut and sent back to his Ontario Hockey League team in Guelph. But it wasn't all bad for Vilmer because the 6'6 forward signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Vancouver Canucks after a training camp in which he was so impressive, he got a quote in his press release.

Oh, what did the quote say? It said... He was quote-worthy? Oh, wow, good for him. Vilmer Ulrichsen is such a highly touted prospect, he got a quote from Patrick Alveen. Vilmer had a solid training camp and continues to develop and improve we really like his size skating ability and skill set and we will continue to monitor

his progress and work with him this year to help vilmer get ready to take another step forward in his hockey career i wonder if he could play for sweden at the world juniors i would imagine he's 19 no no i'm just wondering if you would make the team. Yeah, I mean, he'd have to be in the... Again, I'm not all that dialed in on the current state of the Swedish Junior Program. I apologize. We got a lot of stuff that we... Who would be their top line?

Could he maybe fit in a bottom six role? If one of you texted and says, educate yourselves, I'm going to lose my mind on the air. I don't have the bandwidth. I was trying to get caught up with the golf. Never mind. Okay. You need to follow those leagues, man. It's part of your job.

I can't do it. BC Lions. The BC Lions, man. They blew it. They blew it so bad. They blew it big time. The Lions had a 16-0 lead at the half against Hamilton. And I realize Hamilton has been playing better.

And Bo Levi Mitchell has been playing really well at quarterback. The Ticats came to BC Place on a three-game winning streak. But the Leos led 16-0 at the half and found a way to lose this game. They allowed 18 fourth-quarter points, fell 32-29 in overtime on Friday night. If you're upset about the officiating, you're upset at the wrong stuff. The offense started strong but sputtered. The defense also started strong,

what with the shutout in the first half and then completely got torched by Bo Levi Mitchell. He have three names. Nathan Rourke is now 2-5 as the starting quarterback this season. And I think this is a very concerning quote from the head coach, Rick Campbell. And Rick Campbell, I know a lot of people have thoughts about him, but get a load of this quote. We got a good group of guys, but we don't respond well when things

don't go our way. We're good when things are humming along and that's okay, but when something goes wrong as far as the other team makes a play or we think a call's bad or something's like that, we don't respond quickly enough. We need to be better at that and not be phased by a game where it gets tough at the end. If you're going to win in this league, coming down the homestretch or in the playoffs, you're going to have to not be phased

by a back-and-forth game that comes down to the fourth quarter. That is the head coach calling his team mentally weak, mentally fragile. I am getting flashback to the Canucks before Rick Talkett. The weird part is, I'm not sure outside of this collapse late where they held the lead and then things started to go the wrong way.

Other games this year, it hasn't even I don't know if I don't know if Campbell's categorization is the right one, because that's not what happened against that loss in Toronto or sorry, the loss to Toronto at BC Place prior to the bye. They were just bad. You know what happened that was bad? The opening kickoff. That was the turning point. They were bad right after that. As a matter of fact, the one bright spot that they had in that game where it looked like it might turn the corner in a good way

was when Rourke had the touchdown on the ground, running it in himself prior to the half. What's the opposite of a team being dialed in? Because that's what the lines are right now, and I think they've just been through so much this season in terms of we had a good start, and then there was the long losing streak, and then you bring in Nathan Rourke, and then you bring in Matthew Betts, and you've got to go to Victoria for a game, and it

just seems like there is a real lack of focus. And, you know, they just – I don't know if they need to talk it out there to give them some landmarks, you know, just like you go there and do this in this situation. But they seem lost as a group. Does that – am I making any sort of sense here? Well, let's not forget, before they made the additions of Rourke and Betts,

they were going through an awful funk. That five-game losing streak where a lot of the team's issues were exposed. Remember we said, I'm not sure a lot of this is stuff that you can just scheme up and fix. It was missed tackles. It was a lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball.

Do they have a number one receiver? Do they have a guy that they can rely on? Because I don't think they do right now. We're not going to talk too much about the Lions. Well, actually, we are because it's time now for the CFL Report, brought to you by Security Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Real quick, we just wanted to mention this because it was an awful weekend

for the Lions, not just on the field, but on the out-of-town scoreboard as well. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, real nail-biter against the Elks on Friday. 55. 55 points. 55-27 victory there. So that puts Winnipeg in the driver's seat for the West at 9-6. The other result that kind of matters right now is that the Rough Riders won 29-16 against Ottawa. The Rough Riders are now 7-7-1.

Look, forget hosting the West Final. The Lions are in danger of not hosting a playoff game at all, and there's even a chance. I can't believe I'm saying this. There is even a chance that they miss the playoffs altogether if the Ticats stay hot and cross over to the West playoffs. The Lions have three games left. An absolute must win versus Calgary at home Friday.

The Stamps aren't very good. Then the Lions are off to Saskatchewan for a big game. And then they finish the regular season at home versus a very good team in the Montreal Alouettes. If they lose all three of those games, there's a chance they miss the playoffs. Because Hamilton right now is 6-9-0, nice, and the Lions are 7-8-0 after that loss on Friday. And Hamilton's last place in the East, right?

Okay, that was the CFL Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. We're going to go to break. When we come back, Kyle Bukaskis from the 32 Thoughts podcast is going to join us. We'll talk all things NHL. The Hockey Talk continues right here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. or everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post-game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 7.34 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda.

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Real quick before we get to Kyle Bukoskis of the 32 thoughts podcast. We are steeped in tradition here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. And anytime we're in here on a holiday, we always make sure that we ask all the listeners that are out there working or on their commute or just listening to the show, text in. We appreciate you guys. People working on a holiday like we are. People listening on a holiday when you could just be sleeping in if you wanted to.

Doing so many other things of value. Sleeping, being awake, breathing. All of them better than listening to the Halford and Brough show. If you are listening, text in. Don Barlimber text line is 650-650. We'll give you shout outs in the 8 o'clock hour right before Satyar Shah joins us at 8. Joining us now, very excited to have him on the program, co-host of the 32 Thoughts podcast. He is the hair of the Hair and Hot Air podcast, also known as 32 Thoughts.

Kyle Bukoskis here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Kyle. How are you? Hey, morning, gents. That's a very up-to-date reference there. So I appreciate you guys staying in in tune with uh with the show good to be on with you guys um i would just say quickly so our producer don stromatti who of course flies his trade out your way and uh the beautiful west coast uh he said my condolences

when he heard i'd be joining you guys this season so um wasn't too sure what to make of that but i i know i'm thrilled to be on with you guys every week. I'll just say that. Ah, nephew Dom. How was your trip to Los Angeles with Elliot and Dom? It was good. Our first road trip as a trio. So, I mean, the Kings were great.

You know, got some good time around there. We went to the Dodgers game Thursday night where they beat the Padres to clinch the division yet again. Shoei went three for five that game. It was Elliot got, you know, an order of soft serve ice cream that was the size of his head. And all in all, it was a successful night. We went out to Ontario Saturday for the preseason game out there

between the Ducks and the Kings. Never been out there before. You know, a great barn. They packed it. Good atmosphere. It was a good few days there. It was tough to get Elliott away from the beach, though, I'll tell you that. Some pickleball mixed in, too.

All the things you would want to do when you're in South Bay. Well, I was going to say, it sounds like a great time in Los Angeles for everyone, except maybe the Kings, who I don't know if the injury occurred while you guys were there shortly before, but the Drew Dowdy injury obviously clouded everything that was going on with the Kings over the last few days. I know you guys spoke to Quentin Byfield and the head coach, Jim Hiller. I imagine it was a pretty somber mood following the news that drew dowdy is going to be lost for months with that ankle injury yeah so i mean i i say it's a funny thing but of course it's not funny at all like you you feel for for the player and

the team immensely when when that happened but i mean we got in on wednesday and and part of the plan of course was to to interview Doughty at at some point during our our trip uh naturally given uh you know his his role with the Kings and within the game of hockey and how long he's been doing it for and just the personality that he is we're really looking forward to speaking with him we're out for dinner Wednesday night and we've got their preseason game against Vegas on in the background. And then we literally put in our food order and looked up at the TV, and there was the replay of the injury. And we both, like, just hearts and stomachs dropped, thinking, oh, my gosh.

First and foremost, of course, you're thinking for him, but it just kind of changed our plans while we were there. And so, and it's funny, you know, Elliot was saying that wasn't the first time that that had happened to him. Years ago, when he was with Hockey Night and CBC, they had been granted an interview with Andre Markov when he was still early in his time with the Canadians. And it was going to be one of like the first big English interviews

he had given since he had come over to the National Hockey League. And I guess they had got into Montreal and similar thing like the night before he suffers this brutal injury and they don't end up doing the interviews. So I said to him, I was like, geez, we're going to be on the first flight home tomorrow. They're not going to want us anywhere near any other of the players here the rest of our time here. So yeah, it's not ideal, of course.

I think they were hopeful that it was going to be more of a week-to-week thing as opposed to month-to-month. But, you know, as Elliot said on our episode today, that it looks like somewhere around New Year's could be a target return for Dowdy, but you also know that he's going to work like heck to try to get back even sooner than that. Not only, you know, the Kings first and foremost would be the priority, but with the Four Nations coming up here, he's somebody that's very much on the radar for Team Canada,

and I think for him too, that's a big deal for him to make that team and to represent his country once again. So a lot of things going into the fallout of that injury. But now, you know, I think for the Kings, you think you're going to learn a lot about them here right out of the gate this season because of the injury to Dowdy and the fact they play their first seven games on the road

because they're doing renovations at Crypto.com Arena where they play at home there. And so you've got to be ready to go, I think, for them and have the proper people that you want in place to at least try to absorb the role that the Dowdy, of course, gives them so guys like blank brant clark and um you know even you know kyle burrows of course who the vancouver market knows someone that they brought in in the off season that by committee type approach to to try to to try to navigate you know life without dowdy here which fortunately for them they haven't had to do much over his career he's been relatively healthy in large stretches um is brant clark ready for this opportunity? Because I know it's asking a lot, but he's a highly touted prospect for a reason. Yeah, I think five on five, I'm not sure if that's going to be kind of the automatic plug in there. They seem to really want to have him with Joel Edmondson and have Edmondson kind of be more of that mentor-type role for them,

and they don't seem to be keen, at least right now, in splitting that pair up. But, you know, I think where the Clark to Dowdy transition you're really going to see here early on is, of course, the power play with him quarterbacking that top unit there. And given the attributes and the skill set that Clark has, I mean, that's really going to play into his strengths a great deal with his ability to move the puck in his skating and just the way he sees the ice. So that could be a huge opportunity for him, I think,

to get feeling good about his game and to have an impact there offensively. And then I still think even as we were leaving Los Angeles on the weekend, they've still got some decisions to make in terms of when it comes to being your matchup defense pair, when you get to the nitty-gritty of a game and then who you want playing against the top guys on the other side uh certainly mikey anderson's gonna have a big hand in that he was the one who was paired with doughty to begin training camp but um you know whether they move somebody to their off wing guy like gabbercob does he elevate a little bit i mentioned kyle burrows like there's still some things i believe that the kings are still trying to to sort out and through the rest of preseason, we'll probably use that time to see who is best fit to at least begin the

year in trying to absorb some of those minutes and situations. You know, how well the Kings fare this season is important for the Vancouver Canucks because that might be one of the teams that they're battling with for a top three spot in the division. The Oilers, a lot of people will pick to win the division. Vegas could be another pick for a top three team in the division. What are the Kings looking at right now? What are they looking like right now as a team? Because I think a lot of people were pretty impressed with how they've been over the last few years,

still taking advantage of the good years of Kopitar and Dowdy, but it's also hard to ignore the fact that they've made the playoffs in three straight seasons and they've gotten the Oilers in the first round and they lost to them in the first time. They took the Oilers to seven games and then it was six games and then it was five games, so things seem to be getting almost progressively worse for the LA Kings in the first time. They took the Oilers to seven games, and then it was six games, and then it was five games. So things seem to be getting almost progressively worse for the LA Kings in a weird way. Yeah, it's funny how it's worked out that way, right? I think I go back to, I mean, Rob Blake's comments at the end of the year,

and he's someone that doesn't like to be in the spotlight a ton. He doesn't do much media, but at the end of their season last year, saying things along the lines of, we need guys to kind of realize and kind of recommit themselves to what it takes to win. They've made some considerable changes in the offseason, Pierre-Luc Dubois trade being the biggest one, bringing in some

new faces. I mentioned Edmondson, throw Tanner Jeannot in there, Warren Fogle coming from Edmonton, the team that knocked him out of the playoffs three straight years. He's now a king. And the sense from them, you know, coming right out of the gate to open camp, there's a lot more edge, some bite to those first inter-squad scrimmages, which, I mean, doesn't always tell you a ton, but looking kind of beneath the surface there,

some players are saying it just feels, for the first time in a little while, like there's actually legitimate spots up for grads. I think they want to give some young players an honest look here. Guys like Akeel Thomas, who's been in the organization for a while, Alex Turcotte, they really want to give them a chance to make this team an honest look here guys like akil thomas who's been the organization for a while alex turcott they really want to give them a chance to to make this team and and to be full-time nhl players i really think quentin byfield could have a monster season this year guys i mean the breakout year last year no question and i think a further step could could be possible here um someone who's you know 22 years old now

he's bigger hasn't lost a step of course he hasn't sacrificed what appears to be any speed in the process to to be in a a bit heavier of of a player um but a guy who's a little more comfortable in his own skin as finding his voice as he goes along here. And naturally, like, gosh, you come into that room, you've got so much respect for a guy like Anze Kopitar who's been doing it for so many years the same way and continues to have success as a player. I believe quietly, Ellie and I were talking about this, like they would love a scenario where, whether it's this year or early in the next season,

Byfield usurps Kopitar as the number one center. And I think that would be a great success story, I believe, for the Kings, a development success story where you've got a homegrown player coming in to take that that spot that has been occupied by one of your all-time greats and as he nears the the end of his playing days so I stuff like that I think will dictate a lot of of how how well this this team does because because I'm with you like Like Edmonton, Vancouver, I think they'll be at the top of the division. I also believe Vegas is going to be better.

I see the Kings as a team that could be likely battling for one of those wildcard spots in the West. And if they can withstand this Dowdy injury for the first almost half of the year, it looks like, and see some growth from some young players. They want to give the opportunity to do so here. They can put themselves in a good spot. You know, it seems to have a good thing going here with Jim Hiller behind the bench.

He managed to get things back on the rails when he took over last season. Now a full year together. Darcy Kemper and Goal, who's got a little bit of familiarity with the organization and just a fresh outlook after his time in Washington. That's what I'm going to be watching for here this year with them, is can the young players that have been part of the organization for a while now allow them to take kind of a

different step in a different direction. I also think they want to be a kind of a harder team to play against. They've played well structurally for a long time now, but they mentioned some of the names there, a little more of a physical element too, where not only are they a frustrating team to play against for opponents at times, they want to be more of just a flat-out difficult team to play against. We're speaking to Sportsnet NHL host Kyle Bukoskis here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, also the co-host of the 32 Thoughts podcast. How much of the most recent podcast, which published overnight, did you and Elliot spend talking about the Patrick Laine-Ning incident from the weekend?

Yeah, quite a bit, honestly. It was, yeah, I don't know what the talk is out your way, guys. I was a little surprised there that Pare, the defenseman from Toronto

didn't see any supplemental discipline of any type. I mean, it should have been a penalty called there, of course, but just the way the knee came out, and I understand if you want to make the case, it wasn't an attempt to injure. He's just trying to not let the guy get by him. I totally will buy all of that, but it was reckless.

Let's make no bones about it. It was reckless. It's just tough. I mean, I think the canadians have the most man games lost over the last three seasons combined than anyone in the nhl so there was legit good energy going into to camp for them because um it was kind of a feeling with the addition of a guy like line a and having some players healthy again like they basically didn't have kirby doc all of last year, game two.

Injured his knee bad, and he was done. Didn't come back the rest of the year. There was hope that, hey, you know, maybe it's not a slam dunk or a playoff team, but, you know, entering that phase of in the mix or meaningful games post-trade deadline, that can be a contagious thing for a team that gets feeling it at the right time of the year and something that the Canadians haven't been accustomed to for quite a while here. So, I mean, gosh, you saw the discourse in the comments online between Leafs fans and

Canadiens fans, as you would expect. You know, away Arbor Jack, I went after Paré a few shifts later to try to settle the score, he ends up not getting suspended either. Of course, there could have been cause for that to happen with the way he went after him. He just ends up getting a fine, along with 27 minutes of penalties in the game. Opening night, Maple Leafs, Canadians and Montreal, or I should say the Canadian opening night. I know the league gets going on the Tuesday, but our first night up north of the border, Wednesday night, should be a lot of fun in terms of the energy in the building. But you just you really feel for line given how difficult of a season it has been. last season was of course not only just with the playing stuff but going to get help and

enrolling in in the program and and seeming to be in a much better place and a fresh start in Montreal there was a lot of interest to see how how things were were going to go not sure yet the extent of things but the way it went off it certainly did feel ominous so we'll wait and see what the ultimate word is and how long he is going to be be out for but um it's it's a gut punch no question for for a team that um you know i've been looking for for more offensive spark and you thought that that there was a chance that maybe line a could find that that level again and and now it looks like uh they're going to be without him for a while here after some legit hope and

excitement around that whole idea going into things. Kyle, this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do it today. We really appreciate it. Very much looking forward to doing this on a weekly basis throughout the season. Yeah, as am I. Thanks, Chance. Appreciate having me. Have a good one, Kyle. We appreciate it. That's Kyle Bukowskis,

Sportsnet NHL host and the co-host of the 32 Thoughts podcast here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I felt so bad for Lionel when I saw that. Pretty brutal hit, man. Yeah, pretty brutal hit. Yep. I mean, again, we go back to what we said in the intro segment. Maybe JT Miller's got it right.

Maybe you don't play in the preseason at all. It's too dangerous. Did you hear the clip in the intro? I don't know which one you're referring to. The Laine hit. Oh, the Joe Bowen hit. Joe Bowen called it a good hit. Yeah.

Okay, look. Great first blush analysis. We're cherry picking, right? I mean, he probably didn't have a chance to see it on replay. Maybe he just caught it out of the corner of his eye. I think he's calling off a screen. Yeah, right. Nope, nope.

Let's bury him. Let's bury him. It's the Halford and Brough way. Yeah, I mean, look, you can debate the hit and whether it's suspendable or not, but I think that misses the point. The point is that Patrick Laine's hurt, and it's a really unfortunate situation

because I was looking forward to seeing what this guy could do in Montreal. I know he looked good. He looked like he had some energy and some jump to his step in the preseason. And maybe that's part of the contributing factor to the injury. Like he wants to make a move at the blue line

and he wants to beat a guy and then a guy hangs his leg and it's, you know, it leads to that. But this is the guy that the NHL is better when Patrick Laine is playing well. And I think he went to a team that made a lot of sense for him. Montreal is in a position to take a gamble on a guy like Patrick Laine and they were able to absorb his entire cap hit. So I think that trade worked out

for Montreal. It also worked out for Columbus, which needed to move on from him. But I just wanted to see him, you know, not that I have a dog in the fight, not that I'm like this huge Patrick Lainey fan. I just wanted to see if he'd get an honest shot at rejuvenating his career. And I did not need the soundbite there. It was a good bark. It was a good bark.

He's got a dog in the fight. He's got a little bit of dog in him. Before we go to break, BC Place this weekend, not exactly the home of great successes. The BC Lions were poor. Well, they were poor in the second half. They blew it massively.

On Saturday night at BC Place, there was some silver lining to a rather lackluster draw for the Vancouver Whitecaps. They did clinch a playoff spot. But everyone in BC Place, and I think everyone on that Vancouver Whitecaps team

knew that they squandered three points on the weekend. Brian White should have had a hat trick. He had one early on. You know what? I'm starting to think that scoring really early in a soccer game is the worst thing that you can do. It can be. It can be, absolutely.

Because there's two ways it can go. You can either put your foot on the pedal and say, we got it, this is it, we can bury these guys early. The Whitecaps... Or you can England it. You can sit and just wait and wait and wait for that inevitable equalizer to be scored. To be fair, the Whitecaps didn't really do that.

Brian White had some chances um they should have won that game they should have won that game but they they drew it and they hit the post kubas hit the post but at the end of the day it doesn't matter because a game that they should have won at home which is kind of it's not a familiar refrain like repeatedly repeatedly it's happened enough where you're like, is this a serious team? Good teams, playoff caliber and playoff contender caliber teams win those matches. Should be noted that Ryan Gould did not play in that game,

so his health is going to be. He's got a knee. He's got a knee. He's got a knee. His health is going to be something worth monitoring because the Whitecaps only have four games left until the MLS playoffs, and he's played a lot of soccer over the last little bit. We were all happy for him that he went and represented Scotland internationally, but maybe that took a toll on his body. Who knows? But he's got to get

healthy for the playoffs. The Whitecaps host the Sounders on Wednesday. And I was thinking it would be cool just looking at the standings in the Western Conferences. And there's like eight teams all around each other. It would be cool if it worked out this way, if the Whitecaps and the Sounders could play in the first round. It's probably a bit of a long shot, but maybe like a 15% to 20% chance of it happening.

Yeah. I mean, who knows where they're going to finish? They could still finish as high as fourth and get that first round playoff game at home. Or sorry, get home field advantage in the first chance of it happening. Yeah. I mean, who knows where they're going to finish? They could still finish as high as fourth and get that first round playoff game at home. Or sorry, get home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. I have to word that properly. So anyway, that is the Whitecaps side of things.

Before we go to break, I need to circle back to the Lions side of things and remind you that the roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Yeah, the roar of anger. Yeah. And disappointment. Get your tickets now at bclions.com.

Coming up on the other side of the break, the final hour of the program. Satyar Shah is going to join us for some Canucks talk next on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.