Halford & Brough in the Morning - Abbotsford Canucks GM Ryan Johnson On Manny Malhotra

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with Abbotsford Canucks GM Ryan Johnson (1:53) about the team's ongoing playoff run, as well as the future of Manny Malhotra within the organization, plus the boys tell us what they learned (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.

It's an automatic rush for the Canucks. Breezebwa's going to the net. Deja Seppi to Breezebwa, he scores! Who had Gio, Breezebwa, and Jetwoo scoring on their bingo card early in game one. Breezebwa with his first Calder Cup playoff goal as he drove the net, took a perfect pass from Deja Seppi. 8-0-1 on a Wednesday. first, called her top playoff goal, as he drove the net, took a perfect cast from Dee Giuseppe. 801 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Halford, Kraft Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brev of the Morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. Abbotsford-'s general manager, Ryan Johnson is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three. Abbie back in action

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They keep the lights on. It's huge. It's important. It is. We need light. Otherwise you're bumping into stuff and banging your shin against the bed or whatever. It's true. Hate that.

Abbotsford returns to action tonight, as I mentioned, tied 1-1 in their Calder Cup Pacific Division Semi-Final with Coach Ella Valley. It's the best of five, two games already on the road, those are done, the final three all in Abbotsford tonight, Friday, and then if necessary, the deciding game five on Sunday night. Joining us now to talk about all that and a whole lot more.

Ryan Johnson here on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Ryan. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm good. How are you guys? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. So walk us through the first two games of this series on the road down in Coachale Valley. You guys do get the split. Let us know how everything went and what we can expect from games three, four and possibly five in this series. Well, obviously Coachelle

they've been to the Coler Cup final the last two seasons and not all of their group was a part of that but a good chunk of them. And with that comes experience, especially playoff experiences means more than anything. So they're a resilient group. I think game one, we really played well the first part of the game and then got away from it and still managed to get a win out of it and then flip that the other way.

We didn't start very well in game two and had to chase the game a bit. And even when you come back and get a lead late, it's just not the way you wanna play chasing the game. So we feel we've had really, you know, some good moments throughout these playoffs. I think game three against Tucson was probably our most complete game,

but we really have to put games together here to, like I said, I guess a very good Coachella team. And as you get into the, further in the playoffs, you can't play partial games. You have to play complete games from the goaltender out to give yourself a chance. What's the key to that?

What's the key to starting a game well? And what are some of the lessons that, uh, some of your young players are going to be able to learn in this experience? Well, I think it's something that as we've dealt with all season, there's a little bit of inconsistency within, within 60 minute games. And, and often this, this, this group we have

has always showed a calmness and the game was never over regardless of the score. But again, you end up chasing a game and getting away from some of the foundational pieces that make you good. So we've had a few days here to regroup. We traveled day Sunday and took yesterday as just a day to take care, or sorry, Monday to take a deep breath, good high temple practice yesterday and expect us to be ready to fire a good one here tonight.

Have you got a health update because I know it's a long list of injuries right now. Yeah, we've got some guys that are pushing to play tonight, but we'll make a decision based off of if they're not close to 100%, we are very trusting in the group that we have. We've got some good players that have been a group all season that have been sitting on the sidelines throughout the first part of these playoffs. And we've always felt with injury, or if we were able to keep playing further

into these playoffs, that if we lost some bodies, we got more than capable guys ready to go. And I think even that's held an accountability for our healthy players to know that you can't take a period or two off. Cause we've got some guys that we have a lot of belief in that have been sitting, watching right now.

And we may see a few of them tonight if guys aren't ready to go. We're speaking to Abbotsford Connects General Manager, Ryan Johnson here on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. You know, we talk about the American Hockey League as being a developmental league and at times a teaching league,

but it's also a winning league when it comes to the playoff. And by that, I mean, you can learn a lot by winning and having success in the playoffs. Those memories and those experiences often make a good young impression or make an impression on the on the younger players. You need veteran guys to sort of instill some of those lessons, though, two guys in particular for you. I know Jujar Kyra, hometown guy. And obviously, there's a nice feel good story there. Sammy

Blais, an interesting one, too, because this is a guy like lest we forget was a member of that St. Louis Blues team the one that Stanley Cup in 2019 so he's tasted postseason success at the highest level. Do you have regular conversations with those guys about making sure that in addition to going out and doing their jobs and performing at a high level they're also like teaching the young guys how and what it's like to win in the postseason. Well, absolutely.

It's utterly important. I always say we win to develop and then we develop to win. We want to develop young players that expect to be playing into the middle of June. When you get into the, especially the early part of your career and you're calling your buddies back home the early part of your career and you're,

you're calling your buddies back home the third week of April and say, Hey, I'll you know, it's exciting. Hey, I'm coming back home. But it eventually gets to a point where it gets embarrassing and you don't want to go home because you, that means you're out and you're not playing any important games and guys like Sammy Blaze, Phil DiDecepi and Joujarkara these guys, they, they talk about it all the time. The way they carry themselves or the expectation or the compete. I mean, Jujar the other night, Jet Wu gets hit from behind.

He challenges a very tough guy at center ice. He scores two big goals for us. He plays a heavy game. And that's why I brought him in here. I wanted to add another physical body to help our kind of young group. And he's an outstanding human being. Sammy Blaze has been an ultra competitor all year. He hates to lose.

And in these big games, he seems to be at his best. And Phil has just been a quiet leader for this group ever since he's been in the organization. So those guys are really, they set a standard and then we've got a group of young leaders as well that gives us a really good mix of guys that this is a group that I've seen since we've been in Abbotsford that they don't want to go home. They want to keep playing. We're speaking to Ryan Johnson, the general manager of the Abbotsford Canucks. Ryan, we've been speaking a little bit,

talking about Manny Mulholland because Jim Rutherford said that Manny Mulholland would be on the short list of candidates to become the next head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Tell us about the job that Manny's done this year in Abbotsford. Well, he's done an extremely good job coming into American league that he didn't know a ton about

in regards to the day to day and some of the swings and roster changes and travel and all these different things. I think our group as a whole, if you look at, from a coach's standpoint, had to hire five complete new coaches that didn't have experience working with each other. It takes a lot of similar values, time, a lot of time connecting and leadership to be able to bring that all together in a very

short amount of time, be able to put, develop this young group with a focus and a day-to-day checks of are we hitting our measurables? There was a lot of new going on with this group but I was excited about it. I knew it was going to take some time but Manny's done an outstanding job adapting, leading this group, getting our players of the whole to play organizationally the way we want to play, to play north, to play fast, to compete the details of the game. Just very fortunate, all our coaching staff, our trainers, Ben Goodman with our travel and the little intricacies of what the American hockey league goes on. We've got a very good group there in Habit Street. What are some of the shared values

of this coaching staff? Well, it comes back to, uh, very, very basic things that we talk about with our group here in Vancouver. That's our, our wall play. Uh, our management of the game, our desire to play fast and play north. Uh, we want to win 50,50 pucks all over the ice inside our

blue line, outside the blue line, down in behind in the bottom of the ice below the tops of the circles. Those are, they sound very, they sound very simple, but they're hard to execute every day. It's something that's the main focus of our group is not necessary how we play, it's how we practice. The games are easy when the practices are hard and that's something that we've really challenged this group right from day one in Calgary was you the iron will sharpen the iron. You guys are gonna make each other better by the way you practice, the way you push each other in the gym and I think that has really been the anchor of this

group is how they approach and have a plan for each day, as opposed to just hoping and wishing that things go well. The Sedenes must be helpful in those puck battle lessons that are taught on the ice. Those guys weren't the most physical players, but man, they came up with a lot of pucks along the wall. Sure.

And when those guys are able to pop out and be a different voice or have a different view on something or grab a guy out of a line and something that they're noticing, it's always a big help to have the support and the resources we have. Tell us a bit more about what kind of coach Manny is. Like if you, if you have someone to describe, like what kind, you know, what, what comes to mind first when, when, when you're talking about Manny Malhotra? Well, he's very detailed. He's very focused.

He's, he doesn't, uh, he doesn't mince words with players, with staff. He he's got a plan, but he's very good at delegating and trusting staff. Like I said, a lot of new staff that we were getting on. It felt like every week of the summer we lost somebody. We kept on losing bodies and it was like, okay, we'll get this group together. We'll get them on board, get into Penticton, get up and write. But he's, he's again, his focus starts early in an AHL schedule, early in the week and how we practice and the things that were, uh, that, that are a daily conversation and then the games, it just kind of bleeds out.

So, um, he's, he's very thorough communicates, but doesn't waste, there's not wasted words or wasted time. It's to the point, let's get the's very thorough communicates, but doesn't waste, he's not wasted words or wasted time, it's to the point, let's get the work done and get out. Um, and I think our, you know, even for some of our guys that, uh, uh, when there's change in the coaching staff every, it's, it's not easy. Uh, but, uh, I think we've been very fortunate

with some of the coaches that we've had in this group, certainly this year, I think has ignited something in our group. How has Manny dealt with being like the chief voice on the coaching staff? Because, you know, he was, he's always been a leader when he's, when he was a player on teams and he was part of coaching staff in Toronto, Vancouver, but he's never been the main voice.

Yeah. And that's something I was very well aware of in my conversations with him last spring of being, you know, coach for seven years. But nothing that I never had a doubt in my mind from knowing Manny just as a player of competing against him and knowing him here as a coach when he was here with a

group of Vancouver that has really crossed my mind and he hit the ground running like I said with Jordan and Harry, Andrew and Pogues that he's got in a support staff there those guys are very vocal he hands a lot of responsibility to them and trust them and at the end of the day he makes the final decision. But he's got a very good support staff there too that they speak as one, don't always have to agree but at the end of the day, man, he makes a call, you move on and you trust it and move forward. We're speaking to Abbotsford Connects General Manager Ryan Johnson here on the Halford and Bruff show

on Sportsnet 650. Ryan, as a former player yourself, I did want to ask you this. What sort of, let's call it added presence does it have when the guy behind the bench has distinguished a playing career as like yourself or Manny Malhotra had like close to a thousand games played for Manny, was in the running for a Selkie a couple of years, finished his highest fifth in voting.

You know, the resume is there. And then, of course, there was the comeback, you know, after the sort of horrific eye injury, making a comeback, grinding his way back to play more NHL games. What sort of presence and element does that bring when you're behind the bench as a coach? Well, I think you see it all over the league and in all sorts of positions. I think there, there was always a, a relatability of talking about being in the fire when somebody has been in the fire and not that that's the most, you

know, that's not the biggest qualification when it comes to whether it's coaches or development or it doesn't always have to be that way, but it does certainly, um, there is some relatability. And now in saying that though, I also don't think a young generation necessarily benefits from, wow, when I did this and I did that, I don't think they, I don't think they really care about that, but I think you can use your experience to relate and speak a language that means something to them. But I don't necessarily think, wow, when I played game five, and I think you lose them really quickly. So I think it, I always encourage,

whether it's developments or do not speak in that way, use your experience and find a language that you can have a common conversation about. And I think that it certainly helps in that regard. How do you motivate young players? Well, it's, every player is different. And that's what I think is hard on a coaching staff at all levels is to, in order to motivate, you have to build a safe space and you have to build a relationship and a trust, whether

you're a coach or manager from a medical team or anybody. You have to build the safe space to have honest conversations. Sometimes it takes time. You can get in development camp and try to get in a guy's ear or to rev them up, but sometimes you got to step back, build that relationship first and build a trust that safe space. And all of a sudden, slowly there's conversations and some guys self-motivated, some guys need you to get into their personal life or they want you to understand them and know what is necessarily deep inside them before you can have those conversations to kind of challenge them or to say, hey, this is not good enough.

We need you to get to this place, but they're all different. And that's the beauty of it in my opinion. I don't want to overly generalize, but are there fewer players that you can motivate in a way where they end up going, well, I'll show you. So essentially you give them some tough love and they'll say, okay, I'm going to show this coach up. Are more of them motivated by, I guess, lack of a better way of saying it, positivity and just general encouragement? I think there's a space for that. I definitely do. I think there's levels of

encouragement and positivity and yeah, I think the one thing that has to exist through that is honesty. Anytime a player feels like you're in genuine or feeling like you're asking them to do something for the benefit of you, you lose them very fast. When they know the journey you're going on with them is really for the betterment of them and their career. And you can get to that place with them when they feel, I don't know if I'm being told the truth here, but whatever they need from me, they want it because they're going to benefit from it. And that's where I try to encourage your staff in it, that this has to be about them, but also them understanding how they fit into the team.

And when they start doing things because they don't want to let the team down and they want to, they want to, they want to be better because the guy sitting next to them, he want, they want those guys to be proud of them. Then you're starting to,, then you're starting to shake something up in there that makes sense. Something not just short term, but long term

that they can come back to. So this might be a tough question for you to answer, but you're better answer than I am. What's the main difference between being a head coach in the AHL and head coach in the NHL? Well, obviously there's a lot more moving parts, correct? You're bigger staffed, there's more going on, more components to your playing group,

travel is different, you're right back at it. American Hockey League often where Friday, Sunday, you have time to kind of regroup a lot more kind of practice days and did the American Hockey League or the National Hockey League. Obviously, you've got bigger staffs, you've got bigger facility, you can lose people in the hallways. They're in Abbotsford, we've got one hallway and five rooms and that's the way we wanted it. We didn't want, we didn't want anybody to be, get, to get lost.

Uh, we wanted to see everybody and that works at that level, but now national hockey, it's just, it's a bigger monster. There's more to, uh, bigger staffs, uh, bigger everything and, and less rest, quicker turnaround. Uh, so it's, uh, it certainly is a different monster. That time to regroup thing, I've never

actually thought of that, but that must be big, especially as a coach, when you've got all these demands on your time, whether it's coaching, video work, and then you got to deal with the media and just all sorts of things. It must seem like in the NHL that it never ever stops. Maybe it's a little different in the NHL. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's a, that's what being a development league, it really adheres to that where you can use some days to have skill days or to have just a special teams day, or you can break it up. Sometimes you're playing a Saturday night and don't play till Friday where you go into development mode and okay how do we use this week to get some great some work in the

the weight room and so it is. It's a different level of which is great for the American League with these young players that we're trying to still make games and off ice and but it's much more difficult to do obviously at the National Hockey League level. Ryan, this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do this today on a game day no less. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight. Good luck in the remainder of the series. Let's do this again, maybe even in the next round when you guys get past Coachella Valley. For sure. And let me just say, if there's anybody in the Fraser Valley

that's thinking on the fence about coming tonight, these guys are ready to hope, aim tonight. So come cheer these guys on. And if you're in the greater Vancouver area and you're thinking, yeah, that's a dread, love to see you in the building. So it's been a great atmosphere

and we'd like to keep that going. Seven o'clock tonight, Abbotsford, go get them. Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate this. Thanks for having me guys. Appreciate it. That's Ryan Johnson, Abbotsford Connects General Manager here on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. We're going to take the Haliford and Brough chopper out. Yeah. It's actually the weather chopper from 1130. We just rebranded for the night. Get it Massimo, the weather chopper has been stolen again.

All right. We got some news coming out of Toronto. What is it? Laddie. Anthony Stolarz will not play game two for the Leafs. Joseph Wall named the starter and Matt Murray was practicing on the ice this morning. Yeah.

So that would indicate that Stolarz isn't even going to dress for tonight. So we got Joseph Wall in goal for the Leafs and Calvin Pickard in goal for the Edmonton Oilers. Classic. That's interesting. So Wall had issues in game one, understandably so, I would say that was a really tough position

for him to be thrown into. Now granted, he was just chilling. There's lots of opportunities in the NHL that are easy or tough or otherwise. Like an opportunity is an opportunity. You kind of have to seize it. That's the point of being a highly paid professional. I'll be very curious to see what he looks like

with the knowledge. I'm sure he was told he was starting well before right now. And you heard what Frank said when we had him on too. Like Woll technically has the higher ceiling out of the two goaltenders. Stoller's might be the better goalie right now. now, but there's still a lot of faith in Wullen. I think it's not out of the question to give him a chance. Well you have to. Yeah. Stollers can't go. They're forced to it now. The question is gonna be is he going to look more like the

high-end goalie we saw at times during the regular season or is he gonna look like the guy that kind of got ventilated against the Panthers when he came in in relief because the Leafs have a huge opportunity here. Huge. If Wall can come in and give one of those like high end, oh man, he's the goalie of the future type performances and win a game. You're talking about taking a two nothing series lead against the defending Stanley Cup champions and doing it under duress because you've lost your starting goal, so the vibes are going to be high as well. This is also an opportunity for Florida to really throw Toronto into arrears because if

they can go in and shake Wall up and who knows if Stollers is going to be back anytime soon at the remainder of the series. Very pivotal game tonight. This is full of chock full of story. Hey, remind me of what happened in the playoffs last year with Joseph Wall, cause he played two games.

No, I'm serious, like he played two games and he played very well. Did he get hurt? They lost, but he played well. So it was kind of like, he didn't do enough to- I thought he made two starts and won them both. Didn't he win games six and seven? We started the comeback in the series

and then they lost the last one. Five and six? They lost the last one. Okay. Because they lost the series. So he tried to come back. I thought Samsonov was the goalie for game seven. Was he? Yeah. Was he?

Yeah. Was he back by then? He, so, but the story with this year was that Stollers came in and essentially outplayed Wallet every opportunity when it was up for grabs. Remember there was a couple of times this season where it was like, well, we're going back and forth and you know, we're not naming a playoff starter yet

and they're both gonna get equal bites at it. I know there was health issues on both fronts, but the consensus by the end of the year was that Stollers is the better of the two. As you said, right now, and Stollers is the guy that we're going to ride when we go into the playoffs. What a luxury for the Leafs though to have that as your backup option. Like they're not going to Michael Telquist here. Like this is a guy, he's like a legit. Significantly better.

Yeah. Now I remember. Sam Sinof got the nod in place of Wall, who was injured in game six. There you go. Right, remember that was, yeah, that was the big deal. It was like Joseph Wall can't go for game seven. God, my memory is just- He was feeling the comeback.

I got nothing right now. What's Leafs history? Are you really gonna chalk it down? Is that Tachkala in there somewhere? Yeah, well I shoulda known that. The monster, Jonas Gustafsson. We could just name old Leafs goalies for a while. Target, these two goalies now are better than any

of the goalies the Leafs had previously. What's James Reimer doing these days? Is he still around? Yeah, and they've had two of those options. So it's not a great situation to lose Stolarz, but hey, they got this other guy waiting. Okay, we're up against our time. We're gonna go to break when we come back.

We're gonna do what we learn. Get yours in, Dunbar Lumber, text line is 650 650. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Let us know, we'll read it. It's your chance to be on the radio. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Mick Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time.

On the show. On the show. On the show. On the show. 832 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sports Night 650. Halford Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and

trusted choice for net help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program and it is what we learn time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com today. All right, we do have a lot of humanoid What We Learns piling up in the Dunbar Lumbertex message in basket. This should not dissuade you from still trying

to get yours in though. Dunbar Lumbertex line 650650, hashtag it WWL. We're gonna do just a single solitary one, just one. And it's going to be good old Jay Brough over here. He's going to do one about the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Yeah. What I learned is I'm starting to get real curious about what this World Cup is going to be like. A lot of moving parts. From a tourism perspective in the United States for numerous reasons.

I don't know if you saw what the, what Trump and his cronies were talking about yesterday. They were saying like, we really want everyone to come to visit the United States for the World Cup, but don't overstay your visas. Cause that's what we are now. Right. And listen, I don't care about your politics,

so please don't text into the Dunbar Lumber text line, but you have to admit that there is a little bit of humor in that FIFA wanted a quote unquote safe world cup. Yep. And they sure got it. They went to Russia, they went to Qatar, you know, Brazil was a bit of a risk, South Africa was a risk

and they're like, okay, what if we just made it, Canada, the United States and Mexico. Those three countries get along great. They never fight. And then it'll be the United States great at hosting events. There won't be any issues there. Now, a lot of people are wondering if like simple

things, like all the visas that are required, they're expecting 2 million visitors for the World Cup. Remember, it's a much bigger World Cup than has ever been staged. Tons of visitors, millions of visitors to the United States and I don't know if you've heard this, but there's been some downsizing of the government in the United States. A little bit of downsizing. So people are legitimately wondering, are they gonna be able to handle all the visa requests

for this tournament? So many countries and many visitors from those countries will require visas for entry into the US, right? This is pretty much established. The Athletic did some reporting last month. Right now, the World Cup is about 400 days away, give or take. I don't have the exact number in front of me, right? Call it 400, just have a nice round number. Yeah, yeah, yeah, around there. Official government data suggests right now, because you have

to go to the US embassy in your respective country to start the visa process. Right now, the wait in Morocco, for example, is 332 days. The wait in Turkey, 560 days. According to some reports, the U.S. Embassy in Colombia, the wait is as high as 700 days to get the interview process underway. I'll remind you that the World Cup is about 400 days away. So there are, right now.

I think they'll be able to figure that stuff out. I don't know if, how do you figure it out if you've got an already long wait list combined with fairly significant downsizing through the government efficiency department? I mean, the idea there is to trim the fat of workers and people that are currently on payroll, either being asked to leave, please leave,

much like some of the visitors that are gonna be coming to the US, please leave. Put it this way, I guarantee you right now, there's gonna be people that are in the visa application process that won't have it confirmed by the time the World Cup starts. Is there going to be just overall less demand for people wanting to go to the United States?

Let's say they get their visas and they can travel. Are they going to want to go? I mean, we all know that Canadian visits to the United States are way, way down. Yeah. Now that might just be specific to Canada. Well, that's what I'm wondering. But I doubt it.

I don't know what- I don't think the United States is super, super popular around the world right now. Less than half the normal cars across the border. And again, I don't care about your politics, so just text in. If you want to go to the United States, great, go. Fill your roots.

You're free to go. But I think we can all admit that it's an unusual administration down there. I do think that at the end of the day, the rarity of the World Cup being a, you know, every four year event, combined with the fact that people will look at it as, well, I don't really want to vacay there, but I think that'll end up overriding.

Well, I have to admit, I'd be in that camp. This is my chance. So one of my bucket list things is to go watch England play at the World Cup. If England gets- BC place. I'm actually hoping that, I think it would be awesome if England's group stage home, and sometimes they have more than one home, like they don't, but it would be awesome if it was Mexico City. Cause they played those famous games at Azteca

against Maradona and Argentina, sorry, sorry. Any rate, if it's Chicago though, or if it's LA, like I'm going. Seattle, San Francisco, I've already thought about this. I wanna watch it, right? I've already thought about these. And I just watch it, right? I've already thought about these. And I just wonder, but I do wonder if there are some people that would be like, yeah, I've been to other

World Cups, I'm not going to go this time. Some, but I doubt it'll be significant enough. I mean, here's the thing. You could always go to the games in Mexico and the games in Canada and you avoid the U.S. So I don't know if it'll take that big of a hit. The other part of it is, you just feel like a lot of the people

that are probably staunchly opposed to it right now might have a change of heart when the event's on. Yeah. You know? It was like when the Olympics were here, I had a close personal friend when the Olympics were here in 2010. In Vancouver.

Yeah, staunchly opposed. Didn't like the politics of the Olympics, didn't like the amount of spending that was going on for what they classified as a two week party, didn't care for any of it. And then the Olympics went on and on, and by the end of it, they were dying to get their hands on any sort of tickets

that they could, because they didn't want to miss out on this event that they kind of got swept up in. And that's what the World Cup is. But are you guys, like, I recently read an article, they're setting up checkpoints on the cars going back into Canada now.

They can just randomly search your vehicle. Does that not, like, you might regret it when you get to that point and your car gets searched. Right, that would probably be part of it. Is that not lingering in the back of your mind while you do that? How does that work if, where are the checkpoints? Apparently in the lineup on the way back into Canada.

They're just randomly searching. Before, because you talked to a Canadian border. Yeah. But before you get to the Canadian border, there's checking vehicles that are attempting to leave the United States. It's like that scene from scenario. Yeah.

Maybe not. Maybe not exactly like it, but yeah. All right. Can you imagine it's like, is there any anti-Trump stuff on your phone? A lot. You just see it. A lot of it's like, quite- Most of it have you rolled out your window.

A lot of it's really funny. Check this out. This text I sent my buddy. Look at this meme I made. Yeah. Sir, on a scale of one to 10, how woke would you say you are? One is not- Don't do any of this.

At all, 10 is not- Very woke. Adog, you wouldn't do well there. No, I'd be scared. You'd be like, I'm an 11. Wow. That's right. Why is the siren going off?

Let me tell you about the mammoth. Why you put on those rubber gloves? There no I'd be like I'm an 11 Wow sorry why is the siren going off? Let me tell you about the mammoth why put on those rubber gloves all right move cow that I'd be fine remember. I'm American. I'm one of them, so they just let me in that's true. You are dual citizen Yeah, so yeah, that's right. Yeah, they'll ignore your personalized woke license plates Grudgingly let me enter. DEI forever. Too woke. All right. That's true.

Too woke for you. Fire up the dot matrix. Cue the noise submissions for what we learned as always brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. You gotta try this bar pie. There's 14 inch cracker thin crust topped with tomato sauce, matzo and cheddar only at AJ's Pizza.

Order online at AJ's. Da Pizza. Rich with What We Learned. Sam the man Bennett will be all over Joseph Wohl tonight. If Wohl starts to panic, so will Leaf Nation. Perfect scenario. Yeah, Bennett should double down. I was thinking about this.

Just get in the crease, man. Yep. Why not now? Your actions were judged legal or at the very least non-suspendable. I will say this is Florida Panthers hockey. They have made very little bones about hitting to hurt. They talk about it and then they go out and they do it. There's a reason that they have a team And then they go out and they do it. There's a reason that they have a team comprised of the likes of Matthew Kichuck, Brad Marshawn, Sam Bennett.

Aaron Ackblad's got a nasty streak as well. By the way, he returns tonight too from his suspension. So they are what they are. I call them the, you know, I use the habitual line stepper line quite often, but that's exactly what they do. And until they're slapped on the wrist, and I mean slapped on the wrist to the point

where it costs them in a significant way. Like the Act of Allied suspension for the hit on Hegel. Yeah, I mean, you missed the one game at the end of the series, which they won. And then, yeah, they probably would have made a difference in game one and they lost, but you sit two games, he's back. They were in control of the Tampa series.

Yeah, like, you know, you just keep taking your shots. I mean, Bennett, the more interesting thing for me, sorry not to ramble about this, because I know we got to get to some of these, but remember what we were talking about with David Amber, where he said, Brube, I knew how I would have taken care of it when I was playing.

I do wonder if one of the Maple Leafs tonight will take the coach's message, the subliminal message there at heart, and make life especially more difficult for Sam Bennett tonight. Because there is a pound of flesh that needs to be. But you don't want to be distracted by it. You don't want to take a bad penalty on Sam Bennett.

No. Then he gets another leg up on you. No, but there is the opportunity to exact a measure of revenge. For sure. Singular. For sure. Solitary. And it's early in the series. A tan meeting that's 50 years. According to Perubia, it's over though. Singular. For sure. Solitary.

And it's early in the series. That's hand meeting. According to Borube, it's over though. He said he's done talking about it. See, I bet it's not. I bet it's not. Borube doesn't like to dwell on that stuff, honestly. This will be interesting to watch though,

to see how the Leafs deal with it. Mike from White Rock, what we learned, I learned that Rogers Arena is upgrading their seats. Smart decision for a full on rebuild with Hughes gone next year. So the new slogan, you will sit there and take it, I learned that Rogers Arena is upgrading their seats. Smart decision for a full on rebuild with Hughes gone next year. So yeah, the new slogan, you will sit there and take it, but the seats will be nice.

That's a good slogan. Yeah. It's a little long. It is a little long. They got a couple of those though. It's gonna fit well on a poster. Got a couple of those, that's the big one. Those seats are bad, man.

Oh, brutal. Yeah, like I've sat in a few where I feel like I'm tilted a bit to the left. Yeah. You know, they're not great seats. Are they the OG seats? Like, do they? Yes.

Yeah, they are. Really? Yeah. They're the OGs. They're day oneers. That's wild. They're, yeah. I remember a couple of times when I had to sit with the quote unquote common people,

they're not comfortable. And I used to scoff at all the people like the guy that produces Donnie and Dolly show who consistently complains about your former co-worker I'm sure he's list that guy that guy constantly complaining about the seats I'm like really are we doing this seats like we got to have more content than this but they are they weren't great long overdue for an upgrade the same people will sit in the Nat Bailey bleachers for hours on end.

I had a family of mice sitting in my seats and you know, they were nice. They sung to you. Called the big one, Bitey. Yeah, no, they actually made some good points about the game. Guys, we've got some pretty huge news here. Yeah. courtesy Justin and his fan,

the P&E Summer Concert Night series has been announced. Oh my. Do you want to hear who it is? Yeah, yeah, I do. Okay, we got Counting Crows, Leonard Skinnerd, Bleachers, Gypsy Kings, to be announced. I love to be announced. Oh, they're so good.

Flo Rida. I love Flo Rida. Yes. Leon Bridges, Marianas Trench, Sean Paul, Wilco, Wilco is great. Foreigner. Foreigner is great too. Tom Cochran, Megan to be announced and rainbow kitten surprise

What's rainbow kitten surprise? I don't know. I'm familiar with most of these. Yeah bleachers is an odd one What's bleachers the main guy he writes with Taylor Swift like and produces a lot of her albums But he has his own thing called man. It's strange. That's pretty cool I'll go skies Leonard's Leonard Skinner Leonard's get it's huge foreigner. Well Tom Cochran who comprises them now. I Don't know completely new members put you group Okay crows to yeah starting off with a bang. Yeah, mr. Jones. Will he be there? Mike play mr. Jones play mr. Jones 10 times and get off the stage Mike with what we learned the I learned that the mammoth

is really struggling with the transition to retirement. He misses the daily routine and has found himself drinking earlier and earlier in the day. He's finding himself doom scrolling far more and worried about the general state of the world in addition to his financial stability. Anxiety is enveloping him like the wooly coat he has. I do wonder what retirement will look like

when I eventually get there. Although I am planning on working till I die. So if you're just joining us now, it will be the Utah Mammoth, that's their name. Yeah. And earlier in the show we asked Adog, what do you know about the mammoth? And he couldn't find the word for extinct,

so he called them a retired elephant. So close. I stand by it. Yeah. It's tough because, you know, like the mammoth's job was his identity. And when he retired, he kind of lost that, I don't, he was a plumber.

Yeah. And when he, when he, when he lost when he lost that, his whole day was helping people that had plumbing problems and then no one was calling anymore and he just didn't have a purpose. What do you do? You can't golf every day. No, he can't golf. It's hard with the mammoth hands, right? It's hard to hold the club. That's actually why he went extinct. In an interlocking grip especially too too. It was very, very difficult.

A lot of people thought the dinosaurs and all that went extinct because of a comet. It wasn't, it was just because of boredom. Omar on Arbutus, what we learned. Ameth hands? Yeah. Tough to have the interlocking grip because, you know, they don't have fingers. Yeah.

I can't hold this. Just hold it with your trunk. Uh, speaking of comeback wins involving Edmonton, it was only one year ago tomorrow that the Canucks scored four straight to rally pass through others in game one of their series. Those good memories from last year now just make me sad. Yep. I, you know what?

So I've done this a few times now, gone back to those sort of signature moments from last year's playoff run. We did the one year anniversary of the Nashville comeback, which included the OT goal, which of course we had the Hollywood theater watch party. Someone over the weekend, I think it was, brought back. Remember Archer Seeloff's his funny shirt? Remember that?

And then the Canucks were selling it at the store and JT Miller wore it on the ice. We had the one year anniversary of that. We got to do this. brought back, remember Archer Seeloff's funny shirt? Remember that? And then the Canucks were selling it at the store and JT Miller wore it on the ice. We had the one year anniversary of that. I know we gotta do this. It's a painful exercise, but it's one as a Canucks fan that you have to live through.

But I'm just about tapped out on memories of last year's playoff run, cause it's not. And we can't do this every game. You can't do this every day, right? Although that come back. I mean we will, but. That come back win over the Oilers was great cause that was the beginning of the end of Stuart

Skinner in that series before he eventually came back. But I digress. Oh, Mark and White Rock wants a, has a question for you. Me? A question for Halford. Yeah, sure. The Whitecaps have matches scheduled for May 28th, May 30th, and then the Champions League final, the very next day on June 1st. How is this possible?

Are they just going to throw away two important MLS matches by playing B squads? I imagine they can get those rescheduled. It's the 31st, not the 30th, May 31st match. I believe it's against Portland. I believe it's a home match. It's already been postponed, but they didn't have a makeup date. They're like, we're just not playing that day. The 28th is a tough one because technically speaking, you could cram that game in and get it done and just do the, like a lot of teams have to go

through squad rotations where it's like, we're not playing our starters today, we're resting them. So I wouldn't be surprised if that one stays. Complicating this even further is that the Whitecaps also have to schedule their Canadian Championship quarterfinal in May as well. That's the competition where they do a two-leg series. Remember they did this last year? They played the first leg in May and then the second one in July. This is how Real Madrid must feel. How are we going to schedule all these games?

How are we going to schedule this game? And I believe- Real Madrid of North America, the Vancouver Whitecaps. Right. So I believe they are going to play the winner, now this is interesting, of Valor, which is a CPL team, and TSS Rovers, which is the BC One League team. Remember we had the owner, Will Cromat. Sure. So there could be a scenario because TSS has beaten Valor before, where the small team that plays at Swan Guard takes on the Vancouver Whitecaps, the multi defending. I kind of hope they win now.

That would be amazing. I was like, didn't you guys beat Messi? That would be amazing. Chris and Duncan, what we learned, the Pittsburgh Steelers are planning their offense around DK Metcalf because Dallas and Pittsburgh are working to finalize a trade that will send wide receiver George Pickens

to the Cowboys in exchange for draft picks. Yeah. It's gone now, isn't it? How's old DK thinking about that move to Pittsburgh where, I mean, he's going to be the number one receiver. Now that George Pickens is gone. And Mason Rudolph is still number one on the quarter. I don't know what's going on.

I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on. I know it's May. So there's still going on in Pittsburgh. I know there's still a lot of time to sort this out, but I have no idea what's going on right now. Pittsburgh just seems very content in sitting around and waiting.

But it really seems only for Aaron Rodgers, unless they're gonna pull a trade out of nowhere. And granted, I did not see the George Pickens trade happening. That does give the Dallas Cowboys like a viable number two behind CDLAM. So I get it from their perspective. But if you're DK Metcalf right now, you signed off on a trade to Pittsburgh thinking that, okay, I've got a good receivers room. I got Pickens here and we'll be a good one, two punch.

Um, I'll also have a hug. Literally when they start fighting each other. Now granted, they're head cases, both of them, but still. But he's gone now. Right. And then you thought, well, at the very least, you'd have maybe Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. Or at the very least, one of them.

Both of them are gone. I don't know what you do here. I don't know what the answer is. If you're waiting for Aaron Rodgers, that seems like every day that passes by, a decision that gets riskier and riskier. Because every day you're asking the question, why haven't you agreed to do this yet?

What's the holdup? I'm surprised no one's texted in what we learned about the champions like yesterday. Nobody did? No, no one did. Fantastic two legs between Barca and Inter. An amazing, amazing seven goals total over the two legs, including the extra time.

And then there was. Well, seven goals total in the game, wasn't there? Yeah, seven total in the game. Not over the two. What was. It was three, three in the first leg, three, three in the second leg during regular. So they went to extra time and then Inter scored

in the, so it was seven, six on aggregate. So all the goals, it seems to me, and I'm not a soccer expert, I always have to say that. It seems to me that the champions league has had in the last few years, some wild games. It's been amazing. With a ton of goals. Has the same thing happened to soccer that's

happened to hockey and to basketball, I suppose, in that being aggressive and having a attacking mindset, that's really taken over. And it's maybe why we see less of a focus on defense and more blown leads. There's just more of an attacking mindset, less conservative, and that equates to more goals. Attackling, you could say.

Attackling. Over the course of two, we talked about this earlier in the show, but over the course of two legs, it does allow the story to play out more, and it allows comebacks to happen, because you've got more time. If you look at the finals,

I gotta say, the actual final matches, the Champions League have been awful. They're a little more cagey or what? So last year in a high scoring affair, Madrid beats Bruxah Dormin two nil. The three years prior, four years prior to that, one nil, one nil, one nil, one nil. City over India, Real over Liverpool, Chelsea over Man City, Bayern over PSG, one nil, one nil, one nil, one nil. So it does get a lot more cagey in the final. Well, enjoy it now then.

Yeah, enjoy it now while you can. We gotta get going. The music means it's time to say goodbye. Thank you all for listening and thank you all for contributing. But yeah, it's a Wednesday in the books. Signing off for now, I have been Mike Halford, he's been Jason Bruff, he's been Adog, and he's been Laddy.

This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet at 6.50.