Halford & Brough in the Morning - BC Lions GM Neil McEvoy + What We Learned

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

In hour three, Mike & Jason talk the BC Lions home opener with General Manager Neil McEvoy (3:00), the boys tell us what they learned (18:00), plus we hear from the humanoids (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.

802 on a Tuesday. Nice tune. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Hey! Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service.

Four parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. BC Lions General Manager Neil McEvoy is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 3. Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the cool cats at Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. 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, that's what you're waiting for. Let's go to the phone lines now. Neil McEvoy, general manager of your BC Lions, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Neil. How are you? I'm good, guys. Yeah, thanks for having me on. It's tough to lose, but

you get up the next day and start working on next week, so thanks again for having me. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. Yeah, so the on-field stuff, I'm going to put on the back burner for a moment here. I do want to talk about the Argos game and then what's coming up against Calgary on the field, but Neil, I'm not going to lie,

the off-field stuff, it's pretty exciting times for the BC Lions. How many fans are you guys expecting at BC Place on Saturday? Not just for the home opener against Calgary, but of course the 50 Cent concert as well. How big could this number get?

We're past the 50,000 mark, and you know how things snowball. Once you get past that big you know, big number, like if we would have talked a year ago and said, hey, we're going to get a number that starts with 50, we would have all said 5,000, but it's 50,000. And that's a testament to the team. That's a testament to the city. That's a testament to Amar Doman, you know, building this program and making the fans excited and making the city

excited. The organization is excited about putting on a great show for the fans of Vancouver Saturday. It's going to be a season filled with these hallmark moments. If you get over 50,000, you're going to have the largest crowd for a Lions regular season game

since it was 50,000 back in 2011 against the Eskimos. That's 13 years going between big crowds like that. It's a pretty awesome thing. But it's not just about Vancouver this year because you guys are going to be doing Touchdown Pacific at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria. So let us know about that. I know that there was 14,000 tickets available sold out in a matter of hours.

So there's also going to be an adjacent watch party near Royal Athletic. I know it's a ways away. It's still not until later on in the summer, August 31st. But it's got to be an exciting moment to be able to reach out to the island and do this Touchdown Pacific initiative. Yeah, absolutely. You know, that team is years in the making. And one of the things that we always, you know,

we felt our fans from the island and we do have lots of them coming over on the the ferry and coming to games and you know a lot of times as we know in this world today it's easier to stay in front of your tv and just watch it and have your cold beer in your fridge and everything else don't have to worry about parking so it's a testament to the fans of victoria to come out to and uh you know like you said sell that game out really quick and that's going to be an exciting event that's the first time i can remember uh i think ever that the teams played a game um not in the lower mainland a home game so um certainly an exciting time for uh the fans of victoria and fans of bc lines on the island

and then of course vancouver b BC Place is hosting the Grey Cup. Obviously an exciting opportunity for you guys, but I guess the question I have amidst all this excitement and all this hype, and it's crazy that we're saying this, is there too much hype for the BC Lions? How do you keep your players focused on the games and the jobs they do as opposed to looking ahead to things? Yeah, that's a great question. And that's something that Coach Campbell and I have talked about at length.

And in reality, of course, you don't want to lose. But I'm hoping that the loss last week puts real things into perspective for our football team. We do have a good football team. We do have great players and great coaches. But at the end of the day, we still have to play. And the other guys are getting paid, too. So, you know, just saying and watching the paper and listening to all the people say the BC Lions are the best team in the country.

Well, guess what? You've got to step on the field and you've got to compete each and every day to make that reality. We're just not there yet. So I'm, again, not happy with the loss, but certainly I'm hoping that the loss is a learning opportunity for this young team to get to where they want to be. Where do you think it went wrong against the Argos? Well, I think at the end of the day i mean football is one in the trenches and i i you know the toronto argonauts have arguably the best offensive line and defensive line in in the cfl

and so um it was a good test for our group and uh it is a young group and even guys like kirsten covington that's his first game in three down professional football so the yard off the ball is you know you can you can say it's not that big of a deal, but at the end of the day, it is. And so, you know, our guys are learning and our guys are getting better. And, you know, I guarantee that the coaches are going to put in extra time to make sure that we're prepared going forward and putting this chip in the right direction. Where do you think the strength of your team is? Well, I think our offense is obviously the strength. I mean, when you have a guy like Big Play VA,

like his nickname alone, and you saw it last week. I mean, our offensive line had a tough day, yet we still threw for over 360 yards. So, you know, that is our football team. We can all say, hey, we're going to run the ball down your throat, but that's just not the way we are. We are a throwing, exciting, passing football team. We're exciting to watch.

And, you know, we just have to live with that because that's what we are. And so that's why playing under the dome at BC Place is good for us. And, you know, yeah, the strength right now is our offense and our defense certainly has lots of good opportunities to make plays, and they did last week. So we just have to make it all come together. And so at one point, we're not just saying the strength is the offense. I think our football team is good enough to put it all together

to be a championship team. We just have to put it all together and start winning. We're speaking to BC Lions General Manager Neal McEvoy here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Neal, this summer you guys waived Dakota Prukop in the preseason. That was the QB that you brought in for short yardage situations. It looks like big play VA is getting those responsibilities now. My question is, are you comfortable with the risk

of using an MVP caliber quarterback for those short yardage situations? Because we know that it's difficult to keep quarterbacks healthy in the Canadian Football League. Yeah, it's hard to keep quarterbacks healthy in the Canadian Football League yeah it's hard it's hard to keep quarterbacks healthy in all leagues and I you know what yeah I am um if you go back 15 years in reality the only the only reason the backup quarterback started doing short yardage is because they're trying to give the backup guys um things to do instead of just holding a clipboard on the sideline so we're going back old school right now and using Vernon as a short yardage guy. He wants to do it. He likes to do it and he's good at it.

And so, you know, we do have opportunities with the other guys to do it as well. But as of right now, Vernon is the guy, he wants to stay on the field with his, you know, his teammates. He doesn't like getting off. And so, and that, that's what championship quarterbacks are like. They always want to be on the field with their team, whether you're losing or whether you're winning.

Those guys want to be on there and take the loss or take the win together. So that's where we're at today. But I know our coaches are working on stuff to alleviate the hits on Vernon as much as we can. What was your biggest challenge of the offseason? Maybe the toughest players to replace or the area where you wanted to improve the most? What was your toughest challenge?

Well, I think at the end of the day, we felt we wanted to get a running back that was going to be a little more aggressive, a little more physical. And so that was the number one, I guess, free agent. And, you know, when we saw and talked to Will, a guy that Vernon knows and played with before, at the end of the day, we just felt that that was going to be a good fit for us.

And it has been. I know if you look at the stats, it doesn't look like we ran the ball that well last week. But I tell you, when Will had the opportunity to run the ball, he ran the ball hard and got those tough yards, which I don't think last year we were able to get. There was a play last week in Toronto where we needed six yards. It was second and six, and we ran the ball for seven, whereas I think last year we probably would have ran it for three.

And so that was the number one priority. At the end of the day, signing our own free agents was the toughest part because those are the guys that you have invested time and energy into, and we felt that our football team was good with the group we had. We just wanted to complement it with newer guys. So the hardest part for me was signing our own players. Because that gets to be tough. Because it gets personal.

And you want to keep as many guys around as you want. And unfortunately, in professional sports, you've got to make some moves. We all live in a salary cap world. And we to make some tough decisions and uh we we made those tough decisions and we're just gonna you know live with the group we got now and uh produce some wins what about the loss of matthew betts yeah tough one i mean um at the end of the day the loss of matthew betts he lose uh lose obviously some sacks, but again teams were able to run the ball down our throat last year and unfortunately

Matthew is not the most stingy against the run and our whole defensive line wasn't. So one of the things we had to do was create some more physicality up front, which a guy like Christian Covington has added, and a guy like Pete Robertson

who has the ability to rust the passer and also stop the run. So in theory, we're going to lose a little bit of sacks, but we'll certainly gain that in having the ability to stop the run. But again, Matthew Betts with the sacks he had last year, he's irreplaceable, and we wish him the best while he's you know looking for NFL employment and if that doesn't work out we'll certainly you know be able to talk to him about coming back the wide receiver position so Dominique Grimes is gone Lucky Whitehead is gone those are two pretty familiar names Keon Hatcher's out until at least Labor Day with a torn Achilles so for our listeners and quite honestly as I was getting caught up to speed with the new receiving group that maybe aren't that familiar or didn't get to see the Toronto game can you kind of introduce us

to the guys that you've built this receiving core around now moving forward yeah I mean uh the reality is the reason we were able to move on from those high named players was because we had a group of young guys that uh we felt were able make the next step. And, you know, guys like Alexander Hollins and guys like Aidan Eberhardt and Travis Fulgram, who's new to us but not new to professional football, showed last week that they have the ability to do it. And, you know, guys like Justin McInnes, our Canadian receiver, I saw played a good game. He had over 100 yards receiving.

So, you know what, Vernon needs the opportunity to get these guys open. And like I said, last week, our offensive line had a tough week, but we still threw the ball for 360 yards or whatever the number was. It's certainly a testament to the young receivers that we have. And like you said, once Keon gets back and healthy, we should be able to roll on all cylinders. This Saturday, it is the BC Lions home opener at BC Place against the Calgary Stampeders. gets back and healthy, we should be able to roll on all cylinders. This Saturday, it is the BC Lions home opener at BC Place against the Calgary Stampeders.

Kickoff is at 4 o'clock, but of course, prior to kickoff, it's the concert headlined by 50 Cent. Neil, thank you very much for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Best of luck this weekend. Let's do this again as the season keeps rolling along. Appreciate it, guys. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it.

Neil McEvoy, general manager of your BC Lions here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, let's do some what we learned now. Sure. I learned that

Macklin Celebrini won't be able to cheer for the Vancouver Canucks soon. I know. I saw this as well. I know exactly where you're going with this. This is good what we learned. Yeah, Macklin Celebrini was chatting with Kevin Bieksa yesterday

at the Stanley Cup Finals. And Ron McLean. And Ron McLean in Florida. And they noted that he was at one of the Canucks playoffs games this year, and the camera caught him chanting along with the crowd, Go Canucks Go. And when you're no longer allowed to cheer for your team, it means you've been drafted into the NHL,

and he's expected to go first overall to the San Jose Sharks in just a few weeks. Let's play a little bit of the audio from that, because I did think that was endearing. And it's funny, we've seen in back-to-back years now local kids who are big Canucks fans. Do you remember Connor Medard was like, my favorite player is Tyler Mott. That was amazing.

Did not see that coming. That was so good. And he goes first overall to Chicago and now there's going to be another local kid Did not see that coming. That was so good. And he goes first overall to Chicago, and now there's going to be another local kid going first overall to the San Jose Sharks. Here's Macklin Celebrini. So draft is in a couple weeks, and we're not going to get ahead of ourselves,

but it looks like you're not going to be going to the Vancouver Canucks. Is that safe to say? So you do realize that you can't go to Canucks games anymore and shag, go Canucks, go. I know your brother was drafted by the Canucks last year. He can still do this, but you can't go to Canucks games anymore and Chad go Canucks go I know your brother was drafted by the Canucks last year he can still do this but you can't do this anymore do you know that yeah no I I took my opportunity during that game to get get one last Canucks

chant going did anybody give you a crap afterwards any of your buddies or anything uh yeah yeah my buddies I also heard about it at the Combine a little bit. But that's awesome. He should just be like, yeah, I'm a Canucks fan until I'm drafted into the NHL. I don't know for sure that I'm going to San Jose. It's true. Maybe I fall to the third round when the Canucks have their first pick of the draft. Crazier things have happened.

Actually, they haven't. But Chris and Richmond had a What We Learned on this, by the way. What was it? Yeah, read it. Macklin Celebrini was on air yesterday talking about how he spent his last opportunity before being drafted to start a Canuck chant at a recent game. I've gone from being optimistic about this current version of the team to putting all my hopes on the Canucks winning a cup

with our new savior Celebrini and Bedard pulling a Tavares and coming home. So don't worry about the current iteration of the Canucks. It's all going to happen years from now. I think a minimum of five. Imagine this is Alvin's backup plan. He's like, well, we got something planned in the bag here. Down the road. Of course, we do think long term.

Yeah, these two guys are just going to want to come play for us. Tavares' biggest failing about coming home was he didn't force the issue. He went the polite way and waited until he hit unrestricted free agency. He didn't do the Matthew Kachuk, which is force your way out and go where you want to go. I hope that younger players are emboldened right after their entry-level deal is up. The shackles of your ELC, which, by the way,

they could get in a whole other rant about that. Force your hand early, kids. You want to come home do it early don't wait until you're unrestricted free agent because what happened to varus's contract when he signed with toronto first half was fine yeah second half of it then he got old yeah second half has not been great these guys are mercenaries man they'll just pick up whatever team pays them money right see i don't know it's like trance when he left for florida he wasn't a big he wasn't a big Canucks guy then.

Yeah. Catching strays. Thomas Drance. I'll say this. I always talk about the Matthew Kachuk move as being this big, profound one. Sometimes I'm putting it on for effect because I want his brother to ask out of Ottawa because I think that would be funny too. You just want your hot take to come true. Well, but I also... It would be nice if one of them came true can i yeah nice um that was for bruff that was that was that's not really a hot take

though that's just a take um look at matthew kajuk right now like he's two wins away from being like see yeah i told you i knew what i was doing all along i mean get out of canada kids it's warmer down here. Six jet skis. It's amazing. And I'm winning a Stanley Cup. Anyway, Mukau that. By the way, I was laughing because in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast,

I think Elliot has been talking about the demise of Cap Friendly. Or not the demise. It's just being sold to the Washington Capitals. And it's going dark on the public and it sounds like there are a few teams that don't have the infrastructure in place i wouldn't surprise like they use cap friendly yeah it's there it's always been there and when it wasn't there cap geek was there you've always had something at the ready why would you think about it if you were to spend or develop your own infrastructure, that would not be high on my priority chart because it's always been there.

Yeah. The Puckpedia guys, one of them DM'd me. They do listen to the show. At least one of them does. Oh, that's nice. And they actually took my formatting suggestion to heart because I was complaining there was too much scrolling. Right.

So like, we'll pass that along. You're an influencer. Wow. Just condense it down. Make it so I can look at everything in one glance. And he speaks and the people just... That's a dog. That's what CapFriendly... That's its strength. You are an influencer. Just condense it down. Make it so I can look at everything in one glance. And he speaks and the people just... That's a dog. That's what CapFriendly...

You are an influencer now. Here, I've got an idea. Any coders out there? CapFriendlier. And it's the exact same. DeadRigger. It's the exact same. Just a little smiley face on the corner.

Can you trademark code? Like, are you allowed to do that? I don't even know. Go on GoDaddy right now and buy capfriendlier.com. Seriously, someone's going to do it right now. I know. I'm giving away gold. That leads to you have to buy capfriendliest as well,

because you're just going to get one up. That's true. There is a wrinkle to this, though. You do have to have actual sources. And Puckpedia, they do, just like CapFriendly did. So you can't just start a cap site without that other very important element of it. actual sources, and Puckpedia, they do, just like CapFriendly did. Right. So you can't just start a Cap site without that other very important element of it. They weren't just stealing CapFriendly's.

Unless you steal it from another. Yeah. They used to. These sites used to just be based essentially on NHL reporters. Yes. So you would see, okay, or you know team announcements like here's the cap it and then you know like a guy like lebron would find out if there's a no move clause and you know there'd be a little footnote there but i think as the sites matured and as um you know

people reach out to you and you develop these relationships and i think the most important thing is you develop a process. And the CapFriendly is so good at whenever there's a move, it's updated real quick. And that's important. You need to have someone running the site 24-7. So it's relationships. It's the processes that you have. It's not as easy as some people are making it seem to just replace CapFriendly.

There's a lot of institutional knowledge that goes along with this. I mean, Pugpedia is going to be the replacement. I mean, it's good. It's got all the information there. We'll see. It seems like it's got a real opportunity here. Are the CapFriendly folks going to have the same contacts that give them this info when they're working for a team? No, but I think they might not be exactly what they're doing, right?

They might just see... For the infrastructure they're working on. Or the talent that the people have to put this together. There's nothing more valuable than just adding talented people to your operation. The Capitals become the only team that can manage the salary cap now. Every other team just falls. It's chaos. Brian McClellan is really good at it yeah you have to call him and just

be like brian when is this guy arb eligible i'll cost you a pick so that's their game okay mook how that i'm gonna do one even though we're kind of up against it for time uh when you were down in america over the weekend jason how much of the sports news was focused around dan hurley and the los angeles lakers i don't know i didn't watch a lot of tv down there i was playing golf just humor me i don't well i don't know it's just a setup it's a basic radio setup just be like lots uh the lost tons man they couldn't stop talking about it everywhere i went they were talking about what's dan hurley going to do?

Alfred, I heard there was Lance. Is he going to take this job or is he going to take the other one? What about the third one? There wasn't a third one. Would he stay there or would he go? So the Los Angeles Lakers have been turned down by Dan Hurley, who has made the decision not just to take one of the most lucrative jobs in the NBA, also with the most lucrative...

Did you think I'd go on a golf trip and just watch TV all day? No, Jason. That's why we had a setup of, yeah, it was on TV a lot. You don't watch a lot of sports. Yeah. In your spare time? Like, we played 36 a couple days. You think I'm like, what's going on Dan Hurley-wise?

Just... Yeah, you could have just gone along with the process. Well, you could have had a better process. Now you made it a thing. Yeah, and now you made it. So what's going on with Dan Hurley? Dan Hurley has turned down. People down in the States were all wondering.

Yeah, our American listenership. We're big in LA. Six years. So not only did he turn down the Laker job, which is one of the most prestigious jobs in the NBA, he also turned down six years at $70 million, which would have made him one of the highest paid coaches in the NBA. Not only did he turn down that,

he turned it down so he could stay in Storrs, Connecticut, where he will remain the head coach of the University of Connecticut men's basketball team. Now, there's a lot of embarrassment coming from the Lakers organization, because rightly, they're like, we're the Lakers. They drove the truckload of money up to his house, and it still wasn't enough. Because people are saying, well, the Lakers organization. Because rightly, they're like, we're the Lakers. They drove the truckload of money up to his house, and it still wasn't enough.

Because people are saying, well, the Lakers have been turned down before by prominent head coaches like Tyronn Lue and a couple other ones. But the difference there was they were accused of lowballing those coaches with their offers. They're like, not only are we the Lakers, we also wrote you a huge check, and you said no again. You can be the head coach of the Lakers, we also wrote you a huge check, and you said no again. You can be the head coach of the Lakers, and you can get paid $70 million.

And he said no, and now it becomes this really bizarre thing where this glory franchise, Ballyhoo job, has a vacancy at head coach, major questions about what they're going to do. No one has any idea what's going to happen with LeBron. There's talk that the plan was they were going to draft Bronny, has any idea what's going to happen with LeBron. There's talk that the plan was they were going to draft Bronny, his son, with the 55th overall pick

and that Dan Hurley, this great college coach, was going to come in and lead the team but also bring Bronny James up and kind of guide him into the NBA and now the whole thing's a mess and the Lakers could be a disaster.

Would you want that job? It's a lot of pressure. Especially when you've coached a grand total of zero NBA games. I think when you start confusing you're diluting the goal of the team. When you start saying like, you gotta coach his son.

Is his son any good? I don't know. It's his son. I mean, he's not considered one of the top 60 guys in the draft. So I'm going to have to play this guy? Yeah. Well, what if I don't want to?

It's even more than that. What if I don't want to? You're going to be tasked not just... His dad's getting a little old too. Like, is that going to be a problem? You're going to be tasked not just with coaching the Lakers, but also being responsible for the maturation of a guy that might not be even close to being NBA ready. So I get why.

Yeah, it's a lot of money, but I'm sure Dan Hurley isn't driving around a 1983 minivan, right? I'm sure he's fine. But you know who I feel bad for now is whoever takes the Los Angeles Lakers job. You will be forever known as the runner-up guy that got the job. It could be J.J. Redick. It could be James Borrego. It could be a variety of guys.

But it's a very interesting scenario for a marquee franchise to get turned down this publicly. By the way, there's also a conspiracy theory on this one. Nice. I like it. What is it? It's that Woj, Adrian Wojnarowski, was actually working on behalf of Danny Hurley. Okay. That he was putting all this stuff out there in the media

so that Hurley could get an even better offer from the University of Connecticut to stay as head coach. Because that's where he wanted to be all along. Right. He just wanted to get paid. And did I hear something like his wife didn't want to go to L.A. too? Yeah, his wife didn't want to move to L.A. Right.

That's not even a conspiracy theory. She's just like, I don't like L.A. Mukau. I'm a small town Connecticut girl, and I always will be. You love stores, Connecticut. No context, rough clip right there. Yeah. Okay. We could just play that over and over again.

Okay. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll print out some humanoid submissions. Get your submissions in. There's no giveaways today, but it's your chance to be on the radio. Hashtag it, WWL. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports?

Let us know. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Vic 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 now for my favorite part of the show what'd i say talk to the audience oh god this This is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show. 833 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help you with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour 3 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, finally, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. You heard GM Neil McEvoy at the beginning of this hour. Well, the roar is back at BC Play Saturday for the BC Lions 70th season home opener. 70 seasons. The home opener is presented by the BC Federation of Labor. Details at bclions.com. Okay.

We got a couple more what we learned to pass along. Jason has one about, well, I say it might be about the winner of the NHL's GM of the year, but it might be about who didn't win the NHL's general manager of the year. Jim Nill, the back-to-back winner of the Jim Gregory general manager of the year award. This isn't the first back-to-back winner, by the way. Lou Lamorello won a back-to-back in 2019-20 and 2020- 2021. It's very confusing

when the 20s get involved. Joe Sackick won it the year after Lou Lamorello went back-to-back and then it's been Jim Nill ever since. Jim Nill's reign of terror. So Adog doesn't like this but there is

a reason why you know why johnston had a breakout season this year um they signed the gym no they signed matt duchene that was a good signing and they also got chris tannev good trade at the trade deadline and that was pretty good trade um didn't overpay to land chris tanne. But A-Dog was offended and outraged on behalf of Patrick Alveen. Yeah, well, Patrick Alveen had more hits. He had a better year, I think,

than Jim Neal. But I think, I understand so much of it is which team goes the furthest often is the GM that wins. So I understand that, okay, yeah, they made the conference finals or whatever. So I get the reasoning behind nil winning. I just think if you take away the playoffs and just look at the season as it is, I don't know.

I think Alvin had a better year as a GM. When do they vote? They vote during the playoffs, right? Yeah. So it's not like the regular individual awards. I can't remember the exact statistic, but it's like a very high statistic of the winner is often whoever it goes the furthest

of the selectees. Every winner in the last 10 years is a GM from a team that went to at least the third round of the playoffs. So when the Canucks lost Game 7 to the Oilers, Patrick Alvian also lost the GM of the year award. He couldn't get it done. He threw down his mug and it smashed all over the floor. He's like, there goes my award!

And then everyone looked at him. He's like, also the playoffs. Stupid. Remember, guys, team. It's the most important thing, team. If you look at the voting on it, it was kind of all over the map. Like, Neil got 17 first place votes. Alvin was second, so. But he didn't get, Bill Zito actually got more first place votes than Alvin.

He did. Yeah. Alvin and Chris Drury both got six. And then, like, a bunch of guys got one. Don Sweeney got three. Barry votes than Alvin. He did. Yeah. Alvin and Chris Drury both got six. And then like a bunch of guys got one. Don Sweeney got three. Barry Trotz got one. But Alvin was still second in overall votes, was he not? Because I was looking at the chart yesterday.

Yes. Kekalainen got what? In points. Yeah, that's it. I don't know. Kekalainen did not get it. Oh, that was a joke. Yeah, he did not get one.

Someone thought Danny Breer was the best general manager in hockey this year. What? The way he handled that Cutter-Gauthier situation. Masterclass. The FlyersGoche situation. Masterclass. The Flyers were a mess. It's here. I don't know what to tell you. I'm looking at it right now.

Danny Breer? Danny Breer got a first place vote for GM of the year. Hiring torts? Did he hire torts? He hired torts. Yep. Masterclass. Chef's kiss.

It turned out great for him. Did that guy vote at Christmas? Yeah. He voted in October. He's like, I want to get this in early. Okay? Anyway, so we get... Like Ed Flanders with his taxes.

We can mook out that. Andrew Galvin was robbed. I'm going to do another one. We learned, hey, Jason. No, I'm just kidding. I was going to ask. How much noise has New York Jets training camp made in the United States whilst you were on a golf trip in Washington State. So much noise,

but it was that and Dan Hurley. It's actually, this wouldn't have even happened when you were on your golf trip because it's basically this morning. New York Jets, who actually I kind of forgot about. They're an interesting story because Aaron Rodgers is going to return to play football following a torn Achilles,

which is a tough injury. Not a great start to camp for, well, sorry, not for the two-day mini camp for the Jets because Aaron Rodgers has an inexcused absence, didn't show up to camp. Now, he told his head coach, Robert Sala, that he wasn't going to come to camp, but Robert Sala then said it's still inexcused.

So it's not unexplainable, but it's inexcused. Right. You can, key difference. Yeah, I don't, I think it just means you can subject him to a fine.

That's what Sala put out there. Now here's the exact explanation. Sala said that Rogers told him beforehand, he had a previous commitment to an event that he said only quote unquote is important to him. Ah, they didn't say what the event was unclear if it was a another darkness retreat or something political yeah is he still considering a vice presidential candidate it was him and rfk go to the top together. What is that? Did RFK pick one? That's kind of what people are alluding to here.

Like, is it something important like your potential vice presidency? I see. Okay. Right? And no one knows quite yet. This is all unfolding in front of our very eyes this morning. But this isn't the only noticeable absence for the Jets. Just to give you an idea of like, you know, Jets going to Jets.

This is the Jets being the Jets. The Jets are always going to be the Jets. Jetsing all the time. Their big acquisition this offseason was Hassan Reddick, who's the star pass rusher from the Eagles. Now, the reason that the Eagles were willing to trade him is because Reddick made it very clear that he wants his contract redone. And the Jets were like, you know what?

No problem. We're going to trade for you. This is back in March. We're going to trade for you anyway. And, you know, we'll make it all good it's not gone all good they don't have a contract sorted out uh and because minicamp is mandatory he is also subjected to a fine like aaron rogers 16 grand every day that he doesn't show up and then it jumps up to 33 grand for the second day and he's already forfeited 250250,000 in a workout bonus.

So he's losing money like crazy. Right. So you'd think there'd be an impetus to get the deal done. But what we learned is that the Jets remain the Jets. They are a mess. But hopefully Aaron Rodgers shows up soon. And I'm kind of important. I'm being told by the inbox that RF uh rfk jr picked uh someone

else oh aaron rogers do we know who i don't know i don't know i'm trying to avoid all the election news as much election news as i can because like it is going to be overwhelming in november just absolutely overwhelming with brett farve nicole yeah nicole shanahan interesting You went with Brett Favre. Nicole Shanahan. That's interesting. Daughter of Mike Shanahan. Is it? It's not his daughter. Oh, okay. Okay.

Nicole Shanahan. Who's that? I don't know. It says Nicole Shanahan. Yeah. All right. You know what? Oh, yeah.

That's what it is. She is a 38-year-old California lawyer and philanthropist who's never held elected office. Sounds about right. Sounds like she's going to win. Alright. Do we have any others? I was going to do one if you have. I got a quick one. Any of you catch the Mariners game last night? I did not. Those poor White Sox.

They were up 4-0 late and the Mariners came roaring back to tie it 4-4 in the eighth and then up stepped Cal Rally with the bases loaded in the ninth, and then up stepped Cal Raleigh with the bases loaded in the ninth. The big dumper. The big dumper proceeded to dump.

Here is the stretch, and the 2-0 on the way to Cal Raleigh. Swing and a well-hit ball. Deep to right field. No, it ain't going. Graham on get out the right bread and mustard. It is grand salami time. A walk-off grand slam for Cal Raleigh.

And the Mariners win it. They win it 8-4 in an amazing comeback here in the bottom of the ninth inning. Cal jumps on a 2-0 pitch from Leisure. He's getting mobbed at home plate. Walk-off grand slam is pretty sick. It was one of those pitches, too. It was a 2-0 pitch. You just knew it was going to be down the pipe,

and he clobbered it. Was it a big, spicy b-ball? He absolutely clobbered the pitch from Leisure, who is the pitcher with the white socks. A leisurely approach to throwing pitches. What a comeback. And I got to tip the hat to Rick Riz on the call there with the little tip to Dave Newhouse.

That was very good. Very good. Get out the rye bread and mustard. We came up with, Ladi came up with, how does Rick Riz not have a segment called Riz'd Up with Rick? Talked about this earlier. At this point. I met, so Rick Riz.

Like it's right there. A long time voice. I know time for Riz'd Up with Rick. We had him in the studio one time when we were back at 1040. Yeah. They did the Mariners. Did he seem like the kind of guy that would be up for a Rizd up with Rick segment?

No, I don't think so. If you were to go build me the most prototypical baseball, American baseball announcer, you'd have Rick Rizd there. He had the great voice. Rizd me up, that's for sure. Right, he Rizd me up in the studio.

I was like, I love this guy, right? But at that time, because it was so long ago, Riz'd up wasn't a thing. So I think we might have just missed it. Because right now, he should have a segment where he just goes and charms the pants off people. And then the catchphrase is, you got Riz'd up. What does that mean again? Charisma. Oh, okay. You have charisma. It started as shorthand for charisma. rizzed up what does that mean again charisma oh okay he's got that he's got that it started his

shorthand for charisma like you got half of my old brain was like he went what he wears a lot of jewelry a lot of rizzle dizzle that's blinged up that's blinged up that's blinged up right okay you have no riz right now uh so it started his shorthand for charisma he's got the riz and then it sort of turned into an action word like you can riz somebody. You can riz them up. You can like compliment them? No, you charm them with your charisma. You charm them. You're rizing

the pants off me right now. Said no one ever. Right. As an example. Can we please print off some submissions into the Dumbar Lumber text line? First rizcow that. What's going on right now?

There's a multiple. Multiple Rizcows. What we learned in Humanoid Edition is brought to you by GetFirePlan. Protect what matters most with comprehensive fire safety plans, monthly audits, and risk mitigation at $200 off. Did you say Riz mitigation?

Did someone text in and said, why don't you read some texts? Yeah, that's a good idea. Oh my God, we're having a fire. I'll never forget when I referred to Jason Brough as Rizzless. What we learned on signed texts. I'm just going to keep plowing through this. If the NHL bases the dry saddle suspension on Barkov's health, what if Florida states that he will miss game three only to turn around and play him?

You don't want to do that if you're Florida. The NHL will come down on you with a fury unlike any other if you start messing around with that. If you say Barkov has a concussion and then dry saddle gets suspended, and then the next day you're like, ah, he's better. Yeah. No, it wasn't a concussion. There will be a minor concussion. They're meant to say percussion. He loves the drums. Do you understand? I'm sorry. Did you say concussion?

You know how vindictive Gary Bettman is? Yeah. Do you remember Cap Recapture in Vancouver? You guys remember that, right? How long did he sit on that one before he's like, aha, I finally got my revenge. It was like a decade. Austin and Langley, what we learned,

feels like the Oilers complaining about refereeing is an institutionalized surrender. Thanks, Beck. Yeah. There's quite a few texts coming in noting that Oilers fans were ridiculing Canucks fans for all the complaining they do about the refereeing. And now it's the Oilers fans were ridiculing Canucks fans for all the complaining they do about the refereeing. And now it's the Oilers fans who are complaining about the refereeing.

That's funny how it goes. It's crazy. Isn't it funny? It's crazy. When teams lose, they often complain about the officiating. And when they win, they call the losing fans whiners. The Oilers were whining a lot. Oilers fans were whining a lot yesterday.

They didn't like the Fogle. Well, I mean, that was a penalty of the delay of game. Yeah, okay, they missed that. I don't know. Why wasn't that subjected to review? They went back in. Dreisaitl went from no penalty to a minor. Yeah, I know.

A minor penalty, not a minor individual. Yeah, I don't know maybe maybe the referees came together on that one i've been like they're gonna i don't think they can do that on yeah we got that wrong they can't go to the they can't go to the video but i think they're gonna change that that'll be available yeah but another thing that we talked about while you were gone was there was another groundswell movement to uh eliminate var in another domestic league yeah and i'm like i i appreciate the sentiment that you want to go backwards and put the genie back in the bottle but there's no way like once it's out there it's like no one's ever gonna go although that swedish league did go back

they're like we're gonna do away with var i'm like let's see how that goes let's see how that goes because if you have the technology and you just choose to ignore it that's an interesting like case study i don't know if it's actually going to work uh dan with what we learned hashtag wwl who knew that hockey night canada needed a five second delay when interviewing charles barkley yeah i thought that kyle bukaskis maybe should have been aware like he's not in charge of the five second delay delay. Well, Charlie, it's not like Barkley's never been on TV before. I think he doesn't consider Canada TV like real TV. You know, he's like...

To be honest, that's exactly what it is. Yeah, it's like... This doesn't count. Yeah, he's like, this isn't real TV. Like, where is this airing? Some sort of cable network in Edmonton. Like, I don't think he knew, right? He did say that he appreciated the jersey that Leon Dreisaitl

gave him, though. Joe and Smithers, what we learned, we have now witnessed what getting dusted looks like. Is there a possibility the Oilers get swept? Yes. I was wondering about that last night. They have one goal

in two games. And the war of attrition is favoring the Panthers right now I mean so many people that we talked to going into this series right they are going to need some depth scoring because they are going to be so focused on McDavid and Dreisel Florida that is and they've got a variety of guys that can throw at you Barkov's a tremendous shutdown center Forsling's a tremendous shutdown defenseman go down the list

there's other guys that are going to make your life a living hell as well I'd still be surprised if they get swept though I think McDavid should be able to get them one win

especially at home it just feels like McDavid can't shake loose and then if he can't at the very least McDavid should be able to draw enough attention to himself that someone else

can pick up the scoring, but everyone's gone silent. I mean, they did not look dangerous enough yesterday, right? Like in game one, they looked dangerous. They outshot the Panthers. You could make the argument that they probably deserved a better fate. Yesterday, Florida earned that win. That was, Florida played a much better game, I thought,

than the Oilers did last night. What we learned, Dollywell keeps referring to 50 Cent as 50 cents, and I'm positive he doesn't know he's a musical act, but actual monetary value. Yeah, I don't. Dolly refers to him as an actor, and actually has seen the movies that he's been in, and he's not doing a bit.

He's being genuine. He calls him 50 Cent the actor. Yeah. Oh, because he doesn't listen to his music? Curtis Jackson the actor. No, I don't believe he probably does. 50 Cent the musician. Curtis Jackson the actor. 50 Cent's 48 years old.

What do you think Dolly listens to? I feel like it's a lot of April Wine. Yeah, I could see that. Classic Will Brown. You know what the best part was? No one offered a second option. Everyone's like, yep, April Wine for sure. Maybe some Loverboy. Yeah, I could see Chilliwua chihuahua definitely fly by night by chihuahua

which is a good song yeah with his shirt chihuahua was good chihuahua was underrated yeah um with the shirts i could also see like a lot of margaritaville style you know yeah yeah i could see that he's just leaning into that isn't't he? The Hawaiian shirts? The Hawaiian shirts. He's like, okay, I'll be the loud guy. Is that a lampshade on your head? It is. Table saw James what we learned after hearing about all the win probabilities of over 90% after the Panthers won the first two games at home last night.

I am once again re-depressed about the 2011 Cup Final, which is also fresh in mind after watching the riot documentary, uh, go Panthers. Yeah. Every time a team goes up to nothing in the Stanley cup final. Now we all get to make that joke. And I think even Donnie made it on Twitter last night.

It's like, well, we've never seen a team come back from two, nothing down in the Stanley cup final. Nobody blows from 2-0 down in the Stanley Cup Final. Nobody blows a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final. That's the other variation of that joke. Do you remember being on – It's not funny.

– current blog radio going, like, the Canucks, they're going to do it. How is Boston going to win 4-5? How is it possibly going to happen? Like, 4-5 games, like, even if Boston comes back and plays better, there's no way that they're – Even though we were young and naive and early in our radio careers, was it possibly going to happen? Like four or five games, like even if Boston comes back and plays better, I remember us. There's no way. Even though we were young and naive and early in our radio careers,

I remember us not being as stupid as saying it that bluntly, but I definitely remember that sentiment because we just looked at the numbers and there was, here's the thing. After two games, there was,

aside from the Burrows and Bergeron finger biting incident which really it was there but it wasn't the powder the powder cake moment was rome on horton that was where it really popped off but um i remember do you remember the bruins on that power play they couldn't even they their power play stunk yeah they didn't score on that power play. They couldn't even, they, their, their power play stunk. Yeah. They didn't score on that power play. They just felt the Bruins fans. I mean,

I was in Boston. Bruins fans were all over them. Like they can't score. This team is not going anywhere. And then Alex Edler stick broke. And then that series turned. Uh, I got one here from Todd has bad takes.

What we learned. Hashtag WWL. The demise of cap friendly is not a loss. It's an opportunity. My big criticism of cap friendly was how nonjudgmental it was. Just facts. The replacement should be very opinionated. On Cap Salty, you can get a player's cap hit and the relentless trolling of the stupidity of that contract.

Todd, you say you have bad takes, but you actually have very good ones. That is one of them. We gave away too many opportunities for the next Cap Friendly, just in name only. Mine was actually now I can't remember. What was it? Keep talking. Maybe the Cap Friendly we made. I'm trying to remember.

It's a long ass URL. Good one. But it would be good if I could remember what it was. Oh, maybe the salary cap was the real cap friendly we made along the way. Just popped in your head. Duck hump. All right. It's been a fun show. Thank you all for listening, and thank you all for contributing.

Thanks for letting us riz you up. Yeah, thanks for letting us riz you up. It is a slow day and a slow night in the world of sports, but rest assured we'll have some stuff to talk about tomorrow. A reminder, if you got nothing on the go tonight and the weather clears up, head to Nat Bailey Stadium with your dog. That's D-O-G, not D-A-W-G. And look, the Oilers might be down 2-0 in their series to the Florida Panthers,

but remember, Oilers, all of Canada is behind you. All of Canada. That's what we're told on the broadcast all the time, that all of Canada. Like, you've got the whole country cheering for you. People in Vancouver, people in Calgary. All they want, all they want is the cup back in Canada. Twitter really agreed with you on that.

The entire country behind those Edmonton Oilers. How can they lose with an entire country behind them? Not. Signing off, I have been Mike Alford. He has been Jason Brough.

He has been A-Dog. And he's been Laddy. This has been the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I'm a small town Connecticut girl and I always will be.

This market loves young guys because they're