Halford & Brough in the Morning - Canada Is Pretty Good At Hockey, Eh?

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss Canada's takedown of Czechia in Men's Olympic hockey yesterday (3:00), plus they chat with Olympian Macklin Celebrini's dad, and Golden State Warriors Director of Sports Medicine & Performance, Rick Celebrini (27:35). 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.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Broughed to himself off the glass and brings it down for two aces are wild. Like I say, I apologize, maybe I made that bad decision to go back to my home. And the whole quote-unquote loyalty thing is, I think it's overrated. You know, I think this is a business at the end of the day and it's a lot of money involved. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

It is Halford and is Brough at SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Ad, good morning to you. Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Bruff of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have payday loan debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands and Sources. dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, New Year, New Opportunity for Comfort with Orthotics from Kintech. 650, 650 is the Dunbar Lumber Text line, entrusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations,

find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Big show ahead on a Friday, a sweet, sweet Friday. Our guest list today, it is the Duick Morning Drive, brought you by the Duick Auto Group. It's going to begin at 6.30 this morning. Rick Celebrini is going to join the program. He, of course, the director of sports medicine and performance for the Golden State Warriors. But for the purposes of today's interview, we're going to refer to. him is Macklin's dad. Rick's going to join us live from Italy today as Macklin and the

Canadians prep to face Switzerland to 1210 our time today in their second game. First one got off to a pretty good start. And Macklin Celebrini got the Canadians off to a pretty good start. Rick Celebrini is going to join us at 630 this morning live from Milan Cortina. 7 o'clock this morning, AJ from AJ's pizza. A reminder, a $100 gift card to AJ's is up for grabs for the best ask us anything. I'll tell you this right now. It's 602 in the morning. We already have a few very strong challengers to win the best Ask Us Anything in the Dunbar-Lumber text message in basket. At 7.30 this morning, Matt Cullen is going to join the program. Former NHLer Matt Cullen?

No, Andy. CBC Play-by-Playman for men's hockey and snowboard cross in Milan, Cortina. That Matt Cullen. Are we sure about this? We are sure about this. We're going to go heavy on the Olympic hockey today, folks. Lots to get into, including a pair of games already wrapped from this morning, which we'll get into and what happened. Matt Cullen, not the three-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Cullen,

is going to join the program at 7.30. 8 o'clock this morning, Rick Dollywall is going to join us. Intrepid Canucks reporter for Donnie and Dolly on Czech TV. For this, as always, we turn things over to our show's resident Dollywall wet nurse, Jason Brough. He's called him Dollywere's Wet Nurse. I did. You always put me on the spot here.

And Dollywall, we've got a different system now. Dollywall is texting me instead of DMing me. the Canucks are busy Canucks are busy That's what we're going to talk about What we're going to talk about So it's Canucks are busy

Canucks I kid you not is spelled wrong Canucks C-A-N-U-V-K-S are busy There's a couple other things Apparently Patrick Alveem

Also spelled wrong Saw Stenberg play last Saturday All that was spelled incorrectly And also took him two and a half hours to write But isn't there a trade freeze still? Oh, they're busy, though. They're not talking on the phones freeze. The phones are actually encased in ice.

They're not what's up. Gary, Gary Bettman just takes all their phones away for them for two weeks. They're like, I don't know what to do. He had to, Bettman actually had to pack them to go over to Italy. He's like, I don't trust these guys. All the general managers have to send handwritten letters to one another.

That's the only way that they can converse. Working in reverse on that guest list. 8 o'clock is Dollywall. 730, Matt Cullen. 7 o'clock, AJ, 630. Rick Celebrini. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I lose. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed that? You missed that?

What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies investing tools or resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccccsa.ca.ca. yesterday was a good day for Canadian hockey. As both the men and the women posted 5-0-0 victories over Finland and Czechia, respectively, it was a good day. I don't know if the Lakers beat the Supersonics, but it was a good day, a good day for Canadian hockey yesterday. We are going to begin, though, with the opening game for the Canadian men

and what proved to be an outstanding first effort against the Czechs. They opened with a 5-0-0-win, as mentioned over Chequette. Maclin-Sellibini, as we mentioned, opened the scoring. Connor McDavid, a mere three assists. Biddington, 27. six saves. Goals also coming from Mark Stone. Bo Horvatt, Nathan McKinnon and Nick Suzuki, a very dominant, dominant performance from the Canadians yesterday against the checks. Yeah, and I do want to get to that in just a bit, but a little spoiler here. We're going to talk

about a game that just finished, and that is between Finland and Sweden. So if you had a PVR for just a little bit. We have a sounder thing and everything for this. Okay. The Swedes lost 4 to 1 to Finland. That's the same Finland team that lost to Slovakia. And our guy, Elias Pedersen, didn't have the best game. He only played 10 minutes, minus 1, I think. And he got hit into the bench by Michael Granland. So it did not go well for them.

And, you know, Finland lost that first game to Slovakia, and everyone was like, oh, that's going to be tough without bark off. But I think most people went, the Finns will do something at this tournament. The Finns, that's in their DNA, not to go away meekly. I think the biggest worry right now, if you're talking about the teams that went into this tournament with a chance to do something, big one's Sweden, because Sweden had a scare against Italy.

You know, they ended up out shooting them. very badly. But they were also tied halfway through the game. And now they play a very physical game against Finland. And it was hard fought on both sides. But we wondered how this Swedish team would look offensively, considering the fact that Leo Carlson, who would be their one seat there, I think, even though he's still very young, wasn't able to be in this tournament.

And then you had guys like Elias Pedersen and Mika's advantage at. you're like, I don't know, I'm not looking great these days. And then, you know, I think, is it Joel Erick, is their first line center? I mean, that's a big deal. That's a big deal. And I know the Swedes have a great blue line and they're potentially good goaltunning, but they are looking right now. It's only been two games.

They're looking right now like the most disappointing team at this tournament. Without question. So the goal scores for Finland today, Mantepalo, Lundell, Armia. And Miko Ranton gets his first to the tournament for the fifth. You would have expected after a very disappointing outing in the first game against Slovakia that Finland was going to push hard, especially in a rivalry game like this. Big story in this one, the play of UC Soros, who came under some pretty heavy scrutiny after the loss to Slovakia to the point where

the head coach actually openly considered starting Kevin Lankton in this game. He wouldn't commit to a starter following the Slovakia game. Soros comes up with a 34 save performance, allowing just one goal against Sweden, And that included, as Lattie and I were watching the last moments of this one, in the third period, 17 for 17 on shots face in the third period, when Sweden really put the hammer down and started really tilting the ice in their favor. Soros was able to lock it down. Soros was able to keep the win for Finland.

So that really throws that group into an interesting place because, and I do have to mention this, Slovakia did move atop with a win this morning, but it too got a major scare from the Italians. The Italians once again put forth another tremendous effort. They lose 3-2 to Slovakia. It was 3-1 late. Our boy, East Vancouver's Matt Bradley, scored again. Another one?

Another one for the Nano. That's right. Two goals for Nono now. In the third period, he scores late. Italy pushed at the end with the goal he pulled. Didn't really come that close to getting an equalizer. But in that group right now, definitely the most unprecedented. predictable of the three.

You've got Slovakia a top after two games, which I don't think a lot of people expected, and they now got a game with Sweden, which is incredibly important for Sweden. You've got Italy, having only been outscored by four goals on the aggregate now, losing by three in the first and then one in the second. So keeping it relatively close in terms of goals, four and goals against.

And you've got a Swedish team, which I think you accurately put it through early days in this tournament and everything, but Sweden has been the most disappointing team in this tournament, right now. You know, you look at the ice time for Sweden and I'm sure the Swedish fans back in Sweden are like, what is going on? What

is head coach Sam Halam doing here? Because the ice times are just all over the map. Like, you know, clearly he's leaning on, and this is crazy, Joel Ericksonek,

Adrian Kempe, and Lucas Raymond. Like those seem to be the forwards that he has and I'm not saying those guys are bad players but when you think about the Swedish team you usually think about so much higher end forwards you know than that

and I really like Joel Ericksonek as a player I think he's a good player but he's not a one C or shouldn't be a one C on an NHL team like I and I think that's probably maybe if you look at Minnesota you're like do they have good enough centers to win to win the Stanley Cup and I think right now

you're looking at Sweden and going Does this team have good enough centers to win a medal? So the talking points right now out of Sweden, having briefly perused Swedish Twitter, such a lovely place, very attractive. There are major questions about what's going on with Elias Pedersen, because he only played 10 minutes today. More distressingly is after two games, Philip Forsberg has played collectively just over 10 minutes in two games, including a grand total of nine minutes and 31 seconds today,

where he again was a minus player, he's minus one. You look at some of the big dogs for this team, and in particular two guys that were going to be counted upon, I think, going into this tournament, a lot more than they have delivered thus far. Pedersen and Forresburg have been absolute non-factors for this team. Now, the big difference from game one to game two for Sweden is that Sam Halam didn't sit two players specifically.

There were some low ice times, but in the first game, Philip Forsberg played one minute and if I'm not mistaken all of Ekman-Larsen didn't get a single shift in the first game. Nothing. He sat the whole game. That changed somewhat in the Finland game where the 13th forward and the 7th offenseman

got in a little bit more of a regular rotation but still Ekman Larson finishes with 7 minutes and 36 seconds of ice time. Forsberg finishes with 9. Forzberg wasn't the low man for ice time up front that was Pontius Holmberg. Again if I'm not mistaken we're kind of pouring through all these stats in the moment here.

But it's a very, very interesting dynamic for this Swedish team right now because they have woefully underperformed, I would say, despite the opening game where they put 60 shots up on the Italians. Rasmus Dahlin has been good. Dahlene's been good. Lucas Raymond's played a lot and has been good.

Adrian Kempe's played a lot. But they just don't have the depth that you would expect from a Swedish team that has enough players that they should be able to roll at least three lines competently. at least have more than one D pair that they're leaning on. But right now it seems like Sam Halim has identified his guys,

or more distressingly for him, he's got guys that just aren't going right now and he can't play them. Okay, let's get back to that Canadian men's domination of Chequia. We asked before yesterday's game about the identity of Canada at this year's tournament. And the answer we seem to get yesterday is the identity is to be really good at hockey. It's a good strategy. You mentioned it earlier. The stars showed in a big way.

McDavid had three assists and set the tone physically early on. And that means something. When a guy like McDavid is out there laying out guys on the forecheck, McKinnon scored, Celebrini scored. The other goals were from Mark Stone, and that was thanks to a brilliant pass from Mitch Marner. Just an incredible saucer pass in the crease. The touch that was,

required to make that fall onto stone stick. It's incredible. Nick Suzuki got one. And of course, there was Bo Horvats' goal, which featured some incredible passing to get up the ice from the Canadians. Now, suffice to say, it's been a tough year in Vancouver. And Canucks fans, they took notice when Horvatt, their former captain, was named to the team.

And they took notice when he scored yesterday. this is after all a guy again he was captain here in Vancouver wanted to be a Canuck he wanted to be a Canuck and the team ultimately made the choice to trade him for help on the back end while committing to J.T. Miller and Alias Pedersen do we have any interest in revisiting that trade I see a lot of people doing it online yeah it's happening do we want to feel bad

about ourselves even more lines converged saying it months ago I don't think it's hyperbole to say that when it comes to all three of those players, it's hard to imagine how this could have played out worse. The bet the Canucks made on Horvatt is that he wouldn't be able to maintain the scoring pace he set as a pending unrestricted free agent in Vancouver. And remember that's very correct. And remember that scoring pace, which complicated things from a contract negotiation standpoint.

The Canucks essentially offered, they didn't give them full value for, that season that he was having in Vancouver. He had 31 goals and 49 games at the time of the trade. Now you're looking at the contract he signed upon joining the Islanders, and honestly, it looks pretty darn good based on the rising salary cap. Might age last few years, might be bad, and who knows? But Horvats only way, he's like 30. He's got a few good years left him.

Cap hits just over eight. If the Canucks had a time machine, and God, it would be awesome if they did. Man, get to work on that time machine, Canucks. They probably trade Miller for help on the back end and keep Horvatt. That avoids the riff with Pedersen. Maybe it looks better for Pettersen. Hell, maybe Quinn Hughes is still here. Maybe I would have won the lotto max if they had kept Horvatt.

But we will never know. Anyway, if you want to text in about that, text in to the Dunbar Limer text line at 650, 650. Also, good for Jordan Bennington, who got the shutout. he didn't face the toughest shots. If you looked at the shot map, you know, those shot maps that they do. It was a lot of, it was a lot of shots for Canada in the slot area,

and the shots for Chequia were a lot more spread out. But Bennington got the job done, and it's difficult to, for better or for worse, it's difficult to see how he's going to be supplanted as the number one now. because we talked yesterday about 2010 and it was like, okay, well, how did Luongo

supplant Burdur and get the job? Well, Breder had, in the group stage, he had a rough game against the Americans. Yeah, lost. It was an easy way to do it. He lost. You lose and you lose the net. Well, who are, you know, like I don't think he's going to start today against Switzerland. I think they'll put in, they'll put in Thompson or Kemper.

I don't know. Yeah. but you know if Bennington goes back in there against France is he is he got a bad game?

No no no no I mean he's he's going to be it seems almost impossible now that he wouldn't be the starter unless there's an injury it seems impossible that he wouldn't be the starter once Canada starts the quarterfinals yeah there's a really interesting

I always get lit up by France of course yeah that is possible yeah I think we're going to get a look at France again is it today or tomorrow I know I watch bits and pieces of their game there for nothing lost to Switzerland in the opener. And I mean, they were second best against a Swiss team, which is what, half, two-thirds filled of NHLers.

So it's going to be a tall order for the French. Anyway, there are some interesting narratives in the early days of this tournament. And from the Canadian perspective and U.S. perspective after that opening game, and we will get to the U.S. team in a minute here, one of them was the more controversial choices on each team both showed out in the opener.

So for Canada, obviously Binnington, while not overly tested, still made some good saves in the first period, but recording a 26 save shutout when he was probably the most scrutinized pick, not to be on the team, but be the starter. Also, Bo Horvatt, a lot of people saying, like, one of the bubble picks for Team Canada showed up in a big way in the opener and managed to get on the score sheet. The U.S. had a very similar thing with Brock Nelson scoring twice against Latvia, a pick that was widely considered questionable. But he's having a really good season. Didn't he struggle a little bit when he came over on that trade from the Islanders? He did. He's having a good year. He had a great game yesterday.

And a lot of the American pundits that were following this team said all the bottom of the lineup guys, the fourth line guys, Miller, et cetera, had really good games yesterday. Now, granted it was against a Latvian team that was wildly overmatched. I don't know how many of you managed to watch the U.S. take on the Latvians. But even though it was tied 1-1 after 20, the ice was decidedly tilted in the favor of the Americans. They had two goals wiped out due to goalie challenges. Nelson hit the post late. It really shouldn't have been a tie going into the first.

Well, let's talk about those American men too, since you brought them up. Yep. They beat Latvia. They certainly didn't look like they were missing any offensive firepower or creativity. And that was, you know, the potential knock on them after leaving off the likes of Robertson and Caulfield. They got Latvia running around to the point of exhaustion. And that's how you beat a Latvian team, right? You run them around and you get them doing lots of stops and starts and like, where's the puck?

Where's the puck? I mean, stops and starts, that's exhausting in hockey. Yep. The Americans in the second period, they outscored the Latvians 3-0 and outshot them 17 to 2. Yeah. It was dominance in the second period. Now, the American team with NHLers in the last couple of games have had strong starts to the Olympics. Last couple of Olympic games, I mean.

but they haven't won gold with NHLers. Did you hear once they won gold back in 1980? They called it The Miracle on Ice. Have they done a documentary on that? They bring it up sometimes. In 2000, no NHLers there, they were just a bunch of hard scrabble college kids. Kurt Russell was the coach. Oh, no way.

Yeah, Kurt Russell was the coach. It was so crazy. It was a bit of a controversial pick at the time because he was an actor. Right. In 2010, the Americans with NHLers, they beat Canada. We just mentioned that in the group stage before, ultimately losing the rematch in the gold medal game. Sid's goal, 2014, they piled up the goals in the group stage.

They were the high-flying Americans. Everyone was very excited about this team. And then they scored more goals in the quarterfinals, and then they got Canada in the semis, and Canada just suffocated them, shut them out. Yeah. That was the game where Kessler called it. It was a snoozer out there.

Real snoozer. It was a snoozer. I was like, yeah, because Canada put, you to sleep, kiss. The story of that 2014 American team was started hot and then absolutely capitulated at the end. Because you'll remember they went to the bronze medal game. Yes.

And they did absolutely nothing against the Finns. Remember the quote I got? From Jonathan Quick. In the mix zone? He said, we didn't piss a drop. And they didn't really. They got absolutely annihilated in that bronze metal game. But the other talking point there,

and we often bring this up from the finish side, is it Finns love bronze metal games. Yeah. They take them like gold medal games. They're like, it's still a metal. and the Americans just didn't see it that way. And it showed. But the big story there was obviously that, you know,

the Americans had this high-flying style. And then they saw the Canadians. And, you know, the Americans, the analysis of the Americans, the Americans changed their game. And they played scared against Canada. So that's just some of the narratives going out there for the American team.

Just thought you'd want to know that. It is still very early, but it does look right now that Canada and the United States are in a collision course for gold. Yeah. Both teams should finish, should finish the group stage undefeated. Canada has Switzerland and France left. Switzerland today and the Swiss can be tough for sure.

The Americans have Germany and Germany has star power with dry saddle. And they've won yesterday. And they've also got Denmark, the Americans. So look, they're going to be heavy favorites, Canada and the Americans in their final two games respectively. You know, that Finland-Swedin game today, if Finland had lost that. that and they fell to 0 and 2, they could have potentially met Canada or the U.S. in the quarters. And I think that would have been like, oh, no, who's going to get Finland, right?

Because that would not have been ideal. So I'm glad that Finland won today. I'll tell you what. I mean, going back to that Finland's Sweden game, you look at Sweden right now, and they've got one group game left, and it's against the Slovaks. Now the Slovaks are first place in the group right now. and to avoid the qualification round and not make this a mess,

I'd have to go down what the tiebreakers are for head to head and goal differential and everything, but the Slovaks have an opportunity here to put the Swedes into the qualification round, finish atop their group, and avoid that qualification round go straight to the quarterfinals, which would be a big thing for Slovakian hockey.

And, I mean, they've been probably the most surprising team, whereas you'd say that the Finns have been the most disappointing. The Slovaks are probably in the most surprising. I don't think anyone had them at 2-0. after two games. Yeah, I know they had Italy in their second game, and they were probably going to win that. Who did you say has been in the most disappointing? Sweden. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. For sure. But they're both in that group. Yeah. And now Slovakia has an opportunity in its final group stage game to really, really alter the course of this tournament in a major way. Okay, I just wanted to get this in as well,

a convincing win for the Canadian women as well. Yeah, we had this on the air yesterday, and we talked quite a bit about it. It was a 5-0 victory for the women over Finland. it was nice to see them get their goal scoring back on track after being shut out for the first time in Olympic history in that 5-0 loss to the Americans. It was also good seeing Anne-Rene de Bien post a shutout after she got hooked in the U.S. game as well. Marie-Philippe Poulin did take the morning skate

prior to the Finland game, so there was some more optimism that she should be good to go. I think she's on the ice today too as well. So the women's tournament is into the quarterfinals now. Canada will face Germany on Saturday. Germany finished second in group B, which sounds impressive until you remember that the groups are set differently in the women's tournament. You have, you know, it's not a graceful way of saying it,

but all the good teams in Group A, all the bad teams in Group A, Group B. Germany is actually the seventh seed, and Canada, the second seed, should have no issues advancing to the semifinals, where the teams will reseed, so they can't meet, they're not going to meet the Americans in the semifinals. setting up a potential and likely gold medal match between Canada and the United States the Americans will play the hosts from Italy in the quarters

and that is a game that has the potential to get a little ugly on the scoreboard. We'll see if the ugly Americans come out and beat up the hosts really bad at home in front of their home fans or if they let their foot off the pedal just a little bit. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Okay, we're up against it for time.

I'll remind you that this segment of the show was brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats the Duick deal and why nobody has since 1926. Visit Duke GM on Marine Drive, visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond and visit them online

and doick Auto Group.com. We're going over to Milan twice today. We're going to be doing it on the other side of the break. Rick Sellebrini is going to join the program. He, of course, the father of Macklin Celebrini. He's going to be joining us as Canada. We'll talk about yesterday's win in which Macklin got the scoring underway.

And then today's game against the Swiss reminder that goes at 12.10 p.m. our time today. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 632 on a Friday. Happy Friday, Halford and Brough of Sportsnet 650.

Halpert and Brum for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you getting collection calls? If you are, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up 80% and stop those calls. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com for more. We are in hour one of the program. Rick Sellebrini is going to join us live from Milan in a moment here. Highlight of hour one. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We should ask them about all our lame old man sports injuries. I got a bit of a groin pole there. A couple medical related queries for you. So our next guest is, of course,

the Director of Sports Medicine and Performance for the Golden State Warriors. But for the purposes of this interview, and despite our many ailments, he is going to serve a purpose is. Macklin's dad, Rick Sellebrini, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Rick, how are you? Hey, good afternoon here in Milan.

I'm great, thanks. How are you guys? Yeah, we're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. So tell us, how's Italy been so far? it's fantastic you forget how good the food and the the coffees and just the

the whole sort of vibe here it's it's it's a great place who's over there with you so we had the four of us well five I got us obviously Maclin's doing this thing and that our daughter Charlie and R.J. our youngest

Aiden our oldest is of course at Boston University. I think they play UNH tonight, so he couldn't make the trip. Aiden was just in the bean pot, too, wasn't he? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. They got spanked by the rivals there, B.C. And before we get to back, how's RJ doing?

There's a lot of talk. I know he's playing at the North Shore Winter Club, and is you having fun with that team? Yeah, he is. He is. He's living his best life. Kids never had a bad day. That's awesome.

Well, let's get to Macklin now. What was it like for you as a dad to see him score for Team Canada at the Olympics? Well, I think we were kind of probably having parallel experiences, to be honest with you. I was nervous as hell. I don't remember being that nervous for a game before. I don't typically get nervous these days. But I was nervous, man. And I think he was too, just by how we.

he was playing and I was actually just talking to Bo Horvett here before I jumped on with you guys and he was saying the whole team was really nervous and so I think that that goal settled him down and certainly settled me down and it's just a you know one of like just a special moment it was a surprise and kind of caught us off guard but especially the way it happened you know sort of a tip there's no sort of a real buildup to it just all of a sudden it's in the net and you're like damn that just happened so I look this is an obvious question it might be an obvious answer for you, though, but like, why were you nervous? Why do you think this made you nervous

when you to believe don't get nervous? Well, you know, I mean, it's funny because you know, the kid earned it and, you know, he's played with those guys, you know, in the league now for a year and a half, but it's still kind of a little bit surreal and it's hard to kind of wrap your head around that your 19-year-old kid son is playing, you know, with the big boy. he's on the biggest stage, you know, and I think that was, you know, my messaging to him was the exact opposite of what I feel, which is, you know, it's just hockey, you know, just go out there and enjoy it and, you know, there's take away all the sort of the context of it and, and it, you know, the noise, and it really is just hockey, but get yourself to actually believe that or tell

your nerves to believe that is a different thing. It must be surreal to see him, you know, even in team pictures, or something when you've got Sydney Crosby in that picture Nathan McKinnon, Connor McDavid, and there's your 19-year-old son, Macklin. What's been like to see him interact with the greatest hockey players

in the world? You know, it's incredible. It's incredible. But, you know, at the same time, you know, I've just actually had the great opportunity to just the last couple days just check on Mac like we do typically in the Bay and I've done this whole.

hockey career just, you know, just make sure, you know, his hips and his back and everything's, you know, in a good place. And so they've welcomed me in there. And just to see the guys in that environment, they're all just really good, good people and you sort of see behind the scenes, obviously, you know, with what I do for work with the Warriors, too, you really start to understand that, you know, it's not like they're larger than life. It just happened to be, you know, just regular guys that just happen to be exceptional at, you know, had a particular skill, and that happens to be hockey in this case. But otherwise, they're all the same banter that you would have in sort of, you know,

pure league hockey locker rooms across the country. We're speaking to Rick Salabrini here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 6thly. Macklin's dad joining us live from Italy side of the Olympics. A reminder, Canada plays their second game of the tournament today against Switzerland. It's a 12-10 p.m. puck drop our time. Rick, I got to ask you, has Macklin's ascension to where he's gotten in such a short period of time? has it shocked you? Because I would imagine no one knows their kid better than the parents.

But at the same time, a certain party you must be amazed that he's been able to do what he's been able to do in such a short period of time. Yeah, you know, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised. At the same time, he's kind of given us this track record, you know, basically from 15, 14, really, you know, he played as a double-end area at Shattuck. And he said all these goals sort of in a,

advance and then, you know, sort of held himself accountable to him. And, you know, as a parent, you're trying to, you know, find that balance between being supportive and saying, you know, anything's possible, but also being realistic and, you know, making sure that they, they temper their goals so that they're, you know, they're not unrealistic and they're not set up for disappointment. But, I mean, honestly, every step of the way he keeps surprising us. So I guess, you know, at this point, we shouldn't be surprised anymore. But, you know, you want to play, you know, the USHL and, you know, and, you know,

and, you know, have a really good year, and he did, and he wanted to go to BU as an underager, and, you know, and have a really good year, and he did. And, you know, so every step of the way he's kind of hit his goals that he set for himself, and it's just, they're really sort of hardworking, driven kid that, you know, I guess he's, we shouldn't be surprised anymore. So as a 14 and 15-year-old, is he literally coming to you either one morning or one night, being like, here's a following list of my goals,

and then he lays them out for you. didn't have to steer that or steer it or engineer it or well because I'm curious because you know my my kid plays right now and it's not not hockey but soccer and it's all the parents are leaning in right now well it's it's interesting because my child has the goal of 10 hours per day on his iPad right like playing FIFA until his hands bleed and then you wonder at what point do you intervene as a parent or what point is the kid like oh this one's really driven I'm curious about that. Yeah, no, I mean, the first year that I went down to Golden State,

you know, my wife Robin had the four kids. And she would tell me, like, you know, consistently, Macklin especially would be waking her up at 4.30 in the morning to take him down to the rink. And the rink's not even open yet. So, I mean, you know, whatever drive, that was internal, whatever goals he was setting, I mean, certainly wasn't looking that far in advance and saying, I'm going to play here. you know, then, but it's just sort of year by year, step by step, setting, you know,

sort of fairly ambitious goals and then, and then just working his ass off to meet them. And, you know, I think just doing that in a stepwise and very consistent manner is, you know, big reason why he's having the success he's having now. How great is the chemistry and camaraderie with you guys and the Warriors in the Bay Area right now between the sharks? And I see Steve Kerr talking about watching Macklin at the Olympics and Draymond Green. shouting him out repeatedly and wearing his jersey. Seems like there's some really great camaraderie there

between the two organizations. It's really cool. I mean, the funny thing is we've got the same record. And for the Warriors, it's like incredible disappointment right now for everyone. For the sharks, there's nothing but optimism and, you know, positive vibes. But you're right. It's actually really cool.

The support. And, you know, Steph, especially recently, too, has been, you know, just all over. it and it couldn't be better even for the profile of the game in northern California just to have that support from these guys and you know they are that you know you've got the giant you got so many sports in the bay you know from the baseball to the NFL to to the NBA and and the sharks are sort of the little brother or sister and they they're starting to gain some some momentum and some um

you know, it's really good energy and vibes around the team and whether it's sort of starting to kind of, I guess, rebuild in the Shark Tank. Well, Rick, I know there's a lot of other things to do in Italy than speak with us. We appreciate you taking the time for doing this this morning, afternoon for you. I don't think I need to ask you or just say have a good time at the game today. I'm sure you will. But best luck with everything as this tournament rolls on. And thanks again for doing this.

Appreciate it, guys. Great talking you guys. And you guys have a great day. Yeah, you too, thanks. That's Rick Celebrini. Macklin's dad, but also, we should mention his day job, as director of sports medicine and performance for the Golden State Warriors here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Man, it couldn't be going better for the celebrini's.

Yeah. I mean, when he took the job down with Golden State, right? Imagine that was like, oh, okay, well, I'm going to be away from my family, and that's going to be really difficult. The Warriors talk about, the Warriors talk about, Maclin a lot. Yeah. And it's not put, I mean, they do get asked the questions sometimes, but

it seemed like he was probably more embedded with the team than I think maybe the casual observer would understand. And I think it does speak to why he's wired the way that he is and why he's achieved so much in such a short period of time.

Because we talked about this at length. Like being around professional athletes that much, I think their work habits become normalized. And the way that they go about their business, it's like, well, that's just what I saw growing up. Yeah. There's only a hand. That's their job. They do their job. Right. Where you treat your body and your craft with the utmost amount of hard work, tenacity. Everything's focused around in that case, basketball. And that's a hard thing to wrap your head around. I mean,

I've had a conversation with younger athletes before. And this is only from, you know, Bruf and I working in this industry for long. I've seen a lot of. We've seen a lot of of professional athletes and we've seen them up close and we've seen them behind the scenes. Yeah. I've seen what it looks like. I don't know what it's like to actually do it by no stretch of the imagination, but you see what it looks like. And the one thing I try and tell, mostly the parents of these kids as opposed to the kids is I don't think you have any idea of the amount of work that goes into it to become the best

1% of your job period. Now in this case, we're talking about athletics. So it is all encompassing. 24 hours a day, seven days a week where everything you do is geared towards the sport. There's not a ton of downtime.

And the guys that find a lot of downtime or ways to not do their thing don't reach those levels. They don't. And then I talk about the 1% of the 1%. And the 1% of the 1% are the ones that just got blessed by God coming out of the womb

with immense physical and athletic abilities. that just quite frankly the rest of us don't have. And you see them. Did you ever see that? I think we've talked about it on the show, actually. Nick Saban has that speech, and he calls it the illusion of choice. Yeah.

And there's, you know, there's, he was talking about players on his, you know, football team or players he's coached that think they have a choice, like, of, you know, well, I'm not going to put in the work. But I, but I'm, so I'm going to choose not to put in the work and, you know, still, still be a football player. It's like, no, you don't have a choice. Like you either

you're either put in the work and you turn into a player or you don't and you don't. Like that's, no, there's no choice. It's very black and white in that we're going. Like he's, so his idea is like

he's telling his players like this is what it takes. I know, I've seen it for many years. You think you can do it another way. maybe you think you can not listen to this part or say like, well, I'm okay with that. I don't need to listen to that. Yep, you do.

Yeah. And the ones that really get it, they not only accept that, that it's going to be hard, I think a lot of them just enjoy it. They enjoy the process of doing it. They enjoy going to the gym. They enjoy practicing. They enjoy the, even if they're not good at something. And that's always the toughest part to practice, right?

You're like, I'm not good at this. So I got to, I got to practice this. And then you just got to, you got to lean into it. And you're going to enjoy slowly getting better and maybe looking forward to those aha moments where you're like, oh, wait, I can do this. Or this is, this is awesome. This changes everything doing it this way. You know, the interesting part is not necessarily the fun stuff playing the sport.

It's the nutrition and the diet and the. exercise and the rehabilitation from when you're like all the grind stuff being in the weight room doing different types of like mobility and calisthenics and stretching all the stuff that's the real grind that the and you see it with the pro athletes right you see it with the ones that get to that level it's this all encompassing when you're not on the field of play or field of practice it's what are you doing to prepare yourself for when you get on there right and it's not like you said, spending six hours on a screen, and it's not eating a bag of chips. And those are the tough, that's the real tough one. And it never stops. Never stops. So we had, uh, we had a group text

going with me and my buddies, um, during the Canada game. And one of them texted it out, remember when people were worried about Horvats skating. And, you know, we also saw him score the goal yesterday. It was terrific skating. And it looks like one of the best skaters in the world, because he is now one of the best skaters in the world. And I didn't reply to the text, but I was like, yeah, there was a reason, though. I mean, when he got drafted, it wasn't a very good skater. And then he worked on it. Yeah.

And he was like, man, this is going to, this is potentially going to keep me back. So I'm going to go seek out some help for my skating and I'm really going to work on it. After you get drafted, you can still work on things. I mean, it's such a cliche now. when people talk about a guy like Sidney Crosby or the Greats, you know, you go back and talk about how, you know, who's a basketball player that became a better shooter? MJ?

He did. Like, there's a lot. He brought the three-pointer in, you know, like that became more of a factor in his game. And, you know, Sid is always working on stuff. And it's not, it's, again, like work, work to a lot of people has this, negative connotation. They don't see it that way.

They're like, this is an opportunity to get better. You know, it's cool. I'm a really good athlete. I bet if I worked at this, I could get better at this. Okay, a couple of things here. Rob the plumber says, I may have cut you off while you were trying to make a point

about Rick taking the job in the Bay Area. Did I do that? I apologize if I cut you short on something. No, I don't think so. Okay, great. No, no, no. Oh, well, my point was like he takes the job in the Bay Area.

and then he's probably like, man, that's going to be away from my family a lot. And then it's like Maclin not only gets drafted to the sharks. And a lot of things had to fall into place for that to happen. A lot. Not only gets drafted to the sharks, but almost immediately becomes this impact star player. And Rick Celebrating is like,

we have to take another trip. And it's to Italy for the election. Olympics. Yeah, my 19-old kid just happens to be one of the best players in the league now. Okay, friend of the reminder, it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the show. Get them in. Dumbar, Lumber, Texline is 650, 650. AJ's going to join us on the other side of the break. You will receive a $100 gift card to AJ's for the best Ask Us Anything. Three-putt Shane has one. Ask us anything. Is anybody sick of Matthew and Brady Kachuk? Yes, very much so. Remember yesterday when I said there's too many podcasts? Too many Kachucks

Too many Well they got They unfortunately have a podcast Oh do they? Oh yeah you haven't seen the Matthew and Brady Kichuk podcast I thought there's just them banging rocks It was pretty close

I saw a thing about the Kachucks That apparently Brady has B Kachuk On the back of his jersey Matt Kachuk just has Kachuk Oh is that how they're doing it Yeah I don't know But usually it's both players have the initial How did the Siddines handle it?

They didn't have any initial right They just win the Sadeen Interesting They both fight a very confusing. I wonder if they altered it for international play. I have no idea. I don't know what the Swedish jersey looks like. Anyway, back to this point. I've had my

issues with the way the Kachucks go about their business. Let me preface it all by saying this. They're extremely talented players. I think ultimately and I hate this phrase, but they're good for the game. I do think that they're genuinely good for the game because

of the way that they play it. And also because of they're not afraid to lean into everything that goes along with being an athlete and a celebrity. They are that right now. They are very much, they're probably the faces of American hockey, I would say,

because of the way that they lean into the celebrity part of it. And is there a camera that they've never not seeked out and liked? I don't think so. But ultimately, I think they're good for the game. I like this, Mike. They're the Paul brothers of hockey.

A little bit. Pretty accurate. Pretty accurate. Pretty on the table. No. Pretty on the nose. Oh, that's awesome. The Kachukh should be like, that's a compliment. They would. They were like, that's awesome. There is a, there is an element of that without question, right? If you kind of did a hybrid thing with like the Paul brothers and the Kelsey brothers, I think out would spit Matthew and Brady Kachuck.

And they understand, what I really like about them is they understand that this is their time and their moment for all of it, for what they're doing in the National. Hockey League. I will say this. I give them tons and tons of credit for ratcheting up this rivalry between Canada and the U.S. Point blank, the Canada-U.S. rivalry going into these games and what happened to the Four Nations is not the same level of heated rivalry that we would see if it wasn't for Brady and Matthew Kachuk.

Don't say heated rivalry. Why not? It's very heated. It's hot. It's hot. They understood the assignment and they were like, we're going to not, I mean, because you talked about in 2014 when the Americans lost to the Canadians that there was that notion of you were afraid. You were afraid of you played scared against them. And I think at the four nations, part of that very orchestrated fight at the beginning of the game was to say, not on our watch.

Like we are the Kichucks. We're the frontline guys here. And we might not, you know, ultimately we didn't win gold at four nations, but we're not going to play scared in this tournament. I think they go a long way and setting that tone. So there's my very, very thorough analysis and recap of Brady and Matthew Kachuk. We are up against it for time. Our one of the program is in the books. Our two is on the horizon.

We're going to be joined next by Matt Cullen, not the three-time Stanley Cup champion, Matt Cullen. This one, CBC play-by-play for men's hockey, and my new favorite, snowboard cross at the Olympics. Mark and White Rock. Brady Cachuk has a B on his jersey, so he remembers which Cachie is. You're listening to the Halvard and Rough Show on Sportsnet 650.