Halford & Brough in the Morning - Canucks Goaltending Is In Trouble + WWL

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

In hour 3 Mike and Jason catch up with Thomas Drance discussing the latest Canucks news including the team’s goaltending situation. They also told us what they learned!  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.

And what we just have to call Thomas Grant's Erotica. Thomas Grant's Erotica. Corsi. Thomas Grant's Erotica. Expected goals. Thomas Grant's erotica. Top model. Thomas Grant's erotica.

Rug rushing. Thomas Grant's erotica. PDO. Thomas Grant's erotica. 802 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda,

Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 3 of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound.

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Thomas Drance joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Drancer. How are you? Gentlemen, good morning. On your bingo card for the Canucks offseason, did you have an August,

or sorry, back half of August filled, littered, with goalie-related news, drama, and controversy? Look, nothing could be less surprising than the sentence you just uttered. So I feel like that's the free square on Canucks bingo, right? It's like mid-August drama involving goaltending. You know, that's just like assume that you get that every year.

But no, I would not have thought so and and you know i think a big part of the reason why is how close thatcher demko looked when i last saw him on the ice uh ahead of game six in edmonton right i mean um you know i watched i actually filmed a little portion of it so that i could send it off to Woody, who obviously has a keener eye for this sort of stuff than I do. You know, push-offs, post-integrations, lots of up and down from his knees. I mean, he looked like an option for Game 7, to be totally honest with you like to the point where even when talk it announced ahead of game seven that uh she loves would start like i made sure to be there for walkouts now i'm always there for walkouts but sometimes i'm there in a more perfunctory way because there's no lineup suspense and that night

like i really thought until i saw that demko wasn't the first guy out i wasn't going to be certain that he wasn't going to play. I mean, this is game seven. This is, you know, there is no tomorrow potentially. And he looked so close the game before, or the day before, two days before. So, you know, I guess I'm surprised in the context of, man, it looked like he'd done it again.

Like he'd pushed, he'd worked, he'd, you know, rehabbed aggressively. And it looked like he was an option. So I think that's the context through which I think this is a bit of a surprise to me. But, you know, it's Vancouver. I mean, we've covered this team for long enough to know that, you know, the soap opera is never ending, ceaseless. What did you make of the news that Artur Silovs was not on the Latvian roster for the Olympic qualifiers to get underway today in Riga?

Well, I mean, interesting. I think you're relieved to see that and then concerned when you see the commentary from the head coach, which I know Ars Satyar Shah posted a Google Translate to it on Twitter. So, or X, excuse me. So everyone can go check out that. Look, I mean, she loves stars for his country. He's obviously had a sterling international resume, like a storied international resume at this point in his career, which is amazing given his youth.

Certainly you hope there's nothing there or nothing significant there. I don't know if there is. Like I haven't done that work yet because I've been on vacation this week. But, you know, look, the fact that the Canucks have been making offers to the likes of Kevin Lankanen and sniffing around on the goalie market certainly makes even more sense with sort of the decision to hold Shelovs off of the Latvian national team this week. We're speaking to Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver

here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We had Justin Pogge on the show earlier this week, which was actually a very cool conversation. Yeah. In part because of, like, he's got a full-time gig now, and he's taking the next evolution in his coaching career and what have you. But we went back and talked about a lot from his playing days. You didn't talk about the comeback.

Which? The World Junior comeback. The Russian one. What? You'll have to get me up to speed on what you're talking about here. Oh, no, that was Vizentin. That was Mark Vizentin. Yeah, yeah, no.

We talked about pokey. That was a 5-0 win over the Russians. I was like, what comeback? I'm pretty sure it was a very comfortable victory, if I'm not mistaken. I don't think they pressed in the end, actually. I think they gave up. You know, Jason. They hit Gino all the way back

to the dressing room if i recall jason was really good about it because we waited and waited and waited and then we're like okay now we're going to talk about 2006 because i feel like you know if you're gonna have justin justin pogey had a long storied career in europe and did a lot of things beyond 06 but everyone thinks about justin pogey and they think about pogey 06 tuka rask andrew ray crofton and then the Leafs, right? And it was funny because, I mean, I think part of – he was very gracious in answering and everything, and he remembered back in the day when he used to drink Pepto-Bismol

before every game because the nerves were so bad going into those games. But it was interesting to talk to him that he comes from it from a very unique perspective, a very unique career, and now is going to start working with young goalies like he was so many years ago yeah i mean there you you'd think there's got to be some level of like utility in having had that experience and just a an extraordinarily high strung hockey market like toronto and then you know sort of the legacy of the Rask trade and how that trended badly almost immediately. You know, it's easy, like as dark as it's been in this market, you know, the last 12 months excluded on occasion, like I lived in Toronto in in in 06 right like i went to university there 05 through 08 and

then lived there thereafter for uh five five years and like those pre babcock announcing that there was going to be pain years like i've never seen anything that grim right like ever and and it was incredibly predictable. That was like the Muskoka Five era through to like the Toronto Sun running the headline when the Leafs signed Jeff Finger in free agency, right? The Leafs give their fans a finger. What about the Mike Komiseric signing? That went well. Yeah, Komiseric and Beauchemin, right?

It was just so grim, so unrelentingly grim through the whole thing, right? Like, literally Don Cherry kissing Nazem Kadri, prompting tons of Southern Ontario families to drop Gretzky comps on Nazem Kadri was like the highlight of it. I mean, it was just brutal um so you know to have come up in that milieu with pressure that sort of applied to you the way it was on pogey as a result of an external factor that really has nothing to do with you right like rask raycraft that has nothing to do with him, you know, was sort of the prism through which his early career

and the start of his professional career and like every up and down in his professional career was judged. I mean, that was like if it felt dark in Vancouver, I promise you, like that was midnight at an almost different level. And so, you know, there's got to be utility as a teacher and having gone through that as a player um especially now that you know you're going to be a guy working in a madcap hockey market of its own right um there's got to be something that you're able to draw from that uh that either informs your own calmness and your own perspective and working with a young player or or you know that

you're actually able to pass along is like hard experience hard examples um and to better understand what what you know your pupils are going through so um you know a really interesting a really interesting signing for the Canucks in replacing Marco Trenius with with Justin Poggi and yeah that that ghosts of 066 sort of side of it is fascinating. Yeah, we'll see what the milieu is like in Abbotsford this season, I guess. Did I say milieu? Yes, that was a good one, though. That was good.

Drancer, is it fair to conclude, or is it fair to wonder, if there was some disagreement between management, including Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen, and Ian Clark about how hard goalies should be pushed, how hard they should be worked during the regular season? You know, I think it's fair to sort of wonder about it. I'd be surprised if that sort of extended to like how often they start are sort of part of the very Clarkian notion. I'm going to,

I'm just going to give him that the Clarkian notion that a goaltender's job isn't just to stop pucks at like an above average rate by say percentage, but is, is also partly to inspire the team, right? So this is one of the things that Clark demands of his goalies, for example. Clark demands, or the expectation is, that, you know, you should be the goalie who inspires your team.

You should never be the reason as the goaltender, and we see it 50 times a season across the league, especially with those teams where the puck's not being stopped, where like a goal goes in and the whole team slumps, right? Like that, you're supposed to be the reason that everyone believes they're going to win every night. That's one of the expectations of what Clark teaches. And so what does that require?

Well, it requires a certain, you know, body language, right? You don't overreact to goals against, right? It requires a certain you know body language right you don't overreact to goals against right it requires a certain level of of work uh a certain you know understanding among the group that like this guy is working harder than everyone else so we owe him in this moment you know we need a goal we're going to press we owe our goalie for for that letdown we have whatever uh we're going to block this shot owe our goalie for that letdown we have. Whatever. We're going to block this shot for our goalie because we know how he works. We know how he carries himself. It requires that if you're a little dinged up, you don't show it. Right. Like there's a stoic approach that's sort of part of Clark's like holistic view of how a goaltender fits and what their role is within, you know, the context of an NHL environment.

And look, it's worked, right? I mean, there have been a lot of goalies that have gone through Clark, have worked with Clark, and have gone on to be that guy. You know, we don't have to list them. Some of them are in the Hall of Fame. Others will be, especially now that they won the Stanley Cup. So, you know, there's that sort of force here, right? That sort of paradigm from Clark.

And then, you know, I'm sure there's some sense that like, okay, well, do we have to have our goalies, you know, do this specific positional reaction that might be a strain on their lower body when we're up to by two goals in the last minute of game one? Like, does he need to do like we have possession with the puck and we're skating around their net? It's a nothing play. This is the play that demko actually got hurt on like does he have to go into that specific stance and push off in that moment or is are there moments where we can chill right like are there moments where we can ease off where we can sort of look globally um you know i do think that's uh some source of tension um but i you know i don't know that that would be decisive in sort of shaping the outcome we got to here. So what do you think happened in all this?

What did we learn? No, look, I think the fact that Clark needed to take a step back from the day-to-day goalie coaching on the ice for physical reasons, I think that's true. Everything I've heard is that that was true and that it's sort of been long considered. You know, I think it was a surprise that it happened this year when it happened to me anyway. I thought that was a little further afield. And then the way that he was sort of made just a scout as opposed to retaining his director of goaltending title

uh that one's a little harder for me to parse like i'm not going to build a theory when i don't know for sure you know i think the um i i think the club like i just think the club sort of reacted to it and said, you know, okay, we want to keep you in a more limited capacity, you know, in titles or whatever. But, you know, certainly there's implications from doing it that way, including that Clark, who's, you know, part of what he does is he has this book, Scouting Goaltenders, right? And there's, you know, he's been know part part of what he does is he has this book scouting goaltenders right and there's you know he's been a huge part of Vancouver's goalie um scouting process on the amateur side

over the years um you know she loves the famous there's a famous story that uh every round every pick from round three before the pick got made uh someone at the Canucks draft table would get a text from Ian Clark banging the table for them to take Shebovs, right? Like, you know, he's been very involved. And so, you know, there is now a risk of sorts at play here that another team could step in and make him an offer and offer him the director of goaltending title,

which he lost in this sort of reorg. And that would be something that the Canucks would have a difficult time sort of standing in his way on, given that it would be a promotion. So, you know, look, I get it. We're all going to connect dots. This is Vancouver. But until I sort of have a really good sense of, you know, some of the real politic dynamics, I'm not going to suggest any theories

so much as just sort of look at the board and the consequences. Does it change the approach for Rick Talkett and the coaching staff heading into training camp and the preseason and the start of the regular season? Well, I don't think so. I mean, look, it's a change for sure. You know, and it's a change too in terms of like who you're getting commentary from uh at intermissions right like clark serves as the eye in the sky and obviously his main

focus is going to be his goaltenders but there's also a pre-scouting element right there there's also um you know an overall hockey knowledge element that yeah that's going to be an adjustment uh for sure but i don't think it changes. I don't think it should change sort of the overall approach or the overall approach of how this team is going to need to play. I'd add this, like Vancouver's goaltending, or sorry, specifically Vancouver's defensive environment, I think got to a point, you know, it'll talk a lot about making the goalies only play half the net right relative to

making goalies play 150 percent of the net which we often saw during the pudra era right like this team has played with soccer net um no this team has gotten to a point defensively where i do think you can survive for sure yeah um if you have to start the season even if even if it goes you know a little longer like even if it's like the first six weeks with uh she loves patera or maybe patera and veteran goalie x or she loves in veteran goalie x but do you rob peter a little less to pay paul when you're talking about like one of their one of their focuses on... What's that? The creativity side? Yeah, getting more opportunities on the rush.

I'm not saying that they were going to go into this season blowing the zone on every opportunity, but I think they were... I mean, those were Talkett's words, by the way. Sometimes you have to rob Peter to pay Paul a little bit. Maybe they dialed that back a little bit? I don't think they should. Honestly? I don't think they should. Honestly, I don't think they should

because I think this team's defensive game sustainably too, right? Sustainably, I think, hit a level where they still need to evolve, right? This team was generating shots on goal at five on five like they were Chicago or Arizona, right? Like they're Detroit, Montreal, right? Like no good teams, no good teams. That, that needs to level up.

Like, I don't care who the goaltender is. That's, that's like, what does this team need to do to be elite? Cause they're already pretty much elite at, at sort of restraining what teams generate against them. But if they're going to be an elite team, they need to be able to generate scoring chances. Like, they need to have a more reliable source of, like, offensive pressure put on the goaltender

that's not just shots from the point, right? That's not just second-stick opportunities. Like, they need to evolve off the rush. And, I mean, it's one thing if you start oh and five in october or something like that then maybe it's time to batten down the hatches but but i don't think that's going to happen to this team there's too much talent and there's too much of a defensive spine like i think this team needs to continue to evolve and and like talk it and company can't go in coaching scared you know you can't go go in and coach like you have no trust in your goaltenders.

In my view, you have to trust that this team can figure it out, that this team can defend well enough. And I think there's lots of reasons for us to believe that they can't based on what we saw throughout last season. Like, I think you just got to go full steam ahead. And more than anything, more than anything, you know, like, is this an opportunity where, you know, look, it looks grim, and I know I see a lot of Canucks fans talking about,

like, oh, you know, that old feeling, right? Like the, like, very Bo Burnham, like, there it is again, that funny feeling. Yeah, well, that's called being a Canucks fan. Right. But there is a way, in my view anyway, to take a long view. Like, do exactly what you did. If you get average or even slightly below average goaltending, you know, in, in games that Demko doesn't play, so be it,

but maybe this is an opportunity to sort of really keep your starter fresh. Right? Like maybe this is an opportunity to go into the season and, you know, take the cap that you had on his games maybe it was 55 and reduce it by 10 um we've seen it we see it we literally see every year that demko has these like six to ten week stretches where he stops everything like he looks completely unbeatable you're in the the rink the canucks take a lead and you almost feel sorry for the other team and it's like if you could ever get that six or 10 weeks stretch in May and June,

right. Then there's going to be a lot of happy Canucks fans, right. It's like, is this an opportunity to work toward that? Right. To keep that as your primary focus, as opposed to continuing to try and sort of operate in,

in a world where Demco is a workhorse starter, something that, you know, just hasn't worked to this point. It's not to say it won't, right? Like, it's not to say it's fate that it won't. But to this point, when this team has played him 60-plus games, like, toward the end of the season, there have been sort of diminishing returns. You know, there's an opportunity in this this one that could even be turned to the club's advantage.

I think depending on how they manage it. Drancer, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend. We'll do this again next week. Thanks boys.

Be well. Bye. You too. Thanks. Thomas Drance from the athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. We got a little bit of time before we go to break. So I'll kick things off, get the ball rolling with what we learned.

Because I learned this morning that the last and final NFL starting quarterback vacancy has been filled. Congratulations to Jacoby Brissett, who has officially been named the starter in New England. You knew that was going to happen because the coach didn't want to announce it because he knew everyone was going to be upset. Here is the least encouraging vote of confidence in a starter from Patriots head coach Gerard Mayo.

We have decided, or I have decided, that Jacoby Brissett will be our starting quarterback this season. In saying that, as an organization, we are 100% behind Jacoby. There is no, you got a guy right here, you got a guy right there. We're 100% behind Jacoby. He then went on to say that what's good for the team right now might not be what's best for the team a few weeks from now. So congratulations to Jacoby Brissett. You have this game against the Bengals on Sunday, September 8th, and then maybe two more before Drake May becomes the starting quarterback. I don't really know.

Drake May was the only guy, right? Yeah. Well, of the well, panics, panics, and then J.J. McCarthy got hurt. Yeah, McCarthy would have been the guy, I assume. And then everyone else gets to start. But nobody's sitting there in Atlanta going, what are the Falcons doing?

Because they signed Kirk Cousins. Okay, eliminating that, with regards to May, it's a bit strange because there are other rookie quarterbacks in this class that are going maybe not necessarily as grim because the the patriots look like they're going to be really not good um it just seems like the the common path right now it with rookie quarterbacks despite tom brady's protestations is you may as well find out what they're made of right

away that just seems to be the norm like i know what i know what atlanta i kind of disagree with that i think you need to know what you have as a team as well if your offensive line is a problem and you're not a very good team i wouldn't be putting like a first overall pick out i absolutely have time for what you're saying i think i think you might be right to a certain degree i'm just saying what's the norm in the the NFL is you draft this guy. He's going to be the franchise. You're ready to anoint him. You embrace the hardness.

You embrace the hardness. You tell this guy, like, listen, it's not going to be easy. Go out there and find a way. Let's see what your man is. You don't make it medium hard or soft hard even for Drake, man. You make it hard hard. We'll explain all this on the other side. And then he dislocates his shoulder on the first play.

You're like, you're right. That was hard hard. That was hard. That's on me. That's on me. Yeah. And then he dislocates his shoulder on the first play. You're like, you're right, that was hard, hard. That was hard. That's on me. That's on me, yeah. Okay, so Mook, how that? When we go to break, we'll explain what hard, hard is and all these other things.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Now for my favorite part of the show What does that say? Talk to the audience Oh god, 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 8.32 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour three of the program. It is what we

learn time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We have a couple of Canucks related what we learned that we need to do here. I'm struggling with the order in which to do them. Let's go with the bad news first. Sure. And then the funny stuff.

And then we'll lighten it up. The hard news. The hard funny stuff. Okay, Jason has an update on Artur's Shelob's. Thanks to Patrick Johnston from the province for, uh, being one of the few people in the

world that follows the, uh, Latvian hockey federation outside of Latvia on, uh, X formerly known

as Twitter. Uh, because the Latvian hockey federation about eight hours ago did come out with a more specific update on

Archer's Seelops. And here's what they said. And here's why Seelops won't be playing in the Olympic qualifying tournament. Are you going to do it in the native tongue? No, I can't do that. But I will read the Google translation. Notice!

With an exclamation mark. Initially, it was planned to register goalkeeper Artur Silovs for the tournament, who unfortunately did not manage to recover quickly enough from knee ligament inflammation, which prevents him from participating in the tourney games with maximum efficiency. Which is incredible. And then I shouldn't be laughing because this is tough news, but he can't be maximum efficient. And then the Federation adds in a follow-up tweet,

this injury, here we go, could threaten the start of the new season in the Vancouver Canucks canucks nhl club all right so uh so both goalies both goalies that's something both knees you gotta understand for the reason the reason that we're uh we're it's i what you're hearing is kind of stunned silence but more just i think it's the the realness of what's going on sinking in. Right. This is not good. You can't even blame a workload for it.

It's the off season. Yeah, that's the frustrating part, right? Some people will accuse Halford and Brough of forcing an agenda and making up stories where there's not and being outright liars and being overweight. But all of those things are not true. In this instance, we're just reporting things as they are being delivered to us. I mean, you cannot say at this stage, with everything that we know and everything that's out there, the entirety of goaltending in this organization

is in a state of flux, arrears, if you will. Yeah, yeah. Starting goalies hurt. The backup goalies got inflamed ligaments, which don't allow him to be maximum efficient. One goalie coach has been demoted. Another goalie coach got promoted. They just brought in a guy from Columbus.

That translation was like Mr. Sparkle. Yeah. Super cleaning power. With maximum efficiency. Yeah. So, yeah, I think Mike's right. I mean, it's just a state of flux. Now, this could all blow over in a matter of weeks

as the regular season gets underway, but it is going to be a story. At training camp, it's been widely reported that Thatcher Demko is not going to be able to participate in training camp and may or may not be ready for the start of the regular season. And now there's uncertainty with Archer Seelovs and the Ian Clark situation is mixed into all of this. I can't even, I can't even waste time and energy on the thing anymore.

We got more pressing matters. Everyone's knees are falling off. Okay. So here's how we, here's how we transition to the next topic. Hey, nobody said this was supposed to be easy. Sometimes there are challenges that you have to overcome. Winning the Stanley Cup is hard. So let's just play the audio, okay?

And then I'll explain it on the other side. Here's 15 seconds of uninterrupted Rick Talkit talking about hard. Hey, before we start, great seeing everybody, obviously. And I think you guys know this. For me, it's not going to be easy. I don't like when people say, it's going to be hard because it's going to be easier tomorrow. It's going to be hard tomorrow.

So you might as well condition yourself that it's going to be hard. And I think we have to have that mentality. How hard is it going to be? They're embracing the hard. In a video. Even now Talkit's going to come out and it's like, man, I didn't to be hard. And I think we have to have that mentality. How hard is it going to be? They're embracing the hard in a video. Even now talk is going to come out. I was like, man, didn't mean this hard.

Yeah, this is too nice to have one goalie. Yeah, we had hard, hard, and then we lost both goalies. Now it's too hard. Uh,

there's a, there's a video that's circulating posted by the Canucks overnight on social, uh, where it's a two and a half minute snippet of Rick Talkett's coaching summit and featured in the video, everyone you would expect, Adam Foote, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Manny Malhotra,

all the coaches getting together to have a summit, right? Where you want to lay out your goals and objectives for the year. And everyone's got a project. Right. You all have to come prepared. There's also-

And one of them I bet was like, Talk was like, you just did that with ChatGPT, didn't you? I think this feels kind of fake. The English is wonky. Show your work. Yeah. On a screen, which I believe is a PowerPoint presentation,

in the background of Rick Toc's speech, is a graphic with the words, embrace hard. So if you're wondering what one of the objectives for the team and the coaching staff this year is going to be, it's embrace hard. Day one, I don't want to go really hard. I want to go medium hard. The second day is going to be really hard. There's levels of hard.

As you just heard. There are degrees of hard. You can be soft hard. You can be medium hard. You can be hard hard. And can be medium hard. You can be hard hard. And then there's what the Canucks are going through right now, which I guess is like extra hard. They also

showed the staples that the Canucks will be focusing on. And the pillars. Oh, right. Oh, right. I forgot about the pillars. The pillars, okay, the pillars are invest, compete, energy, command. You're just words. This is translated.

Full body. This is translated from the Latvian PowerPoint presentation, I think. Efficient, maximum. The staples are changes. We've heard about that. They're line changes. Oh, the line changes. Connected.

Stay connected as a five-man group, I imagine. Attitude, that's important. Hunt mentality. That's two words. You want to get that puck? You go get it. It's not supposed to be easy to go get that puck. You got to have a hunt mentality.

Selfless is another one. That one speaks to me. I'm so selfless. How many staples? Well, there's eight. There's eight. Just let me get through it. There's eight staples?

There's eight staples. And how many pillars? Four. That's 12. Yeah. It's a bit of a pyramid scheme they're running there. Tr's eight staples. There's eight staples. And how many pillars? Four. That's 12. Yeah. It's a bit of a pyramid scheme they're running there. Tracking is another one.

And that's, you know, tracking. Like on your VHS player? Yeah. On the back check. That's right. Oh. Scan the ice.

That's a good one. You got to scan the ice. You got to know what's going on with the puck. There's a difference between tracking. Sometimes you got to put that puck to the weak side.

That's scanning. You got to scan it. Okay. But don't always do that because you might throw a pizza between tracking. Sometimes you got to put that puck to the weak side. That's scanning. You got to scan it. Okay. But don't always do that because you might throw a pizza. Okay. And then the final one

is chipping the body. Ouch. Yeah. Chipping the body is just actually that's something they teach in like that's not. It's what Bill Gates

wants to do to everyone. Or so I've been told. I don't know if you guys have heard this. Chipping the body is just getting a little piece of someone to throw them off balance. Right. That's all. Don't let them skate in a straight line. Just give them a little bit.

Yeah, you don't need to hammer them or anything. Chipping the body, it's also legalized interference. Right. That's a good way of looking at it. Yeah. Okay, so chipping the body is- But some people don't do that, right? They won't chip the body because it's hard.

Because sometimes if you chip the body, you get a stick in the mouth. You got to embrace the hardness. Yeah. Like chipping the body. I enjoy having. And that's why your attitude is important, which brings me back to the third staple. I've lost track. How many staples are there?

And if you have that hunt mentality, you're going to be chipping the body. Now you have to be selfless in order to do this. And don't forget, scan the ice. While tracking. Simple. Yeah. I'm so confused. I enjoy how he used the Staples brand.

And that is how. Is it? Yeah. Nice. Company Staples. And that is how the Canucks will operate at maximum efficiency. It's like a TED Talk. It's two minutes and 19 seconds long.

I think we need a moo cow on all of this. The Dunbar Lumber text message in basket, as expected, an unholy mess right now. Before we get to the humanoids, Laddie, Lena, regular Zach, anyone want to do a What We Learned? Does anyone have anything? Lena's got one. Lena's got one.

Lena's got one. With some audio. While we're on the theme of hard, sports updates can be hard. They can be. Oh, no. We're going to play this? Yes. Oh, God.

We all do need a laugh at someone else's expense. Lena, what are we talking about? Now, clearing your throat can also be hard sometimes. And while you're doing sports updates, clearing your throat can also be hard sometimes. And while you're doing sports updates, that is your worst nightmare. Okay. So, on 680 News, there was a... Do I out his name? No, you know what?

Just say an individual. An individual was trying to give an update on the U.S. Open. And, well, let's just play it. Day four of the U.S. Open. The only Canadian left in singles play goes today. Gabriel. Here's me. Diallo goes against.

I'm choked. I'm not. Big weekend in golf. FedEx company decided the tour championship. Any water? Sports. Live cars. And that's how it ended. Was that radio yeah it was radio i mean this has happened to me

before i think i choked on the word traditional or something like that you went through puberty uh but that one was he did he say he choked on a nut? Yeah. Choked on a nut. Can we play it one more time? Now, listen for this. Does he make like a dog arf sound? Is there an arf in there? Let's play it one more time. One more time.

Yeah, the whole thing. I think he's like, he turns in, for just a second, he turns into a dog. Day four of the U.S. Open, the only Canadian left in singles play goes today. Gabriel... Here's me. Diallo goes against... I'm choked.

I'm not. Big weekend in golf. FedExCup. They decided the tour championship. Eddie Water. Sports... He powered through. The best thing came back on Saturday.

All right. Monster trucks this Thursday. I'm so sorry that we had to play that. But he came back on Saturday. All right. Monster trucks this Thursday. I'm so sorry that we had to play that, but he came back. The next update was fine. Everyone's happy. People were worried about him. People were worried about him. All right.

JD and Coquitlam says. Hold on, hold on, hold on. The dialogue goes against. Brough's secondhand embarrassment just went off the charts. Yeah. Although I've experienced that. I had a big choke on traditional. I also had a major voice break at one point.

I don't know if you guys remember that. We probably have it saved somewhere. Yeah, we've got it saved somewhere. It was, I mean, it was funny. I think Justin and Ysvan might have put it out there, by the way. I'm sure he does. Anyway, Laddie, before you go perusing for rough choking, the countless number of clips in the folder for that one,

let's fire up the dot matrix. Oh, we got a moo cow. This one. Let's moo cow. Come on. Let's fire up the dot matrix. Oh, my God, we're having a fire. Oh, my God god we're having a fire oh my god we're having a fire plan so good and now we go to the humanoids scott with an early what we learned right on the heels of

rick tocket's embrace hard mantra scott wants to know does this mean kevin woodley is on the canucks coaching staff now hashtag morning woodag morning wood. Hashtag embrace hard. Thank you for making the most obvious joke possible, Scott. We really appreciate that. Basketball Phil, who never texts in about hockey. He texts in about hockey? No, he doesn't. Oh.

No, I'm just noticing. Basketball Phil, what we learned. Coach Prime is back tonight with Colorado playing North Dakota State. Will he ban more local media after the game should they lose? We got the guy. We got the guy. What's his name? Sean Keeler.

Sean Keeler. He's coming on the show tomorrow. He's coming on the show tomorrow. The guy that Primetime banned from asking him questions. And yeah, like this is quite a story in college football. Right. So explain how this all went, the excitement around. Sean Keeler is a Denver Post columnist who's been following the University of Colorado Buffalo's

men's football program for the last two years. Okay. Last year was, of course, was the first year of the coach prime era, which started with all this great fanfare. Deion Sanders. Just so everyone knows. All this great fanfare. His son was the quarterback.

They had a couple of very noteworthy wins at the beginning of the year, and then it really started to crater, and they finished 4-8, and there were a bunch of controversies both on and off the field. Yeah. The pros obviously are that like the Buffs have sold out their season tickets for the second consecutive year. And they hadn't done that since 1996 back when they were competing for national titles.

Here's an interesting one. The university had a record setting 68,000 applicants for this fall semester, which they are oftentimes saying is a direct result of Deion Sanders and the notoriety and publicity that the school has got because they're on the front pages all the time. The negatives, of course, are that the team wasn't very good. They rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

And Sean Keillor, in particular, has been highly critical. And where the line got drawn by Deion Sanders and the university were what they considered personal attacks. So apparently in Deion Sanders' contract, too, he has the right to talk to any media he wants to and to ban certain media. I'm going to read three paragraphs from an ESPN story on this. It is unintentionally hilarious.

Okay. Okay. So it starts out talking about the decision to ban this guy. Okay. The decision comes two weeks after a news conference in which Sanders accused Keillor of quote unquote always being on the attack and asked him what happened to get you

like this? And then Sanders added, no I'm serious. I want to help because it's not normal. During the exchange Keillor asked multiple times if he could ask a football question and Sanders declined before moving on to a reporter Yeah. The reporter before Keillor at the news conference asked Sanders,

how important is it for everyone to have AFLAC as part of their life? And then in brackets, Sanders is a paid spokesperson for the insurance company. So, first question, how important is it for everyone to have Aflac as part of their life? Second question goes to this Keeler guy who asked football-related questions,

and Deion Sanders says, I'm not answering your questions because you're too negative. Third question after Keillor, any plans for your birthday? That's some good journalism. Those other guys might feel good about their jobs.

I went to journalism school. How important is it to have Aflac as part of your life? So you know how Donald Trump has had a pretty profound... Maybe it was the aflac duck though oh it could have been yeah um you know how donald oh i get a little press pass

he's got a bow tie on too um you know how donald trump has had a pretty profound effect on the way a lot of people talk and converse and really yeah right has he had a profound effect on our culture? Yeah. Crazy. Not to suggest that our guest tomorrow, Sean Keeler, has felt this effect, but he's coined a bunch of names for Deion Sanders that he uses repeatedly. So one is Deposition Deion, and the other one in my personal favorite, the Bruce Lee of BS.

Yeah. What do you feel like when you listen to Dion Sanders? I feel like I'm getting preached at. Like I'm listening to the Bruce Lee of BS. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. And he's all about him. Yeah, but he always. He always says it's not about him.

Like, I want to get to know why you're being like this. Well, it's because I feel like you read my articles then. Like, that's how. But why are you like this? Why are you so negative? Well, you went four and eight, and I think you're BSing. Right. The only thing I'll say is that the act and the shtick and everything,

it's actually very genuine. Because Deion Sanders, if there's one thing, he's always been like this from the moment that he broke into the nfl to the moment that he made the hall of fame to the moment that he went into coaching it's like he's a showman right true yeah that's so if you hire him and let him run a program this almost becomes part of the and he's kind of a power of positive thinking guy speaking of of Trump. Yeah. To the best ever dude. Anyway, I'm excited to talk to Sean tomorrow. It was a good get, and I'm really curious to see how this has affected his career, because now all of a sudden, like a rather, let's be honest,

anonymous college football reporter from the Denver Post is like, everyone knows who he is now because he's feuding with Deion Sanders. Colin and Tawasin, what we learned, BC United pulled a Joey Votto yesterday. Their numbers got so bad that they just said, forget it, we retire. That's good. That's pretty good. I feel I like Joey Votto, so that it's kind of-

Here's a question for you. Does that happen if Biden doesn't step down? Oh, he set the precedent, eh? Yeah. And now Kevin Falcon can be like, I'm a team player. Just wave. Yeah, yeah. Right?

I mean. Will JT do it now? There is something to be said for a late game switch. They don't see it coming. Yeah. You know, a substitution late in the game you don't see coming. It can change things. Turn a match on its head.

I noticed you didn't engage in my JT question no you're not even saying his name Justin Trudeau will he call a leadership race I thought we were talking about Justin Timberlake oh okay that's understandable

which by the way I watched that new Netflix documentary that's out on the seedy underbelly of the pop music icon Lou Pearlman, who created Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. It was long. It was a little too long. What was it? How seedy did it get? Well, he was running a Ponzi scheme.

He was running a Ponzi scheme. So he never actually had any of the money that he thought that he did. And he defrauded people out of millions and millions of dollars, investment fraud and everything else, and then fled to... Ponzi schemes are fascinating. Yeah, this one wasn't a really great one. Like it kind of, the house fell apart pretty quickly on him. He just fled the country.

That's kind of boring. Yeah, and it went on too long you know those you've watched a documentary series before where like this could have been two but you made it three that was what this one was i also watched the um the air mcnair the the murder of air mcnair the steve mcnair basketball phil said that one wasn't very good no um it offered absolutely zero new insider information like you could have found out that entire documentary spending 10 minutes on Google and the Wikipedia page.

So that's a bit of a disappointment. Oh, we're up against it for time. Okay. So, um, wow. I thought we'd get a lot of texts in as soon as I mentioned JT,

Justin Timberlake. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, regular Zach, remind me, I need to ask you about your experience with ballroom dancing. Cause someone texted in about that

and I don't even know what that is, but it's a great tease for tomorrow's show. It says, Woodrow the eligible bachelor, what we learned was Zach's experience in ballroom dancing. His nickname should be Cha-Cha Clark. I have no idea what any of that means.

It's already in Clark's nickname. I will get to the bottom of this tomorrow. Lad, you're going on nickname. I will get to the bottom of this tomorrow. Lad, you're going on vacation. I am. I'll be away for a week. Going to Toronto. We'll miss you dearly, but have a good time. I love this text that came in.

Giving up is the new power move. We got to get out of here today, but we will be back for tomorrow. Embrace giving up. Signing off, I have been Mike Alpert. He's been jason broff she's been lena he's been laddie he's been regular zach this has been the alfred and brough show on sportsnet 650. i don't want to go really hard i want to go medium hard