Halford & Brough in the Morning - Coach "Iron Mike" Keenan Meets HalBro

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk Week 5 highlights with Too Deep Zone NFL insider Mike Tanier (2:07), plus the boys are joined by former NHL & Canucks head coach, "Iron Mike" Keenan (25:45). 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.

This to tie it at 23. Snap, spot, kick is blocked! It's picked up and running the other way! Oh my word! Breaking through right up the middle against the Hawks. Blocking it and running it to the end zone. Oh, good heavens. Talk about not doing things in all three phases to win a football game. Got to give the Giants credit. They outplayed us today. 703 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody, except for those Seahawks.

That was a downer. Steve Rabel sounded upset. Mike McDonald sounded upset. He should have been upset. No time to be upset. No time to be upset. Truth. Right back at it.

Look at the Niners on Thursday night. What a horrible schedule. I mean, I'm not one of those guys who blames the schedule for any of this, but the Seahawks have a very legitimate shot of going from 3-0 to 3-3 in the span of 11 days. Yeah. That's not good. It's not good. You are listening to the

Halford & Brough Show on 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 two of the program. Mike Tanner is going to join us for some NFL talk in a moment here.

Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, definitely don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Just kidding. Let him do that. Visit him at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you to find the perfect mortgage for you. Just kidding. Let him do that. Visit him at Jason dot mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star

Google reviews. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec joining us now is our Monday morning quarterback brought to you by the Clayton public house pregame to post game. The Clayton public house is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them at theclaytonpub.com.

Mike Tanier from the 2 Deep Zone joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Mike. How are you? I'm doing well. It sounds like the mood among Seahawks fans is a little sour. It's not great. So when we, I think we talked to you after the Lions game, and they had excuses baked into the fact that they got torched by the Lions offense. It's a very good offense.

They were on the road. They were missing five or six defensive starters or rotational guys. So, okay, you give the Seahawks a pass on that one. Then yesterday happens where they get dominated by a, I would say, mediocre to sub-mediocre Giants offense. It was without Malik Neighbors and Devin Singletary, and Jason pointed it out in the intro. Time of possession in that one, the Giants had the ball for almost 38 minutes.

It was methodical and dominant and not very good from the Seahawks. And now also, as we mentioned, they got to play the Niners on Thursday. So, yeah, no, people are pretty sour about the Seahawks right now. I can imagine. See, when you get dominated by the Giants' defensive line, that's actually not so bad. The Giants' defensive line is the one thing they really, really have. When you get dominated by the Giants' offensive line, that's a problem.

I know guys are still out. Byron Murphy was still out, et cetera. Leo Williams was back. That's not a good offensive line. That's an offensive line with one good player in Andrew Thomas. So even if you're injured, you should be able to stand toe-to-toe with them and stop their backup running back and stop

Daniel Jones from picking you apart when he doesn't have his best target. And yet, that's not what happened, and that's not the situation you want to be in when you're facing an angry 49ers team in, I guess, 96 hours. Well, tell us a bit about the Niners and where they currently stand, and maybe a bit while you're at it, talk about Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals. Well, Kyler Murray is playing well.

Marvin Harrison is playing well. They're a very plucky, plucky Cardinals team. They don't give up. They're out there plucky, plucky Cardinals team. They don't give up. They're out there, you know, living their best lives. The 49ers are in complete control of that game when their kicker gets hurt. And I've never seen a team go into complete flop sweat panic mode over the loss of their kicker, especially a team like the 49ers. It's been the Super Bowls, you know, they've gotten to the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. They should be able to overcome anything. They've already got a lead.

Their kicker gets hurt, and Kyle Shanahan starts going into panic mode whenever they get close to the end zone. He starts calling ridiculous plays. Brock Purdy starts running around like he's Lamar Jackson getting sacked because they're afraid that they're not going to be able to score a touchdown. And even though the punter kicked like a short field goal, they were afraid to use their punter as like a kicker for like 30-yard field goals. So they just keep driving and turning the ball over and going for it

and forth and forever and doing these dumb things. And their defense, their great, great defense, allows Harrison and Murray and Connor in the running game to chip, chip, chip, chip back to it. And it's just a new and unique way for the 49ers to blow a lead. We know how good this 49ers team is, and yet they let these weaker opponents stay in the game, and then in the fourth quarter they go out of their way to find ways to lose the game, and it's absolutely shocking to watch.

So the Niners will definitely not have Christian McCaffrey against the Seahawks on Thursday. What is the long-term outlook for him, and how much of an effect does this have on the Niners? You know, I've started calling Christian McCaffrey the only injured player in the NFL. And we did this the other day. It's like, the Seahawks are riddled with injuries. There are teams that are just absolutely crippled with injuries right now,

and they're going out there. And for the 49ers, we lost another game. When is Christian McCaffrey getting back? Cause he's going to solve all the problems. So he's definitely out on Thursday. I think he's 99% certain to be out on Thursday. He might be coming back after that.

He will indeed have an impact. But when I look at a game like the one on Sunday, okay, McCaffrey's backup did fumble. Jordan Mason did fumble. You have to start asking questions like, where was Debo? You know, why isn't Iok more involved? Why isn't he being a more dominant player? Where's Kyle Juszczyk, who is like an eight-time pro ball fullback who's supposed to be able to do all these things for offense? Where's Kyle Shanahan in the fourth quarter? Where is the run defense

that needs to step up? The 49ers have a lot of problems, and I think one of their problems is institutionally, they suffer an injury like Christian McCaffrey that they should be able to overcome, and they're like,

oh, we won't be able to do this until he returns. We're speaking to Mike Tanier from the 2 Deep Zones sub stack here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, so there's a bunch of teams

that are currently a 1-4. Many of them quite bad. Cleveland's bad. New England's bad. Carolina's bad. Jacksonville's really bad. Then there's the Cincinnati Bengals. They maybe shouldn't be 1-4, but as Bill Parcells once said, you are what your record says you are.

Are the Bengals in serious danger of missing the playoffs? Yes, they are. Aaron Schatz just sent me a note with the DVOA analytical analysis, and he says the Bengals are the fourth best 1-4 team ever. Nice. Fourth best 1-4 team ever. What I don't have time to do while I'm on the air is say, what happened to 1-3?

Did they make the playoffs or miss the playoffs? We're going to go over that later on. But the saving grace for the Bengals is, yes, they are playing very well by the standards of a 1-4 team. And their upcoming schedule over the next couple weeks is at the Giants. You saw them yesterday in Seattle. They're really not that good. At the Browns, they're a mess.

And then the Bengals host the Eagles, who are also a mess, although they're another talented team who's a mess. So you look at that and you see a couple winnable games. The Raiders come in after that. There are three or four very winnable games on the upcoming schedule, and that can get the Bengals back to.500. Can that keep them in the playoff chase? Yes, especially

when you look at the teams that are falling off the playoff chase, like, I think, the Jets. Is that what the Bengals ask for, what they hope for coming into the season when they're a team with a Super Bowl pedigree? It's absolutely not. And it's going to be a struggle for them to stay in the No. 6, No. 7 wildcard picture. I'm going to ask you about Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings every week

until they lose. Because at this point, I'm not sure they're going to. It's incredible. 16-0. Are these guys for real? Yeah. Hey, the script just writes itself. You just ask every week, Are these guys for real? Yeah. The script just writes itself. You just ask every week, are these guys for real? You wrote

a ton about Darnold and the Vikings for your sub-sec this week. What were you writing about? What did you think of them taking care of business, going to London and beating Aaron Rodgers and the Jets? Taking care of business, going up to 5-0. They are now minus 1,000 to make the playoffs. They are now a playoff team.

And I hesitate to go beyond their play a playoff team because, again, we haven't seen them lose. We haven't seen them at their worst yet. Darnold has erased the script of his first six years. You know, going out, beating the Jets, watching Aaron Rodgers get, like, wrapped up in all this Jets drama and throw three interceptions in an internationally televised loss. Darnold conquered all of that,

all that stuff that happened in the past with seeing ghosts and Aaron, Adam Gates and all that other crazy stuff. And he has graduated now to, I really don't know how good Sam Darnold really is. He really didn't look that good yesterday. I think he was playing hurt for much of the game, but he's a legitimate NFL quarterback now. He's a starter. Yeah. Just like Gino Smith is a starter and just like a lot of the Baker Mayfield

is a starter in the NFL. He's gotten past all of that early career stuff, and good for him, and good for the Vikings, because when you've got a starting quarterback, whether he's above average, good, great, or comeback player of the year, when you've got that guy that gives you an opportunity to make a deep playoff run.

Are we going to see Drake May start for the New England Patriots soon? I kind of have expected it. I watched that game yesterday. The only thing that the Patriots offensive line can do right is commit holding penalties these days. They are terrible.

They only protect Brissette when they're holding. Andrews, their longtime starter, Tom Brady's old starter, the only guy you could name on their offensive line, is now injured. So I don't know what you saw by putting Drake May out there, except for the chatter out of New England is that the veterans are tired of this. You know, the veterans on defense are like, we can't pitch near shutouts and lose every week.

They want to see a change. So I think the pressure will come for Jared Mayer to put Drake May out there. The longer he waits, the more likely he's going to be in a situation where May will go out there where they can do something offensively around him, protect him a little bit, make plays for him a little bit. And it's not just going to be a situation where you break your rookie quarterback out of the box. You know, I didn't think that heading into week six, I would be really looking forward to the Washington-Baltimore game. But man, that's going to be a good one.

Not only is that a regional rivalry, the commanders are four and one. They've had back-to-back blowout wins. They got a rookie quarterback in Jaden Daniels. What is the key, what has been the key to their success early on for those people just catching up on the Washington Commanders yeah so much has gone right Jaden Daniels looks like the best rookie quarterback in several years well you know Stroud last year's okay he's one of the best rookie quarterbacks in several years he runs the ball very well he throws a incredible deep ball he makes good decisions you know he'll get of balance. He'll throw a ball away, do things that you think of like the five or six-year veteran doing. And Cliff Kingsbury,

who I kind of think is a goofball, has been absolutely phenomenal as a play caller. You don't know what's coming next. He's created some easy short throws for Daniel so that Daniel can highlight what he does deep. They're running the ball well. All these guys you've never really thought of, like Jeremy McNichols and Diami Brown, are stepping up to help the guys you've heard of, like Terry McLaurin. They play everything they're clicking. I don't know how sustainable it is for the long haul, but in terms of this being a great foundation

for Daniels and Quinn and for the future of the Commanders, it couldn't be going any better than it is right now. We're speaking to Mike Tanier here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Mike, before we let you go real quick, Monday Night Football, it's a good one. It's the still undefeated Kansas City Chiefs against a surprising,

I would say, New Orleans Saints team tonight. What are you expecting? What are you looking for tonight? I need to see what the Chiefs do without Rasheed Rice for a full game. I need to see what that game plan is, who gets the ball, whether worthy can be anything more than like the trick play and bomb guy, you know, who steps up in those roles. I've got friends who like every week say things like, you know, this is probably the week where the Chiefs blow one and every week they don't. But this is the week where I would at least say, hey, I believe the

spread is five and a half. You can take the Saints at 5.5 and feel pretty comfortable that if the Chiefs do win, they're going to have to grind it out by 3 points or 4 points. Mike, this was great. As always, thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the game tonight. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Monday. My pleasure. Take care. Enjoy your week. You too. Thanks. That's Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the 2 Deep Zone here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So we've got a guest coming up in about 15 minutes

that once played a very pivotal and controversial role in Vancouver sports, and his name is Mike Keenan. It's the Mike hour. And we got a text in, and it says, sorry if you already discussed this, but I hope someone asked Keenan about stripping Lyndon of the captaincy and Messi disrespecting the Mackey family by wearing the number 11.

Messier. Messier disrespecting the Mackey family by wearing the number 11. Yep. We're not going to get in a combative interview with Mike Keenan about things that happened 30 years ago. He's well into his seventies now. He's faced some health issues. Um, and he wrote a memoir.

We're getting him on to talk about his method, his memoirs, some of his memories from the game. We obviously will talk to him about his time in Vancouver and he will probably lay out his argument and we'll just let it stand with like that. Um, you know, this is a guy who played a, you know, like we don't need to get in a fight with him, you know, um, about how we went about his business. That's what makes him an interesting person in hockey history. He was not afraid to mix it up.

And if you think Vancouver was the only place where he went in and caused problems, talk to Brett Hall in St. Louis. You know. Talk to Brandon Shanahan. He benched Brian Leach. Talk to Wayne Gretzky. In New York, the year they won the Stanley Cup.

He lasted one year in New York because he couldn't coexist with the GM there, Neil Smith, and they won the Stanley Cup. And this guy, I want to talk to him about his career in the game because I know we're a Vancouver sports station. We definitely will talk about the Canucks angle, but I want to talk to him about how he prepared his players to play in pressure. I want to talk to him about his methods and whether or not they would be acceptable in today's game.

This guy was behind the bench for, this is not hyperbole, some of the greatest hockey moments ever. He was behind the bench for two game sevens in the Stanley Cup, and these were considered some of the greatest Stanley Cup finals ever. 87 between the Oilers and Flyers, 94 between the Canucks and the Rangers. He lost in 87. He, of course, won in 94. He was also the head coach of Canada in 1987 at the Canada Cup.

Some call the greatest international series ever played or the best hockey ever played. Seminal moment in your youth. Yeah. So this guy was, yes, controversial. And we're not asking you to agree with his methods, but I want to talk to him about, I want to talk to him about what his memories of Rick Talkett were in Philly. Here is a quote that Mike Keenan had a long time ago.

Okay. He said, we have to develop expectations for our athletes. If that means there is pressure, then they will have to deal with it. It's something you learn to enjoy. It's not something that has to be a burden.

Doesn't that sound like Rick Tockett bringing into last season? Embrace the hard. Pressure meets pressure with pressure. Yeah. And talking about the pressure of playing in a Canadian market, some teams have taken the the we got to protect these guys from the media i remember when i remember when babcock went into toronto babcock of all of all people said this he's like i want the toronto

maple leafs to feel safe like i want the players to feel safe. Well, how can you do that? Why not prepare them for reality? Yeah. We have to embrace the hardness. Yeah. And the reality is, is that winning a Stanley cup, very difficult.

And I think winning one in Canada based on the track record might be even harder. So get pressure players and get coaches that demand that their players perform under pressure. And the guys that don't perform well under pressure, see ya. So with regards to Keenan, I think we are all very cognizant of the fact that of all the things he did over his coaching career, Vancouver was one of the most shortest

and most dysfunctional stays of them all. As a matter of fact, it is probably the de facto shortest and most dysfunctional one. So this market's relationship with that time, turbulent time in Vancouver, we get it. We'll ask him.

We'll talk about it. I wasn't surprised when people were pushing back on the concept of having Mike Keenan on the show. And I, you know what? That's at this point, at this stage of the game, I've learned to accept every bit of feedback that we get at the show.

Good, bad, otherwise, you know, grammar, spelling, whatever, right?

It all comes forward. And I understand that the, the, the fan part, the fanatic part of being a fan, sometimes leads you to carry grudges and not forgive and not forget. And I won't move on from that. And we do the same.

And we do the same. I get it. I also think that you can have a conversation with someone without relitigating all the stuff that makes you mad and makes you sad, makes you frustrated or demanding some sort of public humiliation. Yeah. You know, when we reached out,

I, you know, I didn't even realize. So recently, uh, Mike Keenan has undergone major heart surgery and it also prevented him from coaching the Italian national team in the lead up to olympic qualifying everything else so he's still very much like involved in the sport and still coaching do

they have to qualify um do they get a i don't know if they get the automatic buy but there was some sort of pre-tournament that was of importance to them sure now it might have been of a tune-up sense right yeah um point being he had to step away from that role because of the surgery and the subsequent recovery. But he also wrote this memoir, which, you know, and I've read excerpts of it. I mean, there's regrets in there. Specifically, you mentioned the Brett Hull situation, right?

And there are players to this day that don't speak favorably about Mike Keenan. I think Robin Regeer is probably one of the more notable and outspoken ones still. There's still, and I mean, I think it is very reflective of a period in time where coaches like Mike Keenan and the style of coaching and the style of interpersonal relationships between coaches and players existed. It's part of the fabric of the league and the sport, good, bad, or otherwise it's just there.

And I think exploring it is a very interesting case study to look forward and look at what we're looking at now, because you brought up the talk. There's some people that say the league was more interesting when guys like Mike Keenan were part of it. But it's funny that you talk about what are the knock-on effects. Well, there were some negative ones for sure, but there were also ones where maybe you don't classify it

as good or bad or positive or negative, but the kind of messaging that Rick Tockett has put out there for the current iteration of the Vancouver Canucks, as you said in that quote, is baked into something that one of his old coaches had, right? What do you do with pressure? How do you deal with pressure?

Some coaching things never go out of style, and some coaching techniques remain a constant, right? I think that's an important thing to remember in all this, is that when you exist in an era, all of comes with you okay so quickly yeah um because we got a few minutes before mike keenan join us joins us can you summarize what happened when he was in van because it was a while ago and a lot of people might have forgotten um i always like to say that there was a time when i checked out on the Canucks, and part of it was to do with the team, and part of it was to do with just where I was in my life.

And that whole era for me, like post-94 Stanley Cup final, those few years are just like a blur of I don't know. So when you get that close to winning a Stanley Cup, like we saw in 2011, and you keep the same core together, I think what the 94 runoff team found was it was extremely difficult to get back to that level. And as a matter of fact, they didn't. They were kind of going in the wrong direction.

So they added Alexander McGilney. That didn't really see them take off. So 97-98 begins, the season begins in the summer, really, when they sign Mark Messier, right? That was the big one. Now, people think that Messier and Keenan came as like a combo deal, but they actually didn't. Tom Rennie was the head coach for the first handful of games

of the Messier era, right? The decision was made to remove Trevor Linden of his captaincy. Messier became the de facto leader. Tom Rennie was fired. Pat Quinn was fired. Mike Keenan was hired. Did he take over all duties then? Not officially, but officially.

Right. Didn't have the title, but he may as well have had the title. Then began the systematic tearing down of trevor linden traded gino ojic traded um dave babbage traded one of your favorites just whittling away all the remnants of the 94 team and then messier became this bigger figure and then the year after was when the pavel beret holdout occurred brian burke comes in orchestrates the Pavel Bure trade, then, of course, fires Mike Keenan. So he's only on the job for two years, but so much happened.

And Trevor Linden is traded, Bertuzzi comes in. Okay, you've got the CFL report, and then we are, just in a few minutes, going to welcome Mike Keenan to the show. Yes, the CFL report, as always, brought to you by Securian Canada. We're just going to go straight to the BC Lions here. I mentioned it off the top. I will mention it again.

BC Lions got a big win on Friday, 32-15 over the Calgary Stampeders. Matthew Betts and TJ Lee scored back-to-back defensive touchdowns to give the Lions a lead that they would never relinquish. Sean White converted all six of his field goals. Nathan Rourke, a decent night. Accurate passing, 20-24. Just 218 yards, though. Clean on the turnovers part of it.

No interceptions, no fumbles, not so clean. No touchdowns thrown, but that's okay because the Lions got the win that they needed. So that moves the Lions to 8-8. Punches their ticket to the postseason after the Riders beat the Elks at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday, 28-24. Looking ahead, it's the Lions

at 8-8 and the Riders at 8-7-1 are going to meet next week in Regina. Very big matchup because it could decide who is going to host the West semifinal. That is your CFL report brought to you by Securian Canada. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. The game, unfortunately, is public and there was 18,000 plus fans here last game

and probably millions of people watching the game across Canada. And for that reason, sometimes it's difficult for us to hide. You know, I realize that he wants me to be better. He made that clear after the game, and, you game and I'm prepared to do that. 733 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and 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 two of the program. Mike Keenan's going to just join us in just a moment here. Halfway point of hour two. Hour two, it was brought to you by Jason Hominut for jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the

perfect mortgage for you. Just kidding. Absolutely get a hold of him. Visit him on the internet at jason.mortgage. To the phone lines we go. Our next guest is the former head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, the co-author of his new memoir, Iron Mike, My Life Behind the Bench. Mike Keenan joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, Mike. How are you? I'm doing well. How about you guys? We are doing well as well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Before we get into any of the hockey stuff, I have to ask you, you underwent some pretty significant surgery this past summer.

Just wondering how's your health? How's the recovery been? How are you doing, Mike? I'm doing really well, thank you. We had open heart surgery April the 2nd, so we're into almost six months, and it's gone well. You have to follow a certain discipline in terms of your recovery and rehab, but I'm feeling great.

Thank you for asking and thanks for mentioning that. So why the book? Well, it started with Jay Greenberg. God bless him. He passed, of all things uh west dial disease uh and he was poking me to to uh write the book and i was really reluctant and then uh hall of fame writer as well god morrison uh agreed to pick it up. And he was actually editing the book at the time. So he was well aware of what was transpiring between Jay and I. And then it really was something I was really reluctant about.

But finally, they convinced me, the publisher convinced me that you have to tell some story. So therefore, the book's now on the shelf. Well, let me tell you, Mike, when we told our listeners that you're going to be on the show today in Vancouver, there were some people that suggested that they don't like you very much. And they wanted us to ask all these tough questions about your time in Vancouver. You know, why did you treat Trevor Linden the way you treated him, etc., etc.? What did you write about your time in Vancouver. Why did you treat Trevor Linden the way you treated him, etc., etc.? What did you write about your time in Vancouver?

What are your memories? Do you have any regrets? How you went into that situation? Well, it was a difficult situation. First of all, I went in the middle of, I believe it was around November. So anytime you go into a season, it's already begun. It's difficult to sort things out. And I think that, you know,

trading Trevor Linden was something positive for the Vancouver Canucks. I know he's a very popular player and was. And it was very difficult to make that decision, but the acquisition of players and then there was a dichotomy in the room amongst the leadership group. So it was, you know, getting McCabe and Bertuzzi and eventually Rutsu that eventually turned into the Sedin twins so it parlayed pretty well and then Trevor was able to come back so I

think in the end it was good for the franchise. Tell us about the dichotomy in the room in terms of leadership and how you approach leadership and empowering your leaders. Well, there was obviously Mark Messier was there and Trevor, and there seemed to be a split amongst the group, amongst the team, in terms of those two individuals so uh that's the one thing you cannot have in the dressing room is uh a break like that amongst the players it just doesn't work and you're not going to have ever had success so um i know it was a very unpopular move to move Trevor, but as I said, in the end, it worked out extremely well for the franchise. Brian Burke was able to acquire the Twins because of that trade, and obviously the Twins, the Sedin brothers, did amazing things for the franchise.

So the split in the dressing room was difficult. In fact, it was called impossible after a while. And I wasn't a GM, but I was empowered with the responsibility of being the pseudo-GM, I guess, amongst our staff that were there. We had Hanlon and Smeal as our assistant coaches. Mike Penny was part of the process as well. And Steve Tamburini was part of the process. So it was a group decision, but one that we felt was necessary. We're speaking to former NHL coach,

former Vancouver Canucks head coach, Mike Keenan here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I imagine, Mike, that when you're writing a memoir, it would be hard not to look back on everything and not have some regrets along the way. I know that you wrote in the book, you were talking about your relationship with Brett Hall and how maybe you wish that would have gone a different direction or you would have handled it differently.

Was there anything in Vancouver that you wish had either gone differently or that you would handle differently? Well, I wish I would have been able to stay. But Brian Burke was hired as the GM and he had different feelings so obviously he fired me and you know when you I would stick by my principles in coaching

but maybe the methodology I could have been a little bit turned the fire down a little bit it was it was fiery at times and throughout my career. But if there was anything that I would regret, it would be that kind of methodology that I used. I could have toned it down a bit.

I think that I would have still had the same results. And I was driven by the notion that it was important to the ownership and to the franchise to win. And I pushed the envelope and set the bar high in every situation to try to succeed and to win. And winning is not easy in the NHL. It's very, very difficult. And to win a Stanley Cup is even more difficult.

So, yeah, there are things that you wish you could take back, but all of us in our lives, I'm sure, have moments that we could all say, I wish I could have taken that back. We're on the subject of winning. You wrote in the book, winning requires abnormal behavior. Can you explain that a little bit further and give us an idea of exactly what abnormal behavior looks like, coaching to win? Yeah, that's exactly right, and I believe in that. If you take the standard of the NHL competitors, that means each team that's in the NHL, they all have the same kind of driven notion,

and they're competitive people, very competitive hockey players. And you have to find a difference. What's going to make your team better than the rest? What's going to make the difference? And it's dedication, it's communication, it's preparation. It's a lot of aspects that are involved individually and collectively

as a team and to be able to succeed and to get beyond your opponent you have to be different you have to have something special and your team has to be driven

to succeed because all these teams in the NHL are pretty closely competitive, but as a coach, you have to find something that will separate you from the group, from the teams in the league. How did you prepare your players for the big pressure moments?

We all know in Canada, we haven't had a Stanley Cup winner since 1993, and a lot of people think that maybe the pressure of playing in Canada has contributed to that. And I just think of the big pressure games that you played in 1987, Stanley Cup Final Game 7, when you were coaching the Flyers. You lost that one, but then I guess a short time later, you're behind the bench during the Canada Cup.

Huge pressure, 87 Canada Cup. You get it done with Gretzky and Lemieux, and then seven years later, you're responsible for the New York Rangers who haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1994. You face a Game 7 there, and I imagine that might have been the most pressure you ever felt because if you had lost that one to the Canucks great for Vancouver real tough for New York what was your philosophy on pressure and how you prepared players for that well I think that

there was enormous expectations because we did end up winning the president's pro team for the regular season play marginally over new jersey who we end up beating marginally in the playoffs that those games seven against vancouver and again that's a real close difference but the pressure I didn't particularly feel pressure. That was the bar we had set. That was our expectation. And as I said to the team prior to that game,

a couple of days prior to that game, if anything, I would have said at the beginning of the season, you can play game seven at Madison Square Garden for the Stanley Cup, but you take it. And the response was absolutely.

So I think it's not a one-and-done deal. It's something you prepare for all season long. Every team meets pressure points. And you have winning streaks, losing streaks, and you have to be able to overcome the expectations of your fan base, of your franchise. And that's just part of being a professional. And you train yourself to accept that responsibility. And that's part of, as I said earlier, preparing a team to win.

You have to learn how to win. You just don't win by putting people out on the ice and playing. You have to have the preparation, which involves many things, the mental, the physical, the emotional side of all of your game, plus your team play, plus you have to have talent, you have to have skilled players, you have to have role players, you have to have special goal pending. So there's a lot of things that go into making a team extraordinary. And to deal with it, I don't think it's pressure if you're ready and prepared to play at that level and to take on that responsibility.

Mike, what are your memories of young Rick Talkett in Philly? I love Rick Talkett. He was a player. I can tell you a little story. He came in, and I think I played him every preseason game that year. We might have had 10 or 11 games. And I said, Rick, did you play in this league? He said, absolutely.

I said, well, let's give it a try. We'll go from there. And, of course, the rest is history. He was actually a great physical player. He found his way. He pushed his skating to another level and i can also tell a story one time we were flying out west and he said mike i'm ready i'm prepared to move up for more ice time if you're willing and ready to give it to me and of course you mentioned the 87 canada

couple we had a lot of players out tim burr right w right winger, and Rick played with Kelly Eklund and Brian Propp because Dave Poulin broke his ribs. So there was a lot of injuries, but Rick was really a forceful presence in the dressing room, as he is now a leader. And he took that role on with authority, and he made a difference for our team. He's a real great team man and a good player as well, He took that role on with authority, and he made a difference for our team.

He's a real great team man and a good player as well. He fought himself in space, left the space, literally, and had a great career. What do you think of the NHL now? He's doing a super job, by the way, in Vancouver as well. I hope the fans appreciate him. Oh, the fans love him. The fans absolutely love him. He came into a tough situation, but he's done a terrific job.

And being named Coach of the Year is a nice feather in his cap. But the expectations now are raised. And now his message for the Canucks is, like, it doesn't get easier. We had one season that was better we didn't make it out of the second round so you know I hear I you know I was doing some research for this interview I was reading a lot of your your old quotes talking about preparing your team to to meet expectations and how to deal with pressure. And it actually sounds quite similar to what Rick Talkett is saying to the Canucks right now. I just wonder, how do you think coaches today are different

than they are when you were coaching in the NHL? And do you think if you were coaching in the NHL today, you would have to change some of your methods? Oh, absolutely. But I coached in five decades. So I didn't coach in the fifth decade like I did in the first decade, and I was successful in each decade. We won.

My team won a championship in each of those decades. But the message that Rick would be given now and the players have to now step up to another level is that we had a certain amount of success, but to get to the next level, we're going to have to make some adjustments, maybe some personnel changes. But our play has to be intensified.

And to be able to create that environment and to build that culture, it takes time. But Rick is in a position now where he can command it. I'm sure that he has the respect of the players, and now he's going to have to raise the bar even more and expect more from them. And sometimes that's fearful for the players because they don't know whether they can do that or not, and you have to instill a confidence in them and set short-term goals that are achievable

that helps build their confidence so that they are playoff ready come next spring to go a step farther. And that's a very difficult challenge because there's a lot of teams in the league that are on par. So as I just said a little while ago, what can you do to separate your team from the rest of the teams in your division, your conference, and the league? This was a question I was going to ask you before. What do you think about the evolution of the NHL and where it's gone? The skill of the players is obviously off the charts, but there's some people that look back and kind of miss the days of the 80s.

I mean, you look at Rick Tockett. The guy had almost 300 penalty minutes, and he also was a 20-goal scorer. When you watch the NHL, what do you think of the game? Well, you know, fans in Vancouver can go back and watch games with the New York Rangers for the Cup in 94. It was vicious. You could have called a penalty every shift and competitive. But I would think if you look at the Stanley Cup winner this last spring, Florida Panthers,

they had a little bit of an old style system put in place and they played hard nose, more hard nose than any other team in the league. And they tried to be disciplined enough to stay out of the penalty box and did, and were able to win because they had – that's where I can give you an example. They made a difference. And the NHL today, it's a league where you're going to follow suit. Many teams will follow suit now because that was successful. That brought them the ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup.

So I think, yeah, it's a little softer, the league, skilled. But if you look back at the players that we had, and even at 94, they were super skilled players. I can mention on both teams, we had so much talent. Pavel Burry, Trevor Linden, you can go on and on. Cliff Rodding and

Cardinal. We had Kovalev, Messier, Beach, Keegan, you can name them. A lot of talented, talented players that would thrive in today's game as well.

Mike, this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Great to hear that you're feeling well and you're in good health. Best of luck with the rest of the recovery and best of luck with the book as well. Thank you so much for having me and best of luck to Rick Hawkins well. Thank you so much for having me, and best of luck to Rick Tocque and the Vancouver Canucks.

Still cheering for them. Thanks, Mike. That's Mike Keenan, the author of the new memoir, Iron Mike, My Life Behind the Bench, and of course, former head coach to the Vancouver Canucks from 1997 to 1999.

Yeah, lots of interesting feedback. A lot of people actually enjoyed it. Dalvir, this has been a great interview. Really enjoyable lesson. Another one that says, you're dead to me. Yes, because we didn't ask. We didn't ask Mike Keenan who was faster, Alex McGilney or Pavel Beria.

I'm sorry. Oh, someone wanted that question? And because we didn't ask Mike Keenan who was faster, Alex McGillney or Pavel Berry. I'm sorry. Oh, someone wanted that question? And because we didn't? Yeah. He said, please ask him this. I don't have much. Please give me this. Then you dead to me.

Love our listeners. Anyway, that was. How dare you not ask that question. Oh, I think he's joking. Anyway, that was interesting. You know, it's joking. Anyway, it's, that was interesting. You know, it's funny. So he's done the media tour,

the carwash, if you will, the last little bit, because obviously when you put out a book, you do a lot of, he's done breakfast television and there's a big article in the Toronto star. They just sit down with a fest check and everything. And when you're right,

like, that's why I asked when you write a memoir, I mean, there's going to be parts that you look back on and you're like, like, that's why I asked when you write a memoir, I mean, there's going to be parts that you look back on. Like no one is no one's pitching a perfect game in life. No one is looking back and saying, I didn't do a single thing wrong. I have no regrets. Laddie is actually he tells us every day, except for Laddie. Yeah, I am perfect. And it's funny because if there's someone that's probably got a lot of individual situations to look back on, it's Mike Keenan.

That's such a great quote that you brought up where winning takes abnormal behavior. Abnormal behavior, yeah. Yeah. Because it's kind of true because you read a lot of stories about champions. Let's take the whole Tom brady baker mayfield thing right you know brady's like yeah it was hard on guys and maybe not politically correct in how i went about my business and i'm sure bill belichick wasn't always politically correct but guys we're trying to win a championship here we can't't have things that we're too nervous to address

or like, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you got to do your job a little bit better. Could you do your job a little bit better? I mean, it is one of the reasons why a lot of the old school coaches did not want to know their players on any personal level whatsoever. That's true. Like when they were like, I would hear from my head coach at the start of training camp. You'd be like,

hi, welcome. How was your summer? And then that would be the only conversation you have with them. These coaches understood that to get you places where you didn't even know that you could go would require what Mike Keenan calls abnormal behavior. Right. And on a lot of times coaches would have to do things that they knew

inherently were over the line but that was the only way they were going to get you to go where you wanted to go maybe even you didn't know you wanted to go there but they were able to push and push like if you're pushing someone constantly a part of you has to be like cognizant of the fact that you're being a dick or that you're being a a-hole yeah because you're doing it intentionally right that's the thing it's not doing an intention is that your management style i don't know well okay some people have that like just part of their personality and they don't realize what they're being but then i think in other instances especially with coaching you're prodding them you're prodding like you know you're like i'm pushing it right now i am going above what i even feel comfortable with because i want to try and get something out of this i think the problem that some people had with mike keenan was and i think

it was brett hall who said this he was like the guy kind of seemed like he enjoyed it though well yeah right yep that's a big part of it sometimes you can lean a little too far into the bit and then you become the bit Kevin Woodley he's got that management style too which is like

I've worked for him he's brutal he's brutal he embraces the hard yeah he's going to join us next we'll talk about the Canucks

as they get down to the final strokes of entering their NHL roster for the season to begin which begins on Wednesday for the season to begin, which begins on Wednesday for the Vancouver Canucks against the Calgary Flames at Rogers Arena,

just a couple of days away. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.