Halford & Brough in the Morning - Did Demko Return Too Soon?

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

Mike Halford and Jason Brough look back at the previous day in sports, including the latest news surrounding Thatcher Demko’s injury and talk to Calgary play-by-play announcer Jon Abbott about his new role with the team and the team’s depth ahead of the season.  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 a rosarito fly ball into right field. Carried it. This is gone. He's someone that really, really is on the ice driving these guys. And some wonder whether or not that contributed to Demko's somewhat frequent trips to the injury list. Bang. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

This is Alfred. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Lena's in for a dog yet again. Lena, good morning to you.

What's up? And Laddie is here as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is 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. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec! That's what you're waiting for. Yes. I knew you couldn't help yourself. Two days in a row. I got a big show ahead on the Halford & Brough Show on a Tuesday. Guest list begins at 6.30.

John Abbott is going to join the program. Formerly the play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks, now the newly minted play-by-play voice of the Calgary Flames for Sportsnet. Abs will be joining us at 6.30 to talk about his new gig. Always good to talk to Abs. 7 o'clock, James Merriman is going to join the program. He is the manager of Pacific FC, of the Canadian Premier League. And tonight, at BC Place, Pacific will look to pull the big upset

in the second leg of the Canadian Championship semifinal against the Whitecaps. Seems very unlikely considering the Whitecaps won the first leg 1-0 over on the island. But this would be a chance for the Whitecaps to book yet another spot in the Canadian Championship's final. Yes. But for Pacific, it'll be interesting to talk to James about just the challenge of and the kind of the appeal

of playing a tournament where the two teams are not in the same league. Literally. That's not even like a... You guys aren't in the same league. You can't play with us. You can't. Literally. Only in these competitions.

He used to coach for the Whitecaps as well under Carl Robinson. Remember him? Yeah. So we'll talk to James Merriman at 7 o'clock. I want James to have left the organization in a bad way. So he wants revenge. Did he? Could we make something up?

Was it amicable? No. 730, Justin. Pogie's going to join the program. Speaking of guys with new jobs, the former well-traveled NHL goalie and DL goalie and SHL goalie, and he played in the KHL for a while as well. He is now the new goalie coach for the Abbotsford Canucks. So do you think Justin Pogge is, when he does interviews now,

do you think he's like, please don't just ask me about the 2006 world juniors and i've had a life since then yeah no and don't i don't want to take all tuka rask related questions and i guess andrew raycroft related questions as well because he was that was the whole thing was that the leafs had him and tuka rask following that very famous junior tournament that was played here and it was understood that they were so confident in pogey's future that they traded Tuka Rask for Andrew Raycroft. Here's another interesting thing about Justin Pogge.

Did you know he was a teammate of Nils Hoaglanders? I did not know that. Yeah, well-traveled goalie over the last few years. He had some very good years in the Swedish league. He was top of the league, top of the class of goaltenders in the Swedish league. So anyway, he's been hired as the replacement goalie for AHl abbotsford because ahl abbotsford's goalie coach is now of course with the nhl's vancouver canons his name is have you learned it yet marco terrenius yeah yeah got it

very yeah yeah i almost called him marlo terrenius like he was an actress from the 80s but no it's people were saying he sounds like uh uh like someone from Gladiator. I was like, you knew Marcus Aurelius. I did not say I knew him. There it is. I said he once touched me on the shoulder. I can't wait till we get the transcript from that part of the show, by the way, too. We do that now. We have transcripts.

Well, there's automatically generated transcripts for our podcast. I don't know who creates them, but if you go on your phone and you do the Apple podcast thing, it creates a podcast or it creates a transcript. And so I was reading ours yesterday and I'm like, this is utter nonsense. For a show that jumps around. This is just nonsense. Yeah, for a show that- It's impossible to read. For a show that jumps around as This is just nonsense. Yeah, for a show that's impossible to read.

For a show that jumps around as much as we do a transcript doesn't really do it justice. Just kind of makes it sound like a bunch of noise. And nothing was, you know, mistranslated or anything. It was just the show. And he's like, this is nonsense. It's like, now they're talking about a smoking baby. Anyway, 8 o'clock, Dwayne Veneau is going to join the program.

President of the British Columbia Lions. We will talk to him about the upcoming rematch against the Ottawa Red Blacks, which, of course, is the touchdown Pacific game in Victoria. So working in reverse real quick on the guest list. 8 o'clock, Dwayne Vinoz. 7.30, Justin Pogge. 7 o'clock, James Merriman. 6.30, Jon Abbott.

That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the B.C. Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We will start with the news that we just broke into. The Abbotsford Canucks have found a new goalie coach.

It's a rather interesting name. As we mentioned, it's Justin Pogge, the 38-year-old who only just wrapped his playing career in 2023. Briefly served as a goalie consultant for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Then worked a little bit for Hockey Canada. Now gets an elevated role, the full-time goalie coach for the Abb Blue Jackets, then worked a little bit for Hockey Canada, now gets an elevated role, the full-time goalie coach for the Abbotsford Canucks. And he, of course, is going to join the program at 7.30. I am really looking forward to chatting with Justin,

given his career path after winning gold for Canada at the 2006 Rural Juniors in Vancouver. And I'm sure a lot of you who are around our age will remember that tournament quite fondly. That was a big deal. Yeah, it who are around our age will remember that tournament quite fondly. That was a big deal. Yeah, it was huge. I had fun at that tournament.

In Vancouver. Yeah, I remember, I think I went to the first game. It was at the Coliseum. The finals were at then it was called GM Place, but like it was, it was the world juniors had really taken off in terms of popularity and there had been the lockout in the NHL,

so people were really looking forward to it. It was star-studded. Yeah. Now, sadly, Luke Bardon was a member of that Team Canada team that won gold. So was Justin, well, Justin Pogge was, but it was like Jonathan Taves, Chris Letang, but you know the guy I remember most from that series?

It was probably Steve Downey. Like that was the Steve Downey tournament where he was just hitting everything. That was when the Canadians still played like, you know how we're going to win this? Some skill. But mostly we're just going to like, Steve Downey was a hit to hell out of every other team

and the Canadians really didn't score a whole lot. Like it wasn't like they were piling up goals in that tournament. Except in the final. Well, they didn't have really any of the top scorers in that tournament. It was Phil Kessel. Yep.

It was Evgeny Malkin. It was a bunch of other guys. I think it was Backstrom. Yeah, Backy. God, that was a longessel. Yep. It was Evgeny Malkin. It was a bunch of other guys. Nicholas Backstrom. Yeah, Backy. God, that was a long time ago now. Do you know who Canada's leading scorer was at that tournament? You'll never guess it. Blake Como.

Blake Como, right? Like, they wasn't, yeah, it just wasn't the style that they played, but they allowed six goals in the tournament, and yet Justin Pogge did not win the best goalie award because that one went to fellow Leafs draft pick, something you already alluded to, Tuukka Rask, who was playing for Finland. Pogge had three shutouts, allowed six goals,

won the gold. There was a better goalie than you. You were good, but you weren't the best. But I think it was just because Canada was so good. Yeah, they're pretty dominant. But I remember watching Justin Pogge, and I was no goalie expert. I'm still not. I'm like, this guy's going to be good.

And then he only ended up playing seven games. So we'll get all the stuff out of the way before we talk to him. Sure. He only played seven games in the NHL, I think all of them for the Leafs. He split time with other organizations, but then went over to Europe. So I'll be curious to chat with him just about, you know, what got him into being a goalie coach?

Who influenced him? What are some of the things that he tends to focus on? Sure. You know, what are some of the things that he tends to focus on sure you know what are some of the things that he stresses on and um and also joining the organization at this stage like how much catch-up does he have to do it's like do you know the goalies yet he's got he's got their player id card in front of him he's like i know them from this uh yeah we can also ask him uh about how he's going to handle thatcher demko's workload what his injury is,

and then thoughts on Ian Clark. So we'll get all those out of the way when we talk to Justin Pogge. Well, I don't think Justin Pogge is in charge of his workload. But Frank Cervelli is sure in charge of reporting new stuff about Thatcher Demko's injury. Now, you may not like what you're about to hear from Frank. You may not even like Frank, for that matter, after some of the things he said about Vancouver

during the playoffs last season. But the guy has good information. Can't deny it. And he ended up being right about Ilya Mikheyev with the torn ACL. And he was around the Canucks a lot during the playoffs last season, and he was on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer.

And here's what he had to say about the whole thing with Thatcher Demko's injury, and there's a little on Ian Clark as well. What happened with Thatcher Demko was a rare fluke injury that, as it was put to me, one doctor had explained it as you could be in practice for 50 years and never see this injury. And the initial hope was that it wasn't very severe, meaning they thought that, and they believed this all the way through. I mean, you saw Thatcher Demko on the ice in round two, they believe that there was a chance at some point

that he could get back in the playoffs. And the fact that now we're in late August and the conversation has turned to, man, I don't know if this guy is going to be ready for opening night. That is, that's really tough. It makes you ask questions or at least wonder about the possibility of, did they push too hard, too fast, too soon? And if not, and this is still lingering, I don't, I don't even know if there's anything they can do for this injury.

And sorry to be so vague about it. I couldn't, if you gave me a million dollars to explain what his injury is, I couldn't do it. All I know is that it's something to do with the back of his knee. That's all I know. So I don't know where they go from here, but he's such a critical piece. And then you add in the really intriguing development of Ian Clark, the goalie coach, deciding to take on a different role.

This is one of the best and highest paid goalie coaches in the league. I think there's been, I think it's fair to say that there's probably been some friction there over the years when it comes to Demko and Clark, not from a technical standpoint or anything like that. It's actually been or the relationship is fine. It's been a disagreement on workload and how much work Clark puts his goalies through. He has an owner's schedule. He's someone that really, really is on the ice driving these guys on a daily basis. And I think that part has led to some disagreement over the last couple of years on how that's played out. And some wonder whether

or not that had contributed to Demko's somewhat frequent trips to the injury list. Okay. So a lot to unpack there. Let's start with the stuff that we already kind of knew or had already been alluded to or hinted at, even by some comments by Jim Rutherford, and that is that Ian Clark works his goalies hard. Yep. And Jim Rutherford has made some comments in the past,

and they seemed kind of joking in some ways. They were like, yeah, by the time that Thatcher's finished working with Ian Clark, you know, he's already tired for practice, you know, or he's, I can't remember exactly what he put it, but it was out there, right? That Ian Clark works Thatcher Demko pretty hard, works all his goalies pretty hard. So maybe there had been some disagreement

on how hard Thatcher Demko could be working. And you could see it. I mean, this is, okay, this is how it might pop up. Rutherford and Alvin meeting with Ian Clark and them going like, hey, Ian, do you think you might be working them a little bit too hard? Because we want to keep them healthy. We don't want fatigue to be a factor.

And Ian being like, hey, for me to do my job and to get the best out of these guys, they got to work hard, right? And both make good points, right? You're sitting there going, okay, well, that's hard, right? And both make good points, right? Yeah, yeah. You're sitting there and going, okay, well, yeah, that's true, right? Yeah. You know, you do have to manage fatigue on the management side, but on Ian Clark's side, he's kind of like, well, I can't do this by like, you know, being encouraging.

Like I have to put the work in with this guy. Sure. The other stuff that I think is a little more concerning was Frank describing it as a rare fluke injury. And he talked to a doctor. I don't know if it was Dr. Nick, but I imagine it was a pretty good doctor that had a lot of experience. And he's like, I've never seen this before.

Yeah. And then he went on to say that it's the back of the knee. So I quickly Googled back of the knee injuries. I was not able to diagnose it right away. However, I was like, there's a back of the knee. Yeah. A Baker cyst. I don't think that's it.

They can solve those. I don't, I mean, I think that there's two main takeaways here. And one is that it's pretty well established. They just wanted to, the organization wanted to go in a different direction as it pertained to how the goalies at the highest level were being coached prepared practice all those sorts of things and again as you said this might actually be the rare case where we don't try and pit one versus the other in sports radio and we just kind of say both phyllis both approaches philosophically kind of make sense. One is like, well, you need to keep player X, in this case, a goalie, Thatcher Demko, fresh because it's a long season and the season gets harder as it goes along.

And we'd like him to be ready to go in the playoffs. It's a totally sane, logical explanation for how you want to handle a workload. I could also see someone saying the polar opposite of that and being like, no, I need to push this individual, player X or whomever, as hard as possible because in the past, that is what has gotten us the results, including last year where, yes, injury befell the goalie, but he was also one of the top three goalies because he was nominated for the Vezina Award last year. The proof was in the pudding for how much work

and how much training and how much practice went in. It paid off. It kept him sharp. It did all those things, at least in the goalie coach's mind. But for this team right now, I think one thing trumps everything else, and that's that they need Thatcher Demko to be healthy.

Right? If he's not as sharp because he doesn't have as rigorous a practice regimen, you need to find out if you can even get to that point because right now he's not as sharp because he doesn't have his rigorous practice regimen you need to find out if you can even get to that point because right now he's not ready to go and that's going to be a problem given how important he is to the team how affordable he is the contract that's kind of looming two years down the road all of these things they need to see where he's at when he's healthy and right now he's not healthy uh someone texted an end to the dunbar lumber text line and a reminder 650 650 not healthy. Someone texted in to the Dunbar Lumber text line. And a reminder, 650-650 when you want to text in

on the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. Pretty good first line. Maybe the Canucks need to find a doctor who has been in practice for 51 years then.

But this texter goes on to say, I don't buy this argument at all. It's a knee. It's a joint. It's not some rare congenital condition. Well, I will put it to you. Have you seen the knee, right? Like this is not Frank making up quotes from doctors. Like I know a lot of you think.

Or making up a doctor. Like it's just, I mean, he's reporting What he's hearing Yeah Right And there are cases I don't know if they need To bring in house But you know like Does that age me a bit

Or is that reference A little bit It's not bad It's not bad People still stream it Yeah yeah House It's still out there

Right it's like The doctor Yeah yeah Yeah So like Hugh Laurie There are He's an English guy.

Yeah. Kind of neurotic. Yeah. There are cases, of course, in sports where you're like, this injury is not typical. Right. And can you not see how the injury might've occurred considering that he rushed back and not, and we're not saying that it's like they rushed him back. Like it was the playoffs to get him back.

Right. And sometimes you, you do that. You take the risk and they worked him really hard because that's what Ian Clark does. And they needed to rehab the injury. And then something else happened to the knee, you know, and probably related to, to all that the body is, is, and probably related to all that.

The body is complicated. Sometimes when you've hurt one area, you compensate or overuse another area, and then you get a problem with that area. So when you say like, I don't buy this argument at all, nobody's making an argument. Right, first off, it's not an argument. It's not an argument. A doctor has told Frank that, wow, this is an injury I don't see very often. And Frank's like, this injury is so weird and bizarre from what I've been told that I can't even really explain it. All I can say is it's like the back of the knee.

Which is specific. It's not the front. And I didn't, by the way, I did not have this on my bingo card when I was coming back from vacation that the last two weeks of August, we would be inundated with various Canucks goaltending news at every level of the organization. And here's the crazy thing. We haven't heard anything from management actually on Demko. No. Like the only thing we've heard is, we didn't hear it, we read it, was a statement from Patrick Alveen, carefully worded statement on what went down with Ian Clark from the Canucks perspective, no quote from Ian Clark.

And they went through all that, why Ian Clark was leaving his role, why he was, you know, the role that he would maintain with the organization. And it was spun in a way that no worries. We got Marco Taranis coming in. We like him. He's a gladiator. He's a gladiator. He has gladiator experience.

He's a stoic philosopher. I don't know. Whatever. But nothing has been said on Demko. They haven't shared any information, which to me doesn't suggest that they're hiding something. They're not like, I hope this all blows over. They know they're going to have to answer questions eventually, but they might be uncertain themselves at this point. There might be a situation where they're still trying to get their heads around this.

And the bottom line, I think, for me is that it's not ideal going into a season. You want to have, I mean, one, you want to have all these positions of significance within one department, sure, but still, all these positions taken care of earlier in the year. We've talked about the timing, and we've talked about when guys have come aboard, and I know that in the weeks prior to me coming back, it had been spoken about at length. And I think everyone understands that it's not ideal, but kudos to the organization.

The organization moved quickly when I think they realized that they needed things to happen, right? I don't know. Clark needed to go. They needed to find a replacement. And then two days later, we got Justin Pogge on the show talking about it.

Some people would suggest that they were told this earlier and didn't move quickly and maybe kind of waited it out. And there is that possibility. And they were like, he's the goalie coach. He needs to go on the ice. He'll go on the ice.

Right? And then they realize he's like, wait a minute, he sounds pretty serious about this. We better do something about it. So there's that angle of it too, right? It's like, did you let this fester throughout the summer and then realize in the last two weeks of August that, okay, we got to get this sorted out.

Training camp still approximately three weeks away. So there's still a lot of time for things to unfold and for things to be addressed. But I, it's just been, it really came out of left field for me. Just for all of us. Yeah.

Just, just sitting from afar and realizing that all the things were happening in pretty rapid pace when nothing had happened for almost the first three weeks of August. And really, if you want to go back, I mean, July was marked by some very early free agency. Well, why would it get out? Why would it get out from the organization, all this stuff? I have no idea. You know, the reporters are on vacation.

Yeah. I don't like this sort of stuff can be kept under, you know, what do you call it? Under the rug, under the carpet, swept under the rug. Swept under the rug. No, no, swept under the rug. Kept under the carpet. Kept under the carpet. I don't know where you keep things.

Yeah. I mean, it's, it's the middle of the summer. Yeah. Nobody's reaching out to the Canucks and be like, Hey, what's going on goalie coach wise. Right. It's just not something that was top of mind. Yeah.

So at any rate, we've got a few weeks left until training camp, and then there's going to be a lot of questions for a lot of people in the organization, and at this point, you've just got to cross your fingers and hope for the best for Thatcher Demko. I did want to add one thing that maybe we can talk about

as this show progresses, and while we're still on what happened, CeeDee Lamb got paid with the Dallas Cowboys four-year deal, $136 million. Now, that's great for CeeDee Lamb and all the other receivers that you see are getting paid big, big money. But my question is, how does this affect the future of DK Metcalf in Seattle? He's got two years left on his deal. So CeeDee Lamb was kind of like one year ahead of him.

Yep. And no way that DK is going to play the final year of his contract next season without a new deal. These guys, there's so much money at stake that they're like, I'm not going into the final year of his contract next season without a new deal. These guys, there's so much money at stake that they're like, I'm not going into the final year. I'm not going to risk injury. If they find me, they find me. I'm not going to be out of the league.

I'm pretty good. Like CeeDee Lamb could, in theory, be fined more than $3 million by missing training camp and the three preseason games. But the Cowboys probably won't follow through on that. You know, it's their, it's their prorogative, under their prerogative to say. Yeah, you little scamp. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just get back to playing.

I'm just glad you're back with us, right? Yeah. I just wonder what's going to happen with DK Metcalf because I think the Cowboys situation is a little bit different from the Seahawks situation. Now, the Cowboys also have to make a decision on Dak Prescott, but first of all, DK Metcalf's going to have to have a really good year, obviously.

Yeah. But also, the Seahawks are going to have to put themselves in, like, ask themselves, honestly, like, is this the best use of our money going forward locking up a guy like DK Metcalf even if he is really good depending on the quality of their team like the Cowboys are obviously going into this season going like well we needed CeeDee Lamb because we consider ourselves a Super Bowl contender now you can laugh at that yeah but they've been a really good regular season team for a few years now.

They just haven't done anything in the playoffs. The Seahawks have been below that level of the Dallas Cowboys. So the Cowboys were kind of in the position where it was like, well, we need C.D. Lamb. We've got to make this deal. Will DK have the same leverage over the Seahawks next season? Yeah, I think, well, there's two things. One, I think this year is going to be super pivotal in terms of what they end up paying them because the threshold now is $20 million a year on AAV is the standard for really good receivers.

And then when you get into that $30 million per, that's where you're talking about guys like CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson in Minnesota. And is DK Metcalf going to eventually be in that class? I would argue right now that not only is CeeDee Lamb more important to his team than DK Metcalf, he's just in that class? I would argue right now that not only is CeeDee Lamb more important to his team than DK Metcalf, it's just a better receiver, plain and simple. So I think trying to compare the two is tough

because the teams are in different situations and the players are different. At the same time, you bring up a good point because all these receivers got paid this last offseason, like Amon Ross, St. Brown, A.J. Brown. Guys got paid. When did Justin Jefferson get paid? He got paid early in the summer.

So it was four years, $140 million, which kind of was eye-popping from the total. And then, as we've seen in the NFL, it sort of recalibrates the market, where it's like, well, no, you're not paying me that anymore. You're paying me based on what this guy got about a month ago. Thank you for all the people that texted in and said, kept under wraps. That's the phrase that I was looking for. Stupid wraps.

Halford wasn't able to help me out on it. Yeah, it's my fault. I bet Josh would have got it. Probably. Or Jamie. Jamie. Those guys were excellent. You know who else was fun?

John Abbott. He's a new play-by-play guy for the Flames. So do we still like John? Yeah, we still liked Baller when he was there. So we'll talk to John about getting the job with the Calgary Flames play-by-play guy and what it's going to be like calling all these losses. So John, the Flames are going to suck next season

and probably for a while. Have fun with that. And I'll be like, I have not missed you guys. John Abbott, coming up next on the Alfred and Brock Show on Sportsnet 650. Yeah. I mean, are we at a gala of some sort here? 633. Trying to class up the place a little bit.

If we're going to do Big Band Tuesday, I think it's going to need a little bit more pep. It's going to need a little bit more tempo. It's called the sophisticated touch Yeah, nothing describes our show more than Sophisticated And touch We're like, what's that phrase? Kept under wraps?

That's a hard one to remember We weren't even close, we were talking about rugs Kept under the carpet, the rug Surface area things, we weren't even close Download Hour One of the podcast When it's available though As you watch us search for words in the first half hour of the program. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

This music's killing me. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. This was actually going to be the soundtrack for The Godfather 4. Yeah, I guess not. But they canceled the movie. They wouldn't even play this at the gala. They'd be like, you're taking it down too many notches here, Gregory. Vancouver Honda is 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're going to talk to Jon Abbott, the newly minted play-by-play voice of the Calgary Flames, in just a minute here, in case you missed it yesterday. One former Vancouver Canucks play-by-play guy was out in Calgary, Baller left Calgary to go to Chicago, and then Calgary's like, we love our former Canucks PXP guys.

I'm like, let's go get Jon Abbott. And they did. So that's two former Vancouver Canucks play-by-play guys that will go back-to-back being the official voices of the Calgary Flames. The new one joins us now. John Abbott here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, Abs. How are you? Gentlemen, good morning. It is great to be back on with you. What's happening, buddy? First off, congratulations on the gig. We were super stoked when we heard about it yesterday. We furiously raced to get you booked on the show, so thanks for doing this.

Congrats on the gig. How excited are you to get started in Calgary? Oh, thanks, boys. It means a lot. It's the second time. I heard you just recounting Rick Ball and the former Van guys. Second time I followed Rick, so so far it's working out really good for me. I rode his coattails into Vancouver when he took the Calgary job. He's so tall, too. It's easy to do it. Oh, he hits his head on the press box and in the booth in Calgary,

I'll have no problems. Maybe a little ear clearance issues, but, yeah, I don't have the height issues like Rick does. Isn't the gondola kind of scary in calgary i love it i really do yeah the catwalk across the ice you know is a little nerving i've done the you know try to take a picture with your phone and not drop it thing before um but the the perch is fantastic like i know everyone's excited for the new building as they should be but from a broadcast standpoint you're right over top of everything it's not the craziest steep angles that some of the other buildings have and and you're you got fans surrounding you so

all the energy of the building's there too so yes absolutely I'm excited and and I'm actually looking forward to finishing things out in the Saddled so uh how is how is the family how there's been a lot of moves for you guys what's up and like yeah it's uh it's coming at us quick here i think uh in a couple hours we have the realtor coming by to find out um what we need to do probably fix a lot of things before we can put uh the current place up. And then jet off to Calgary. I'm going to be there for camp and then maybe back one more time. And then hopefully the families come out in October.

So we are moving fast. We're diving right in. But you know what? It's going to be – it's almost good that way, I think, with the young kids to be able to get them into the new environment, start finding out what Calgary is like from a children's perspective

and settle down eventually and then calm things out I think as the season goes. So yeah, it's hair on fire right now but you know what, thankful for it. These chances don't come around very often and very grateful to have it and now we're on the same team, guys. That's kind of fun.

Absolutely. Do you have a cowboy hat and cowboy boots? And are you going to wear them all the time now? No chaps, but I do have the boots and hat. So, yes, I expect I will be donning that. In fact, I have a stampede hat. Like, there is a group of, there's a committee. There's a committee of Calgarians that when they travel,

they carry these white cowboy hats with a red sash around it. And they hand them out to people as representing the city and goodwill. And I happened to have an encounter before moving to Calgary and got one of those hats. So I'm going to bring it with us and that'll be kind of the, the first token now as a Calgarian. Are you ready to call a rebuilding team? No one's labeled it as that yet.

Oh, you're spinning already. You're spinning already. We expect to make the playoffs this year ever linden line right um i i know like anytime you move on from seven regulars in a hurry as they did last year i think people understand it's going to be a much different looking team and it's going to be a little bit of a tougher year but when i talk to flames fans and i have buddies that live in the city, the biggest piece of feedback I get is they just want a competitive team.

They want a team that's going to go out there every night and not look like they're rolling over. And I think they're going to get that. And there's still guys in this club that have won and want to win. And Cadry's one of those guys. Coleman's one of those guys. Backlund has been there um as their captain as well so I think there are going to be guys that drag everybody

else into the fight and then you hope for upside from some of the the players that are getting their feet wet or trying to take big steps in their NHL career so I do expect them to be competitive on a nightly basis and fun on on nightly basis. But, you know, certainly when you move on from seven regulars, as they did, it's going to leave a pretty big gap to fill. We're speaking to John Abbott, the newly minted play-by-play voice of the Calgary Flames here on Sportsnet. You're listening to him on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So you kind of alluded to it that you're joining the organization here

at a pretty interesting time. There's a lot of excitement about the new arena, you know, much talked about, often discussed. And now it's finally moving forward. So and you'll also get a chance to close down the Saddlebom, which is very cool. And you've also got this team that, as you mentioned, like while everyone's sort of looking to the future, both with the arena and with the team, there's still very much the case of the present where like Conroy said it, you've heard the media that follow that cover the team say it like they want the team to be competitive. And I do remember after they started selling off last season, they kind of kept winning

games almost like in spite of the fact that there was these constant guys being taken out of the lineup. So it makes for a really interesting dynamic to walk into. Abs, your thoughts on what it's going to be like where this team is focusing on the future but also very much invested in the present yeah it is interesting uh halford and and i think we'll see that storyline play out through most of the season uh probably right up until the trade deadline um you know whether there are more moves to be made what what position the team's in the standings, what's the longer-term look.

I think it is a mix of, okay, wanting to take, wanting to lay the groundwork and a foundation for what's ahead with some of the players that they expect to be big pieces, you know, around the time that building opens in all likelihood, but also wanting to play hard in front of their fans and then considering what else is out there, what the climate's like in the National Hockey League for either adding some players or subtracting some players.

So I do think that's going to be an interesting dance throughout the season. But this is a group, you know, Vladar had the hip surgery and was not available for all of uh the season last year but by all accounts he's ready to come back and and goaltenders have responded better from that dustin wolf is is a bright spot for the franchise and he's gonna get a longer look um you know there's matt coronado who's a younger name for the flames and and Connor Zeri, along with Martin Pospisil, who were big impact players for the Flames last year.

So I know those are not necessarily the big Huberdos of the world and the Cadres of the world, but those are the players that are going to grow with this franchise. And right now it's about trying to, I think, get the best out of them in the short term before maybe this roster changes a little bit over the next couple of years. So with the before maybe this roster changes a little bit over the next couple years you know so with the new opportunity of course there's a job that you're leaving behind and that's of course was calling games most recently for the Ottawa Senators and

you know we talked a lot about Ottawa last year there was a lot of changes there was a lot of disappointment on the ice that they fell short of where they thought they should be what can I mean I know you're leaving the gig now but you were very close to the team what can fans in Ottawa expect from the Senators this year with a sort of new look, new guy behind the bench, a lot of good young talent maybe looking to make that jump now? What can fans in Ottawa expect from the Sens? They're in good hands. I really believe it. And if you asked me last year if they were going to make the playoffs,

I would have said yes, and we know that that huffed fans in Ottawa with disappointment yet again, but I do think from the top down now, with Michael Anlauer coming in and changing the front office, and then now Travis Green and his staff, a lot of familiar names from his Canucks days being attached

to that team, I do think that there is a better opportunity for success. You go out and get the goaltender as well. And that was really their biggest hurdle last season, in my opinion, is, you know, there was times where they couldn't put it together and didn't get a save. And there were times where it looked like they should win more hockey games

and couldn't get a save. And it just, it didn't work as much as they wanted it to work with Corpus Allo. But I think having Allmark in there, particularly either looking for an extension or playing his way onto a different team perhaps after a good year in Ottawa, he's going to be motivated. So I do expect that the Sens are going to be contenders for the playoffs this year. And I think they're going to surprise some teams in the East

maybe with how quickly they put that together in comparison from years past. What was the response when Travis Green got hired? We have another former Canuck tie-in as well. We thought it might have been Craig Berube that might have gotten that job there but it ended up being Greener of course

from his time here. What was the response locally when Greener got that job? Well, as is the case, as you guys know, you start to try to anticipate what direction the management is going to go based on, you know, maybe some connections. And I think it came as a bit of a surprise to Sens fans that all of a sudden it was Travis Green. I don't think he was a name that was on their list for quite a while.

You're right, Berube was there for a long time, and he has connections to some of the management and front office with Ottawa. And it did seem like maybe there was going to be a couple of different candidates that circled through, and perhaps they did with interviews. But I think after the fact they got over the initial surprise that it was Travis Green,

I think Sens fans are excited to see what he can do, knowing that he's had the experience in the Canadian market in Vancouver. He has a staff with him in the likes of Mike Yeo that also, and Nolan Baumgartner have had experience. And so they know the pressures. And then getting the most out of a team in, in New Jersey, kind of being able to see how younger talented players work, you know, he has a good feel for that. So I think it's,

I think here we are before anybody's dropped the puck and you can go around every franchise and there's probably some signs of encouragement, but that would certainly be the case in auto right now with Travis. Well, abs one, we want to thank you for doing this today, and two, offer congrats yet again for the new gig. Very excited to have you as part of the team. Good luck with everything over the next couple weeks. I know it's going to be

busy, and enjoy your first season in Calgary. I'm sure we'll talk again soon. Can't wait to see you guys in Vancouver. Thanks for having me on, and it's good to go back into the good old days and enjoy chatting with you. So, thanks a lot boys. Congrats again, Abs. Take care, buddy.

Thanks, fellas. John Abbott, the new play-by-play voice of the Calgary Flames here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. How much do you think Rick Tockett's season helped Greener get a job? Explain. Where are we going? They all go to the same coaching philosophy. They're all buddies.

Remember we had Craig Berube on? Like I consider Craig Berube, Travis Green, and Rick Tockett. I wouldn't be surprised if there's like a group chat with them, with like maybe Kelly Chase in there too. Get on that WhatsApp. Yeah. They all have similar ideas about the game. I'm sure there are differences.

Now a lot of people might think, well, Tockett's obviously a much better coach than travis green look at what just happened and look at what greener did in vancouver and you know i won't i'm not going to disagree with that i think talk it did an amazing job last season i also remember the organization and how it was when greener left. And I was texting, I can't remember who I was texting. It might've been Durant. And who always used to defend Green, by the way. And I know he took some heat for that.

But do you remember the penalty killing unit that the Canucks had when it finally, the ax came down? Yeah, it was bad. Do you remember me coming in and be like, this PK unit is going to be, this is not, I told you so. This spoke to really the roster building deficiencies that the management group had. They didn't know how to build out a roster where you had roles

and you had to think about everything. That PK, and there was a couple play, was that the year that Hughes and Pedersen had their contract? Not holdouts, but they weren't signed. Yeah. Like they came in, the camp was all weird and they had just gone through that weird Canadian season with the pandemic.

It was, the whole thing was a mess. Some of the things were out of the control of the organization. Some were very much in control. The PK could not get a stop. Like it was, and it was a problem for a while. Yep. It was bad. Um, and, but, but it was, it was in my mind, 5% coaching and bomber was in charge of it.

And he was just like, I don't know what to do with this but it was 95% personnel and this management group has consistently made moves to address the PK unit and they've had to make more moves to address the PK unit this past offseason because

the Canucks lost some penalty killers in free agency. But it's that sort of stuff. It's boring to talk about the roster building. It's more fun to talk about, like what's wrong with Thatcher Demko or what's going on with Petey or how good was Quinn Hughes,

like the star players. But so much of management's groups, yeah, you got to find good players, but you got to find players that fit. And frankly, I think that's been a problem in Ottawa as well. So I wonder if he's going to run into the same things in Ottawa or he's going to have success fixing that. Maybe the new management group, their new ownership group,

is going to be a little bit better at building a roster where guys are fit into roles and you know where they fit and what they do so to your original question um i also and to this day still will say publicly not necessarily defend travis i thought he did a good job at times uh as the coach of the vancouver canucks and i think with the benefit of hindsight we realized that as you kind alluded to, a lot of the team's deficiencies were more about the way it was constructed as opposed to the way it was coached. That was my understanding and thought on it from the beginning. I remember I'd come on here and say, I think Travis Green's a pretty good coach,

and there would be streams of text coming in being like, he's not. You're wrong. Stop talking. I think the guy you and I disagreed with the most was bruce right but with green i was like i thought he did a good job i felt like i was almost in the minority or that it was this weird defense of a guy who was dealing with a very imperfect roster and at times flawed roster but then this it kind of went where he wasn't a hot candidate for any jobs and he landed as an assistant in New Jersey. And then when he became the interim there, after Lindy Ruff got fired,

I was like, oh, that's good for him. Maybe he'll be able to parlay this into something. Did not see him getting the Ottawa job. Like when Ab said that there was a level of surprise that he got it, I was in that camp. I didn't think that he was a guy that was at the top of a lot of lists. I just wonder if Berube and Green both went into their interviews

with the Leafs and the Sens respectively and was like, well, I've been talking a lot with my good friend Rick Talkett. Perhaps you know him. He is the Jack Adams winner. But do you remember when we had Berube on the show and I was like, are we talking with Rick Talkett here? Yeah. They're very similar ideas about how the game should be played.

Sure. And there are similar ideas on how you hold players accountable. You know, I don't know if I would call Rick Talkett like a taskmaster. He's not torts. He's not, you know, he's not, I don't know, like Mike Keenan or anything. But I think these guys that are successful in holding their players accountable, um, a lot of what's helped a lot of what helps is if you've had a successful NHL career, a long NHL career. So, you know what it takes. That's not to say that you absolutely need it, but I think it helps in certain cases.

And, you know, I think you have to, while you have to communicate with guys and you have to have empathy and you have to realize that not everyone's the same, you have to have a presence in the room. And I think that's what all three of those guys really do have, well, I would probably say, especially Talkit. Like, I think of those three, like I think Brumé all three of those guys really do have. I would probably say especially Talkett.

I think of those three. I think Brumé's got the most difficult job ahead of him now with trying to go into Toronto and do the things that he probably wants to do. I wonder if it's going to go over. Well, I've said this before, but remember when Torts came into Vancouver? Yeah. And he had a veteran group that had had some success, although they didn't get over the hump. And he was teaching a whole new brand of hockey. Yeah. And he had a veteran group that had had some success, although they didn't get over the hump. And he was like teaching

a whole new brand of hockey. Right. The impression that I get from Berube in Toronto is that his, either his goal or the one that's been dictated to him

from the guys above him is we need to stop being so reliant on our top guys and so top heavy. So we're going to need to find ways to get more

from the entirety of the lineup. But is he going to ask those other guys to play any different too? Like Matthews, Nylander, and Marner? I don't know. I honestly don't know how you do that because you can't say that like Austin Matthews isn't a successful regular season player, right?

I mean, he's a goal-scoring phenomenon and you can't say that Mitch Marner doesn't do very well in the regular season. The Marner thing is going to be fascinating. The Marner thing is not a great thing to inherit as a coach that's going to be very difficult with green now to circle back with greener in ottawa i actually think that there might be more uh room and runway for success because they're not a good team right now they haven't had that taste yet and they are a kind of team that needs structure implemented

they actually remind me a lot of i'm just talking conceptually of where the canucks were at when talk it took over like we've got good pieces we think we've got talent but we don't really know how to play and do the things on the ice we don't know how to play they didn't they don't right and that was the biggest change from boudreaux to talk it. Now, Berube, I think, in St. Louis, had an easier time of implementing structure and style because they stunk when he took over. They were dead last in the NHL.

I mean, there was reason to listen to him because they weren't winning hockey games. Toronto's not that. Toronto is like, well, we know how to win. We do it all the time in the regular season. It's when we get to the playoffs and the goals dry up. And if Marner and Matthews and Nylander and Tavares aren't scoring, what happens then?

And that's a tough thing for a new coach to unlock. And speaking of contract situations, what's going on with Sid in Pittsburgh? I don't know. I don't know why that hasn't been done yet. My hot take before I went on vacation. Well, I mean, I think it's obvious. He's not sure he wants to go long-term in Pittsburgh. My my hot take nice haven't heard the hot the rap horns in a while my hot take before i went on vacation was that he was going to wait until uh august the 7th to sign because

that was 8 7 and that didn't happen so now i don't know what the hell's going on the numerology's lost i'm out of ideas like i don't know how this hasn't been done yet. It's just sort of hung out there. It hasn't been done because Sid's probably looking at that roster and going, I don't really – have I played my last playoff game? If I stay with these guys, are we going to have a chance of winning a cup? But they made it pretty clear. Or should I come to Vancouver? Yeah, right.

What about that trade? Lots of them all over. Yeah, so many things to do. Yeah, he's got that decision, Pittsburgh or Vancouver. Everyone knows that, right? Okay. I do want to everyone knows that, right? Okay. I do want to talk about that later, though, because I did not think that that contract extension was going to hang

till the end of August. Like, I was pretty sure that was priority number one or 1A for Kyle Dubas, considering they didn't have a very active offseason in Pittsburgh. Please, Kyle Dubas, fumble Crosby. Could you imagine? Please. I mean, this would be, now that we've got the time, we'll just go on. Trading Gensel, man. I bet Sid looked

at that and went, like, what are we doing here? But it was the right move at the time. They couldn't resign him. Sometimes you have to make those moves, right? Yeah, but Sid was probably like, well, why did you have this Carlson guy? I mean, I have, I've

read some stuff and talked to him. His cap is pretty big. They think that this is actually going to be a bounce back year for Carlson and that group. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because it was almost like he took too much oxygen coming in. Like, if you watch their power play, part of the reason their power play stunk was because everyone was deferring to everyone else. Their power play was so bad. But you know, another part was Geno. Geno everyone else. Power play was so bad. But it's just like. But you know, another part was Gino.

Yeah. Gino's not. Gino's old. Well, he's old. I mean, he's not aging as gracefully as Sid, right? I mean, that's a big problem. So, okay. We are up against it for time.

We do have to go to break. Coming up on the other side, seven o'clock hour. Hour one is in the books. Hour two. There is some local sporting event tonight. It is the Vancouver Whitecaps and Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League. Pacific is coming to BC

Place in the semi-final of the Canadian Championship, looking to pull what will be a massive upset, try and knock off an MLS team and get to the final. The manager for that team, James Merriman, is going to join us on the other side at 7 o'clock. And then at 7.30,

Justin Pogge is going to join the program. Remember him? Former NHL goalie, briefly. Long career overseas in Europe. A former world junior star in 2006. Justin is going to join us at 7.30 to talk about his new job as the goalie coach of the

Abbotsford Canucks. And before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions' 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. Hour 1 is in the books. Hour 2 coming up next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.