Halford & Brough in the Morning - Does USA Have A Stronger Best-On-Best NHL Roster Than Canada?

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

In hour one, Mike & guest host Jamie Dodd look at the previous day in sports (3:00), they preview Canada's huge quarterfinal matchup at Copa this evening versus Venezuela (6:00), they rank Canada and USA's projected rosters at the NHL's 4 Nations Faceoff this season (12:00), they look at the Maple Leafs off-season thus far with Fan 590 Toronto's Sam McKee (27:00), plus will Jim Benning ever speak to the Vancouver media again (45:00)? This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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the weekend. Good morning, making for 601 on a Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford. It is Dodd. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jamie Dodd, final day in the chair. Filling in for the vacationing Jason Brough. Good morning to you. Good morning. Hey, Dodd. Good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford 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. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

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Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Before we do anything today, shout out to everyone that submitted Ask Us Anything Fridays via Twitter last night. You made our job infinitely easier this morning. And for that, we thank you.

You're taking solicitations on X, were you? Even that one guy I called a jerk in the inbox yesterday who may or may not have anything to do with this. You listeners are the best.

You people are the best. If you want to weigh in now, Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. We're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, the best pizza place in the world. If you want to win a $100 gift card, all you got to do is send it

and ask us anything and hashtag it AUA. Make it good. You could win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Okay. As for what's happening on the program today, 630, Sam McKee is going to join us from the Fan 590 in Toronto. You've heard him on Leafs Talk postgame following Leafs games. He's the producer of Kipper and Bourne,

and he's doing this despite being on vacation. Wow. What a guy. Sam McKee is going to join us to talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs offseason. Did they do enough? Is it as radically different enough of a team from last year? Is Mitch Marner going to be the new captain? We will ask all these questions and more of Sam McKee at 630.

7 o'clock, it's AJ705. Peter Baugh is going to join us from the athletic New York hockey writer, but we're going to ask him specifically about the New York Rangers and the Jacob Truba situation. Very complex. Sounds like they kind of want him to entertain a trade, but he's got a no trade clause. He's also got a wife who's a medical practitioner.

She's got her doctorate. She's working in the New York area. So we're going to talk to Peter Baugh from The Athletic about all that and what's next for the New York Rangers captain. 7.30, James Sharman, Footy Prime podcast. He's going to join us. Argentina is through to the semifinals of the Copa America. Well, they will face the winner of Canada and Venezuela.

Tonight, 6 o'clock, the winner will go. And if it's Canada, it's a rematch against the Argentinians from the group stage. We will also look ahead to the Euro quarterfinals. They kick off at 9 a.m. this morning. Two great matchups this morning. Spain takes on Germany. France takes on Portugal. We'll talk to James Sharman about that at 7.30.

8 o'clock, it's the Moj. Yes, it's the Moj. Bob the Moj Marjanovic will be joining us. Lions are in action this weekend in Laddie's hometown of Hamilton. They will be facing off. My apologies. Kicking off at 4.30, sorry, on Sunday in Canadian Football League action. As mentioned, $100 gift card to AJ's.

It's Ask Us Anything Friday. I'm so excited to get to the show. I'm not even going to do the lineup in reverse. Wow. I know. Laddie, let's just 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? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving

construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Kind of a light night on Thursday night in the world of Sprott, so we don't have a ton to get into here. I do want to start with Canadian soccer because I'm allowed to. It's my show.

My name's on it. I can do what I want. I can drive it into the ground if do want to start with Canadian soccer because I'm allowed to. It's my show. My name's on it. I can do what I want. I can drive it into the ground if I want. Lionel Messi and the Argentinians advance to the semifinal with a shootout victory over Ecuador. I won't go too far down the road on that one because this is all about Canadian soccer. Canada. Yesterday got an emotional lift yesterday, Jamie. I don't know if you saw it or not.

No. Tejan Buchanan arrived back at the team hotel after undergoing surgery on his broken tibia. The team gave him a standing ovation and lots of hugs as he crutched his way from the bus to the hotel. And then they lined up for an aerial photo shoot

where the players lined up, forming the number 17 with their bodies in memory of Tayshaun Buchanan. So they've got some motivation going into this match tonight. So from your perspective, what are your expectations for this match against Venezuela? Is this a should win? Is this a big disappointment if they lose?

And I think in some ways you look at it and say, they're already here in the quarters of Copa. That's pretty impressive. But Venezuela is a nice draw for them as well. So Venezuela historically and traditionally, has been one of, if not the weakest, of the South American teams in CONMEBOL. That's their conference.

CONMEBOL. It's comprised of 10 countries, and they are the only one that's never qualified for a World Cup. This is actually sort of like a golden generation for them, the way that they played over the last year, because traditionally they don't do anything at Copa. They do even less in World Cup qualifying. So on that, with that context, you would say,

this is a great draw for Canada. This is amazing. I don't get the sense that this team is like fat and happy in full, having just qualified for the knockout stages of Copa. I think that they understand that they've gotten a good draw and there's more to get from this. That being said, it is going to be another exceptionally difficult match against a South American opponent who understands the tournament

and understands how to play cynical and how to foul constantly and how to grind and work and the dark arts of South American football. I would be, I would be over the moon. If Canada got a result, I would not be bitterly disappointed if they didn't, because this,

the goal was to qualify for this stage. So the goal has been met, but much like the world cup, I left the world cup in 2022 in Qatar. Not that I went, but I went, I left it disappointed because I felt like something was left on the table. Like not getting a point, not getting a result,

not getting something against Belgium, not getting something against Morocco. I would feel the same way. There would be a sense of disappointment because the road right now, and I couldn't even, if you had ever told me that there was a possibility for Canada to play Argentina

in the Copa America semifinal in New York in East Rutherford where there would be, it's in New Jersey, but you get the point. There would be 80,000 people in attendance. It would be the biggest match. Honestly, I think it would be bigger than any of the matches that they played at the World Cup in terms of

importance, in terms of how seriously the opponent would be taking it as opposed to a group stage match or a chance to go to the final. It would involve messy and it would be the biggest profile game. I think because, you know, this tournament is being hosted by the Americans. So the eyes of a lot of people are glued to this one. So I am very excited for tonight's match.

It's I think you're right that it will feel like something has been left on the table if they don't advance past venezuela and look as you said there's no easy games against these south american teams right because they know how to take the beautiful game of football and absolutely destroy it and strip it of its beauty and turn it hideously ugly and that can be tough but canada's had that experience in this tournament now and they've shown they can play that game as well. Right. And I am buoyed by the fact that they dealt with it really well in the group stage where

a team like, I don't know, the Americans lost their heads in a very pivotal moment in the group stage and found themselves on the outside looking in for the knockout stage. Okay. Really quick with the Jays. They still suck. I'm shaking my head vigorously.

Blue Jays lost 5-3 to the Astros last night. The Blue Jays have now lost 12 of their last 16. It's getting to the point where talking about the futility of this team has become futile because no changes appear imminent. You were talking, Laddie, prior to the show about the last days of the John Schneider era. Well, there was a clip that I was playing, and even Adog commented before the show there.

He listed off a string of about 12 different cliches in his post-game answers, because that's basically all he has left now. He even said they got to get the pucks in deep. Yeah, he grabbed the hockey script, I think, by accident. So the reason I bring up this futility is because it leads into, Jamie, the annual series for the

Blue Jays in Seattle, which in past years has been a celebration of the Blue Jays and Canadian baseball and fans invading Seattle, proud of their baseball squadron. I'm not sure the same vibes are going on this weekend. Well, and especially in recent years, both teams have been playoff contenders, playoff hopefuls. Of course, they met in the

playoffs with the Mariners winning, right? So then the one after that has a little bit more bite to it as well. This year, I'm sure there will still be lots of Jays fans there, right? Because you've already bought your tickets before this year, had a chance to go off the rails. You've made your hotel reservations and all that. But I think it's going to have a much different vibe. Like, this is the most widely despised Blue Jays team I can remember in a long time. Because there have been bad teams, obviously.

But those are teams you kind of didn't expect anything from. This team is unique in that they are wildly underperforming relative to their expectations. And we haven't really seen a team like that from the Jays for a while. So, look, again, as I said, there's going to be lots of fans there. But I don't know. Are we going to hear instead of Jays cheering, drowning out the Mariners, are we going to hear like Jays booing?

Take over some of these games if they get ugly for Toronto. I do wonder what the vibes are going to be like, because there's already a sense of angst with that series from the Mariners' perspective. We've talked to numerous Mariners fans, and then the hosts on KJR, Softie Mollers come on the show a few times. They hate the annual invasion, right?

So there's that level of hatred. Stop giving us all your money. Right. We hate this. Yeah, and boosting our economy with all of your monies. And then they've got the added, now this is a new wrinkle, Jays fans going down there, and many of them, as you mentioned, probably angst-ridden with how the season is going.

So I do wonder how negative and toxic it's going to be down there because there's not a lot of celebration going on this year. No, and even the Mariners, I mean, they won last night, but they're sliding in a big way, right? And the jays didn't do them any favors because they just dropped three or four to the astros who are trying to chase the mariners yeah i don't love that the astros are now on fire no the jays are like nice lead in the division you got the mariners shame if somebody ruined that yeah it was so the the astros have now won 12 of their last 14 as well and are hot on the heels of the Mariners in the AL West.

Okay, I told you I was excited to get into the show today because we did plan a bunch of different stuff in anticipation of this being a very slow week and, of course, coinciding with everyone taking vacation around Canada Day and then Independence Day in the U.S. So I've come to notice over the last week that people have picked up on that thing that the NHL decided to cram into last week, their busiest week on the calendar. The announcement of the first six for the four nations face-off. So Canada, U.S., Sweden, and Finland. We kind of glossed over it last week because there was so much stuff on the go.

It's almost like they shouldn't have announced it during all that stuff. Do you remember how much stuff they crammed into that week? Like, why don't we do the Hockey Hall of Fame announcement? Let's do the schedule. Yeah. Can we do the awards? Can we get the awards in there? We'll do the awards as well.

What else can we do? So in the aftermath now, a lot of outlets have picked up on roster projections for the four nations face off. So this started at NHL.com. They kicked it off yesterday with their US projected roster. Sirius XM followed it up by doing a Canada roster projection as well. There was a couple different accounts, including that JFreshHockey guy who actually did a vote, got about 1,500, 2,000 people weighing in

on who they wanted to see on this Canadian team. Team Canada is in trouble. So that was your takeaway. Yes, they are. They're not in trouble. Okay, Andy. I would bet on the States winning. Okay,. It's not in trouble. Okay, Andy. I would bet on the States winning. Okay, how come?

They're better. Okay, good. They're more well-rounded. And Laddy, why do you push back on this? I don't think the gap in the areas that people think the American team is better is as big or as wide as people think it is. Is the biggest edge for the Americans solely in net? Well, that's the big one.

That's the biggest edge. And even then, in a small-sized tournament like that, I think any of these NHL-caliber goalies can do it, especially if Binnington's your starter, which I think is going to be the case. He got voted third in the JFresh poll by the fans, but Hockey Canada loves them some Jordan Binnington, and I think he's going to be the guy,

and I think he'll be fine. He plays on a bad St. Louis team. He had, what, a 9-15 save percentage. I think he can handle it. He can handle it, guys. I know he's not Connor Hellebuck. USA's D is just as good or better. Their forward group is more well-rounded,

although I would give Canada the edge in the game breakers by far. High-end talent, I think. Yeah, okay, because Canada has McDavid and McKinnon, and maybe that's enough. Like, they have the better high-end talent. Sidney Crosby. Something McDavid just did for the Oilers. But, oh, man, you look at that USA 4 group, it's stacked, too.

It's really, really, really good. USA's top four on the blue line is nasty, too. It's like Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox, Charlie McAvoy, Jacob Slavin. Yeah, their D core is awesome. There's a lot of versatility. I'm not saying Canada's D and 4 group isn't good. It is excellent as all, obviously, but if I was betting, I'd probably pick the States.

Okay, so let's start in that then the candidates as we kind of came up with here are going to be jordan binnington and then it's like aiden hill what do you got well hold on jordan binnington is also let's not we're not let's not put him on a pedestal here but it sounds like he's gonna be the guy unless something really dramatic happens over the next six or eight months make of that what you will but right now i think we can all definitively state that he would be the leader the leading candidate going into february's four nations face off so after that you go eden hill connor ingram stewart skinner laddy is there anyone that we're missing on that list levi maybe if he steps up in the next couple of years. So I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that they're probably going to

take three like most teams do. They'll identify one and then it'll just be, we're going to sink or swim with you. It won't be this sort of open audition. I got a feeling that even in the tournament, the starter would have to fail quite miserably because there's just not the depth of talent. Well, even when Canada had goaltending depth, they still started Cujo in the Olympics the one year,

then they went to Brodeur. It's going to be an open competition, obviously. Yeah, I don't know if it will be. I think that they really could benefit from naming a guy and making him the alpha and just making him understand, like, you're our guy, Jordan Binnington, with your winning personality and charm. I do wonder if the number two guy would be Skinner.

I do. Just because of reputation and experience? I do respect what he did in the playoffs this year. He was in one against the Canucks in that second round. He was in a malaise. He was in a funk. And I know that they had to sit him down to reset him. But once he came back, I thought he had a very good Stanley Cup final.

I was pretty impressed with how he was able to deal with some failure in a critical moment and come back in that same moment. You could just do that without the failure part. That'd be great. Yeah, now failing obviously is not an option at the Four Nations Faceoff. That's just how Stuart Skinner works, though. He's got to fail first. Now, Gurjeet texted in is a good point.

Didn't Binnington poop the bed in the World Championships? Yeah, he wasn't great. In front of Team Canada. Is that way against him at all, or Team Canada is willing to overlook that performance? I think they're willing to overlook it, and Hockey Canada historically has been very kind to players who have been willing to go to the World Championships

and do things for Hockey Canada. So that's why I think they're going to at least have him as the front row. Thanks for going over there and letting in eight goals. Pretty much. I have a question for everyone with the forward group. One guy in particular. Does Zach Hyman get a golden ticket because of Connor McDavid? Chris Kunitz.

Does he get to go? Yes. He was voted in on the JFresh one, and he was specifically put there on McDavid's line. It's really tough to leave a 50-goal scorer off the roster. Really, really tough. Even if you're not totally sold on the chemistry thing, I think just in terms of production, he's going to be there. I do wonder if someone of superior talent gets left off because of a quote unquote chemistry solution.

When the, my, my response, he said, uh, was he, it's with Crosby and wasn't it Stamkos that got left behind because of that? Yes.

Chemistry thing. Right. And it could be Stamkos this time around. Kind of hilarious. It's been a tough week for you. So it's like, Oh, come on.

A friendly reminder to those listening that the first six have already been selected. Sidney Crosby, Nathan McKinnon, Kale McCarr, Brad Marchand, Connor McDavid, and, come on. A friendly reminder to those listening that the first six have already been selected. Sidney Crosby, Nathan McKinnon, Kael McCarr, Brad Marchand, Connor McDavid, and Braden Point. So five forwards and a goalie. So you're talking about a forward group. We kind of put it to 15 guys, the list of candidates with five spots already taken. So at that point, you're saying Mitch Marner, I would say he's probably he's a lock.

He's as close to the lock as you can get. I think Sam Reinhardt's played his way. Sam's probably... He's a lock. He's as close to a lock as you can get. I think Sam Reinhardt's played his way. Sam Reinhardt's a lock, I think. And winning the cup, 57 goals. The Jay Fresh poll had him on the fourth line. Can you imagine fourth line Sam Reinhardt? Oh, but Canada's not very good. They're going to get smoked by the States.

Oh, Andy just shot you daggers of death there. They're not going to get smoked, but I bet the U.S. wins. Conor Bedard. What do you do with Conor bedard you take him you think so absolutely now this is one where it could change if he struggles if he's on pace for like 50 points next year right i think that could change but everyone remembers what happened at the world hockey championships right is that he basically got drummed out at times of a prominent role on the team. I think there's two cases to be made here. One, you pick your best, let's go 13-7-3.

You pick your best 13 forwards, regardless of context and circumstance, right? What are they going to do in this moment, in this tournament? Don't look ahead to 2026. That being said, you might want to have a situation where Bedard gets to hang around and be

with Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid at a major international tournament. I don't know if you have the luxury of doing a mentorship program in the middle of it, but you got what I'm saying, right? I just think he's going to be on pace. By the time, whenever they select the teams, he's going to be on pace for like 40 plus goals and 80 plus points, and he's got that aura about him and that pedigree, and it's just going to be on pace. By the time, whenever they select the teams, he's going to be on pace for like 40 plus goals and 80 plus points, and

he's got that aura about him in that pedigree, and it's just going to be too hard to leave him off. I think they're going to take him. Look at the four groups, just line by line, comparing them. Canada, line one is Hyman, McDavid, Bedard versus Jason Robertson, Austin Matthews, Matthew Kuchuk. Line two is Brad

Marchand, Sidney Crosby, Nathan McKinnon versus Jake Gensel, Jack Hughes, Jack Eichel. Line three is Steve Stamkos, Braden Point, Mitch Marner versus JT Miller, Tage Thompson, Clayton Keller. Line four, Barzell, Reinhardt, Stone versus Brady Kachuk, Dylan Larkin, Kyle Conner. Yes. So it gets very close.

That's how we're trying to figure out who's on the Canadian team right now. Yeah, and they have the extras as being Wyatt Johnson and Carter Verhage. I heard a case for Wyatt Johnson this morning, and I think I have time for it, but... Chris Kreider and Brock Besser are the extras on the list. The extras on it? Yeah, okay. Like, it's super close. Right, and then if you go down the list for Canada,

the guys probably on the outside looking in, amazingly, are going to be like Stamkos, Flapagy, Robert Thomas, Bol Horvat. One interesting thing about Team Canada when I was putting this together last night is, and this is very atypical for Canada at these events, they're actually a little short on like no doubt about it centers. Yep.

Right? Now you've got obviously Crosby, McKinnon, McDavid, Brayden Point, who's a really good center. So it's not like they're going to struggle to find guys but typically you're like taking all these really good centers and moving them to the wings they got a lot of guys who are like listed at center. Matt Barzell, Sam

Reinhart, Stephen Stamkos but mostly play on the wing at this point in their career. So I do wonder like somebody like Wyatt Johnston who's a center Robert Thomas who's a center who takes a ton of face-offs and wins a ton of face-'s a center, who takes a ton of face-offs and wins a ton of face-offs, Bo Horvat, who takes a ton of face-offs and wins a ton of face-offs. I

wouldn't be surprised if somebody like that beats out maybe a more high-profile name just because they need that extra fifth center or sixth center on the roster. Blue lines. So as we mentioned earlier, there's only one lock right now, and that's Kael McCarr. I think everyone

can rightly assume that his D partner in Colorado, Devon Taves, will be on the team. There's another interesting one with Shea Theodore and Alex Petrangelo, right? If you want to get a pairing. Are we keeping the pairings together? Is that what we're going for here? I mean, it's not the worst strategy I've ever seen. You know, you've got built-in chemistry

there and it is a little bit different than forward lines because those guys are obviously tasked to do more and play more together. It's more about creativity for those guys than the defense. Yeah. And then I go down the list and it's kind of like I just don't see a ton of stone-cold locks. What about Bouchard?

See, I don't know. Bouchard? I don't know. Bouchard's going to be on the team. Yeah. For sure. I do wonder what his role ends up being because he's not going to be well he might

have a chance to be power play merchant but kaylee you have kale mccarr i guess yeah but i like because oftentimes you end up dressing uh 13 forwards and seven defensemen at these so i could see him being kind of the seventh defenseman power play specialist but not necessarily taking a regular shift you know i think i don't want to say a lock but like this guy had i think the quietest 70 point season for a defenseman in a long time no adoption has 70 points yeah and it's like six foot three and right-handed he's gonna be on this team yeah he'll be on yeah i think that your top six now we haven't gone down the road of handedness yet because i don't know exactly how if they'll right, left, right. You know what I mean? Like the Babcock style, but

Taves, McCarr, Morrissey, Dobson, Theodore Petrangelo would be a very good top six. And that would leave a guy like Bouchard as your seven, which is where you're right. He's coming over the boards for special teams and stuff like that. Does Drew

Dowdy get the honorary, hey, come along for the ride. You've done, you've been so great internationally or is it, is it too long? And it's so weird to judge because he looked washed and now he's back. So, yes.

So like, how do you judge a guy like that? I think you can only take one of Petrangelo or Dowdy, like one, give one, the honorary, like hockey Canada lifetime achievement award. They're both still really good.

Yeah, that's true. But you know what I mean? I don't think you can take both of them because the right side is really strong for Canada, right? Kale McCarran, Noah Dobson, Alex Petrangelo, Evan Bouchard. I would have all four of them ahead of Dowdy. If Dowdy was left-handed, I think he'd be a lock.

But I think the right side is just really, really stacked for Canada. Other guys, Adam Pellick, Morgan Riley, who I thought about. I don't think he's going to make it. I don't think he's going to make I don't think he's going to make it I think it would be it's almost like his window maybe passed if they had been doing international competition a few years ago where he would have been in the mix okay but I guess

that's where I'm at with his career trajectory yeah I think said I just made a case for Drew Dowdy who's like you know he's got he's kind of he's a tad wash he's got a little bit of a fork sticking out of his back. But Vince Dunn, Owen Power are the other guys. Owen Power is an interesting one. Owen Power is the

Conor Bedard of the blue line, right? Where it's like you bring him along with the anticipation of, here, soak this all in, understand what it's like to be in a high-pressure international situation, then be ready for the Olympics. And I do wonder about Adam Pellick. i threw his name there and again not the offensive profile that sure other guys were talking about but again to just

kind of fill that role as the eighth defenseman physical defensive that type of thing are they allowed to shock me to see are they allowed to change their rosters up like right up until the tournament or do they have to lock it in like before the season i think they select kind of like early january i think they named them i mean the only reason i ask is, what if some guy goes on a tear that we don't expect this year? Could that be a late add that we're not thinking about? If Olin Power at 6'6 and the former first overall pick is on pace for 70 points in December, he's got a really good shot to make it to the season.

So teams can do that then? Yeah. They can up and tell? Okay. So that may change everything. Because the tournament's in February. So again, I think it's early January. It's the NHL's event.

They can make up rules. That's true, I guess. They make up rules. Bring a guy on the day of the tournament. I have all the Canadian forward players here in the points from last season. We want more fringe guys that could make the team. Nick Suzuki had 77 points last year. He's way up there.

Nazem Khadri had 75 points. Shifley's up there with over 70 points. The issue with guys like Shifley and Suzuki is that, as Jamie mentioned, there's so many centers, right? So it's like, who are you going to overtake? You can shift a guy over, though. No, I know, but there's guys even ahead of them that are going to play that center position, so they're going to be bouncing.

Shifley, I don't know. He's a center, but he's not a defensive center. No. And he's not offensively better than the guys we're talking about. He's more of a playmaker. He's a guy that could play his way. If he blew the doors off the competition last year and had an unbelievable start, and you're like, let's strike when the iron's hot here.

Those are the type of players that you have to leave the door open for. There could also be, in the case of Wyatt Johnson, that's what they're saying there. Look at his trajectory. He could come out of the gates next year and be one of the top players in the West. And at that point you're saying, well, do we need to reconsider this? Right. God, the stank oven could do it the way that he plays.

Right. I think it's a little bit of a longer gap. Yes. But anyway, coming up on the Halford and Brough show featuring Jamie Dodd, Sam McKee is going to join us next for a little Leafs talk. The Leafs needed some major changes this summer. That's what a lot of people were suggesting prior to the start of free agency. Did they get those changes?

We'll ask that question of Sam next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p-6pm weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 633 on a Friday.

You're listening to the Haliford and Brough Show featuring Jamie Dodd here on Sportsnet 650. So I'm doing the read during the break for White Rock Honda. And I get to the part of it where it says, With great fuel economy. And Dodd starts killing himself laughing. I'm like, what's so funny about that? I really just, because it's the start of the read, I really thought you were going to follow it up with, with great fuel economy comes great responsibility.

I mean, that's how you started the read, is like in that cadence. I mean, it does. It's a great line. Honestly, the salespeople should use it over there. I was going to say. With great fuel economy comes great responsibility. Some guy at White Rock Honda handing you a lightsaber.

He's like, be careful with this. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show. It's a Fiesta Friday here on Halford & Brough featuring Jamie Dodd. This show is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program.

Sam McKee from Fan 590 in Toronto is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

To the phone lines we go. Sam McKee joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Sam. How are you? Doing really well. How are you guys doing today? Very good. First, thank you for doing this. I know that you're technically on vacation, so we do appreciate this. It's been a long week. Everyone's kicking off and trying to enjoy the weekend. So thanks for appreciate this. It's been a long week. Everyone's kicking off and trying to enjoy the weekend.

So thanks for doing this. I want to start, obviously, with this Maple Leafs offseason thus far. So the sentiment out there, and I know Jonas Siegel wrote about this in The Athletic and a couple other people have echoed it, is that there was expected to be some pretty significant changes to look different this offseason. The Leafs needed some major change, and they haven't gotten it yet. Do you subscribe to this line of thought or no? So I do think that they've made some pretty major changes to their back end,

which is clearly going to get massively underrated by the fact that there's still been no movement up front with the four guys. And I think that's kind of getting papered over in this offseason, right? Like they added a lot of depth on the D on the D court. It definitely looks better than it did last year. But yeah,

I think when you have these press conferences after every year where they do this big talk and it's all talk about changes and how they're ready for it finally, and all of this sort of stuff, they bring out Keith Pelley and he's talking about stuff. And then it's just the exact same things happening for the eighth straight offseason. I think people have a hard time to look at what the good things that have happened to the back end.

But, yeah, I think what Jonas wrote is kind of right. The sentiments are right. It's just it's not really an excellent situation right now with the team and the fans' relationship in Toronto. Yeah, and you talked about the big four up front and the frustration that that's going to be static. It looks like we'll see what shakes out over the rest of the summer, but I mean, it's not just the four guys, right? Specifically, we're talking about Mitch Marner most this summer. How frustrated will you personally be if Mitch Marner's on this team

come training camp? It's such a hard one for me because I really, if I'm a person that works in the lease organization, if I'm Brad for living, if I'm somebody in the front office, I probably don't trade them. Like, I don't know how I possibly win this trade. I don't know how I'm possibly better. I know in the,

in the playoffs, he hasn't been great, but in the regular season, I don't know how I'm possibly better trading Mitch Marner for whatever. Like, I guess Shea Theodore and Logan Thompson was the package at one point. Or, you know, whatever else people had, like, hypothesized that they were going to get back for Marner. If I was in the front office, I would be like, well,

why are we going to trade him? Why are we better if we do that? But from the fans' perspective, it's just signing up for another year of the exact same thing. And I think that's where it's a little bit dangerous, boys, where the fan and general manager sort of should connect. It's like, you're going to have some real apathy towards this team, some real toxicity towards this team with people being like, I'm supposed to sign up for another year of this that I know is not going to work once the biggest game starts. So there's two very different conversations,

and there's a reason these guys haven't been traded, that Marner hasn't been traded, that Willie hasn't been traded, that they haven't approached Tavares, because they're really good players that just fail at the biggest time of year but everybody keeps tricking themselves that's not going to happen so it's a really hard one but yeah uh I don't know if I'll be frustrated I'll just be a little bit apathetic and kind of dreading having to talk about them every single day when they look exactly the same that's where I stand that's the the exact emotions you want your favorite hockey team to evoke in you frustration

and apathy. It's awesome. I love it. And the funny thing with Marner is because you're right, right? It's like, how are you going to get better by trading Mitch Marner? Now, maybe you open up some cap flexibility and all of those things. I understand. But the other complicating factor here is it's not the idea of trading him isn't just, well, let's do it for kicks.

It's, you know, he's a UFA after this year. So you're kind of in this position where traditionally it's either we're going to trade this guy or we're going to try to sign him to an extension. I don't think there's any appetite for an extension with Mitch Marner right now in Toronto. Are you concerned at all that they play out the string here with him and then he just leaves for nothing in free agency? The heartbreaking part about this is that the time to trade him

was when the whole Dubas thing shook out last offseason. And I don't have any insight. I don't have any sources or anything. But I truly believe in my heart of hearts that Dubas had seen enough. And maybe he was going to be the one to trade one of the core four that maybe he was the one that was going to trade, you know, a Nylander before he had to sign his new contract, or Marner before his no move kicked in on july 1st like think about when chalitin came in last

year right it was right at the most important time of the year and it's so funny he's like figuring out where the washerman is and getting his key cards ready while the most important part of the you know mitch marner his ability to be traded is just evaporating while he's trying to get things figured out. So I it's I don't know. I think they probably have given him an offer. I would imagine it's in good faith. Like, I don't know if they're going to give him the full boat kind of offer. But like, I can't imagine him wanting to stay like I'm sure he wants to stay this year.

Play it out. Have a huge contract here toronto with the most eyeballs on you and then sort of maximize whatever contract he's gonna get and then i guess his agent darren ferris has the reputation of walking guys to ufa so maybe you revisit it then but yeah it really feels like last summer, right as Brad got the job, was the time to kind of try and trade him. And now you're really just stuck, boys. You're really, really just stuck. We are speaking to Sam McKee from the Fan 590 in Toronto here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Joseph Wall in net, Sam, where's your confidence index on the Leafs beginning his tenure as the undisputed number one, but also banking on him being healthy enough to do it. Yeah, I was really, really shooken by Game 7 the first round last year, fellas. That was really, it's going to take me a long time to recover and trust Joe Wall after he just disappears for Game 7,

after he has two of the better games I've seen a goalie play in a Leafs uniform in 10 years. One of my biggest takes has been for the last couple of years on any show and anyone that was listening to me is that you've got to stop papering lottery ticket goaltending to this core. And the last real goalie they had was Freddie, and Freddie had playoff failures, but they also played him like 70 games a year during the regular season.

He would just break down in the first round and it never went well. They just didn't, you know, think of the guys that they've had behind this core, right? Like you think of Jack Campbell, think of Ilya Samsonov, you think of Peter Morazic, think of Matt Murray. It's just been all of these guys that are just not bona fide number ones in the league anymore. to me the markstrom thing was one that they should have visited i thought before they got the you know sorrow

signed that contract that probably wasn't realistic or something like that i just feel that wall has the potential to be like one of those guys but i'm just not trustworthy in his ability to stay healthy and maybe they do some work with him in the offseason maybe they kind of talk about what's if he's hurt or if he's injured sort of thing. I don't know where he's at. But, yeah, I would say that I trust Wall when he's in the net, but I don't trust him to stay in the net. So we'll see what Stollarts, he's got some good numbers.

I saw some good nerd numbers about him. He's got good goals saved above expected, played well behind the Putrid Ducks team, played well with the Florida Panthers last year. I saw him say that, you know, he's one of the best goalies in the world with the Leafs when they were getting introduced. There's no way that comes back in hot Leaf fans, that quote. So it should be interesting in that for Toronto.

Lots of us to talk about. I really wish they had gone out and got like a true number one bona fide guy. So one thing I find interesting about this Leafs team, Sam, is because of a lot of what we're talking about, right? Potentially not trading Marner, as you said, maybe the desire for a number one goalie. It feels like going into this season, this could be the lowest expectations for a Leafs team in, I don't know,

five years, five plus years, really since the core four kind of established themselves as top players there. Do you think that's true? And could that actually be a good thing for this team going into the season it's interesting it's a good question i feel like they were pretty low expectations heading into this season too i i think just because they got past the first round people i think apathy is really set in here at the start of the season. And I think people are very much just showing me when it comes, like maybe we'll win a round. I think they've really kind of been beaten down over the years here,

where when it first started, it was like, wow, these are going to win multiple cups with this core, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, well, maybe if we just get to the conference finals. Maybe if we just get seven games in the second round. Maybe we just get to the second round. And then you just get, you know, seven games in the second round. Maybe we just get to the second round. And then you do get to the second round, and now it maybe gets knocked down a little bit more. But yeah, I think,

I do think that Berube is going to make a difference. I think that has something to do with a little bit of, you know, maybe not optimism, but just people feeling a little bit different. But I do think people are just going to feel the exact same way they always feel if it's the same four guys in Morgan Riley. People are just going to feel the exact same way they felt about this team. And I don't know if there's going to be any optimism, any lack of optimism.

People are just going to be stuck in their ways about how they feel one way or other, and we're just going to watch the whole season and hope in April that they're actually playing in the playoffs and we can all talk about it again. Who's the guy that the Leafs are going to miss the most? That's a good question. Pertuzzi got a huge contract in Chicago,

so I don't think they were going to pay him that money. I think they will miss him just sort of for depth you know if you look at the left side of the leafs um a left side of the leafs forward core it's not it's not excellent fellas i'm gonna tell you here like i think maybe pontus holberg's playing on the second line right now if you look at uh the daily face-off lineups or maybe it's or bobby mcmahon or whatever you want to do. So I think it comes down to not them, you know, missing his production because he, I think he had 30 games this year in a row where he went without a goal. I think it's just them sort of being able to slot their,

slot their forwards in right. Like if you look at their forward core here, fellas, it's paper thin. And they don't have a ton to cap, a ton of cap to work with like they are screaming out for a trade they really need some forward depth i don't know if they use the timothy lilligren contract that just signed later on in the summer to maybe trade for a more bona fide upfront guy somebody who can give you a little bit of scoring touch that's the funny thing here you know everybody talks about oh we gotta fix the d-core gotta fix the d-core of course every game in talks about, oh, we've got to fix the D-Core. We've got to fix the D-Core. Of course, every game in the first round last year was 2-1 with the Leafs.

The D-Core wasn't the issue. They can't score. They just can't score when it comes to the biggest games. So we'll see what happens here. You know, it's July 5th or 6th or whatever it is. So maybe they've got more plans for the rest of the offseason. But as presently constituted, I think Bertuzzi, missing him on that left side,

really kind of elevated some guys into some roles that may be not ready for what they're going to be having. Hey, Sam, before we let you go here, we started off the show by doing the classic Canadian sports media thing of trying to put together Team Canada for the Four Nations tournament in February. It's my dream. It's my dream. It's my favorite thing ever. We've been robbed of this for too many years. It's my dream. It's my dream. It's my favorite thing ever. We've been robbed of this for too many years.

It's my dream. I'm right there with you. Look, I won't put you on the spot to go through the whole roster here, but I'm sure you've looked into this. I'm sure you've looked into the American team a lot as well. Canada versus USA. One game. Who are you taking?

Obviously Canada. Let's go. Listen, I've watchedthews playing big games here for a few years it hasn't gone great and i just watched conor mcdavid go to the uh the family cup final carrying his team there i watched nathan mckinnon win a family cup i watched you know kale mccarr like the top pairing for team canada and uh with mccarr and taves probably everybody i've really gotten sick of this American narrative

and this is the day after July 4th. I was on the planes to Abraham last night, boys, watching Nickelback, so I'm feeling particularly Canadian this morning where I'm just like, yeah, America, we got them in the War of 1812. We're going to get them on the War of the Ice between Canada

and Americaica but yeah i think there's been a lot of talk about how america's coming up and america you know they're getting better and all this stuff certainly they look better but you can't teach what conor mcdavid and nathan mckinnon and sydney crosby have and it's just this inherent canadian it's just pedigree man and it's just a different thing and I really do feel like everyone's kind of underrated in Canada all the goalies all the decor like I really have zero it does not cause me one bit of stress it does not keep me up at night I have zero worries we're fine yeah like I I really don't worry Sam doesn't matter to me Sam you're the best you're maybe

the most patriotic guest we've had all week. I really appreciate it. I hope that you're wearing all denim right now and I want you to enjoy some well-deserved time off. You've earned it. Thank you very much for doing this today. Enjoy the summer, bud.

My pleasure, boys. Hope you guys get some time off too. Have a good one. Thanks. Appreciate it. That's Sam McKee from fan five 90 in Toronto. Let's go.

I'm ready to run through a wall right now. I was on the planes of Abraham watching Nickelback last night. He did it all. He was pure Canada last night, baby. Okay, before we get into our first Ask Us Anything of the Day, an error in omission I didn't even realize that I had made. I made a

reference to a lightsaber and I got my pop culture reference. I didn't even hear that. I completely missed it. I was on the guest so I couldn't correct you. I would have called you on it. I didn't even hear that. I completely missed it. I was on the guest, so I couldn't correct you. I would have called you on it. I didn't hear it. Yeah. I guess I took a Spider-Man quote, took it out of the Spider-Verse. I mean, it wasn't quite gold British guy level of embarrassment.

I forgot about that. Embarrassing superhero or Star Wars references. Do you know about that, Jamie? Gold British. He didn't know the name for C-3PO, so he just called him the gold British guy. That golden British chap. Yeah, it was one of the finest moments on this show. One of the wildest things I ever heard.

I don't think I was even on the show. I think I was just listening. It was when the Mario movie came out, and Brough was asking you about it. And you were like, yeah, and Jack Black is Bowser. And Brough's like, who's Bowser? And you were like, Jack Black. And he was like, no, no, no. Who is Bowser?

And I was like, how can you have existed for decades in the world and not even be vaguely familiar of who Bowser is? See, Ruff's childhood is very sheltered. The only video game he was aware of growing up was Pitfall. And he reminds us of this regularly. Outside of Pitfall, his video game knowledge is...

Was Bowser in Pitfall? He should have been. He should have been. Okay. It is Ask Us Anything Friday on the show, so I threw this out to the listeners via Twitter last night. I believe it's pronounced Scarbacon, but it could be Scarbacon. You'll have to tell me. Scarbacon slash Scarbacon. But it's a great, great question.

Scarbacon. Scarbacon. It's like an event. Yeah. Going to Scarbacon. Scarbacon. Sounds like a transformer. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Scarben. Sounds like a transformer. Yeah, that's what I thought. Scarvacod. He asks via Twitter, when are we as a society or a hockey market going to get the Jim Benning interview? That's a really great question. We've tried. I checked back and tried to find as many public remarks or appearances or just comments that Jim Benning has made since being dismissed as the general manager of the Vancouver Canucks in December

of 2021. So we're coming up on year three of his dismissal here. I do know that two media individuals locally got him to speak on record. It was Sikaris and it was our very own Raja Shergill right from here, right? That was in response to the Trevor Linden interviews and the bit of a media tour that he did that sort of re-litigated the 2017 draft, the Elias Pettersson draft.

And there were some remarks made about who wanted to pick who and who was in what camp and who was in the other camp. And both individuals reached out to Benning and Benning responded. I think it was via text if I had to guess. I'm not sure, but it was a sort of short cursory. Here's what I thought. I'm glad the team is doing well.

That was it. And then I looked and I looked at different media outlets and maybe even like smaller, like local newspapers that might've caught a local man, you know, his grocery shopping. Local man gets fired. Yeah, right. There's, he just hasn't done any media since and it's starting to become almost the white whale

of vancouver media in terms of interviews like the the person or outlet that lands it when he's finally ready to talk it's going to be one of the most anticipated interviews in the market do you think he would come on the station if Elias Pedersen Quinn Hughes Brock Besser Thatcher Demko and JT Miller all acquisitions of his

lead the Canucks to a Stanley Cup I honestly think that's my that's what it might be what it would take I don't even think that would do it I don't see enough come on and just be like well well but at least there's a hook there where it's not hey Jim do you want to come on our radio station so everyone can yell at you because that until something like that happens that's what it is and I'm not saying that's wrong it's just you can understand from his perspective why he wouldn't want to participate in that it's a very interesting approach my thought was that it was going to be the time heals all wounds.

It'll just be a matter of time before he's ready. I mean, isn't that sort of what Gillis had as well? It was just it took time before he was ready to reengage the media. Like with Gillis, it was, okay, time heals all wounds, and then we can remember the good times, right? With Benning, it's like, okay, time transpires, but there's no good times to remember. What are we looking back at here? It's like 404, file not found.

You try to look back at the good times. Second follow-up question to this. If you could only ask one question of Jim Benning, and he was here being candid and forthright and truthful and all that, what would the question be? Why? It's got to be more direct than that. Yeah, that's the thing. Do you still live day to day?

Mine would be. Can you finally share that information we didn't have? I don't know if he would go down this road. It would have to be when I was like, oh, you guys have, because you don't have all the information. You'd be hooked up to the lie detector. You'd take the truth serum, whatever sort of mechanism you'd use. but i would ask if there's one move that you regret above all else what is the one singular move that you regret the most during your time as general manager the one that

either was the pivot point from where you think thought things were going to go well out of the many many choices jim right um this is your worst move well what would you ask and we're like why hasn't he done an interview and it's like i wouldn't want to do this interview yeah i was like andy i appreciate your philosophical approach would just be like why right but i i think i would i just think you're i don't know that's the logical one it's just okay like move almost move by move or just pick one like what was the thought process why why why which one are you most frustrated by i think another where tactic i would try is like what would you change about your approach if you had to do it again because there's a lot of things you could

point to right in terms of player acquisitions in terms of the small front office and really just relying on him and wise but i'd be curious to hear just okay what do you think went wrong what would you change broadly about your approach if you could do it over? I don't think he would divulge too much, but I would want to know what his relationship with ownership was. I think that kind of steered a lot of the direction of what he did, right? So I think we see the result of what he did, but I'd like to know a little bit more about how the sausage was made.

If we're talking truth serum as well, like asking about the Linden situation would be interesting too that's the i had three and the third one would be like what happened between you and trevor linden are you guys on speaking terms i'd love to yeah you know that would be fascinating because the more that i started thinking about this and kudos to scarbacon for the question i was like man whoever gets to land that interview that's going to be that's a big one that's a huge one that's a big that that is something that i think every media member that covers this team in this sport in this market would be dying to get because it has been a lengthy

radio silence from benning since his dismissal okay our one of the show is in the books hopefully you're all having a good time on a Friday. We've got a lot more to get into. On the other side, we're going to be joined by AJ's from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We're going to follow that up fittingly with some New York Rangers talk. AJ's a huge Rangers fan. We're going to talk to Peter Baugh from the athletic New York

hockey writer. We'll talk about this situation with Jacob Truba, the captain of the New York Rangers who is holding his no trade clause and holding it up with authority. We'll talk to Peter about that at 7.05, and then at 7.30, James Sharman is going to join us for some footy talk. Huge day today if you're into the football of the European variety. You've got two great matches at the European Championships, and then you've got Canada, Venezuela tonight, 6 o'clock. It's all in the second and third hours. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 6.50.