Halford & Brough in the Morning - Give Us Compelling Hockey

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk NHL playoffs with Sportsnet television commentator Chris Cuthbert (1:31), plus the boys discuss a troubling American youth hockey story with USA Today investigative reporter Kenny Jacoby (27:20). 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.

702 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford, Brough, SportsNet 650. Great tunes this morning, Greg. You liking this one, do you? Pretty great. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in debt? Tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program.

Chris Cuthbert's going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brought to by Jason Homonock. at jason. Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason. dot mortgage. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Step strong with orthotics and footwear

from Kintech. Guests on SportsNet 650, call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline. email sales at abelhe auctions. dot CA to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. Do we have Chris on the line? We hear a dial

to them. We're going to try the ABLE Auctions hotline. Anyway, our next guest, you heard him coming back from break on the call for this Habs Savior series. Chris Cuthbert joins us now on the Halford and Brough Show on Sports Night 650. Morning, Chris, how are you? I'm good. I am a little worried about Brough's

wedge game, but otherwise I'm real good. Yeah, I blade a lot of wedges. I have to have been. My sand wedge goes 180 yards. Chris. You can imagine where I got that intel. Yeah, yeah. I

I'm pretty sure I know who that is. Okay, so the HABs in Game 1 in Buffalo, they looked a little off. Like their brains and maybe their bodies were still in that Tampa series. They lost that game, but since then, man, they've been pretty good. What have you thought of the series so far? Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate. Game 1s are always a little bit funky, especially when you're coming off. the type of series that they did against Tampa.

I mean, there was no garbage time at all in the Tampa series. It was one goal difference for, I think, 98, 99% of the time. And even the two-goal lead that Montreal had, I think, game four, disappeared. And they ended up losing that game. So it's emotional. It was really tight checking. And then all of a sudden you go to Buffalo and you've got to switch. years and you're playing a team that plays much different than Tampa was. So yeah, I think they had to

dial back in after game one. And since then, it's been, it's been all Montreal. And now it's it's Buffalo that's going to have to make some adjustments or, or the Canadians are going to keep rolling. You know, I did not expect Alex Newhook to lead the habs in goal scoring with five goals and 10 playoff games. I did not expect Kirby Doc to have four goals in 10 playoff games. In fact, Not too long ago, I thought Kirby Doc was going to be a healthy scratch and maybe not even in the lineup. Meanwhile, Cole Caulfield, I know he had one yesterday, but he only has two goals in 10 games. And Demadoff, no goals in 10 games. What do you think about the way the scoring has been spread out in a very different way compared to the regular season for Montreal?

Yeah, when you look at the depth chart and when you say like Caulfield doesn't have an even straight goal, and he had 51 goals during the regular season, and Slopkosky doesn't have an even-strength goal. And even Suzuki was quiet in round one, but you're right, the support guys have really stepped up. But I thought kind of the key for them against Tampa was Bulldoch, Texier, and Doc, and he even split them up.

So he's kind of shared the wealth. They put Joe Villano in, and I think the lineup even looks better with Valeno. So if you look at the second line and Devadov, as you say, it doesn't have a goal. Jake Evans really is a checking line center. And Alex Newhook has not been a prolific score in his day. That's your number two line in the second round of the playoffs. And yet it's been a difference maker so far. So kind of a neat story for Newhook because he's the talk of talk of the rock of Newfoundland. And I bumped into a couple of guys from Newfoundland

on the way back last night. And they were obviously. elated with him and I said, yeah, I hear that he's even converting Leaf fans and a third member of the party side showed up and he didn't have the Canadian jersey on. He said, yeah, that's me. And I think one at a time he's got Leaf fans on the rock now cheering for the Canadians instead. You know, it was interesting after game one, Chris. I was listening to audio from Marty St. Louis and he was talking about how, you know, the guys had more space out on the ice and they'd had in the previous two weeks combined in just one game and that he felt like they were getting looks in that first game that might bode well and lo and behold the habs have now scored five plus goals and back-to-back

playoff games for the first time since 2006 so it's been 20 years since they've had this kind of offensive explosion in the playoffs what does buffalo need to do to try and slow down this scoring because I guess the danger for buffalo isn't just that they're allowing goals but it's as you pointed out and jason pointed out it's not the big guns that are going here it feels like everyone that scoring for Montreal right now? Yeah, it's more, it is more wide open. I guess that must be. I mean, back in the day, it was always, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and the, and the, and they seem to be playing that to a team. I, I, I think when you're trading chances, though, you, you better have good goal-titting, and, uh, dobish out, Sean

Vasselowski in round one, and we kind of kept waiting for the, uh, for, for, for, for that storyline to flip, and it didn't. And, uh, and uh, after Alex Lyon was great against Boston and good in game one, they've got to them. So does Buffalo have to say, there's no line matching. There hasn't been much in this series. It was all about line matching and chess match in round one. And so does, I don't know if Buffalo's built to try and shut them down in a different way or whether or not we're just going to see them try and trade. chances and be more effective. I mean, they've got, they've got, they should have the better

blue line with some offense from back there for with guys like Dahlene and, and Bo Byram. But right now when those guys join the rush and make it a four-man attack, which Buffalo likes, they're, they're given a lot back the other way and Montreal's taking advantage. We're speaking to Sportsnet, NHL, play by playman, Chris Cuthbert on the call for the Hab Sabre series here on the Halford and Brough Show. on SportsNet 650. I do want to talk about Jakub Dobesh for a moment here. This is a wild stat.

58 consecutive saves without allowing a third period goal in his last six games. That's pretty clutch. Yeah, so it's not just the fact that he's making saves, Chris, but it's the timing of doing it. He was fantastic in the third period yesterday. How surprised are you? You alluded to this earlier that he's been able to outdull a guy like Vasselofsky in round one and then clearly been the better goalie through three games in this series as well.

Yeah, I am surprised. and he is, he's answering all the, all the scap. And I did the double take last night when Simmer mentioned Patrick Watt. It is, it is a similar story. It's, it's early. But so far that's the, he's, he's not only been airtight, but he's got a personality. He's feisty. He's actually a little Billy Smith at him, although I, I, I,

I don't think he's going to take that too much further, but he chirps. He's got his celebration. Now, that's the pumpernickle. And that was an amazing moment last night, late in the game. And the atmosphere is obviously off the charts there. And they show a fan holding a stop sign with Dobish on it. And the place erupted. There was a standing ovation.

And then the scoreboard camera showed a close-up of him. And he could not hide the, the smile on his face under the mask. And when the fan saw that, they erupted even louder. I think the decibel level they were showing was like 110 or 111, which is the same as when they come out on the ice

to start a game. And then after the game, on the ice, he was interviewed in French. And he had a few words in French, which of course won him over even more. So he has become the toast of the town. And he might be the biggest reason they're ahead in round two.

What's it been like for you? I know you've been to a lot of big games in your life and called a bunch of big games, but still the playoff atmospheres in Buffalo and Montreal must be a lot of fun. Yeah, Montreal particularly. Buffalo is good. Every rink's loud in the playoffs,

but there is something different. I always said that there was no place like the forum, and now I'm going to have to kind of make a little more room for for the Bell Center because this is this is a remarkable environment. The passion that goes with the noise, and I don't know how to explain that, but these fans are pretty special. It's almost overwhelming and, you know, they were one and two at home in the first round. And at times, I wondered if, you know, it's almost too much and it can get guys off their game. But I think they can deal with it

and it's pretty neat to be a part of. They've got a really interesting mix in Montreal, don't they? I mean, you've got the talent of the young players and the dynamic ability of the young players, but you've also got veterans like Josh Anderson and Brendan

Gallagher. You've just you know, you've got big guys, you've got small guys, you got tough guys, you got skill guys. I mean, the job that management has done there, putting together this team, I think, in a place like Vancouver, it's getting a lot of attention, and I think for good reasons. Yeah, I was just thinking that that's where you might be going,

because it is a template for Vancouver, for sure. It might be a template for the Maple Leafs as well. They've done everything right so far. If you really wanted to nitpick, you could say, man, with all the draft collateral you got, maybe you could have gone out and got another piece that might have taken this team even further this year, but there's time for that. And the one thing I, you know, I don't cover this team on a regular basis,

but it is an extremely likable team. And I think fans across the country are getting that. And so, yeah, they've done a lot of things right. And I think fans are going to have to get used to seeing Montreal. with deep runs in the playoffs for the next five or six years because there's a lot of pieces yet to be put on the chessboard here. But you're right, the mix is good. They've got guys like Jackai that make sure that this,

and Anderson that'll make sure this doesn't get out of control against a tougher team. And Marty St. Louis has said that, you know, any way you want to play, I think his team can play that way. So I don't think that means they're going to win a cup immediately, but it's a team that's loading up pretty nicely. Could you see Jack Eye getting in a bit of trouble for that punch he laid right at the end of the game? That was a pretty good sucker punch.

Yeah, that was that, especially from a guy like that, that had some force. I'm curious to know, Josh Norris might be in a little, You kind of had a Ridley Greg moment too. So Norris and Jack, I both will probably be talked to. I don't know if they'll trade off and just find both or whether or not there is a game or two for that. When it comes at the horn, and that might be debated because they could have stopped the clock and they let it run out for him.

That was probably the good thing. So I don't know whether that means that, okay, the game's over and the punch happened or or whether Jack I would have even known that. But yeah, yeah, it's heating up a little bit. It's not going to be old school 75 savers, Canadians, but there's a genuine dislike. And part of that's a BC guy, Zach Benson's been in the middle of that the whole time. Oh, he sure has. Well, we'll probably find out about potential fines today.

And then, of course, the series gets back underway tomorrow. it's a 4 o'clock puck drop. Game 4 between the Habs and the Sabres. Chris, thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. I'll be going to the driving range before the game just because now I feel even worse about you guys. Yeah, thanks for doing this, Chris.

We appreciate it. See you, pal. Cheers. Chris Cuthbert. The play-by-play voice on Sportsnet of the Habs and Sabres a reminder game for that series goes on Tuesday. Yeah, we'll probably get some word tonight. I know BXA and Brandon Dillon

Dylan making his TV appearance. over the weekend on the panel. We're talking about the shot that Jack I threw at the end of that game. It's a pretty good punch. Gloved punch too. Yeah, glove punch. And that feels like a fine coming. The Norris one.

And, you know, Chris alluded to it. They're Ridley Greg vibes on that one. I can't imagine either guy will get suspended. That series, it always had the potential to get nasty like any of these do. But I felt like once the series tilted back to Montreal, and then once I saw the score kind of get a little lopper. Lopsided yesterday. You've seen it countless times in the playoffs.

Speaking of other things we've seen in the playoffs over the weekend, we should get to some of these other stories. Well, how about that word you use lopsided? We've seen quite a few lopsided games. Wopsided series, never mind. In the last little while, well, the lopsided series, yeah,

because Carolina eliminated Philadelphia. Carolina is now 8 in the playoffs. So you're going back to, I think, the 85 Oilers. That's correct. What's the last team to start 8 and 0? and of course they won the Stanley Cup. They beat Rick Tockets Flyers. Only five teams in NHL history have done it.

The Cains are the most recent. Oilers were the most previous one. That 85 team was so dominant. One of the worst Canucks teams ever, too, that same year. So that was a tough moment for the Canucks in that division. But so. So the story. Carolina eliminated Philly.

And their games were for the most part close. Like a couple of them went over. overtime, but Carolina was so clearly the better team in that series. I mean, it was just obvious right from the start. And then a couple of the other series, like, I know they're not sweeps, but the games haven't all been compelling. Last night was okay between Vegas and Anaheim, at least it had a close finish, but you're right, there has, the games have lacked the drama, for sure.

Has there been an awesome game in the second round? I asked you the question yesterday. Is the 9-6 game in game one between Colorado and Minnesota. Count as an awesome game? It was entertaining. I don't know if it was awesome. I don't know if it was awesome, though. We haven't had one yet.

This is, I mean, again. We had a few in the first round, but we haven't, I don't think we've had any in the second. We've said this before. The second round is often a letdown. And we're seeing that play out, I think, for a variety of reasons. In the case of Philadelphia, and I'll go back to this real quick. In the case of Philadelphia and Carolina, it's what Jason said. Carolina was a significantly better team.

That was a one V-V-A. That was the best team in the East against the last place team of the 8 that got into the playoffs. So now in Philly they're just complaining about Mitchcoff? Well. Or talk it in Mitchcoff? Here's the reality of the NHL is that this series, the story coming out of it is probably more about Philadelphia

than it is about Carolina because one, Carolina is not that interesting. Two, well, Carolina is also surviving too, right? We'll talk about the next round. Philly's, Philly is at a super interesting part in its evolution. as a team right now because this year

was a success. Let's just say that and make that abundantly clear right off the hop. No way you could consider this year anything other than a success unless you were one of the Tank Nation in Philly and there was quite a few. But that's not fair. Right? That's not fair. This team was in,

this team was too good to tank to be a bottom five team in the NHL. That was obvious. They were too good. They got too good a goal tending. Yeah. The young players played too well and Tocke did too good a job of coaching for them to be a bottom five team in the age. And Porter Martone was great when he joined the team. Now, they've got some really big questions moving forward, which is how do they go beyond being a team that it was nice to make the playoffs and it was really great to win around and that you're going to be a contender?

But that brings you back to the tank, right? And why people wanted a top five pick for the Flyers or a lot of people in Philly wanted the top. up five pick. Now they enjoyed the playoff run. They enjoyed beating Pittsburgh. They enjoyed bringing some excitement back to that arena, some noise, some energy. But when you get swept out of the second round, you're kind of back to like, oh, now we're kind of back to this position where we're looking at our, for example, our, our center position and going, is Christian Devorak, our top center?

We were good enough to be a playoff team, but we were no way close to being a contender. That's where they're at right now. They're in a similar position as Boston? Yep. By the way. By the way. How funny was it that Boston's NHL and NBA teams went out in the same time frame. Wasn't it like night back-to-back nights?

Yep. They went out. Both games at home, right? And then a week later, Philly does the exact same thing. So Philly goes out at home. And then yesterday, the Sixers got absolutely embarrassed in so many ways by the New York Knicks. I don't know what the score was, but the Knicks. 114 to 144.

They lost by 30. Right. It was. So here's the thing. So 114. So here's the thing. 30 point loss for the Sixers. The Flyers and the Sixers get swept.

but the vibes coming out of it are decidedly different. People hate the Sixers right now. And they are disgusted at how New York took over the building. They're disgusted at how every game in that series wasn't out. I mean, there was one game that was 108, 1 or 2, but every game in that series was very one-sided, except for the one. The Sixers seemed to give up, frankly. They just ran out of gas, but they didn't have any fight when they ran out of gas.

Now, Tuckett, interestingly enough, said the exact same thing. He's like, look, we ran out of gas. But even in game four, they forced that thing to overtime. They fought tooth and nail. I think they showed a lot more resolve. I don't think. They showed a lot more resolve. But there are two teams going in wildly different directions in Philly, I think,

because with this Flyers team, now the one thing about the flyers, I'll say, the rise this year and their maturation and evolution as a team ran in the opposite direction of what happened with Matt Bay Mitchcoff. It almost seemed like the better that they got, the worst Mitchcoff's career of all. And that is a big problem because there was a lot of draft capital sunk into Mitchcoff and there's a lot of hope that he was going to be part of the next generation. And right now, he was a healthy scratch twice in these playoffs, including for a pivotal and deciding game four in the second round, which tells you all you need to know about where Rick Tuckett's trust level is for Mitch Koff right now. How funny is it? Some of hilarious.

That Tocket has got basically the same storyline. in Philly with Mitch Gough that he had with Pedersen right down to it's quite amazing right down to like he didn't have a good offseason didn't come to Camp in shape it is unbelievable I think the fact that Mitch got me he must be like is it me is it me is it I doing this or is this is this bad luck for so Pedersen never got help people would be like Clayton Keller was the same yeah

Pedersen never got health bombed here he's done it to Mitch and in part because Mitchcoff's still a young player and he can do it and quite honestly, I think you can, you know, I know Philly's a tough market, but I think you can almost get away with it in Philly more than you. It's so much more of a story here, especially with a guy like Pedersen. So he never went that. It's a big story in Philly. Huge story. And I mean, again,

the fact that they're out of the playoffs is the biggest story, but that Mitchcoff development is also huge. Okay. I want to spare a couple minutes here so we can have a conversation and tell you about our friends at Vancouver General Hospital and the hometown Heroes lottery. You're going to hear us talking a lot about this

over the coming weeks because the hometown Down Hero's Lottery needs your support to help change lives. BC's bravest answer the call. Both your tickets answer theirs. Support BC's biggest hospital lottery and get your tickets now for your chance to both win big and help big. So you're kind of focused there on all the good things that this lottery provides. And look, I'm on board with that, but I'm also on board for me and what I can win in this

I don't want to say it's more important because it's not, but, you know, to me, it's very important. And I'm looking at the grand prize options. And it's houses, new houses. So those things are pretty expensive in Vancouver. There's two options in Vancouver, one in Dunbar, one in South Vancouver. I went to the house in South Vancouver. And I was like, hmm, this is nicer than my place. It's like brand new looks good.

I walked around. I'm like, can I stay here? Can I live here? They said, no, you've got to buy some tickets. But if you don't live in Vancouver, and you don't want to move to Vancouver, there's options across this province. South Surrey Langley, Pemberton, Colona, a couple in Colonna, Courtney.

I'm looking at this place in Sucke. It's Sucke. And it is, it's a, Suc Point Place. It's got this beautiful view of the ocean and worth over $2.6 million. The other grand prize option, by the way, Halford, if you would just want to live in your tent. I do like a tent. You can just take $2.3 million in cash.

It's pretty comfortable. You can have a super cool tent. Okay, so some deadline dates for you. The welcome bonus is May 15th at midnight. Heroes bonus, May 29th at midnight. Summer bonus, June 12th of midnight. and the early bird, June 26, all again at midnight. Final tickets sales closed July 10th at midnight,

and the draw takes place on Thursday, July 30th. Win with BC's bravest and help save lives. Million and prizes are just waiting to be won, and tickets start at four for only $85. Don't wait, buy your tickets now at heroes lottery.com. We got to go to break. When we come back, Kenny Jacoby's going to join us from USA today. to talk about the youth hockey situation in the U.S.

Financial exploitation in the business of youth hockey. Big story down in the States right now, so big that USA Today's investigative reporter is covering it. Kenny Jacoby's going to join us next on the Halford-inbrough show on Sportsnet, 650. You know, you got big guys, you got small guys, you got tough guys, you got skill guys. But kids. Skinny kid. Kids who climb on rocks.

Talk kids. Busy kids. Leaving kids with chicken pox. La-ha dogs. Hi, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on SportsNet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 33 on a Monday.

Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brub, SportsNet 650. How is it not a good Monday with this song? Certified banger. Yes, it is. Says it on the label. Halford and Brub in the morning is brought to you by Jason Hominoch at Jason. Domortage.

If you love paying too much for your mortgage, And don't let Jason shop around and find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Dot. This show is also brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have debt? Got debt, the Reed says. If you do, reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours

and they'll get back to you within 20 minutes. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com. That song's almost as good as there's only one Jalen in the NHL. You heard that? You really like that song. Yeah, Lattie showed it to me. Yeah, I listened to it. It's amazing.

You oversold it. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. It's really good. It's about Jalen Chatfield? Yeah. And now there's the only Jalen in the NHL. There's like, some guy made a song about it.

Yeah. Okay. Why? There was an original song about all the Jalans in the NBA because there's like 27 of them. Okay. And a guy made a very funny song. It went viral. And then someone picked it up and said there's only one Jalen in the NHL.

Oh, I see. It was less funny and less funny. Yeah, but it was less funny. No, I was good. Okay. We can talk about this later. You know?

Why don't we play a bit of it? We do have a guest on hold. We will leave our guests on hold for. for 11 minutes now as we play the entirety of the video. No, we are going to go to the ABLE Auctions hotline right now. Our next guest is an investigative reporter for USA Today. Lately, his coverage is focused on the financial exploitation in the business of youth hockey. Kenny Jacobi joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, Kenny. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for coming on and taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So we can get our listeners who may not be all that up to speed or familiar with the story. can you tell us what Black Bear Sports Group is and what it's currently doing to youth hockey in the United States? Absolutely, yeah. My news organization spent the last nine months investigating Black Bear Sports Group. It is a company owned by a private investment firm called Black Street Capital Holdings.

It was started about 10 years ago. And over the last decade, it has rapidly bought up ice rings and hockey teams. teams across the Northeast and Midwest U.S. And then leverage that control to fear families into its own costly ecosystem of leagues, tournaments, and fees. And all of that has the effect of higher prices, fewer choices for families, and growing concern that one company is consolidating power over a sport that was long rooted in local nonprofits.

Is there a face of this company? There is. His name is Murray Gunty. He is the CEO of Black Street Capital Holdings and was until recently the CEO of Black Bear Sports Group. He is a hockey dad who kid came up playing in Maryland and he had coached his son's team. His son as he climbed the ranks of Team Maryland, a tier one team in the state, Murray Gunti essentially realized how he could turn the sport into an arm of his for-profit business.

Okay, so I read the story a couple of times. It is a intricately reported story and very interesting. And I was trying to figure out how to tackle this because there's a bunch of elements to it. But maybe what you could do is put yourselves in the shoes of a family that wants their child to play hockey in a, an area where this group has Black Bear sports has its hooks or paws or whatever. How would that differ from just a regular old town that has hockey available to kids? Sure. So in a Black Bear market, often what happens is Black Bear will come in and buy up multiple

rings within, let's say, an hour radius or so. And there are just not that many hockey rinks in the whole country. And so when one company kind of controls, you know, a decent share of the market there, there's far more demand for ice time than there is supply. And so some amount of families are going to be forced to use those Black Bear rinks almost no matter what. Typically what happens when Black Bear takes over a rink, almost immediately it raises prices on any third-party teams. that rent ice from there. In some cases, it takes over the youth hockey programs entirely.

And once that happens, in addition to pricing going up, the family sort of gets sucked into Black Bear's ecosystem where you're not only playing for a team that is owned by Black Bear, but you're playing in a league that is owned by Black Bear. Teams in those leagues are steered into Black Bear's tournaments. If you play in those tournaments, you're forced to buy hotels that you don't necessarily want for the duration of those tournaments. And if you don't want to travel for whatever reason, if you can't, if you want to watch your kids play remotely, you have to pay even more to stream those games through a service called Black Bear TV. So essentially, Black Bear owns multiple layers of the supply chain and different markets that are critical. to the sports infrastructure.

So if you're in one of those markets, there's almost no escaping the fact that you're going to have to be paying Black Bear additional fees. So where does this story, where is this story, you know, not ethical? Or where is it not just good business?

You know, good businesses will say, we've got vertical integration and people will say, you know, that's great. that's making the shareholder's money. So how do you separate good business from something that is maybe even monopoly, maybe even anti-competitive or illegal? Yeah, I spoke to multiple antitrust experts about this.

And the fact that BlackBerry is buying up ice rinks isn't so much the problem. It's the fact that they sort of use their control of the ice as leverage to get an advantage in other markets. And that's the sort of thing that antitrust laws are supposed to prevent. So if Black Bear didn't own the ice, it would have a really hard time starting up its own teams and leagues and tournaments and that sort of thing. But because it owns the ice, it can sort of be the gatekeeper of who uses it and then use that to kind of take control of other aspects of the sport.

There is sort of a misconception that antitrust law is just about market share. And if you viewed it from that lens, you know, BlackBerry, they're not exactly McDonald's or Walmart, right? They don't own a huge percentage of the total rings in the country. But where they do own rings, they control so much of the industry that it eliminates choice for customers. And that's the sort of thing that can be viewed as an anti-competitive business practice. So have any regulators looked at the company? So just as we were finishing up our reporting, days before we actually published the story, the Attorney General's office in Michigan launched an investigation into anti-competitive business practices in youth hockey

with a focus on Black Bear, which owns, I believe, nine ranks in Michigan. and is making inroads in other parts of the industry as well. So that is ongoing right now. The AG's office has been contacting parents in Michigan to learn about their experiences. Some of the parents I've spoken to in Michigan, their experience has been that they've been kicked out of a rink that Black Bear bought because they did not agree to pay higher prices or in some cases. I spoke to some families who, you know, Black Bear approached about buying their teams and when they refuse to sell, Black Bear kicked them out. So that's the sort of dynamic that can be happening. And that is the sort of thing that the Michigan AGs office is probing right now.

I'm curious about the wider ranging implication. Like we don't have this yet. And I say yet with a lot of the youth sports here locally. But I am wondering because it seems like someone will look at. at this as a good business opportunity and say what further opportunities are there for private equity in all of youth sports. Is that something that you took a look at during your investigation as well? Absolutely. Yeah. Hockey is far from the only sports that is that private equity and private investment firms have been taking an interest in. You can see their influence in pretty

much any youth sport you look at. I think the difference with hockey and part of what, what got me really interested in the dynamics in hockey are that there's just so few rinks, right, that it's much easier for a firm like Black Bear to take over. In baseball and soccer, you know, we have fields in almost every public park or in every school. It's just a lot harder to consolidate that many grass fields. I think we have fewer than 3,000 rings in the whole country here. And I think what Black Bear actually discovered was that there's almost an inefficiency in the market there. There's all these rinks that nobody has tried to consolidate because it's been long believed that they're very difficult to run, which is true.

And so the effect is that you have a lot of rink owners that have been doing this for a long time. And they may be looking to get out of the business. And Black Bear is the only buyer. And so they can sort of buy these rinks on the cheap. and take over for only just a couple, you know, a few million dollars for each one. How exasperated were some of the parents that you spoke with during this investigation? You know, I, how exasperated, very exasperated. I spoke to more than 80 people for this story, parents, players, coaches, business owners,

and current and former Black Bear employees. And the distaste for Black Bear was pretty, universal in a lot of my interviews. The general feeling was that Black Bear is nickel and diming people, charging them for things like tryout fees and league fees and fees to watch their own kids play. And it's just turning a lot of people off. I did not have a hard time getting a lot of people to speak on the record for this story because of how frustrated people are. But I think the effect, you know, on the average family is that fewer and fewer people can actually afford to play the sport.

you may not be attracting, you know, the best players across the country because so many of them are getting priced out when a season, you know, for an eight-year-old costs $5,000 or more. We have hockey Canada up here. You have USA hockey down there. What is USA hockey set about this? Yeah. So USA hockey has been pretty quiet about Black Bear. From what I've seen, you know, USA hockey has been pretty quiet about Black Bear. from what I've seen, you know, USA hockey as the national governing body, they are the entity that could do the most to curb for-profit influence. But in fact, I think what we've seen is that USA hockey has largely embraced it. There was a case that I found really interesting in the reporting here in Illinois. And there, the state governing body, the USA hockey affiliate, had a rule that it would not permit for-profit teams as members. It would only permit non-profit teams. Black Bear tried to start a team there.

The USA Hockey affiliate blocked it on the basis of that rule, and Black Bear actually sued and lost in court. The court ruled that such a rule was totally permissible. But then what we saw was USA Hockey sort of just caved and let BlackBerry in anyway. And now BlackBerry does have four-profit teams there. So I think if curbing the influence of for-profit companies in youth sports is something that we as a society want to take seriously, then I think we do need national and state governing bodies to have a stronger backbone to make sure that the decisions that they make are actually in family's interests. Kenny, it's an extremely interesting story when we both read it last week, right? We have to get you on to talk about this because, you know, we've seen it more and more about the rising cost of youth sports, particular the ones that our kids play in.

And this just kind of seems like a dangerous potentially new evolution of it when private equity gets involved. So I recommend all of our listeners to go check it out. It's up at USA Today. You can see Kenny's author page for the original reporting and then all of the subsequent follow-ups as well. And Kenny, thanks for taking the time to do this today. It's important story and good work uncovering it for the masses.

Thanks so much for focusing on the work. I appreciate you having me on. Yeah, thank you. That's Kenny Jacoby, investigative reporter, USA Today here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. So this might not be prevalent in Canada and specifically locally yet. And I keep saying yet because I hear more and more. There are some groups that control.

Yeah. Just not to the degree of this. Not to the degree of this. This is a craven monopoly. And this guy, this guy, if you read the story, he has a history. Murray Gunty. Yeah. He is a history.

He does not seem like. the best guy. But the, okay, so the point we're trying to make here is locally, like if you've got a kid that's playing hockey or any other youth sport, you've seen the rising costs across the board. What we're talking about now is someone coming in and going the consolidation route and realizing that there's more than a buck to be made off youth sports,

especially if you control a lot of the different parts of it. There's so many different areas of it. like tournaments. Tournaments is a moneymaker. Well, when you... There's streaming services. Terminers is a huge moneymaker. And the streaming service...

And that's what he's talking about. It's like Black Bear controls the tournaments, the hotels, they're getting a percentage based on the fact that they're recommending a bunch of their... And it's not even recommending. Some of them are stay in play

where you have to stay at the hotel. It's like if you're in this tournament and you're traveling from a certain distance, you're staying at that hotel. And then why bother... So you can't even shop around. Why bother hiring a third-party company to stream all of these games? Why not create your own streaming company?

And then charge people with that. So this is all, and I've seen a lot of this is my kid gets older and you see Academy leagues, travel teams, everything else. Right now, the ecosystem is still that there's so many different individuals trying to get their piece of the pie. The dangerous part is something like this. When a group that has a lot of financial clout comes in and essentially, And that's what Black Bear has turned into monopoly.

And hockey is naturally lends itself to what they'd call barriers to entry, right? Because you need a rink. I don't like the investment to actually get in the game is pretty high. And, you know, some people will say, well, you know, nobody's forcing these people to pay this company for their kid to play hockey. true. And some of them have taken a stand and they've said, you know, we're not going to do it. We're not going to. My son is, her daughter is not going to play hockey? But like, is that the answer? Do you want that to be the answer? Oh, your kid doesn't play hockey because the alternative is in a lot of these places, nothing. Yeah. Like, they control the market. And if you want to play especially high level hockey, they control that market.

And, you know, for some of these smaller towns, it's like, okay, well, you play here or you, I don't know, travel a couple of hours to go play. So they really do have a hold on this. And I'll be curious to see if anything's done about it. I'm not optimistic. Then anything is going to be done about this. But it is part of the reason why. I will say this. It's part of the reason that governing bodies are in place and important.

I mean, from a soccer lens, and I've dealt with it a lot over the course of my life. and then as my kid has played, you know, there are provincial and federal organizations in place that have guidelines and best practices. And people are often like, why are these things in place?

Why is there so much red tape? Yeah. And why are there so many restrictions to do what we want to do? And I've often told them, I'm like, go look at one of these breakaway leagues that operate like the Wild West.

Yeah. And watch what happens. When there's no checks and balances put in place, you end up with situations like this, where someone's like, how can I exploit this for financial gain? When the opportunity's there, it's always going to arise because there's a buck to be made off it. And it's really tough.

And it's unfortunate because there's a lot of good people working that just want to be free from the restrictions of like a Canadian governing body or a BC governing body. But the reason that they're there is to ensure that there's point of entries for all different players from all different economic backgrounds and that someone doesn't come in and take over the works. And that's what you're seeing here. These companies often, like they're monetizing the hopes and dreams of parents for their kids. And that's a time. Like everyone wants their kids to have the best that they can possibly give them. And some of the decisions you make because of that are silly. And sometimes you have to look inwards and be like, is this about the kid or is this about me?

But that's all kind of besides the point. When they're companies like these that just so cravenly take advantage of it, you have to read the story. There really is more to it. There's all these stories about, so this company got into junior leagues too. And it was selling franchises to these people that were not good people. And these kids would show up to play on these junior teams after forking out thousands of dollars in the leagues were a joke.

Right. Right. And then this company would be like, well, we don't control our franchise operators. It was always deflect, deflect, deflect, deflect, deflect, but if you add it all up, this is not a good company doing good things for you sports. Time now for the smart decision brought to you by Crow. We're going to go to the National

Basketball Association for this one. I'm assuming everyone saw or heard about the elbow, the shot heard around the world from Victor Wenbanyama on Nas Reid yesterday in game four of the Spurs T-Wolves series. The smart decision was from Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson. Now, he did not condone Wemby's actions in the game. But when discussing it postgame, he stood up for his player and he said that because of the physical treatment that Wembe was getting in this series without getting enough calls from the officials,

Wembe had to protect himself. He said, but at some stage, Wembe should be protected. But if he's not, he's going to have to protect himself. And unfortunately, things like those elbows happen. And I was reminded, as we were talking about this prior to the show of another great athlete that once had to throw an elbow to protect himself. And we celebrated the anniversary of it not too long ago. If you ever wanted to have a Vancouver tie-in to the Wembe elbow, think no further than Pavelle

Burry on Shane Churla. Wemby's elbow was a long elbow. I thought maybe he was... Can you imagine getting elbowed by Wemby? No, he has like a 12-foot wingspan. When I saw... He's also 7 foot 5. So when I saw it, I was like, well, maybe there's a 12-foot-fing.

could be an argument made that he's just so tall that when he swings his elbows, it just happens to be at the head and or throat of an opponent. Right. In this case, Nas Reid. The referees did not see it that way. They said, no, that was extremely dangerous. It was extremely dangerous. And they chucked him from the game. But good on head coach Mitch Johnson for standing up for his guy and saying

sometimes, like Pat Valveri, you got to throw an elbow to protect yourself out there. That is the smart decision brought to you by Crow. You're trusting accounting and tax advisors for over 55 years. Crow smart decisions lasting value learn more at cromachai dot CA two hours of the program in the books hour three is on the horizon Kevin woodley is going to join us on the other side you're listening to the halford and breath show on sports net 650