Halford & Brough in the Morning - Giving A Voice To Grief

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Hockey Night In Canada's After Hours host Scott Oake on his new memoir released next year, "For The Love Of A Son", they preview tonight's 2024 Canadian Championship between the Whitecaps and Toronto FC at BC Place, as bench boss Vanni Sartini joins the show, plus the boys discuss stories from around the NHL (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.

702 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts.

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powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sophie, what are you waiting for? Kintec. To the phone lines we go. Our next guest is the host of After Hours on Hockey Night in Canada. Scott Oak joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Scott.

How are you? Morning, guys. Good to be on with you. It's great to have you on. Thanks for taking the time to do this. So we did want to start with the book. It is entitled For the Love of a Son. It is your memoir about your son, Bruce Oak.

So the genesis, in case many of our listeners maybe don't know the story, can you let us know why you decided to write this book and why you decided to write it now? Well, I guess some context is required here. Bruce is our beautiful firstborn son. He was a precocious kid, delightful infant. As he got older, he became your prototypical argumentative teenager, had a dogged determination to get whatever it was he wanted.

At the age of eight or nine, he was diagnosed with ADHD, made him ripe for taking chances, and there were many he didn't take. Consequences be damned. His path into addiction was the same one followed by a lot of people weed in high school which didn't separate him from a lot of his classmates but then you know his impulsiveness that went with adhd why not try ecstasy and crystal meth and from there it wasn't a giant leap into the opioids and the drug that eventually would claim his life heroin the last three or four years of br Bruce's life were that sad journey of active addiction, recovery, relapse,

active addiction, recovery, relapse. And then March 28th of 2011, we got the call that no parent should ever get. Bruce was dead of a heroin overdose in Calgary, and on the plane on the way to get him, we wrote his obituaryuary and we were resolute in our belief that there was no shame in what had claimed Bruce's life and that we wouldn't hide behind it. And so the first line of his obituary reads, tragically, Bruce Oak lost his battle with addiction at the tender age of 25. And that one line was the genesis of the grandiose project that would become the Bruce Oak Recovery Center, which is, I'm proud to say now, up and running in the west end of Winnipeg.

It has been for three and a half years and it's saving lives. So that's Bruce's legacy. So the book is the story of Bruce's journey. And then it segues into how we got the Bruce Oak Recovery Center built. How did you find the power to just keep going after losing Bruce? Not only keep going, but help people along the way. I think a lot of people with kids, they put themselves in your shoes, or they put themselves in the shoes of anyone who's lost a child,

and they go, God, how would I react to that? I don't know. I can't know. I don't know. I can't, I can't imagine what, I mean, what was it like? Well, you know, it's often said that losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to a parent. When you lose a child, I guess you have choices. One would be to resign yourself to your grief and carry on as best you can. And there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you choose to do. But another choice would be to give voice to your grief. And that's the path that we decided to follow. Bruce had had the best year of his addicted life at a long term treatment center in Calgary. He was there twice, first time he stayed for 11 months.

And that was when, you know, we had hope, he had hope, because it was long-term treatment at no cost. So our goal became to introduce that to Manitoba, long-term treatment at no cost. We had not a clue as to how we'd ever get there. So our simple start was to begin speaking in public and telling Bruce's story and graphically leaving nothing out. And it seemed to resonate because every time we made that presentation, there was a lineup of people after the presentation to tell us about their own stories of loved ones affected by addiction and how it was affecting their family. And so from there, we got into the public consciousness, I guess. We formed a board of directors. We became a registered charity, and we started raising money

and raised enough of it to build the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. So the short answer to your question is that's how we handled our grief, and it was good for our souls and good to know that other families wouldn't have to endure the same kind of tragedy we did, which was to lose a child to addiction. Scott, what do you make of the current discourse about the opioid crisis? It's a big topic of conversation across North America, really, but in Vancouver, it's a big political topic. And obviously, there are politics involved and people

looking to score political points. But do you think there are also a lot of well-intentioned people out there who just disagree about how to deal with this problem? Yes, absolutely. But I would say this about the opioid crisis and substance abuse in general. It is the single greatest peacetime problem that our country has ever faced. And you see it every day in downtown Vancouver and in Winnipeg, for example, Manitoba, the province of Manitoba, is currently tracking for over 500 overdose deaths this year alone. So we're proud to say that the Bruce Oak Recovery Center, and by the way, we just had a groundbreaking ceremony two weeks ago for the Anilk Family Recovery Center,

because Bruce Oak is gender specific. It's for men only. The thinking there is that it's not a wise idea to mix men and women together in long term recovery when they're at their most vulnerable. So Bruce Oak, as I say, men only, but the Anil Family Recovery Center will soon accommodate women and their children. And we believe treatment and recovery is the way out of this crisis, because that's how those suffering from addiction or substance abuse get their lives back, and once again, become functioning members of society. So, you know, we're on the forefront of that battle, but we're in favor of a continuum of care, and if that means safe injection sites that can be licensed and regulated

and present opportunities to get into recovery, then fine, that's part of it too. But our focus is on treatment and recovery. Do some people need to be forced into recovery? Think back to when Bruce was struggling. This is one of the topics that people ask me for my opinion, and I'm like, I don't know. I don't have any experience with this. I can tell you this.

The way that recovery works best is when those seeking it want it right um if you're trying we went through this bruce where if you're trying to force an addict into recovery against his or her will it's a recipe to make family members who want recovery more for the addict than the addict wants it himself or herself it can make you nuts. Bruce went to detox probably eight, nine times, and he went to treatment four times. Every time he went, he went more, he went willingly. He never argued. He knew he had to go, but he went more for us than for himself. And I always tell the guys at the Bruce Oak Recovery Center, and I'm careful to say that I don't know anything about recovery, but i do know how it can affect the family and so i can say with some authority if um if you don't want if you're not

there because you want to go because you want it you need to take care of yourself first then it chances of working aren't great but in desperation if forcing someone into recovery is the only route you have then fine but it works best when those seeking recovery actually want it. I would say that the 50 men of the Bruce Oak Recovery Center are there because they want to be there and they've got a shot at recovery. What was the writing process like? Was it painful to revisit? Was it cathartic at all? There must have been quite a few emotions going through it. That's a very good question. And I would be brutally honest with you and say it was at times torturous. I thought, I don't mean this to be funny, because there's nothing funny about

PTSD. But I often thought, am I going to be the first author to get PTSD from his own book? It was really tough to relive Bruce's journey through addiction in particular. Some of the things that he did as a kid were difficult too, but when he was fully into addiction, that was a very, very difficult thing to relive for the written word. But a worthwhile exercise. As I said earlier, that lineup of people after we spoke in public when we were starting a project indicated to us that you know that that presentation resonated and i hope the book will have the same effect with readers what do you tell parents who are worried about a child

heading down the path that bruce did keep a tab on your kids make sure you know what they're doing and uh at you know for signs of difficulty um offer help and uh and do the best you can but there is no recipe for success as a parent and you know you make it up as you go along uh ann and i certainly did we uh you know we we didn't really know what to look for when it came to addiction. So it was a harsh education that we eventually got. But there are signs that parents should be aware of and should look for. And you can find them easily through lots of things that you can read. So stay on top of things with your kid. That's basically it.

We're speaking to Scott Oak, host of After Hours on Hockey Night in Canada, and the author of the new memoir, For the Love of a Son, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Scott, I've heard you talk about Bruce before, and you kind of alluded to this earlier in answering a question. You're very candid. You're very frank. I mean, you don't really dance around some of the very difficult things. At times, it can be graphic when you're talking about addiction

and how low things can get. Was that a conscious decision to be that blunt and that frank and that open? Or was it just the natural way that you wanted to talk about this? I think it just came natural, actually. You know, I can tell you about Bruce as a child was, as I said earlier, very precocious. So I was off in Europe at one point in my career covering some ski races, I think, for CBC. And Bruce was 10 years old then. And I had been inducted into the media role of honor, I think it's called, at the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

So it was part of a dinner. And Bruce had to, Ann and Bruce and Darcy went and Bruce spoke on my behalf. And he brought down the house with this one line. He said that anyone, that anyone in our family should be inducted into a hall of fame just for talking makes perfect sense. So I guess that speaks to the fact that, you know, talking was big in our house fact that, you know, talking was big in our house and, you know, we hid nothing really.

And I guess that was a natural follow through to do that in the book. The book wouldn't resonate and I hope it resonates, but it wouldn't have any chance of resonating if we weren't graphic and and explained the ugliness of active addiction and the hope for recovery. Scott, we want to thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. It's an amazing thing that you're doing with the Bruce Oak Recovery Center and the book that's available for pre-order now. We'll have a link up on the Sportsnet 650 page, but you can go to the simonshoester.ca website and check it out. It is For the love of a son a memoir of addiction loss and hope scott thanks for doing this today and best of luck with everything moving forward thank you mike and jason i appreciate you having me on yeah we

appreciate you coming on that's scott oak from hockey night in canada here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 so yeah we'll get the um we'll get a link put up to the site through Scott's Twitter page and then through ours as well. So if anyone wants to check out the book, they can. A lot of people texting in from Rocket in Langley. Scott Oak, you just became my hero. I can't imagine how hard that must have been. Love that you're telling your story.

And most of all, I love how you're just talking common sense on how to tackle this problem that politicians can't seem to wrap their heads around again thank you i think there are um you know politicians are going to try and score their political points and it's kind of sickening what they're doing because well some of them but i i honestly think there are some people with uh they're well-intentioned people on both sides that really don't know what to do. It's a really tough, it's a really, really tough problem. And knowing people that, you know, have families that have dealt with this sort of thing, you just like, I don't, you know, one day you think this might be a good idea and the other day, you know, this might be a good idea.

So now we see in the news, the, the conversations about involuntary treatment, which, you know, maybe it might make sense, but then there are some downsides to it. It's just a really, really, really tough problem to tackle. And anyone who tells you that I'll fix this problem right away, no problem, like you're dealing with multiple multiple issues so one thing about scott and i know this because i i knew about i'd met him a handful of times in the past and uh bruce's struggle with uh addiction was pretty publicly documented um i had listened to scott speak about his son on a number of occasions, and I was almost gobsmacked at how graphic and brutally honest and willing to go to the ugliest places, things you probably wouldn't want to say publicly

about what addiction looks like and what he had to go through with his son. And he delivers it in a way that he kind of – the impression that I got was this is hard, this is ugly, this is uncomfortable, but ultimately it's necessary for me to tell the story the way it needs to be told so that we can make a difference moving forward. Yeah. If that makes sense. And it's a tough thing to do. It is an incredibly difficult thing to do. It's a very powerful thing to do.

So I highly recommend everyone checks it out. Again, you can visit his Twitter page. It's Scott Oak, S-C-O-T-T-O-A-K-E. I just retweeted it from the station account as well. Definitely check it out. Okay. Okay. Okay, so the Whitecaps have a big game tonight, and we're just about to talk to Vanny Sartini.

Are you going to talk to Vanny? I know obviously you're going to talk to him about the importance of winning the Canadian Championship. Third Canadian Championship. For the third straight time. But hopefully we can also get into a conversation with Vanny about what happened down in L.A. against the Galaxy time. But hopefully we can also get into a conversation with Vanny about what happened down in LA against

the Galaxy and why he went with the lineup that he did. And then also once the Canadian Championship is won. Once they wrap that up against TFC, John Herdman and TFC.

How the Whitecaps go into the playoffs this year, as I'm sure they will, but do something in the playoffs. Right. And that is the thing with this team. What's the furthest they've ever gotten? The quarterfinals? They've done that a couple times?

That's it. They've been in the league for a little while now. 13 years. You know? And, you know, I realize that they don't spend like teams like the Galaxy does and teams like Inter-Miami do. Obviously, LAFC, the two LA teams. There are some big spending teams.

I get that, but we need a Cinderella run at least. We need, we need, the Whitecaps desperately need to have a big game and then do

something good with it. Because they've had big games and you know what I always go back to, the Seattle series

where they just laid an egg and they lost so much momentum and they need to go and have a big game and win it and i think back to well i don't think that was for my time but you know the canucks came

into the league in 1970 and they made the playoffs a few times but it wasn't until 81 82 when they made their run to the stanley cup final that they really captured the spirit of the city. And that's just something that the Whitecaps haven't done. They did it in 79. Yeah. In the old NASL. And they really did. Like, that was a big, big deal for Vancouver sports at the time.

But I think it's even tough to talk up the playoffs for the Whitecaps in this city. It's like, oh, yeah. Playoffs starting for the Whitecaps in this city. It's like, oh yeah, playoffs starting for the Whitecaps? You know, that's cool. What, are they going to play two games and then they're out? They have to do something when they get there. It's so simple. There needs to be a momentum building in the playoffs.

And they're like, guys, did you hear about the Whitecaps? They're in the semifinals. I mean, at the end of the day, it's sport. sport. And the meritocracy of sport is always decided by who wins. That's it. It's really straightforward. You can talk about marketing and, you know, infiltrating a market. And you can talk about where sports is going and how it's being consumed by younger people. But at the end of the day, one thing ultimately holds true is that winning is going to gain you

more attention and eyeballs and fans because people like backing a winner. We like winners. That's what we like. And you can't keep going to the playoffs and calling that a success. Something needs to happen when you get there.

Something of consequence in a good way needs to happen when you get there, right? Something of consequence in a good way needs to happen when you get there. Now, here's the thing. They're built, if they've got their best 11 on the field, they are built to be able to take on, I would say, pretty much anyone in the West, and that includes teams like the Galaxy and LAFC. The issue is they're seventh in the table right now. Now, that's not really a huge deal because the difference between seventh and second is five points.

And the Whitecaps have games in hand on pretty much everybody in the West. They're going to make the playoffs, though, right? They're going to make the playoffs. I do think they need to be at home. I do think that they need to have some sort of home pitch advantage. Is the first round the same? It's the same as last year, yeah. So it's a bit of a weird thing, right?

The first round is two games. Yeah. And then it goes into single match eliminations? They need to finish as high in the table as possible so that there are home games in the playoffs

of consequence at BC Place. Yes. You know, it's a really straightforward formula, right? The playoff games of consequence that have been at BC Place before have been, one, minimal, and two, dreadful. The best one that they've ever had was against San Jose, and that was a long time ago. And that was followed up by?

A terrible performance. Just a flat nil-nil draw where 27,000 people showed up, many of whom have probably not watched a match in their lives, and were like, this is it? This is the one? This is the playoffs? That's the one my buddy accused me of catfishing. I'm like, first of all, I don't know if you know what that term means,

but I get what you're saying. Now, the one thing that this courage... I watched this whole game because you talked it up. And there were no goals, and there was no... Sorry. It was a tie at the end. They didn't go to penalties. Nothing happened.

There was no, as they say in football, ambition. No, there was zero ambition. So what this group has going for it now is it's an entirely new team with an entirely new front office, and they have an opportunity here. They have an opportunity to win a trophy tonight. They have an opportunity to springboard this into the final

few games of the regular season and do something in the playoffs. But they got to do it because if they don't, it's another opportunity squandered in a long line of opportunity squandered. So just to reset here, Vanny Sartini is going to join the show on the other side of the break. We'll talk to him about all this stuff with

the Whitecaps. At 8 o'clock, don't worry, we'll get back into the Canucks talk. Randeep Janda is going to join us. He'll be on the call again tonight after working last night. 3-1 win over the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Arena. The Canucks go to Abbotsford tonight to take on the Calgary Flames. Randeep

will be on the call. We'll talk to him at 8. We'll look back at last night's game. We'll look forward to tonight's game. At 8.30, we're doing what we learned. Humanoid Edition and ours. For the humanoids, the best what we learned, the chef's kiss, is going to get a four-pack of Monster Jam tickets.

Saturday, this Saturday coming up at the Pacific Coliseum, Monster Trucks at the Pac-Call, as I like to call it, the Pac-Call. You like that one? Pac-Call? I've never heard that. I never want to hear it again. Just workshopping it.

Monster Jam is going to be this Saturday. We're giving away a four-pack of tickets to the Best What We Learned. Dunbar-Limbert Tax Line is 650-650. Get them in. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Finally, before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season.

Get your tickets now at bclions.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 731 on a Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Ruff, Sportsnet 650. Canadian Championship night. Get fired up. That's what the music's for. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. I also need to tell you about Jason Hominick. You can find him at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, and who doesn't, then definitely don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Don't do that.

Just kidding. Get a hold of him. Visit him at jason.mortgage. So tonight, the Vancouver Whitecaps are going for their third consecutive Canadian championship. They will take on Toronto FC at BC Place.

Kickoff is at 7 o'clock. Three-peat. Three-peat. So if they win this, besides being Canadian champions, what do they get? They get a berth into the 2025 CONCACAF Champions League as the champions of Canada. And they also get a birth into the 2025 CONCACAF Champions League. It's the champions of Canada. And they also get a large maple syrup. I think that's the prize.

And a 2024 Honda Civic. That's right. So 50% off all drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, prior to kickoff tonight. First 10,000 fans in attendance will get a free T-shirt, and you get a chance to see what is hopefully a Canadian championship and then a springboard to a bunch of good results down the

stretch where this team can jump up in the standings and hopefully get a top four spot in the West going into the playoffs. Do we have Vanny on the phone now? No, he's going to call us back. Vanny's in an elevator. He is in elevator. That's how we like to call it in the biz. Also in an elevator. So we talked a little bit

prior to break uh about what's at stake and don't get me wrong like the canadian championship sort of is what it is it's a it's a competition only has three mls teams so you're often expecting the caps to at the very least get to this stage well they and they rarely have to play an mls team to get to the final correct very rarely um and this year was like many of the other years right um however it's a chance to win a trophy and that always does matter on some level uh teams like accumulating hardware tfc has been talking up this game because it's the first opportunity for them to win hardware in a while also under their new manager first year manager John Herdman who of course is the forward Canadian men's national

team manager under great scrutiny this season in large part because of his connection to the drone scandal that the Canadian women went through at the Olympic Games in Paris. Toronto FC's also had a very up and down year they do still have their Italian duo of Federico Bernadeschi and Lorenzo Insigne.

So they're playing and they're still there. They came to Vancouver earlier in the year in April and got smacked. That was at that game. They lost 4-0. It was one of their worst losses of the year. So there's obviously... Had Herdman taken over by then? Yep.

Herdman was in charge. They were down a lot of players. They had a very thin lineup at that point in the proceedings so uh but they got this will be one of their worst losses of the year but this will be important for them too right tfc like this is they need to start getting back to accomplishing things they don't have i mean like they're not they're not going gonna win a title this year year one of the john herdman era has not been brilliant by any stretch of the imagination you don't make up for that with a canadian championship but it goes a little bit it's something right it's something you can hang your hat on and he did say for the evolution of this group it's not just about

winning tonight but it's about qualifying for conca cap champions league and getting to play uh some of the better teams in Central America and North America. And it's a very tough tournament. It's hard to win. So, John Herdman's opponent tonight on the sidelines is Vanni Sartini. The Whitecaps manager joins us now

on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Vanni. How are you? Good morning, Vanni. How are you? Good morning. How are you doing, guys? Yeah, we are good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So before we get into the match tonight,

I just want to go back to the weekend and what happened against the Galaxy. It was a 4-2 defeat. And I mean, unless you're going to object to my thought process here, it was pretty obvious that there were some decisions made to rest guys, maybe not necessarily just for the Canadian Championship,

but this very busy schedule that you have over the next couple of weeks. How difficult was it to make that decision? Because the Galaxy are the sort of benchmark team in the West. They're in first place. And it would have been a good opportunity to see where you guys are at with a full-strength lineup against that number one team in the West. Yeah, I'd say you have the right thought process there. And in a way, it was kind of difficult,

but it wasn't difficult for a lot of reasons. The first reason is that we have a deep roster, and so we trust a lot of the players that played that game, and they actually did very well. We did a couple of silly mistakes in the second half. If not, the game was actually played well. The other thing is that

not only for the final tonight but the next two games in the league against Portland and Seattle are going to be probably the most important games because against direct competitors for our position in the playoffs, the Galaxy are already number one, so it would have been like kind of a bonus game

instead of, I would say, a six-point game like it will be the next couple of games in the league. So, you know, that was the decision. So hopefully we just delayed our win in LA and we can win there in the playoffs. So it is Toronto tonight. You beat them 4-0 earlier in the season. You also have a pretty famous win over Toronto FC in a Canadian championship, not last year, but two years ago. Set the stage for tonight for the listeners. What can they expect?

How important is this for you guys as a club to finally get another trophy on the shelf and win your third consecutive Canadian Championship? Yeah, in terms of importance, it's going to be, I would say, very, very important. It's like I say, tonight is at the same level of, I would say, accomplishing something historical, because it would be our third Canadian championship in a row.

It would be our third qualification for the Champions Cup in a row, confirming us as the, say, best team in Canada. We know that the Canadian championship is very, very close to the heart of the supporters for bragging rights in the country. So tonight is extremely important. I would say I compare the game of tonight like a playoff game. Like, you know, if you win a playoff game,

it's always something so big because you go to the next round and you go into the elite of North American soccer tonight. I think it's the same importance and it's the same, I would say, atmosphere for us getting to the pitch. Talking about Toronto, yeah, I think we beat them at the beginning of the season, but they're a different team than the beginning of the season, but they're a different team than at the beginning of the season, especially defensively. They improved a lot.

They are much more tight and compact than before. At the beginning of the season, when we beat them, they came here without two key players like Insigne and Richie Larea that were injured. So I think, I've got to be honest, that if we do the thing that we are supposed to do, we are the team that is going to have more chance to win, but it's going to be really hard. Are you guys fully healthy? Yeah, I would say yes.

Luckily, we had Ali Ahmed and Andres Cubas that featured the game in LA also because they were 100% healthy and 100% fit to go. But yesterday they both passed. They did the training session at full speed and full intensity. So they will be available for the game tonight.

The only guy that I would say is still limited in terms of minutes is Stuart Armstrong, the new signing, because he arrived like a period of complete offseason, so he's still a little bit behind in terms of condition compared to the other guys. And Brian White, who's had some concussion issues, he's back 100% now?

Yeah, he's back 100%. He played 75 minutes in L.A., he played 30 minutes in Houston, and even though they were in full game, he scored in both games. So, you know, it's just, I would say, just to remember how important Brian is for our game, not only in the box, but also the way that he helped us to press the opposition. And yes, he's ready to go. He will start, he will lead the attack. So do you take an attacking mindset into this game?

I think we have to. I think we have to also because of the characteristic of Toronto. Because I think it's a team that if you wait for them, their best player are the five front players. So the four guys behind the number nine are really good. Because Bernardeschi, Osorio, Insigne and Richie Larea, two national team players of Canada and two Italians, they're really high quality. So if you just wait for them, they're the players that can invent something at any moment.

While if we are the team in charge of the game with more possession, that team that can press higher and put their defense on pressure because the way that they play is very aggressive. There's some space at their back and I think that is the right approach in order to win. We're speaking to Whitecaps manager Vanni Sartini here on

the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Vanni and the Vancouver Whitecaps are in the Canadian Championship tonight. 7 o'clock kickoff at BC Place against Toronto FC. Vandy, I do want to talk about Ryan Gould for a moment here. I find it interesting when you see a player that's very good continue to get better. You know, I think Gould this year, the feather in his cap, obviously was finally getting that recall to the Scottish national team.

We had him on the show shortly after he re-debuted for Scotland. He seemed very pleased and very happy. And I'm sure the reason that that happened was because he continues to evolve and make his game better. I know this is sort of a real basic question, but how good is Ryan Gould at this stage of his career right now? Well, I think he's extremely good. I think he's very good. I think he improved. I totally

agree with you. I coached him now for three years basically. I got a team in August of 2021. Every year has been better. He started from a player of extreme quality and with a great work ethic and he developed in a player like now he's also a leader, a leader on and off the field. He's a real captain. He's not only the arm band but he's the real captain of the team. He's the guy who I would say is not shy in the game to talk in the field. He's not so much of a talker outside the field, but in the field you can really feel his leadership. He's someone who's, I would say, became even better in the part of the game that at the beginning when I started wasn't so decisive like it is now.

For example, attacking the space and moving with the freedom as a number 10 and finding space from side to side of the pitch. He was more of a guy that was confined on the left and the right side when we started and giving him this freedom, giving him this range on the field, I think helped him also to reach the next level. I've got to ask you, what's your relationship like with John Herdman? Just, I would say, respect for a coach that did very well with the Canadian national team. I know John more as a father of my previous player because Jay Herdman was in my WFC2 team

when I was coaching the second team and then I called him in the first team so I had with him more of a relationship of as FJ's father than as coach talking about the game or anything so I would say in terms of a coaching it's just respect for what he did with the with the national team both both female and and men's national team and, you know, and then our respect is what it's doing in Toronto. Well, hopefully you can get a victory

over Jay's father tonight at BC Plays. Vanni, thank you very much for doing this today. We appreciate it. Best of luck against Toronto FC.

Go get a third consecutive Canadian Championship. Yes, yes. We'll do everything to do it and guys, let's come

whoever is listening. There's still tickets. So it's going to be a fantastic night of soccer tonight. So let's come and support the Whitecaps to achieve this historical tribute. Thanks, Vanni. We appreciate it. Good luck. Bye-bye. Thank you. Vanni Sartini, manager of the Vancouver Whitecaps, here on the Halford & Bruss Show on Sportsnet 650.

Why don't we dive back into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket? So there's two games tonight. There's a Canadian championship between Vancouver and Toronto. There's a hockey game out in Abbotsford between Vancouver and Calgary. A lot of Canadian content on tap for tonight in the world of sports, especially locally. So we asked you earlier in the show if you wanted to weigh in on anything you saw last night from the Vancouver Canucks in their 3-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken, let us know.

We can dive into it. We spent the first hour of the program running through all the individual performances that we saw last night, good, bad, or otherwise. Spoiler alert, if you're going to download the podcast, most of them were good. So we can dive back into the Dunbar-Lumber text message in Basket now. Read some of your texts. Have you got any? I was hoping you would. You can't just put that on me.

Did you not see where the conversation was going? I thought we were going to talk about some of the NHL stories around the league that you noted in your notes. You mentioned earlier all the injuries that were happening. What's going on with all the injuries? Let's do that right now. When Halford says we're diving back in the inbox, that's cue bro to dive back you gotta start

find one immediately apparently um i thought he had an idea of something the i thought he had a clue um okay so there was the austin matthews by the way toronto is already off to a great start because austin matthews left practice yesterday and i didn't realize this but craig berube versus toronto media is something that we're gonna have to monitor because oh nice yeah because when he was asked about matthews injury one clearly didn't want to talk about it and two just sort of muttered like it's no big deal right not anyway but austin matthews left practice yesterday and he called it an upper-body thing. He's got an upper-body thing.

Berube was then asked, and the reporter tried to make it sound like they weren't really asking about losing two games in the preseason and panic, but also was kind of asking about losing two games in the preseason, and Berube just kind of interrupted mid-question. He's like, no about losing two games in the preseason and brube just kind of interrupted mid-question he's like no no it's the it's the preseason it's exhibition it doesn't matter so he's very gruff um and i know st louis isn't a huge market it's obviously not as frenzied as toronto not even close not even close but they've got did you see patrietti when he did his first media scrum he did not like the line of questioning no no no he was just like i haven't

seen this many cameras in a long, long time. And one of the cameras asked him about being there on a PTO and having to scratch and claw to make the team. And Pacioretty was just staring daggers at the guy. In part because I think he knows. Back in Canada. But he's got a deal in place is the understanding. And I think he assumed. But he didn't want to say understanding. And I think he assumed that everyone knew it,

that he wasn't really there to try out. He's got a deal. What did he say? It was more the glare. It was just kind of, it wasn't necessarily taken aback, but it was a mix of, I kind of can't believe you're asking me this, and I kind of got to answer it like I'm not, like there isn't a deal already made.

Yeah. It was interesting to put it mildly. You should have just said, yep, scratching. Lots of clawing. Lots of clawing. Lots of scratching. So that was the situation in Toronto. New York Rangers, here's one to monitor

because they played last night in a very, also another spicy affair. Maybe almost as spicy as the vancouver seattle game there was this massive hit earlier in the game um where scott mayfield of the islanders rocked philip heidel so everyone thought heidel was really hurt and he's had a lot of injuries and everything so like okay this is a problem uh he came back to the game that was the good part the bad part was that and this is where the pack mentality can go wrong. Ryan Lindgren,

who's a pretty valuable defenseman for them, stood up for Hedl and fought Mayfield. Uh-oh. Then he got hurt and had to leave the game in the first period and didn't return. So that's bad. That's like when Dak got hurt last year. That's the thing.

You love Dakota Joshua for sticking up for his teammate. You don't love it that he busted his hand for like 20 games, right? Then the Rangers suffered another big injury in the third period. Artemi Panarin left.

Oh boy. Didn't return. The reason remains unknown and Laviela was really tight-lipped after the game. He's just like, we have to get him evaluated so I mean you want to talk about a

team that's got a lot it's not as pop Latias I know the pop Latias is it's everywhere right it's the key to the knee pop Latias pop Lydian was a

pronunciation yesterday pop Lydian pop Lydias pop Lydias it's not pop Latias pop Lydias pop Lydias Who said that? What is that? That sounds like sad.

It's from the broadcast. Oh. Was that DT? I think it's from our broadcast. So it's either sad or... Oh, okay. All right. One more time.

Popliteus. It's Popliteus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it not? Are we not all Poplitei? Maybe they got it wrong. Who knows? Popliteus sounds like an old Roman emperor. All hail Popliteus? Maybe they got it wrong. Who knows? Poplitea sounds like an old Roman emperor.

All hail Poplitea. He's the key to our success. Yeah. Finally, on the injury front, good injury news, actually. I totally forgot about Taylor Hall. Taylor Hall's back, baby. Taylor Hall, after 16 months on the shelf, has been cleared for all activity,

and he's going to resume skating on the top line with conor bedard in chicago his line was even an exhibition game is going to feel like something i haven't done in a long time uh i played 10 games last year so i can't wait to start playing and be a hockey player again so uh happy trails to taylor hall as he gets back on uh the horse and starts playing hockey games again for the Chicago Blackhawks. Hey, we got some texts into the Dunbar-Lemmer text line with a little heads up once in a while. Yep, good.

Let's do it. Scott and Suri text in, will the Canucks put Demko on LTIR so they can get more cap space? And then Scott gets ahead of himself and he says, if the Canucks put Thatcher on LTIR, how much cap space can they accumulate? They don't want to go into LTIR. Right. They've made that pretty clear.

They don't want to do it. That's why they had this big drawn out negotiation with Kevin Lankanen and eventually won that negotiation. They want to bank some cap space. It may not be a lot of cap space, but they want to bank it. Eventually it might get to the point where they trade a guy like Tucker Pullman and they trade his contract away. Maybe they add a sweetener to get rid of that contract and that gives them some more significant cap space. But that is going to be something to monitor heading into the season. And it's one of those things where you cross your fingers and hope they don't have any more injuries yeah i mean but they don't want to do it okay don't ask us to

explain all the ins and outs of the machinations yeah of ltir and all that sort of thing but um they don't want to they don't want to use it this year it's it's a challenge it puts you right up against it and again you cannot accrue cap space that you need for the trade i'm glad you brought this up because it is funny because i think people look at ltir like a good thing like this magical war chest that you get to add more players um it's not it's not really like most teams don't want to operate in LTIR. No, it's very, it makes your cap situation very difficult. It's complicated. And it complicates things.

It's a lot easier to operate under just the sort of normal cap. Text in LTIR is the popliteus of the salary cap. It's not. It's not. Don't think of it like that. Again, some people have used it to game the system, but the game is because you have to play a very elaborate game. But you could look at it as being the key to the salary cap if you know how to utilize it.

So maybe the texture is correct. Because it is the key for many teams if it can be exploited correctly. The only, okay. No, really. Okay, now we're going down the road. You can only really exploit it in one fashion. It's at the end of the year, right? Where you've accrued enough that you can bring a guy back in the playoffs

where there's no salary cap. And that's where it allows you to do the deadline. Operating from day one in LTR is not a good thing. Nevertheless, it's the popliteus of the salary cap. Oh, God. Are you seeing the stuff that Claude Giroux's car got stolen last night? I did not see this. Is his wife's name Rianne?

She, someone, Rianne? Yeah, he retweeted it. Right, okay. Yeah, Rianne, yeah. So I guess she tweeted out this morning, Good morning, Ottawa. Claude Giroux's car was stolen last night and is currently actively driving. Wow.

Unable to get a hold of Ottawa police until 10 a.m. Looking for other suggestions to hear from other people in Ontario who have sadly had to deal with this recently. And then Claude Giroux retweeted it with a, what would you call that emoji? Face palm, I think. Face palm emoji. God, I'm old. A face palm emoji.

I'm face palming right now, bro. So he's upset at his car. Do you think he has your old Honda Civic? What was the, was it a Civic? So here's the thing. The Honda Civic never got stolen. The Honda Civic got broken into. Oh, okay.

People would just rifle through whatever. It got to the point where I wouldn't keep anything, like literally anything. Someone stole. You didn't keep your gold bars in there? Left two Canucks tickets in somebody, but two more. One spitting twice shy on that one. No more Krugerrands in the trunk for me.

You know what someone actually stole one time? The push lighter. I'm like, you know it doesn't work. Just the light, just the push part. Yeah, just the push part.'m like you know it doesn't work just the light just the just yeah just someone being a jerk yeah it's like they took the effort to break into the car and they see that nothing of value is in there it's like i gotta steal something i gotta take something took me this long i'm taking something yeah i was surprised that like the actual the the mechanical parts of the car weren't stolen at one point right i want to know why so is there someone joyriding around ot and closing the car right now?

Why can't they get to police after 10? That's the part I don't understand. Are they all tied up? They're all busy? It's like the mall. The store is only open at 10. The police opens at 10? Yeah.

The cops are like, make the playoffs and maybe we'll look for your car. This is a 9-1-2. Maybe we'll open at 9. I don't want to promise. It'd be funny if it was one of his teammates pranking him. Totally. Anyway, get your What We Learns

into the Dunbar Lumber text line. Are we giving away Monster Jam tickets today? A four pack. And what is the emoji? What are we using? The facepalm emoji for that? No,

truckasaurus emoji. There's no truckasaurus emoji. What is the emoji we're using? Ticket emoji. Just the ticket emoji if you want to be entered into the contest for Monster Jam tickets, Pacific Coliseum, this weekend. Is it Saturday? using tickets just the ticket emoji if you want to be entered into the contest for monster jam

tickets pacific coliseum this weekend is it saturday saturday saturday coliseum saturday saturday pacific coliseum at the pack call is that what you called it uh so get your what we learned into the dunbar lumber text line 650 650 um we do have up next, we have Randeep Janda. So we'll talk about tonight's game in Abbotsford, which is on Sportsnet 6.50. That's great. It's not on TV. That's also great for Sportsnet 6.50.

Fantastic. Randeep will be on the call with Batch. So we'll talk to him about what we expect to see tonight in Abbotsford and also what we saw last night as the Canucks got their preseason off to a winning start with a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Tile Town as BC's favorite hockey team kicks off a new season,

received 20% off any regular priced in-stock tile. Visit mytiltown.ca for details.