Halford & Brough in the Morning - Is This The Oilers' Cup Season? (Let's Hope Not)

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with Sports 1440 Edmonton's Jason Gregor (1:13) about how the Oilers are expected to do this season, plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). 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.

804 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour three of the program.

Jason Greger is going to join us from edmonton in just a moment here hour three is brought to you by campbell and pound real estate appraisers trust the expertise of campbell and pound visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today we are coming to you live from the kintec studio kintec canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star google reviews sophie what are you waiting for kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Raffi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Our next guest is the host of the Jason Greger Show

on Sports 1440. From Edmonton, Jason Greger joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Jason. How are you? I'm excellent. It's Greger and Pound now, though. So, I'm going to change the name of the show.

I like it. Greger and Pound now, though. So I'm going to change the name of the show. I like it. Gregor and Pound. Is that... Do you say welcome to Pound Town? You know, one of us was going to say that. One of us was going to say that. Not on radio. Yeah, yeah.

Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay, let's focus on hockey here, shall we? You had a lengthy discussion with the new general manager, the Edmonton Oilers, Stan Bowman. It's been a very eventful start to the Stan Bowman era in Edmonton. What were some of the big takeaways from the conversation before we dive into the nitty-gritty? Well, I think the biggest one for me is how he's realized, obviously, well, it's hard to say, oh, yeah, the guy made mistakes.

I think sometimes people have this unrealistic expectation. know he he's realized obviously well it's hard to say oh yeah the guy made mistakes i think sometimes people have this unrealistic expectation and when i say people media fans everybody that you know every move a gm is going to make is going to work and they're always going to win and they're always going to stay competitive forever like it's impossible there's no team out there that's done it um you know san jose was probably the best for the longest under doug wilson but they never won. But they won the most games, and they won, I think, the second or first most playoff games.

They just couldn't win the Cup. So then he was deemed a failure. But then Stan Bowman wins three Cups, but because it didn't end well, well, he's a disaster. It makes no sense to me. But he did talk about how the thing he learned most in Chicago was not to, like, 2025 is different than 2024. And even though there's McDavid and there's going to be dry side, there's still going to be differences.

And, you know, the orders penalty killing the playoffs was what, 90% or something stupid. He's like, well, that's not going to happen again, just because of,

you know, the way the hockey gods are and the way hockey works. So you're going to have to find a way to be different in other ways and better. And so I think when you look at the orders and dry settle signed and McDavid's going to sign next year, it's the most foregone conclusion ever. And it's good for Edmonton fans. But when those two are signed,

they're probably going to be $30 million between them. You're going to have to make other good moves around it. And I think that's going to be 30 million bucks between them you're gonna have to make other good moves around it and i think that's going to be the challenge is to ensure you don't get locked into other guys who are good but not great and usually that you've seen it in every team the elite players i don't have a problem signing elite players for long-term contracts but the other 90 92 of the league i would never go-term contract after the age of 28. No chance. Darnell Nurse. How much has that guy been discussed in the wake of the dry-sidal contract and knowing what's coming for McDavid?

Yeah, well, he's got a full no move except for the last three years of his deal. So when McDavid's new deal kicks in, that would be year five for Nurse. So the following year, then his full no-movement clause becomes a limited no-trade, and he submits a list of 10 teams. So if they're looking to shed salary, that's probably the most realistic time they could do it. The thing about Darnell Nurse is, if Darnell Nurse plays like he played

in 21 and 22, and even probably from November until the All-Star break last year, no one has a problem with him. The problem was how he played coming out of the All-Star break last season. It was not close to good enough. And that's the challenge

with Nurse. He still, He should be past the point of the big peaks and valleys in play. There might be peaks and valleys in production for some players, but there shouldn't be peaks and valleys for veterans in their play. You might have a few off games, that's fine, but you can't be having great three months and then play like a third pair defenseman for the next two months that that just shouldn't happen when you're at this stage of his career so that that would be the concern that you have with nurses when he's on he's really

good defenseman right five on five he's one of the best defensemen in the league if you look at his production and everything else um the problem with nurses is when he makes an error, it is highlight reel material on the misplays of the day, and that's the problem. What do you think McDavid took from the Stanley Cup final? Because certainly there were some games along the way leading up to the Stanley Cup final and in the Stanley Cup final where he was brilliant, but ultimately he, correct me if I'm wrong, was he held pointless in games six and seven?

Yeah. McDavid, I don't know, fatigue. I know he was nursing something. He had a core oblique issue, especially in game seven. There were times he just had no gas left in the tank or he couldn't push off. in game seven you know you know there looked at times like he just had no gas left in the tank and or he couldn't couldn't push off um i i wondered well in the third period you're down two to one it's in the stanley cup final you know what they basically went two lines and so i think maybe they

were just fatigued by the end of it but and the thing was they had two good chances in that third period to tie the game and just didn't you know he redirected one what an inch over the net and who knows what happens but you know what they weren't Cody Ceci and they weren't Matias Janmark in game seven because those two guys are money in game seven funny enough but I think McDavid looks at it overall and man you're you can't get closer than the owners from from winning the cup you're losing game seven by one goal right like it's harder to get any closer than that. So I think that what they took away from that was game seven. Game seven could have been on home ice. Game one could have been on home ice.

And the Edmonton orders have not had home ice advantage in the playoffs in the second round or later since 1990. That's what they took away from it. And that's why I expect this regular season for the Orders because they've had, like last year was obviously the worst because of the first 12 games, and they were 2-9-1. But they've had other stretches where they have a terrible month, and it's cost them from finishing higher in the standings

and having to go to Colorado and having to go to Vegas and this year to Vancouver and to Dallas and to Florida. We can look at the history of home ice advantage and the later in the playoffs, historically, it matters more. I think that's where

the order is. I would expect them to be much more focused in the regular season. They do have the longest drought of any franchise since 1987 that they've won a division. So I think that that is starting point A. And then I think for them, you know, they'd obviously like to finish first in the West.

And if you're in the league, great, but it's more the West because, you know what, if you get to the Stanley Cup final, you know, the odds of the President's Trophy winner being there from the other side are low historically. So I think it's more about them, you know, finishing as of the President's Trophy winner being there from the other side are low historically, so I think it's more about them, you know, finishing as high as they can in the West, and specifically in the Pacific, because it's kind of ridiculous when you think about the fact that

they can't win the division and they can't get home ice past round one. Hey Jason, did Stan talk much about Pod Colson, about what expectations would be for him? Because I think it's fair to say if there hadn't been the offer shoot for Holloway, Pod Colson would not be a member of the Edmonton Oilers. I think that's very fair. And, you know, he kind of said that. So you look at, you know,

Pod Colson, you guys know him better than I do. I remember his rookie year and you're like, geez, this guy's got something. He can shoot the puck. There's no doubt about that. He can shoot the puck. But I talked earlier about Darnell Nurse and consistency. I get it from young players. That's the hardest thing to learn for a lot of young players is to be a professional night in and night out. And Paul Colson's play, I think when he has the puck,

I don't know if there's that much of an issue. It's when he doesn't have the puck, and that's going to be the challenge. And really for him, I'll be able to tell in preseason if this guy's going to have a realistic chance to have an impact because if he's not on the penalty kill, guys, he's got no chance, right? Because he's not going to be on the power play. So if you're a fourth-line guy or a third-line guy and you're not on the penalty kill and you're not on the power play,

how do you stay in the game? It's really hard. I would push back a little bit on the assessment of Pod Kolzin. I don't think he's a bad player without the puck. I think if anything, this might sound weird, he's overly responsible. He's a conservative player, overly conservative.

What the Canucks wanted out of him was to go out there and do something, make something happen. He seemed to, in a lot of games, tread water, like he was just trying to survive. And I think it became a confidence issue with him because maybe he received some criticism or maybe things weren't going his way.

I don't know. It's not like I was talking to Vasily Podkolzin every day. But when I watched him play, I was just begging for him to go do something as opposed to being just kind of like invisible. And he wouldn't make huge mistakes, but he wouldn't make huge mistakes, but he wouldn't do anything particularly positive either.

Yeah, and that's fair. The interesting thing about the confidence is the vast majority of these players, a lot of them have never really had, now maybe if they had an injury, but if you go through your minor hockey career, and when I say your amateur hockey career, I should say,

and you're usually one of the top four or five best players on your team, usually top one or two for a lot of these kids, then you get to pro hockey and 20-year-olds struggling in the American League, and all of a sudden the coach has got the eight-year-old veteran who's playing really well. Oh, geez, I guess I've got to play him. And I think a lot of players they've never dealt with adversity before guys so you talk about confidence well that goes and

they probably never lost their confidence right like you know pod colton is a rookie in the nhl you score 14 goals that's pretty good right like you're not going um you know he didn't have a massive stretch where he didn't score a goal right like he might go 10-8 games that's normal but um the last two years i just think confidence is a factor and you know doing nothing on the ice isn't good and um i i've heard that the orders are planning on using them on the penalty kill and and if they do if he's as responsible as you say then that's going to be a good thing because mcleod fogel are gone right so there's chance there's like there's openings on the orders penalty somebody's got to use it. And Chris Knobloch, good coach,

he doesn't use dry-seller McDavid on his penalty kill, nor should he, because they play a ton of other stuff. So that's your way to get your bottom six guys in. And if he can do that, like, I'm intrigued. So I know Janmark, Brown, and Henrique were a great third line in the playoffs. I think Matthias Janmark can easily be a fourth liner in the regular season, but a third liner in the playoffs because he's a gamer.

And so you could, if you wanted to, play Henrik with Pod Coles. Adam Henrik knows how to score goals, right? He always finds ways to score goals. Like, this guy's a 20-goal scorer eight, nine times. And I look and say maybe pod coles and plays with henrique at times in the regular season and maybe with a guy like rafael of law possibly or you know or cory perry who did have 12 goals in 54 games last year i know he can't skate a lick really but he knows how to produce and that's where i'm kind of curious about knoblock here

and how he moves his bottom six around at different times because he showed all of last season he is not afraid to try different line combinations he doesn't get set in just one alleyway and say this is how it's got to be and I think the players kind of like that we're speaking speaking to Jason Greger from Sports 1440 in Edmonton here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 on the subject of the offer sheets for Broberg and Holloway. I'm curious, now that the dust has settled, what Bowman had to say about that whole process. Because one of the things that I think you realize,

hindsight being 20-20 and everything, is not just the fact that you have to match the money and make a decision. It's that you only get seven days to make that decision. It really clamps you down and puts you in a pressure situation so now that it's all done and they're now both members of the st louis blues um what did bowman have to say about the whole offer sheet process well he said the one silver lining was he really got to know his new staff a lot better because as you mentioned they had seven seven days and so you kind of get to know how keith gretzky and bill scott and all the other guys and brad holland kind of how they view things

and how they evaluate players and because he basically said for the first few days they went over the snare okay what happens if we match both how does our salary look you know this year next year the following year let's break that all down so guys go back they'd come back and present their talking points over that then it was like okay well what if we don't match then what we look at you know what are some options and obviously you know he didn't say who came up at the pod calls in one but you know obviously they started looking and saying okay can we find replacements out there and you make phone calls and you know then like there was the pod calls and trade there was also the cc for for ty emerson because you went from a 3.25 guy to a 950 K guy,

because the orders want to be, they don't want to be an LTIR if they can avoid it. And right now, you know, even if Kane's not ready to start the year, which he won't be, he's probably going to be on IR, not LTIR.

And he can still fit on IR, which counts against the cap. So, you know, they, they moved around a lot of chess pieces on the board to see what happens. Broberg, like the minute the offer sheet came down, I was like, there's no chance of matching Broberg. I thought they would, like Holloway, I thought there was a realistic chance,

decent player. You know, like if he scores 15 goals next year and makes 2.29, people are like, okay, like like fair contract right but they they obviously felt that you know pod calls and in a million bucks for two years you know it's 1.29 but that's a whole extra player on your roster right and so that's where the orders are at when you've got big guys making big money and producing by the way that's the difference is their top guys produce big time in the playoffs so it's you don't need these bottom guys who are really big time producers. You don't need a fourth line of three guys scoring 10 goals.

Of course you'd love it, but you don't need it when your top guys continually produce like yours top guys. So that's kind of their advantage. Because I went through the whole money crunching situation. So Florida won the Cup last year. Their top four salaries made up 44% of the cap. When Tampa Bay won, they were 43.9%. Vegas was 42%.

Colorado was the one exception because of McKinnon. They were down 38%. So you look and say, okay, teams have won it between 42 and 44 three of the last four years. So that seems like a doable thing. could say okay teams have won it between 42 and 44 three of the last four years so it's you know that seems like a doable thing you need good players bark off bobrovsky that were key players so edmonton's key guys produce right uh bouchard's probably going to get 10 million so three guys will be at 40 mil crazy and then nurse that makes them 49.5 so in this the first year of mcdavid's

contract if we assume the cap goes up, let's just say five-million-a-year, guys, that means it's 98 when he kicks in. So it's basically 50%. It's not ideal. But the following year, it could be down to 47, and in two years, it could be at 45. So they're not going to be hamstrung that much, even if they elect to keep Darnell Nurse. So that, I think, is probably what they're looking at and saying, hey, all these other teams did it, we can do it. But Bowman went into more about how it taught him about his staff a little bit more.

He kind of learned what they liked, what they didn't like, and they uncovered a few things. But I know everybody's like, wow, the owner should have done this differently. The only thing I can look at, and I thought it was laughable when people in the organization tried to say, well, Ken Holland should have signed Broberg in January. You mean when he asked for a trade and he was in the minors, he was suddenly going to sign a two-year contract?

It's the most idiotic thing I've ever read. God, it was stupid. Like, there's no chance he was going to do it, right? The only time, if we want to do a theory, it was in the series against Dallas, and they were thinking about taking DeJarne out of the lineup. They could have went to Broberg's agent and said, hey, we want went to Broberg's agent and said, hey,

we want to play Broberg, but you're going to sign a two-year deal right now for $1.4 or $1.5 million. And if he doesn't take it, then he doesn't play. They could have done it. In theory, that's the only time I think they ever could have really put any sort of squeeze on him in this negotiation to kind of

have that carrot of, it's playoff hockey and he's really going to want to play so he can sign but you know sometimes you know what there's there's just not a situation i don't think the owners really you know botched it that much uh it's more so broberg he just i don't think he was already happy but then all of a sudden guys it was june 30th and st louis could present this to him of course you wouldn't sign anywhere else like he everybody thought broberg would be what a million and a half at best? Now he's 4.6. That's life-changing money for him.

He's got $9.2 million. He never has to give it back. Of course he was going to sign it. Is there more to Vinny D'Arnais than we saw in Edmonton? Because the Canucks have been kind of subtly hinting that they think there's more to this player than what we saw. I'm a

huge DeJarne fan. First of all, unbelievable human being. I saw him chirping JT Miller. He seems like a super funny dude. Everyone was like, good, you're liked now. He had good comedic delivery. Yeah, he was good delivery. Vincent DeJarne is a guy, you know what, a little bit of Good. You're liked now. That's funny. He had good comedic delivery. Yeah, he has good delivery. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, I'm telling you, like, Vincent Desjardins is a guy, you know, a little bit of a late developer. I do a segment on my show. We call it Who Is It? And it goes kind of for a whole hour, and they come in studio, and they talk about all their career and where they came from. And this is a guy who's never, you know, wasn't like the silver spoon-fed player, right?

He was the last cut at many times in his life,'s never, you know, wasn't like the silver spoon fed player. He was the last cut at many times in his life. Moves up, you know, goes away to junior, doesn't work, comes back, ends up going to college. He's a healthy scratch there, but then works his way up and works his way up. And you know what? Then he's in their top pair. And then, you know, he's drafted by the Oilers, but he doesn't get any ELC. He gets it because he's three years in college. So he signs an American League deal. It starts in the ECHL.

Works his way up. Works his way up. And he came to Edmonton in two years in a row. He got injured. Once during the captain skates, injured his wrist, just kind of fluke play. And then the next year, I think it was two weeks before training camp, got hurt. So when the guy was thinking, I just want to see what I can do in preseason, never got a chance. Then he finally gets in. And all I've seen from DeJarne is improvement. He's a huge man,

right? So you can't really get around him, right? Like he, you, you watch, watch the game. Guys will look like they beat him wide, but then tell me if they actually ever make a play, right? Because he just, he gets in the way. He's got his stick and his go-go gadget arm. And all of a sudden he's taking up half of the ice. And the thing about Desjardins is he's very honest about his game. And so he told me a story how when Paul Coffey came in, the first thing Coffey did, he just sat down at the fence and said, hey, guys, I don't really know you, but here's my philosophy.

If you want to play, you're going to make plays. I don't care if you're Evan Bouchard or if you're Vincent Desjardins, I expect you to make plays. And Vinny had always been taught from coaches, just get the puck out. I don't care. Flip it out. It's out of the zone. It's out of trouble.

Paul Coffey was like, no, that's not happening. And so Desjardins admitted, he goes like, I never really had that. And I don't necessarily have the confidence in my offensive game to do it. But he worked on it, worked on it and became okay. Like he all of a sudden was making plays like at the offensive blue line, rather than just shooting the puck in the corner, he would walk the line two or three or four feet, and then he'd make a pass or a shot.

And he was never doing that until Paul Coffey came. He spent all summer, his main thing was obviously do the usual training, but he spent a ton of his summertime on working on his puck skills. I think Vincent Desjardins can easily become a top four defenseman. Guys, he's only played, what, 130 NHL games? His birth date says he's older, and he's a big body. Go back, and I'm not comparing him, but go back and look at Sedano Chara's chart and when he became elite.

I'm not saying Desjardins is Chara, but he's huge, and it takes him longer to fill out and everything. I honestly think at $2 million, first of all, it's a bargain deal. Even if he's only a third pair defenseman, there's no problem. But I think Vincent Desjardins can easily be a top pair guy. He's defensive and he's an unreal penalty killer and shot blocker. He'll make your penalty kill way better.

Nice. Great breakdown, Jason. That was awesome. Thanks a lot for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend. We'll do this again when we get closer to the start of the regular season. bet your boys anytime have a great day yeah you too thanks that's jason gregor from sports 1440 and edmonton here on the alfred and brough show on sports net 650 coming up it's your chance to be on the radio what we learns is it gonna be here forever are we gonna drum it out of the show who knows you better You better get your What We Learns in, though, while you can. Dunbar Lumber Text Line

650-650. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Let us know. Hashtag it WWL and send it to the Dunbar Lumber Text Message

in Basket. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Tile Town. Mom, Dad, can we go to Tile Town? Sure we can, kids. As BC's favorite hockey team

kicks off a new season, receive 20% off any regular priced in stock tile. For more information, visit them at my tile town.ca. You're listening to the Halford and breath show on sports net six 50. Now for my favorite part of the show. What did I say? Talk to the audience.

Oh, God. This is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show. 832 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday already.

Halford Brough, 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 that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in Hour 3 of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. Thought about fading it out just to toy with you there. You're like, should we just drop the music real quickly

and just throw Halford off? Chad never figured it out. Never figured it out. And we'd look at each other and I'd be like, Chad, what's going on here? Chad would say, I don't know what you're talking about. It's like every

day was the first time I had brought up that you need to bring the music up, not fade it away. Too many tasks. Keep it simple. Chad, he was good, but he had a blind spot there. A deaf spot, if you will, for the sound.

Okay, we're going to do some What We Learns from our side of the table. I think I'm going to start. I've been following this somewhat closely because I do inherently love what was the pack 10. It was then the pack 12. Now it's the pack.

Now it's the pack two. Well, it's still the pack 12, but there's only two teams. The pack two. Okay. Congratulations to the pack two, which is now the pack six. They added four teams today. Four schools. Sorry, I should say. They're bastions of education, not just sports entities.

Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, and Fresno State are now on their way to formerly the Pac-10, which became the Pac-12, and only has two teams, but soon we'll have six. Right. Yeah. College sports in general are a mess. And this is a bit of the nostalgia.

Like, I liked it the way that it was. I think this is like old man yelling at the clouds, but whatever. I liked when it was geographic. I like when kids went to school and they faked pretending like they liked going there, even though they were going to become professional athletes. to me everyone lied to me everyone understood the lie everyone understood the game everyone played it payers players were getting paid under the table every now and again sanctions would come down everyone understood and now it's all different with nils and all these weird conferences but uh for me it it's mostly, I liked the Pac-12

because they had games on late. I like basketball games that start at 8 p.m. I like football games that are on at 1 o'clock in the morning. It's just what I like. It's a thing that I like, and I don't apologize for it. I think it's weird that the Apple Cup is being played this weekend. It's too early in the season. It's at Lumen Fields. Which sucks. None of it's too early in the season it's it lumen fields which sucks

none of it's good yeah i don't and so this is so who are the four teams that are joining again boise state colorado state san diego state and fresno state now colorado state colorado state is one of the teams to watch this weekend yep because um it's a lot of rivalry games, Washington versus Washington State. It's also Colorado State versus Deion Sanders. I'm sorry, Coach Prime. Coach Prime. And the Colorado Buffaloes. And that story has already been boiling.

But when you boil some water and then it boils over? Too much boiling, you'd say. If Colorado State wins that game, and they are a seven-point underdog, but if they do win that game, it's going to get really ugly for Deion Sanders. And you know what's going to be really interesting? How his son, so it's Shador is the quarterback, right?

Correct. Do you think teams are going to, because he's supposed to be maybe a top 10 NFL draft pick next season. Do you think teams are going to look at him being the son of Deion Sanders as a positive or a negative? Great question. Another good one. A great one.

I think at the end of the day, they're going to say we're willing to take the risk. And the reason why is that, I don't know if you remember this or not, but for all of the crap that comes along with Deion Sanders, Deion Sanders was a Hall of Fame football player. Oh, an incredible athlete. So there's, and he knew how to handle his business. Like there was a lot of distractions. Is he a Hall of Fame con man though Oh, an incredible athlete. So there's, and he knew how to handle his business. Like there was a lot of distractions. Is he a Hall of Fame con man though?

Possibly as a coach. Or where's the line between hyping up and promoting a program and even coaching up kids versus conning them. You know what makes it so conflicting? Yeah. He's got a resume.

He was one of the greatest cornerbacks in NFL history. He was awesome. Con men often come in. He's a flim-flam guy. Now I sound like Don Taylor. Love a good flim-flam. Yeah, but if you dig a little deeper, you look behind the curtain, it's empty. It's just a bunch of lies.

There's nothing there. Right. Deion Sanders was elite, electrifying, did it all won superbowls um you know was the best defensive player on the planet at times so when he's talking about you know what he brings to the table it's you know just go look it up like google me you know that kind of thing so that's what makes it conflicting because a lot of what he says and what he does in the way that he acts is very much aligned with what a con man would do. I also think a lot of it is just your personal mindset. So some people just have, some people hear criticism and hear and think that's negativity. They think that all criticism or even curiosity is negativity.

Right. And they just want to block that out. And for some people, that's just the way they go through their life. It's kind of like the power of positive thinking, right? They don't have any time for any doubt or anything that could be even perceived as negativity. And I feel that between when I see a press conference of Deion Sanders, you know, some of the reporters, some of whom have been banned, by the way, from asking Deion Sanders questions, they're just doing what every reporter does and a lot of fans do where they're just kind of like wondering, you know, would it not be a fair

question to ask Deion Sanders, is the team as good as you want it to be? Right. They're coming off a loss to Nebraska. You know, Nebraska has been a disastrous program for a long time. Yeah. Deion Sanders came in with so much excitement

and he did so much good for the program, right? The Colorado program, nobody cared about it. It's a school, nevermind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For a school. They're enrolling us through the roof. Right, exactly. Exactly.

But it seems like if you ask him about, hey, you guys aren't very good. You're losing a lot of games. He sees that as just negativity as opposed to just, how are you going to turn this around? To be fair, and I just want to paint the full picture here,

we were supposed to have the reporter in question, Sean Keeler, from the Denver Post, on our show. We managed to track him down. The timing, unfortunately, was awful with the passing of Johnny and Matthew Goudreau, so we basically canceled all of our scheduled hits that day and focused the entire three hours on the Goudreau tragedy. One of the things I wanted to ask him was like the things that Keeler did that really drew the ire of the football

program and Deion Sanders were the nicknames that he gave him like deposition Deion the Bruce Lee of BS he called him yeah like he called him a false which is just it's tabloid writing and it comes some politicians I don't know if you've heard that

have started to have nicknames not in my lifetime rivaled politicians i refuse and it's almost caught on i think it started with one guy i can't remember what his name was but it's almost caught on with a number of other politicians so anyway but so so someone would say well that's part of the game like you you become a front-facing person you have to accept that some people are going to criticize you and some people are going to take it even a step further and do the tabloid writing that's part of the game and i have time for that argument it is right you put yourself out there and you're in the big spotlight you would you take the good and the bad and the otherwise with it the other part

of it is like yeah like that feels like a personal attack when someone's calling you the bruce lee of bs or a false prophet right And so it's an interesting- But to ban them from asking questions seems weak. It's not the way to do it. It just seems weak. But anyway- Like you're scared of them. So anyway, to put a bow on this one,

congrats to the Pac-6. And I guess apologies to the Mountain West, which is getting decimated by this. Mooka. Laddie, you have audio. I like it. Go. Yeah, it comes from two of my favorite broadcasters,

my favorite crew of the MLB teams that are out there, Dwayne Kiefer and Mike Kruko out in San Francisco. It was a nothing game. It was like 13 to something. There was a pitcher, a position player pitching on the mound. He struck a player out, and then they joked about how that player that struck out now owes his team an entire

case of beer, kind of like slow pitch. So let's listen in. He's got to buy everybody a case of beer. Got him. I didn't know that. When I retired, I got invited to go play in a slow pitch softball game. The guy in front of me struck out and everybody said he's got to buy the team a case of beer

i thought really there are so many rules about having to buy a case of beer in these softball games that at the end of the game there's like 20 cases i don't think that's the point. Okay, let's go over the ground rules. You can't leave first until you chug a beer. Any man scoring has to chug a beer. You have to chug a beer at the top of all unnumbered innings. Oh, and the fourth inning is the beer inning. Hey, we know how to play softball.

Well, that was pretty funny. You get conversations like that when the game's out of hand, so I like it. We know how to play softball. That's a good line. It's just Nick's used to play that clip, i've never played slow pitch softball you play don't you uh slow pitch is amazing i miss it i haven't played it for a few years but it was so much fun so how much of a unicorn is the strikeout i think it depends on the leagues the more serious leagues i think you see yeah a bit more but if you're if you're striking out on like more serious leagues

you see it more yeah because the pitchers are actually trying and trying funky spins and oh okay so you see it more i think if you're if you're striking out a recreational like co-ed league then you've got some bigger issues i think well you might just not be a baseball player right if you're playing in a recreational your hand i might not be all all there there is i never struck out in slow pitch but i did do some swings and misses and let me tell you that is jarring on the body a swing and a miss in slow pitch right i don't know i know exactly what you're talking about what it is but my feeling is like oh there's my core haven't felt it in a while but trying to just like because the bat just well the older you get the worse it is and then you hear and then you hear this is what you hear oh

that's a tough one or whoosh there's a spine you never struck out at slope laddy have you ever struck out i don't even i struck out on like because a foul ball is a strike right and i i had a lot of them down the line. So I've struck out on a foul. Your pull hitter? That doesn't count as the case of beer though. Someone just texted in, we've got a spot on our team for you

anytime you want to play softball. If you strike out, you have to do a shoe brew, which I believe is where you put the beer in the baseball cleat and then drink at it. Right. Sounds awful. So, mook out that. That's all I drank on my new one. That's a normal drink. I then drink at it. Right. Sounds awful. So, mook out that. That's how I drink them anyway.

That's a normal drink. Ah, I forgot my cup again. Yeah. Well, shoe it is. A-Dog. Okay, we got to go though. We got to go. You got to go fast.

We got a lot of what we learned. It's fine. Go to the listeners. Okay, skipping you. Let's print out the submissions into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Do we have any nonsense here? We're having a fire! Well, A-Dogs was about the Slappy Bird movie, by the way.

I'll leave it at that. Slappy? Did you call it Slappy Bird? Yeah, Slappy Bird. No, it wasn't about a movie. It's not a movie. The game is coming back to mobile. Remember Flappy Bird, Bruff?

Flappy Bird! I know Bruff loved Flappy Bird. There's a great PBS documentary on it. It's very highbrow. You didn't enjoy it. Slappy Bird? I honestly a great PBS documentary on it. It's very highbrow. You didn't enjoy it. I honestly have no idea what it is. It was this really popular mobile phone game like 10 years ago. Made by one

guy and it made him $10,000 a day and it got too much for him so he just pulled it off the market and people were freaking out. He said his quote was like, this is too much for me. I can't do this anymore. Too much what? too much money. He said his quote was like, this is too much for me. I can't do this anymore. And he pulled the... This game is ruining my life.

Too much what? It's too much stress. Work. Because he was doing it by himself and it was being... Why didn't you hire someone? Well, he just decided to pull the game instead.

And it was like this big sort of controversy like a decade ago. Anyways, the game's coming back and everyone's excited about it. And by everyone, I mean me. I was just going to say, everyone's doing a lot of work

the game consists of tapping one finger on the screen and just keeping the bird in the air that's essentially all there is to it that's how the bird does the slap society is catapulting into the future my plop okay you go first plop hey plop plop poor plop i wanted to read this first because plop is feeling bad about himself. Oh. I don't know. Maybe it's your name. Could be.

What we learn. My what we learns must really suck because even when you ask for them out of desperation, mine still don't get read. We've read a lot of Plops before. Yeah. There's been tons of Plop on the show. We've done Plops. Too much Plops. Can you imagine sitting down with him and just giving him a bit of a pep talk? Like, plop, you're too hard on yourself.

Take a load off. Plop is sad. Mike from Hammond, hashtag WWO, what we learned. Pod Colson is apparently a middle six forward that can kill penalties on the Oilers. And Day Harnais is a top pair defenseman on the Canucks, as per Edmonton Oilers media. You know what? I like Jason Greger's very, very thorough scouting report, diligent, if you will, on Vincent Desjardins. I got the feeling he didn't know much about Bob Coles.

And you quickly brought him down to earth on that one. Yeah, I was like, yeah, he's fine away from the puck. It's when he does have the puck that is a problem. What do you call it when you're really conservative? Like uber conservative. He played hockey like a municipal bond. Yeah.

Slow and steady. Kicking off 3% every year. He played hockey like he was trying to make it great again? Yeah. No. No, he didn't.

He's super conservative? Not that conservative. I don't even know what conservative means anymore when it comes to politics. Is it United? In my day, conservatives wanted free trade. Yeah.

Now they want all these tariffs. I don't even know what's going on anymore. I like the Trojan horse thing of just changing your name. That's pretty great. Yeah. It's like, what am I voting for? Conservatives. But you guys are liberal?

No, we're United. We're a soccer club now. Nick. Nick on the drive. I love how these people can, all these politicians can have all the debates they want in the world and they can put out all the policies they want and they can have interviews. And at the end of the day, especially in BC, it's, what's the name of your party? You're calling yourselves what? Yeah.

Wait a minute. Libs? I'm supposed to own the Libs. I can't vote for them. That's why we changed our name. And I was like, well, actually, it's liberal in the classical sense. What? Yeah.

If you have to explain what your name means. Nobody cares about policy. Everyone cares about the name. Just get the name right. If you have to explain what your name means, it's not a good name. Okay, let's go on to, let's get off this topic. Superintendent Steve, what we learned, Shannon Sharp

needs to learn to turn off his Instagram live. So, Shannon Sharp, um, can you tell the story? Why, what happened? So, he had to apologize yesterday because he was having sexual relations and it went live on

his Instagram. Oh, it just happened to go live. I don't know how. What a mistake. I don't know why. He said, obviously, I'm embarrassed. Someone that is extremely, or something that is extremely, extremely private is now out there for the entire world to hear.

He blamed it on an intern at first. Didn't really go into a deep dive as to how the intern turned on his Instagram live while he was having sex. No, he blamed. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You got this wrong. I do? Yeah.

So the intern, according to Shannon Sharp, put out on social media that his phone had been hacked. Oh. So everyone was like like you know how the immediate reaction to anything embarrassing that happens to you on social media is like i've been hacked he's saying he's saying that the intern wrote on his social media that he had been hacked but then shannon sharp i mean either he's throwing the intern under the bus i don't even know if he has an intern but basically he's saying like yep you're right that was me i threw

my phone on the table or whatever i said i threw my phone on the bed engaged in an activity i did not know ig was live i've never turned on ig live so i don't know how it works and all of a sudden my other phone started going off right so the intern was blamed for trying to cover up exactly not turning on ig live got it yeah now i want to know if he actually has an intern there's so much to this story was the intern in the room at the time because that is i mean honestly that's a committed intern on okay we're gonna move along i. I was going to go there. On the subject of...

I really don't think this is appropriate, sir. Mr. Sharp. On the subject... Say I was hacked. There was a lot of heavy breathing. On the subject of former NFL players, Nick on the drive, hashtag WWL, what we learned,

Adrian Peterson is the latest athlete to go broke, burning over $100 million he made as a player debt collectors are taking his house all day i don't know what all day means like you just take it once anyway um yeah it's not something i mean we laugh at everything so we'll probably find a way to make a cheap joke at this expense, but he blew all his money on those switches. Yeah. There's one rough. Didn't take any time.

What's all whatsoever to make the joke. Google it. I can't even. So it's crazy. Like where he's at now in his financial ruin is they're talking about the loans that he's taken. The high interest loans he took out to pay off previous loans. Like they can't even explain what the original loans were for.

He's just gone to lender after lender to pay off previous loans. I don't know where this all started. But yeah, he's in the process of all of his worldly goods being either repossessed or put up for auction because he has no money left. Someone texted in and said Alde was his nickname. Oh, right. Of course. Yeah, of course. I learned yesterday that Unk is

Shannon Sharpe's nickname. Yeah, it's a good one. Yeah, yeah. Tyler noting in the inbox when Brough doesn't want to tell a story but Halford also doesn't want to tell it, Halford just starts with errors, so Brough has to take over. 40 checks. Well, just littered with errors. But he did that on purpose to make you tell a story. Yeah, it's a bit of take over. 40 checks. We're just littered with errors. But he did that on purpose to make you tell us.

It's a bit of a game that we play. He utilized his incompetence there a little bit. Halford's like, and then I think the intern was having sex with a phone or something like that. I'm like, okay, I've got to take this over. Yeah, it works. It works. Chet, the carpet manipulator in Burnaby. We might need to ban this name, by the way. I've had several people reach out.

What? This might be a Shannon Sharp type thing. We don't know. But anyway. I like it anyway. Okay. What we learned, the cost to watch the white versus blue

Canucks scrimmage game in Penticton is going to be 32 bucks a ticket. That seems steep. Yeah. It does, but you're getting to see, you're getting to see all the guys on the Canucks, right? I mean, that's the training camp. I always think these things are tough because you get the people like,

well, that's the market. It is the market. Take an econ 101 class, but also there's such a thing as, you know, creating goodwill among the fan base and you're going to Penticton and maybe give the people there something for it. A buddy of mine went down to San Francisco in the summer

and wanted to go to 49ers training camp and didn't realize that you had to buy the tickets way in advance. Oh, really? He showed up thinking you could buy him the day of. No, completely sold out. Is the most annoying reply that you can ever get

when something like this gets from the 19 year old kid that's taking a first year economics class in university is like, oh, it's called supply and demand. I say that every day. And we're going to end on that. It's called supply and demand. Look it up. And we're going to end on that note.

That very annoying 19 year old sends us for another show uh we gotta get out of here it's been fun thank you all for joining us signing off i have been mike alfred he's been jason ruff he's been adog he's been laddie this has been the alfred show on sportsnet 650 gregor and pound do you say welcome to pound town not on radio