Halford & Brough in the Morning - It Was An Impressive Canucks Training Camp

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00) including the highlights of Canucks training camp (6:00), they speak with former NHL head coach Dave Hakstol, plus they talk the undefeated Seattle Seahawks (40:48). 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.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d And he looks for running room. And he pops it outside. Nearside. Down to the one. He's in. Touchdown, Seahawks. Carter Yakuchuk. Through center. Got moved to the inside. What a move. To the net. Scores. A brilliant goal by the Senators rookie defenseman.

I love joints. It's great. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Monday Happy Monday everybody It is Halford It is Brough It is Sportsnet 650 We are coming to you live

From the Kintex Studios In beautiful Fairview Slopes In Vancouver Jason good morning Good morning Michael Adog good morning to you Good morning And Laddy good morning

To you as well Hello hello Halford and Brough Good morning Brought to you by The Dilawri family Of Honda dealers Experience the Dilawri Difference today By to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri

difference today by visiting your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer. Today, we are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. It is a Monday. We are back.

It is another exciting week of sports on the horizon. It was a big weekend in the world of sports as well. Canucks training camp, that's in the books. I wrapped it up yesterday. Preseason starts tomorrow. A-Dog came in here bright and early. All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And he was so excited for the start of the preseason.

Because it's the first step for Jonathan Lekaromacki and his Calder Trophy winning season, A-Dog. Well, it was Rocket Richard Trophy winning season. Well, and the Hart Trophy. Maybe the Vesna. This is the start of it all. So they'll probably play Wednesday,

right? In Abbotsford? I would imagine. If that's where Petey's going to play. Petey and Hughes are going to be playing in Abbotsford on Wednesday

and Besser and Miller are going to be playing Tuesday at Rogers Arena, I think. You got the same email as I did. The Canucks are marketing which individual stars are

going to be playing in which exhibition games yeah i think that's less marketing and more damage control concerning what happened i think it was last year when people went out to abbotsford and they're like uh nobody's here right so we've got exhibition action this week uh a reminder four of the six uh pre-season games will be televised. All of them, though, all six will be heard right here on Sportsnet 650. Brendan Batchelor and Randy Bjanda with the call. As for today's show,

what's happening, you might ask. First guest at 630. Very befitting because a couple preseason games against the Seattle Kraken, former Seattle Kraken head coach Dave Haxtall is going to join the program. We'll talk to Dave about his time in Seattle, what went wrong

in Seattle. We'll also talk to him about the relatively short shelf life that NHL coaches have these days and how acutely aware they have to be of it. He had three and a half years in Philly before he got fired. He had three years in Seattle before he was dismissed there.

So Dave Haxtall at 630, 7 o'clock. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone. We're going to talk to Mike. I want to talk to Mike about the NFC. It's very topsy-turvy in the NFC right now. Just another crazy week in the NFL. This has been, I think, the least predictable first three weeks of the NFL season that I can remember.

If you had told me that maybe the two best teams, and record-wise or whatever, in the NFC at this stage would be the Seattle Seahawks and the Minnesota Vikings, and they would have significant leads over teams like the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, I would have told you you were crazy. Do you think Bryce Young was watching Andy Dalton rip it up for the carolina panthers and

going oh god i gotta learn i know i know i know i should uh i know i should be cheering for my teammate here but this does not look right he was like i'm gonna have to learn how to speak canadian this is terrible no good so he's gonna my tenure's gonna join us at seven o'clock uh to talk all things nfl 7 30 uh this is one that you stick-handled. I'm very curious to get him on the program. Kyle Turris, longtime NHLer. He was sort of working in NHL circles, and now he's at the North Shore Winter Club.

He's the new hockey director of the North Shore Winter Club, and he's trying to put together a new program for high-performance hockey. But I thought it would be interesting to bring on Kyle just to talk about the state of minor hockey in British Columbia. I know a lot of parents will be interested in this one because it's pretty confusing out there.

Yeah, I can imagine. And I actually went and saw Kyle present on this program just out of interest for this interview. And he talks a lot about his minor hockey experience on this program just out of interest for this interview. And, you know, he talks a lot about his minor hockey experience and how things have changed since then.

So really interested and looking forward to chatting with Kyle at 7.30. Very cool. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley from NHL.com

and InGoal Magazine is going to join us. Kevin, we'll talk about another Kevin. The newest Vancouver Canuck, Kevin Lankanen signed over the weekend in case you missed it.

A little goalie reinforcements for the Canucks. They held firm on their offer. Kevin, the newest Vancouver Canuck, Kevin Lankanen, signed over the weekend in case you missed it. A little goalie reinforcements for the Canucks. They held firm on their offer. They weren't going to break the $900,000 threshold for Kevin Lankanen. So Kevin Lankanen, the newest member, of course. Would you consider him a journeyman goalie? Is he too young to be a journeyman? Not yet. Okay.

Well-traveled? Does that work? Anyway, Kevin Lankanen is the newest member of the Vancouver Canucks. Kevin Woodley will break down his game. He's an insurance salesman, too, per free. There you go. Kevin Woodley at 8. Kyle Turris at 7.30.

Mike Tanier at 7.00. Dave Haxtall at 6.30. What a show. What a guest list. We also got a lot to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened?

What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The Vancouver Canucks wrapped up their five-day Penticton vacation excursion, if you will, on Sunday afternoon with the good old blue-white

inter-squad scrimmage at the South Okanagan Events Center. Team Blue beat Team White 2-1. Blue, they wanted it more. They were the more desperate color, and they showed that on Sunday. I will go through this as quickly as possible because I'm talking about an inter-squad scrimmage. Mark Friedman scored the opener.

Connor Garland made it 2-0 for Blue. Carson Soucy cut that lead to 2-1 for White. That was the game. Game over. Scrimmage over. Penticton over. They left shortly thereafter, and they are now back in the lower mainland ready to begin preseason action

this week. How did special teams look? I didn't get that deep into it. Artie Silovs looked really good in net apparently. I think the penalty killing looked good in a 2-1 game. Was the fourth line deployment satisfactory? I don't even know if there were fourth lines. There were lines. It took a while to track them down

yesterday, but because we are so dedicated to our craft we did it um so let's just kind of run through not necessarily what happened in penticton because i think we've established that training camp was a success everyone was happy with it but at the same time everyone was more than happy to get going and get started on the preseason well yeah and the preseason starts tuesday and hopefully it starts better than it did last season when the Canucks went to Calgary and lost 10-0. Although that was a good wake-up call. You know what? It set the tone. I don't know what the tone was, but it set it. It was a good wake-up call. Well, let's get into the big news of yesterday, and this was the story that hung over the entire Canucks training camp, despite Rick Tockett

wanting to make about a new attacking mindset, you know, rush chances, et cetera. You heard a lot of that. Small area battles, and you're like, what about the goalies? What about the goaltending? The Canucks did sign Kevin Lankanen, who they were poking around, and they finally poked the right place, I guess.

They got him to sign a one-year deal worth $875,000. So on the one hand, it's great that the Canucks got this deal done. Winning the game of chicken, they played with Lankanen and his agent and getting him to sign for less than $900,000. I'm sure Lankanen was hoping for more, but the Canucks held firm and Lankanen eventually, I suppose, looked at this and said, I'm out of options, so I'm going to sign this contract. Now we'll see if the Canucks will be able to stay out of LTIR with this signing.

I was reading an article that Drance wrote for The Athletic, and he said that the team still believes they can, but it is getting pretty tight. And at the same time, when you say, yeah, it's great that the team still believes they can, but it is getting pretty tight. And at the same time, when you say, yeah, it's great that the Canucks were able to get this done and good work by the Canucks management group to get Lankanen signed, add some more insurance, considered a pretty solid goaltender and got him on a good deal.

So that's all good, but it kind of makes the Demko situation seem a lot more real. I'm glad I saw your notes and I saw the way that you were. I knew it was real. Yeah, I knew it was real, but when they did dig at it, they're like,

Oh, well, they really are worried about this. That's exactly. Okay. I'm glad you put it that way. That's exactly how I felt. I was like,

Oh man, now, you know that they're going to start the season with this. I guess it's going to be this three headed goalie monster. I don't know if they're going to carry three. You said you doubt that they're going to start the season with this. I guess it's going to be this three-headed goalie monster. I don't know if they're going to carry three. You said you doubt that they carry three. I don't think they can afford to. I don't think they can afford to carry three.

So I think Yuri Patera is probably the odd man out. He'll end up on waivers. Will he get picked up? I don't know. Drance also wrote that he thought that Patera struggled at training camp. Now, I'm not going to sit there and judge goaltending too much at training camp. I know they were doing a lot of odd man rushes. Yeah, a lot of three-on-ones.

Yeah. Those are tough. They're going like, you've got to be better on that. Yeah, it's like a backdoor tap-in. Yeah, you've got to get there. You've got to get there. That's why we work on our pushes. Right, Relay?

Got to get stronger. Yeah, you work on your pushes as a goalie. Well, let's go into pre-season storylines right now and i think the goaltending is going to be one of them obviously um you know i i think the canucks right now if you were to look at how they're going to start the season it's going to be silabs is going to be the starter lankanen's going to be the backup and they're going to have some guys down in the ahl. Is there a chance that the Canucks could lose Patera on waivers? I suppose there is. He's waiver eligible. So we'll see on that. But you know, the most important thing for me is like getting the guys who are going to start in Vancouver ready to roll. Seelov's, by the way, if there's any good news on the injury front, Silov said Saturday he has been 100% for about a week,

hasn't been bothered at all by his knee through the first three days of training camp. Well, and everyone in attendance on Sunday said that Silov's was exceptionally good. Right. Talk had said it afterwards. I know all the pundits that were up there were writing about how good that he looked. So that's a very positive sign. But remember, he withdrew from Latvia's Olympic qualifying games back in August because he had a... Remember the coach came out and he said, he needs rest.

Yeah. So they rested him. They were like, oh my God, this guy is falling. Demko's hurt. Now Silov's is hurt. His ligaments were inflamed. Yes. Yeah.

So it's going to be silavs and lankanen to start the season so i think things are looking pretty good with silavs but i i would question how much time lankanen's going to need and how much they're going to need to play him during the preseason to get him up to speed just on uh you know hasn't been playing yeah because he just signed a contract and um he's got to get used to his new teammates. Yeah, it would have been nice to have him in earlier, obviously. But I guess the delicate dance at his contract negotiations had to go down. By the way, additional note, a small one.

But Dylan Ferguson, who was brought into camp on a PTO to fill the goalie spot, he was released from his PTO shortly after the scrimmage on Sunday. The Canucks cut their roster by 17. They sent a bunch of people back to junior and then to Abbotsford as well. And Ferguson was probably the most notable of them, largely because he's a local kid. He had a handful of games at the NHL level and he was brought in to

fill the gaps at goalie. But it seemed like the script was always going to follow that they were just going to wait and wait until Lankanen was ready to sign. Well, he was there until unless Lankanen didn't. Right. That's kind of how that went. Yeah. So even then he was probably going to be and wait until Lankanen was ready to sign. Well, he was there until unless Lankanen didn't sign. Right. That's kind of how that went. Yeah. So... And even then he was probably going to be released. He was there for... to be a body of training camp.

And he did a great job as a body. Yep. One of the best bodies we saw up there. The lines from the scrimmage yesterday. We can run through a few of these. Dan Heinen gets the plum, the cherry position skating alongside JT Miller and Brock Besser as the winger on that line,

which I'm kind of intrigued by. I think Heinen is in a good situation here. Not that he wasn't in his previous stops, like in Pittsburgh and Boston. Very good teams with very good players to play with. But it feels like there's that opportunity to ride shotgun alongside Miller and Besser

on that line if he can step up and take it because it is a vacancy you understand as a duo that Miller and Besser are going to play together that's pretty much set and I think Heinen's a really good fit there I do too he's got the speed um that maybe Besser doesn't have uh not maybe he doesn't have it right um and he's really smart defensively and this is going to be their number one matchup line so i mean miller besser and heinan um you know i'm not going to sit there and say that heinan's for sure going to stay there for the rest of the season but i think on paper it really makes sense um the other one uh that i think people are going to be really interested in

especially a dog it sounds like petterson debrusk and lecker mackie are going to be really interested in, especially Adog. It sounds like Pedersen, DeBrusque, and Lekker-Mackie are going to get a shot. Yeah. And probably Wednesday in Abbotsford versus Calgary. So assuming that the Lions stay together based on training camp, and we all know that the Canucks want to give Lekker-Mackie and on a shot, it's kind of like,

all right, this is yours to lose. So show us what you got. And you know, if you have a can't, or if you have a preseason, remember like pod Colson did last year, which was very disappointing, then, you know, we'll look at different alternatives, but we're giving you this opportunity right now because we want you to be successful. I'm here for it man honestly i was a little skeptical at first and i thought it might have been a bridge too far when going all the way back to young stars and i i did notice that there was a concerted effort from a lot of different

people in the organization to talk up leckermacky and i was like okay you know it's good he had a very successful uh 2023 2024 campaign and maybe they just want to do this like a make good project like yes the prospect is coming along as we thought but now i look at i'm like it's almost like why not like why not give him a real shot at this why not get the highest ceiling of all the guys right yeah and why not see if he can rise to the level i mean well at the same time let's be careful here no but there's no unrealistic expectations and why not give it a shot? If it doesn't work, I don't think you really lose anything. You just say, okay, you're not ready for it

yet. Fair enough. If it does work, all of a sudden you're in kind of found money territory because I'm not going to lie, when July 2nd came around and the Canucks have made all their deals on July 1st, Lekker-McCue being in the opening night lineup was the farthest thing from my mind.

You talked about all the wingers that they brought in, all the guys that were going to be able to play. You didn't think that he was anything more than a guy that was going to go to Abbotsford next year or this year. Yeah, and I think when you look at the other options to play with Pettersson and DeBrus, you're kind of like, well,

maybe it could be Daniel Sprong, but here's a guy that's bounced around the league and a lot of coaches don't seem to trust him defensively maybe it'd be Nils Hoaglander but you know he had a great season last season uh didn't do much in the playoffs and maybe he's better on the fourth line maybe that's that's ideally what he is he's a fourth line player playing with a guy like Sherwood. Is Nils Hoeglander good enough to be, if the Canucks have title aspirations, and if they want to do better than the second round last season,

they might as well go for a Stanley Cup. If you can get into the Final Four, you might as well go for it, right? Let's do it. So throw that out there. You know, let's see what the high-end top prospect can do for them. He's a first-round pick. He's coming off a terrific season.

Let's see if we can carry on that momentum. Speaking of Hoaglander, he skated throughout the week up in Penticton on a line with Atu Ratu as his center and Conor Garland is winger. Oh, that's right. I should have mentioned that.

That's, that's, that's on me. That's not, well, you know, that's not the fourth line where you like that. He's been really good replacing Dakota Joshua. Yeah. With Ratu and Garland and Rick Talkett has said that that was the best line at training camp. Yeah.

So maybe that's the temporary fit for him. So what do you think has happened? Do you think that that is, Ratu is the placeholder for Bluger, and then Hoaglander would be the Joshua replacement? Possibly, but you never know. If they like this line, maybe they keep it together, and maybe Joshua goes up the lineup.

I don't think that, i think that rick talker probably thinks that we're going to keep joshua and garland together but um yeah that's a good question i mean it is complicated right now with some of the injuries that they have out there but it's kind of crazy if you think about it because like say they keep the third line together and then so what you got like sherwood suitor and uh who's the fourth line together, and then you've got Sherwood, Suter, and who's the other fourth line guy? You just said there's Sherwood, Suter, and Hoaglander together. And then say LeKarimaki makes it. Then you've got LeKarimaki, Pedersen, and DeBrus together.

And then you've got Besser, Miller, and Heinen together. That's that insane depth we were talking about. That is absolutely absurd. You're telling me your fourth line is like Sherwood, Suter, and like that's like, and Hoaglander? Like that's ridiculous. And Nils Zeman is like, what about me? What do I do? What do I gotta do?

You gotta admit, like that's really impressive. If that actually works out that way. There's still a long way to go. We haven't even played a preseason game yet. Let's see how all these guys look. I'm just saying if the Lank and the Lakeramackie thing actually happens like which everyone's gonna stay healthy too of course of course well the two guys two guys i'm very interested by right now are uh lakeramaki obviously i'm kind of interested to see what they do

with ratu to be honest because if he's centering a line that talk had said was probably their best or the one that he was most impressed with during training camp. It means something. I don't know what, but it means that he was making things happen. And I have noticed, if you want to follow the narrative arcs, the one on Ratu that we've heard from a lot of different people was, don't forget about me. I was a guy that

was a key part of that Horvat trade, and I wasn't just a throw-in. I was a return. He played NHL games. I think they had high expectations for him with the Islanders that never necessarily panned out. And last year, he was a guy that kind of got forgotten about because his play in Abbotsford didn't exactly jump to the forefront. Text in to the Dumbbell Lumber text line, 650-650.

Slow down. No chance Lekker or Mackey makes the team. The history of management is to let prospects cook in the minors. You guys fall for the hype of prospects every year. Number one, it has been the management and the coaching staff that has been hyping up Lekker-Mackie. And number two, the Penguins, even though they do have a history back then of letting these guys develop down in Wilkes-Barre,

they gave Daniel Sprong this opportunity really early on. Yep, that's the one that keeps jumping out to me. There are similarities. If Le Caramac doesn't make it, you slot in Sprong there, and every other line I just listed would still stay the same. And it's still in the same depth. Okay, but... I love your optimism.

No, but really, right? Yeah, but then is Sprong the right guy? Well, we don't know. I'm just saying that's what you... Sprong feels like he's the right guy? Well, we don't know. I'm just saying like that's what you... He feels like he's the right guy. That's the only choice. You can't put him on the bottom six. Like Sprong isn't a bottom six guy.

He doesn't play defense. So Sprong is either in your top six or he's probably not playing. He feels like the temporary fit everywhere he goes. He's not the guy you want to invest in long term, but in the short term, like he was in Detroit, like he was with Seattle and everywhere else. Yeah, like he's got to be on that second line. I don't think it would be fair to say

that Sprung wouldn't be a good fit because of his lack of defensive responsibility when we're willing to put a rookie that hasn't played much in North America in that same role, even if his ceiling might be higher. We don't know what Lekker Mackey's like defensively. We want to see what it's like. There's a lot of projection going on right now. All we really said was, and I said it

specifically, I'm here for trying it. Yeah, I'm here. Yeah. Like, I mean, let's put it this way. Training camp at the preseason can be a very rote exercise. It can be pretty dry and it can be pretty boring. So to have something to glom onto, even if it's not necessarily going to pan out. And let's be honest, the chances of it happening are probably pretty slim, but there's a chance. They're making the chance happen. They're going to try this out, and it's a good thing. Matt Texan, I'm going to assume the lack of chat about the defense is a good sign. Well, let's chat a bit about the defense because Hughes and Hronik have not been playing together. They haven't been in the same groups at training camp,

and they were on different teams in the scrimmage. Hughes was with Juleson. Juleson, my favorite pair. Juleson. We've seen before. And DPD was with Philip Hronik. And I think this is a case of, especially with DPD, throw him with a veteran and see if he can survive um

i i really keep wondering um i i realize that going back to hughes and haronic as a pair together is the safety blanket and they're a terrific pair together and that's always the thing that you can do if you need to or if you want to um but based on what the Canucks have been saying all season or all off season about wanting to have more of an attacking mentality and wanting the defense to get up the ice more and Rick Toged has said and not just Quinn Hughes right like I just really wonder if they want Hronik on another pair. Ideally, do they want that? Now, I don't know if it's going to be with DPD.

I don't know who it's going to be with. But last year, they really tried to make Hughes and Cole McWard a thing. And it's like with Lekar Mackey, right? They tried it. They gave it a shot. They realized, okay, this McWard kid isn't ready. So they sent him down to the AHL. And right at the end, they were like, all right, fine.

We'll put Hughes and Hronik together, right? And that might happen. And it worked great. And that might happen this season. But I really think they want to spread out their attacking mentality on the blue line because you know basically last season you had this hughes and heronic pairing which was super dynamic but then you ended up having a really expensive defenseman in heronic playing a fairly deferential role as opposed to being like the alpha on the pair the guy who's going to go up and attack and let someone else be the deferential stay at home guy so um we'll see how that uh that pans out i don't know if dpd has a legit shot and making

this team maybe he does um but you know you got a lot of bodies back there you got you gotta you know there is uh susie and day or, and they're going to make the team. They skated together as a pair. Yeah, and Myers is going to make the team. He was with Kudratsev. I don't even know if that's pronounced right. That was really good. It might have been.

Kudratsev. Yeah. And then Derek Forbort. My son is also named Forbort. He was with Mark Freeman, who had a really good training camp scored yesterday he scored yesterday freeman's like remember me i'm here eighth defenseman mark freeman but but like so the whole thing with the canucks and trying to stay out of ltir too is are they going to keep eight defensemen or are they going to keep seven defensemen so at any rate

all these questions are kind of out there right now. We haven't even started the preseason. And as we all know, as the preseason progresses, the questions start to fall away. You're like, okay, well, that guy's gone. This guy's gone. These two are playing together. And then before you know it,

we'll be at the first game of the regular season. Okay. Before we go to break, I should have mentioned this right off the top, but I didn't. We have giveaways every day this week to Monster Jam. That's Monster Trucks. There's no actual monsters there.

It is going to be this Saturday at the Pacific Coliseum. All your favorite trucks will be there. Gravedigger, Megalodon, El Toro Loco. There's no monsters or jam at Monster Jam? No, no preserves. Will Truckasaurus be there? Truckasaurus will not be there. Gravedigger, Megalodon, El Toro Loco. There's no monsters or jam? No. Monster jam? No. No preserves.

Will Truckasaurus be there? Truckasaurus will not be there. Unfortunately, he's taking the week off. Will F-150 be there? I don't even know what that is. Oh, God. No, no, no. Come on. We all know that these are for real monster trucks, not F-150s.

Earthshaker will be there. I've got the lineup. That truck is a monster. Mohawk Warrior brought to yous. Earth Shaker will be there. I've got the lineup. That truck is a monster. Mohawk Warrior brought to you by Great Clips will also be there. So if you want to see all of these trucks do their thing on Saturday, send what we learned. We're giving away a four-pack of tickets every day this week. Hashtag it WWL.

Put a ticket emoji into your text. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. If you want to see tickets to Monster Jam on Saturday at the Pacific Coliseum, send it what we learned. Make it good. Remember, it's not a draw. It's a contest. Your content has to be good.

Coming up on the other side of the break, I'm making a decision. You know what we're going to do? We're going to talk to Dave Haxtall, former head coach of the Seattle Kraken, who the Canucks are going to be playing this week in preseason action. We're going to make it an all-Seattle half hour, because after that, we're going to talk about the Seahawks, who are 3-0, have

a two-game lead atop the NFC West, and are they on their way to the Super Bowl? Probably not, but there was a very good game on the weekend against the Miami Dolphins, although there were some problems with it. We got a lot to get into, so we're going to talk to Dave Axtell next.

We're going to do Seahawks and NFL after that. We got a lot to get into. It was a very busy weekend. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 633 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Ruff, Sportsnet 650. Halford Ruff 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, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they'll pay you the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We mentioned that the Vancouver Canucks will begin their preseason slate this week. Tomorrow night, as a matter of fact, against the Seattle Kraken. So very befitting now that we bring to the show matter of fact, against the Seattle Kraken. So, very befitting now that we bring to the show the former head coach of the Seattle Kraken. He joins us now on the Halford & Brough

show on Sportsnet 650, Dave Haxtell. Good morning, Dave. How are you? I'm good. How are you guys this morning? We are good. Thanks for taking the time

to do this. We appreciate it. Before we get into all the hockey stuff, just curious, what have you been up to lately? What's going on in Dave Haxtell's world now that you've had a little bit of time off? Yeah, it's a little bit of a different approach at this time of year for me.

So, you know, it's much like anybody else, tried to get a lot of really good family time in. I'll have a little bit of extra time to do that throughout the fall. I'm going to take full advantage of that with our kids and my wife. That's going to be a nice thing to be able to do. Also, obviously, the start of the NHL season with camps getting going, it's going to be, as I said, a little different perspective.

Watch it from a little bit different viewpoint and watch as things grow and develop here in the new year. Now that you've had some time to sit and reflect, how do you look back on your time in Seattle? We, we, we grew and set a, you know, a real good foundation there. I haven't talked a whole lot about it, you guys. So I probably won't get into it too deeply today,

but it's a great organization there. They've got a ton of very, you know, very good things going. You're going to see more and more young players come in and be added to the veteran roster. So it's an outstanding situation there in Seattle. It's going to continue to grow and be a great franchise in the National Hockey League. You spent a long time at North Dakota

as the head coach of a top hockey program. Then you went to the NHL. You spent time with the Flyers and Seattle. Just how different is the mentality of being a head coach in the NHL compared to college when you can be a long-tenured head coach? There aren't many long tenured head coaches uh in the nhl guys like john cooper are are the exception um how different is that as a head coach and how much harder does it make make it yeah the two landscapes obviously are very

different uh you know if you really if you if you step back and take a look right now at the college landscape, it's really changing as well, just with the player movement, with, you know, the different financial things that are coming into college sports, sports with NIL money. So it is, you know, it's a real changing landscape in the college game. That being said, you know, it's said, you're really focused on two things. You're focused on the success of your program and winning.

You're also focused on the development of your players. It's in a little different atmosphere where you're playing 40 to 50 games a year rather than playing the 82-game schedule and the grind of the National Hockey League. So it's just, it's a very different approach on a weekly basis in terms of, you know, how you grow, develop your team, how you react to positive nights, negative nights, you know, how you help individuals grow. So the two are a little bit different there.

That being said, it's still hockey. There's still, you know, there's still a ton of similarities, you know, between the two games. Why do you think there is so much turnover in the NHL? Well, honestly, I haven't spent a whole lot of time looking back and, you know, and analyzing that. That's, you know, it's been a real, it's been a rugged stretch Honestly, I haven't spent a whole lot of time looking back and analyzing that. It's been a rugged stretch in terms of head coaches in the National Hockey League.

I believe when I was fired, I think I was the 19th coach in approximately 12 months to be changed out. But those are the pressures and that's the stress and the expectation that's put on winning in the National Hockey League. You know, when you look at everybody starting training camp today, the vast majority of the teams, there's you know, there's there's, you know, probably two, three teams that are looking, you know, really closely at their development and the advancements they're going to make. But the vast majority of teams are looking to be playoff teams. And it's really hard to be a playoff team in the National Hockey League on a consistent basis. So those are, you know, those are the those are the things that you look at and, you know, that you look forward to as a head coach in the National Hockey League. And those are, you know, those are going to be the standards that you're expected to strive for. So, you know, it's one of the areas where a change can be made

and it can, you know, it can change the message, change the style of play. You know, you can change one individual person and there's not very many other areas in the organization that you're able to do that in order to create change. Where can a coach have the biggest impact on a team? We saw Rick Talkett come in, well, not last season, but last season was his first full season

and he had a dramatic impact on how the team played in terms of the style, how they carried themselves. And ultimately the most important thing was he turned a losing team, uh, into a winning team. Yeah, I think it depends on,

uh, several different factors. Uh, obviously it depends on the individual coach himself and what, you know, what his approach is going to be, what his strengths are. You know, obviously, Todd came in and immediately created a very competitive atmosphere and environment. And that carried through from day one all the way into, you know, last year's full year and the competitiveness, which grew into the confidence of his team.

So it really depends, I believe, on the strengths of the coach, whether it's detail, whether it's competitiveness, whether it's confidence, whatever those strengths are. Ultimately, what you're trying to do is you're trying to lead your team to become a confident, in this league, resilient, competitive team. So the personality of the individual involved and also where is the team at? Is the team ready to take those steps? Is the team ready to take a step with the personnel that are there, that the leadership is there.

All of those things also have to mesh with how the individual coach is going to come in and approach it. How do you teach resilience? I don't believe you just teach resilience. I think that's the end product of many days of consistent work. But this league is a league that requires resilience. A lot of people talk about confidence. You can use a lot of different words, but those attributes,

those are the culmination of many days of work and finding a togetherness that brings you to, you know, to that point. And it's obvious, you know, when your team has resilience, you know, when they have confidence, you know, when they have swagger. And those are things that that are required to get through an 82 game schedule, minimize the negative stretches, maximize the positive stretches, and end up being in a spot at the end of the year to compete for a playoff spot. We're speaking to former Seattle Kraken head coach Dave Haxtall here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Dave, I did want to ask one thing about Seattle, not necessarily about the team or what happened on the ice,

but the market in terms of being an expansion team and being a sort of non-traditional hockey market. You coached at North Dakota, probably the best hockey market in the American collegiate landscape. Then it was Philadelphia and then it was Toronto. I don't think I need to extol the virtues of those markets. Then there's Seattle. What was that experience like? Was it challenging from the off-ice perspective of being in a new market where maybe fans weren't as familiar with the game

as some of your previous stops? Yeah, it was awesome, you guys. You know, the different markets, you know, you ran through the different markets that have been in, and they've all, you know, obviously historically, they all have, you know, a lot longer run there and some, you know, amazing hockey markets. You know, Seattle, to watch the transition from year one to year two,

you know, for our players in and around the city, the community, and, you know, the recognition of them. You know, the growth of the National Hockey League in Seattle for me skyrocketed over, you know, over years one, two, to three. And it's going to continue. It's a great sports town. They love their athletes, the guys that show up and are competitive. They love guys that are invested in the community.

Although it's different, that's an expansion market, right? And it's a great sports market. I think it's a real intelligent expansion market for the NHL to go into. And I think it's going to continue to grow there. It is a great sports town and a great sports city. Were the Golden Knights a tough act to follow in terms of expansion? Well, that was a comparison all the time, right?

I mean, you always, I mean, before you could even get 10 seconds into a conversation with Harrison as to what, you know, the Golden Knights were doing. And, you know, at the time

they were into year five, I guess it was obviously a completely different situation in terms of the opportunities that they had going into the expansion draft as to what the Seattle Kraken had going into the expansion draft. I mean, a lot of people learned a lot of lessons

out of the first run on that. Things were much different in terms of the approach. That being said, Vegas had great success and continues to have great success. I think they're going to be a team that is going to be

really difficult to deal with again this year. There's different ways to go through and build. I think you have to own your own pathway. I think that was something that during my time there, we were comfortable owning that pathway, a little bit longer range plan. And, you know, at times that's a tough comparison when somebody else comes out of the gates and has the success that Vegas did. But the reality is those opportunities weren't going to be there

coming out of the gates with the way the expansion draft went for us versus the way the expansion draft went for the Vegas Golden Knights. Well, Dave, thanks for taking the time to join us today. Hope you're enjoying catching up with your family. That's a weird thing to say, catching up with your family, but that's probably what you're doing. They still remember who you are. You're that guy. Yeah,. They still remember who you are. You're that guy.

Yeah, yeah. I've seen you before. Hopefully we'll catch up again at another time. Absolutely. Thank you guys. Have a good morning there. Thanks, Dave.

Thanks. That's Dave Haxtell, former coach of the Seattle Kraken here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. A reminder, the Canucks will take

on the Kraken tomorrow. Seven o'clock. You can hear it right here on Sportsnet 650. You reminder, the Canucks will take on the Kraken tomorrow. 7 o'clock. You can hear it right here on Sportsnet 650. You can watch it on television. Hockey is back. Nature is healing. Time is a flat circle. We are back. We are back. So you wanted to spend some more time on Seattle sports. Yeah, I figured, you know. What, the Mariners? Nope.

They lost actually a that was a bad one for them to lose yesterday. They were kind of in the wildcard race. Well, they were in the wildcard race and they lost to the Rangers. You know what's amazing about that team is I've got their City Connect uniforms. Don't like those. You don't? No, I don't.

I love those. I don't like the black pants. Really? Yeah. They're awesome. They're too jarring. Anyway, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

I got a couple of buddies that are pretty big Mariners fans. Yeah. And we're on a text thread together. And the amount of times that they've said that's like a killer loss or a crush. And I'm like, well, why aren't they dead yet? Why? They're just hanging around the fringes of the playoff chase. They can't, you know, it's like just someone just put the stake in the heart and finish them off because they're not going to make the postseason.

But they just kind of keep hanging around. Eventually, they'll be dead. Then everyone will turn their attention to the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks are 3-0 after crushing the Tuatunga-Vailoa-Less Miami Dolphins yesterday. They literally crushed them. They crushed Skylar Thompson into injury. 24-3.

I think there were 600 penalties in the game, and 200 of them were on the Miami Dolphins for an illegal formation. Well, I mean, the Seahawks... What is going on? Well, they had no idea what they were doing. There was mass confusion with Skylar Thompson, a quarterback. You could just tell. And it's a loud stadium.

Yeah. And it's a tough situation i felt bad for the guy there's a separate conversation we can have about when you watch him and tim boyle and you're like so why is nathan rourke not in the nfl but i digress uh let's focus on the sea or one didn't even get a chance how is he anyway we'll do that later um Here's what I know. Seattle Seahawks are a 3-0 football team, and I still have absolutely no idea how good they are. I don't. You could say if you're a glass half full person,

which Sportsnet 650 is known for being a beacon of optimism, that they took care of business. They won every game that has been put in front of them. They beat every team that was on the schedule. And that's all you can do. There's three and oh, for the first time since 2020. And they're not letting anyone throw the ball on them.

I don't, I don't think a passer, a quarterback has gone from more than 150 yards in a game. That being said, it helps who the quarterbacks have been. Right. I mean, they've shut down nobody,

right? Who is the best quarterback that they face so far uh if you had onyx but yesterday not the game he played against the seahawks you know it's like jacoby brissett jacoby brissett looked good early on but he's not gonna stretch the field on you put it this way their passing game was so remedial that in that game the new england patriots wide receivers caught three passes all day three yeah it was all running backs and tight ends it was like you know screen city dump off city so skylar thompson threw one of the saddest deep balls i've seen i mean he's not up there and the receivers looks behind him he's like

like you saw yesterday you saw yesterday. He can't play. It's not his fault. Somebody's fault that he was the backup, but he can't play. They had a week to... Well, he definitely can't play now because he's hurt. Okay, look at it another way. They knew Tua wasn't playing the moment that he got that concussion in week

two, right? Let's be clear. There was no chance he was playing in Seattle. Miami had a week to game plan and they managed to muster three points of offense i read a miami dolphins blog post about how they need to go out and get russell wilson they need to do something otherwise the season's shot they put up three points three and that was they were glad to have them and they didn't it's not like they it's not like oh we left to have them. And they didn't... It's not like, oh, we left some points

and they didn't convert in the red zone. No! Nothing was happening. Skyler Thompson got sacked five times before he got hurt. That hit that he took at the end of the first half

where he was trying to throw the Hail Mary and did not see the defender coming. I'm like, he's not going to make it through halftime. He's not going to come up for the second half.

He did. And then he got hurt again. And I'm pretty sure... You saw when he got hurt. It took forever for that half to end too because of all the penalties and god what an ordeal that was it was an ugly game kevin harlan was calling it yeah with a certain amount of disdain for all the flags um but you know look uh gino smith made some plays another long bomb connection to dk metalf, and that's two on the season now. Gino is still like...

Here's a question that I'm going to throw out for you. Okay. Is he a top 10 quarterback in the NFL? Okay, spoiler alert. I knew this question was coming, so I prepped for it. Not everything is spontaneous on the Halford & Brough show. We're not scripted. We're not scripted.

But here, I'm going to run... If you were to tell me pick 10 quarterbacks that you'd take ahead of gino and i get a fantasy draft sure we were in the playground or whatever okay okay yeah yeah like well how about you're building a team sure okay now i'm gonna part of this is like almost one season one season not for the future because i here's the thing right now start in reverse. Okay. Like, the guys you would obviously take. Patrick Mahomes.

Lamar Jackson. Josh Allen. Yeah. Joe Burrow. Yeah. Jalen Hurts. Okay. CJ Stroud.

Yeah, yeah. For sure. Would you take Jordan Love? I don't know. Okay. I honestly haven't watched him enough. So if there are any Packers fans out there, they're like, oh, you got to take him.

I just don't. I don't know. Would you take Matt Stafford? No. Matt Stafford was good yesterday. Would you take Aaron Rodgers? See, I don't know. See, here we're getting into the...

Well, right now, yeah, you look pretty good. I got two more. Yeah, I might take Stafford, too. Would you take Brock Purdy? We're getting into the... Well, right now, yeah, you look pretty good. I had two more. Yeah, I might take Stafford, too. I might. Would you take Brock Purdy? I don't know. Okay. But we're getting down into the mix here, right?

I know. The exercise is too hard. Would you take Justin Herbert? Probably. Okay. But all these are with reservations. And finally, would you take Dak Prescott no out of spite okay so and certainly not at his contract because I think you also have to

look at the contract situation but we're not we're looking at it as you just get to take them it's like picking recess and on the playground you get to make your picks right like i take here's my thing with gino okay i don't fully trust him no because his mistakes are loud and sometimes and i get this even happens with the top quarterbacks i get it but with gino it seems more pronounced. You're like, what are you thinking, man? And he had a couple of those moments yesterday. And yet, overall, he had a good game. And overall, his numbers are pretty good. And his game in New England was terrific.

His game in New England was one of the best games I've seen him play as a Seahawk. But the, I mean, some of the interception or at least through two interceptions yesterday the first one was dude like you got to do whatever you did there do something different there and the second one yeah it hit a hand and flew up into the air but you know you've also got to be just careful with the ball I think that was a third and long you got to be careful in that situation and not throw an interception and he said so afterwards okay so the reason i did that exercise is because quarterbacking right now is so confusing in the nfl i i might take sam darnold right now sure right so not baker mayfield anymore because

he had a bad game yesterday i threw the halfordord Jinx on Baker Mayfield. I knew what I was doing. So here's the thing. If the question is, is Geno Smith the top 10 quarterback in the NFL? I threw a list of 12 out there. And by the time we hit eight or nine, you were sort of like, eh. Now, that very scientific approach we took to it, I would say that whether you like it or not, you have to have him in the conversation.

It might seem kind of crazy when you think, all right, I can name 10 quarterbacks. But once you start getting to 7, 8, 9, and 10, there's no slam dunks anymore. Slam dunks stopped at about 5 or 6. I think that has to do partly because of where quarterbacking is at in the NFL. I also think it has to do with the fact that it is very unpredictable. Because as you mentioned, should Sam Darnold be in there?

Would you take Jared Goff over him right now? Would you take Derek Carr over him right now? Some would say yes. And it totally depends on the week. Right. There's only about five or six slam dunks right now, amazingly, at the quarterback position. And even then, you kind of look at him and you could talk yourself out.

Like you said, you could talk yourself out of Jalen Hurts. Yeah. You could talk yourself out of Joe Burrow for health reasons. You could talk yourself out of Jordan Love because you just don't know yet. You could talk yourself out of Patrick Mahomes because you think his brother's annoying. Right.

Does he come with a brother? Do I get to remove him from the equation? Okay, so there's your hour one in the books coming up in hour two we're going to get to the rest of the NFL story on the other side maybe we can ask Mike Tannier this question about Geno being a top 10 quarterback in the National Football League

we also look at the NFC it is so topsy-turvy I went to AJ's yesterday AJ is a big Cowboys fan he was not in a good headspace yesterday and then I love this by the way i love this because i remember criticizing dak prescott and be like i don't get it with this guy why is he why does everyone think he's so great and then all the cowboys fans would come at me he's like he's he's an amazing elite quarterback i'm like can i just okay man we gotta you can have some great conference you can have some

really good quarterback debates right now. I mean, you brought up another one. Brock Purdy. Seems like he falls apart whenever his weapons are hurt. Do you want to understand the dynamic of Dak Prescott? This is it in a nutshell. So yesterday, if I was to tell you that a quarterback lost a one possession game to one of the best teams in the AFC,

and that quarterback went for 379. Garbage time. Wasn't garbage. It came back. Wasn't garbage. It's different. It's different when you're, when you're,

when the other team's protecting a big league. But this is what I'm saying. And if it was a, if it was Joe Smith at quarterback, you'd be like, good job, but it's Dak Prescott. So it's like,

Oh, Dak can't get it done. Well, he didn't early on and the game was lost right but it's a four-quarter game and he lost it in the first two but then he got look their biggest issue right now way more than Dak Prescott is that they can't stop the run at all they're worse than the Seahawks were last year they gave up 274 yards on the ground. Well, Dak has got to make some tackles. Yeah, right? That's what I'm saying. Dak is playing.

Well, you got to get it done on defense. Anyway, we can talk to Mike Tanner about all this coming up on the other side. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. But before I go to break, I need to tell you about Tile Town. As BC's favorite hockey team kicks off a new season, receive 20% off any regular in-price stock dial. Visit mytiltown.ca for details you're listening to the halford and breff show on sportsnet 650