Halford & Brough in the Morning - It's A 50 Cent Kind Of Lions Home Opener

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason get the Edmonton reaction from their game three loss to the Panthers, as 630 CHED and Sportsnet Oilers analyst Bob Stauffer joins the show (3:00), plus they chat with the Moj, BC Lions radio PxP man, ahead of the Leo's home opener this weekend (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.

7.04 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Bruffs, Sportsnet 650. Halford Bruff of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly knowledgeable staff picking up with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service

or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor. Without compromise, you can get some, get some, at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. 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, Orfee, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Bob Stauffer is going to join us in just a moment here to talk a little ebb and to an oilers we're going to flip things in reverse in the seven o'clock hour we'll talk to aj from aj's pizza on east broadway later before we talk to aj we should also re uh sort of go over re-go over nice one alfred we'll we'll look at the weekend in sports because AJ's is now a European

championship bar. So they're going to be open for all the noon games starting today. Germany, Scotland. The Scots have invaded Germany, by the way. And then, of course, Sunday is the big one for us because England is taking on Serbia in their first match. So we'll get into all that later.

Before we do any of that, though, we're going to go to Edmonton. Bob Stauffer joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Bob. How are you? Good, gentlemen. How are you doing? Good. This feels like an obvious answer, but I'm going to ask it anyway. What's the mood in Edmonton

this morning? Well, I thought you guys got me on to help handicap the Euro 24. So take France. They're the deepest team they've got an obscene amount of you know top 100 players in the world so i always go with france in these situations and i always think of what was the lead in the 66 world cup something about uh you know it'd be absolute blas blasphemy for England to lose at home

in their national pastime. Something about, you know, especially given the fact that they've already beaten the Germans twice in their national pastime. We're referring to the war. It was one of the great leads of all time. Of course, I've forgotten now, but it is, you know, 8 o'clock in the morning in Edmonton. I got in about three hours ago.

The mood, I guess it's all about perspective. Obviously, in the here and now, there's disappointment that the owners have probably played well enough to win two of the three games. From 30,000 feet, I'll take you guys back to beating Vancouver on

November the 6th. The owners got pounded 6-2 by the Canucks. They dropped to 2-8-1 in the season. And if I told you back then that I'd come and done your show the next day, and we actually stayed in Vancouver for an extra two days with the rookie party the next day, if I told you

that the owners would end up in the Stanley Cup final, even down 3-0, you would have laughed at me when the team was 2-8-1. So, you know, sometimes there needs to be a little bit of perspective. Everybody knew Florida was good. They're deep.

And I'm going to give you two simple numbers. 9-5-3, 8-6-8. Yeah. One team's got a save percentage at 953 and another team's got a save percentage at 868

and you recall what Tim Thomas' save percentage was against the Canucks we don't need to do this you don't need to hurt us no no no

I'm just saying like you guys had a really good mind you guys specifically but the Canucks had a really good team

in 2011 that to this day I don't think gets the respect for how good they are but tim thomas stole the series yeah he was incredible i'm not saying but roski has stolen series but he swung two games i mean the orders could theoretically be up two games to one in the series so uh they had no business. They weren't even close in game two. I think the high danger scoring chances in all situations that game were 11-1 for Florida. But the reality of the situation is they're down 3-0. And I think people, I'm expecting a little bit of resignation when I host my show later today from the fan base.

I completely understand it, but there was never a lack of respect for how good Florida was. People knew it was going to be hard. And you know what? The owners were trying to do something that's never been done in NHL history. And that's a team beating three teams that won their division. And Everton obviously beat Vancouver, beat Dallas. They both won their divisions and Florida has won their division as well. So it's, you know, even last night after the game,

and I stayed downtown for multiple hours last night, and it was, you know, it was a little bit of frustration, but nobody was crying in their beer. It is what it is. How surprised are you that Leon Dreisaitl has no points through three games? Well, I mean, the power play is over 10 in the series. That's the story.

Dreisaitl doesn't have a point. Nugent Hopkins and Hyman, that's three-fifths of their first unit power play. Leon has not been the same player since the eight-minute mark of game one against the Vancouver Cubs. And when this thing ends, he won't even go into detail,

but he has been playing through an injury. Game one against Vancouver, that game swung when Leon left the game and he was compromised when he returned. He's struggled with a face-off circle since then. He torqued himself and his actually is, you know, if you look at his goal series, even in the series, when he's on the ice in five-on-five situations. But yeah, it's a surprise because I would make a strong argument

that over the last three years, Leon Dreissel might be the best playoff performer. But Sasha Barkov has gone a lot head-to-head against Leon. And I know what I saw in the regular season. You guys should know this. The Florida Panthers have never lost a game in regulation at Rogers Place. Wow. They've been playing there since 16-17.

And Barkov is a major reason why. He's been a very difficult matchup for Edmonton. And I also imagine that you have to credit the Panthers' forecheck for what they did, certainly, last night. There were a couple of goals where it was just the Panthers' forecheck against the Edmonton Oilers' breakout, and the Panthers' forecheck won. Is that more credit to Florida, or does it also expose maybe one of the issues that the oilers have with some of their defensemen having some issues moving the puck both i mean it's uh you you really politely uh you know you guys have been good i'm trying to be nice

you're trying to be nice and i can appreciate that So what I will say is you can't gift a team as good as Florida two goals. You know, Edmonton got that out of their game in game six and seven against the Canucks, or they wouldn't have survived that series. The Oilers won that series with the lowest save percentage that a team has ever had winning the playoff series. You have what Edmonton did against Vancouver. Stewart, you know, misplayed the puck. He's 25.

Sergey Barovsky said when I was 25, I was a backup goalie in the NHL. I believe in Skinner's work ethic, but he has to improve handling the puck, and he's got to improve his glove side because teams love picking him up. Those are two things that have to happen, but

he gives away... The first goal, people say well, Bouchard misplayed it at the blue line and then Barkov out-battled him. They executed three real good passes to score that goal. To me, that's not an egregious giveaway. But the second one, come on, your goalie gives a wide-open net.

And then Darnell Nurse has just had a really troubling playoffs. It's kind of hard to fathom where he was playing against Paul Maurice in the Jets in the 21 bubble where he was head and shoulders Edmonton's best defenseman. He played a lot 5-on-5 at that time with David and no longer does. But you give up two goals like that against a team of the caliber of the Florida Panthers, invariably you'll almost never survive that. That leads nicely into my next question.

Where does the conversation about Darnell Nurse go from here? It's going to have to be a hard conversation, but I think we all know math. You guys, every team has got players that are completely underperformed in this contract here. But think of where Sergei, even a year ago,

I think Bobrovsky was 17-29 a year ago. They went from 122 to 92 points, and there were people saying that he had one of the worst contracts in the league. You guys have got Mikheyev, and I think he's a good player, and he can skate, but I think he got one goal in his final 60 games or something like that between the regular season and the playoffs. If Vancouver

ends up holding on to him, does he bounce back and score 15 to 20 goals all at even strikes? Because he doesn't get a lot of first-year power play. Look what happened to Besser. He had a tough goal there in Vancouver and pulled us together. He was brilliant for you guys this season.

Players bounce back. So it is a fair question to ask about Darnell. And I don't know what the answer is. I just know it would be a very difficult contract for other teams to take. I'm not surprised Broberg has started to turn the corner a bit because I slipped into Bakersfield with the orders for the L.A. series between Game 3 and Game 4. You know, and I watch all the games.

You know, I watch the team's games online in the AHL, and he was their best player for about a half of the season. But Darnell, you know, he's had a very difficult playoffs, to say the least. We're speaking to Bob Stauffer, Oilers color analyst here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I know we're doing a lot of off-season look-ahead stuff here,

but I mean, it is three-nothing in the Stanley Cup Finals, so it's a real conversation to have. The transition from the sort of Ken Holland era and what he's done to the Jeff Jackson era and what he's about to do, what are you expecting there? Because if I'm not mistaken, the biggest mark that Jackson's done so far was a really good one, was moving from Jay Woodcroft as the head coach to Chris Knobloch as the head coach, and that has obviously worked out well.

What do you foresee happening as Jackson gets his first sort of off-season to go about roster construction and changes and alterations to what Holland had? Well, he has already made some pretty significant moves on the hockey operations side. Like, he came in, and within a week, Tyler Wright was removed as the team's head amateur scout. Right. Like, within

a week, he invested in analytics. You know, like Vancouver has spent a lot of money in hockey operations, and they have a lot of different types of people involved in their team and I think that frankly

I think the Canucks have always been relatively progressive in this fashion and Ken once infamously said the analytics I believe are gut analytics well you know who doesn't believe in gut analytics the guy you're talking to right now like I'm I think you i think you have to look it's no different than being a broadcaster like i got two or three friends and they don't bs me like you know if if they're listening to my show

and i think i you know i have a crappy interview or i'm talking too much when i'm on with a guest they say quit talking so much, dummy. Sometimes it's, you know, I think you want people that have a little bit different views. I think Ken's done a pretty good job overall. He's got the seventh best record in the league. But I guess the point I'm making is Jackson's

already started the process. And it was Jackson and really Paul Coffey that made the call on Chris Knobloch. Knobloch was Jeff's guy. In terms of what happens, you know, I think Edmonton's going to be well-positioned to have a competitive team again. I don't think there's any question about that.

I know Frank Cervalli repeatedly says on our show he thinks better than 90% that the Oilers re-sign both Dreisaitl and McDavid. It's ironic. I saw Michael Yu at the Timo Hotel in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, so it was good to see him because he's got Leon.

I think they're going to have to find a way to add a little bit more speed to the forward units, especially in the bottom six. They'll re-sign. I mean, Yamark's going to get re-signed for sure. That's a given.

I think they're probably going to take a run at bringing Corey Perry back for the 20-goal season. I'm not sure he's going to be able to afford to keep him. I think they might look for a different type of player with a little bit of money. They're going to have to make a hard decision on Jack Campbell. And that's a given. Do I buy him out? If you go to Cap Friendly, if it's still in existence, I think he's number one and number two on the buyout chart.

And then defensively, DeJarne, I think the emergence here of Robert and his ability to play the right side, you know, if DeJarne is looking for a big payday, it might end up with Bradtree living in Toronto. You know, I'm talking about like a five-year deal at, you know, $2.25 million or something like that. So they're going to have to make some decisions.

Obviously, I get where you're coming from here. They've got a game to play tomorrow night. All I can do is just go win the next game. But I do think they've done some of the advanced work in terms of modeling the lineup carried forward. Bob, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this. I did not realize you were working on So Little Sleep. So we really appreciate it.

Enjoy however much longer this series goes for. I know it hasn't gone the way that you and a lot of the Oilers faithful thought it was going to go. But thanks again for doing this, and we'll catch up as we get into the offseason. They had some bounces along the way to get there, and so you accept it, and you understand

that you beat some good teams, and that could have been you out at that stage. And a reminder, take France to win the Euro 24. Thanks, Bob. Thanks, Bob. See you later. Thanks, Bob Stauffer, Oilers color analyst here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. year old 24 thanks bob thanks appreciate it that's bye see you later thanks bob stopper oilers color analyst here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 i always like having bob on the program i think a lot of our listeners just hear see when he's talking about vancouver

he's trying to relate he's trying to relate i know that the current climate right now is edmonton man talk about vancouver bad yeah smash your. You got to listen to what he's talking about. He understands that he is coming on Vancouver Sports Talk Radio, specifically your home of the Canucks, Sportsnet 650. So a lot of times veteran radio guys will say, hey, how can I turn what I'm talking about

in my foreign market to something that's relatable to the market that I'm speaking in. I do that all the time when I go on another station because I'm actually curious about the reaction. Some call it pandering. Some call it pandering. Yeah, yeah.

However. I mean, when you're bringing up troubling play in long-term contracts, he was nice not to bring up Petey. He brought up Mikheyev instead. Yeah. But I think that was the word, right? He used troubling play.

Troubling. And when you see Darnell Nurse playing at that level with the contract he's got, it's troubling. And I think that was a fair enough word to use about Elias Pettersson's play after he signed that contract extension. I was troubled by it when I watched it, and Petey's going to need to bounce back, just like Darnell Nurse is going to need to bounce back next season.

So AJ from AJ's Pizza will not be joining us this morning, but that's okay because I can run down everything that we need to run down. First off, AJ Pizza on East Broadway. AJ Pizza. AJ Pizza, singular. Not not aj's just aj's try aj's traditional new york pizza or sink into their famous detroit pizza only at aj's pizza order online at aj's.pizza i mentioned can we just talk about what a great sports weekend it is oh yeah that's so tonight we've got the nba finals which could see see the Celtics win their 18th banner.

We've also got soccer, Euro starting. At noon. So Germany, Scotland today. And I think the big one tomorrow is Spain and Croatia. 9 a.m. Spain, Croatia. And then England plays Serbia on Sunday. At noon.

We've got the Stanley Cup final resumes on Saturday night. So the Florida Panthers could win the Stanley Cup final resumes on Saturday night. So the Florida Panthers could win the Stanley Cup tomorrow. Or they could gentlemen sweep it. You've also got the BC Lions game on Saturday night. And throughout it all, you got the US

Open at Pinehurst number two. And I think that course is going to really start showing its teeth this weekend. Rory is two over to start his round. And I think he's is going to really start showing its teeth this weekend. Rory is two over to start his round, and I think he's needed to chip in and hit a long putt. So that course is going to be tough. It's going to be interesting.

So there's lots. It's a great sports weekend. So if you want to go check out some of the Euro games at AJ's, one, it's all the noon games that are going to be available, including the big one on Sunday between England and Serbia. In addition to having happy hour all day on Sunday, they've got AJ's Lager for six bucks

on for all the Euro games. A bunch of different pizza specials as well, including a 14-inch. Andy, the Ronnie, a 14-inch Ronnie. Really? A 14-inch Ronnie. It's a 14 inch Ronnie it's a big Ronnie it's a big Ronnie you can handle it one sitting 22 bucks

that's all at AJ's Pizza on East Broadway again visit them online at AJ's.pizza I do want to say I am very excited for the next two weeks in particular because the group stages of these international competitions are really when it's a lot of fun because you have three or four matches a day

especially when cope america gets underway and next um thursday june 20th is going to be a big one because of course canada opens i i don't think we can truly under you're not going to truly understand until you see the pomp and circumstance and the atmosphere and everything. But it's not just that Canada is playing Lionel Messi in Argentina. They're playing them in a major international competition. And they're playing them in the opening game. Yeah.

In Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which is going to be filled. And it seats 73,000 people for football matches of the international. And they're not going to watch Canada play. They're not. Maybe they'll be. Did you see Davies at the Oilers game last night? I did see that. So Edmonton's claiming, I mean, understandably,

he spent the majority of his time in Edmonton, but I feel like he's more Canadian in scope. Well, yeah, but Edmonton, he's obviously an Oilers fan. He was probably an Oilers fan growing up there. I don't like it. Do you think Canada will score? I'm not willing to cede anything to Edmonton at this point. Do you think Canada will score a goal at this tournament?

Yes. At the tournament, they will. Maybe not against Argentina. I mean, let's not get too... We hope that they will. It's not going to be easy. What you've got to understand is that this tournament is massively important to the participants

because getting out of South American qualifying for the World Cup is incredibly difficult. And this, in addition to being the domestic bragging rights trophy, is also a sort of precursor for what it's going to look like in two years' time when all these teams are trying to get to the World Cup. It is fierce, fierce to get out of South America because you've got your sort of big dogs starting with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay. And then you've always got a second tier of countries.

Colombia. Yeah. Chile. Uruguay and then you've always got a second tier of countries Colombia yeah Chile and then you know Peru has done very well at Copa America in past instances yeah there's a lot that sort of cyclically become the second wave of South American teams so this tournament and then everyone at Copa

America kind of waits for the Brazil Argentina final that's just how I mean that's the glory matchup right is you want Brazil and Argentina at Copa America kind of waits for the Brazil-Argentina final. That's just how, I mean, that's the glory matchup, right? You want Brazil and Argentina to match up in the final. So the fact that Canada gets to play one of those two in the opener is huge. And the only thing I want to throw on as a little addendum here is that at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, everyone remembers the end of it, right? Argentina winning, Messi hoisting the trophy

and being celebrated as an icon. Yeah. Truly the icon. Like, I can't wait till he plays in Vancouver. They did lose a game early.

To the Saudis. Yeah. And that was considered a massive upset. So just throwing that out there for Canada. A little bit of inspo as they go in

to Copa America. I'm very excited for the weekend, though. Lots of Euro games on, excluding the one today in just a few hours time between Germany and Scotland. But there's a big game in town and that is the BC Lions hosting

the Calgary Stampeders Saturday night at BC Place. There's going to be over 50,000 fans there for not only the Lions game, but as Rick Dollywell calls it, a concert by 50 cents. Most people know him by 50 cent. Or 50.

50. Our next guest, Bob the Moj. Big 50 fan. Big 50 fan. Talk about the BC Lions. Big game tomorrow night at BC Place. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd.

And Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. It's the mooch. I did not eat four burgers. Yes, it's the mooch.

I don't want to go to Winnipeg. Nobody wants to go to Winnipeg. wants to go to Winnipeg Yes, I love to It's the Moch I went online and kind of did a little surfing Jamalania Yes, it's the Moch Halpert's fine, but, you know, Brum, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Laddie gets in my ear

during the Moj theme song and says, and I quote, you can talk over this. And I just stared at him. I didn't even respond. How would I talk over that? Yeah. How dare you?

Well, the last part where he's just saying Moj's name over and over again. But you gotta hit the, after the final, it's the Moj. And then you come in with Halford's yelling of 733

you guys are dropping bars i'm not going to cut it off you guys are like a couple of 50 cents over there you should do a compilation of all the times that he really it's the 730 hour that he really really hits and sometimes it's 731 sometimes it's 7.32. A little later today, so it was 7.33. It is loud and predictable. He's like, ah, you know, we need to bring up the energy here. It's because of 7.30. 7.33! 7.30 is the coffee peak, and then after that, it's all a come down, just a crash in the 8 o'clock hour.

90 minutes into the show. Yeah. All right. 7.34 on a Friday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 650. 650 Yeah. All right. We got most of them on. 7.34 on a Friday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 650.

650, that's right. We should rename the place. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program.

Hour two is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor. Without compromise, you can get some, get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. Moj is joining us now.

A presentation of the Clayton Public House here on Sportsnet 650. It's very exciting to have him on the show. Bob Marjanovic, play-by-play voice of the BC Lions. Good morning, Moj. How are you? Okay, first off, I'm confused because when A-Dog said,

hey, we want you to talk some football with you tomorrow, I'm like, hey, I'm in. And now you guys want to talk Lions. I thought you wanted to talk Serbia and the other Lions, the three Lions, England. Oh, we'll get there. Don't worry about that. Okay, good.

Yeah, I mean, I'm going to give you 10 minutes lions the three lions england oh we'll get there don't worry about that yeah i mean you're gonna get i'm gonna give you 10 minutes to rack your brain to come up with a very thorough analysis of what uh the serbian starting 11 is gonna look like on sunday but we are gonna start with the lions uh we've had um a couple different guests in the last couple of weeks we had neil mcavoy on the show earlier this week and one of the questions that we threw to Neil was, what's the dynamic like where there's so much excitement about, let's be honest, the off-field stuff and the Grey Cup just kind of hanging in the balance.

But you know that on the field, you have to perform and live up to expectations to get to the Grey Cup. Just because you host it doesn't mean you get to be in it. And we saw that in week one when it was kind of an upset victory. Not kind of. It was an upset victory for the Argonauts without Chad Kelly over the BC Lions in Toronto in week one.

Yeah, well, I mean, simply put, the Argos won on both sides of the line of scrimmage. And that's concerning because there was a lot of talk in the offseason about getting better on the line of scrimmage. And that's concerning because there was a lot of talk in the offseason about getting better on the line of scrimmage, about being able to stop the run. Toronto ran for 120 yards in that game. Offensively, there was a big talk about running the football. They went out and they got William Stanback.

There was talk about protecting the quarterback. Well, six quarterback sacks isn't going to cut it. And the other thing, too, that I talked about in a recent column in Black Press was the fact that, you know, a lot of people are focusing on the line of scrimmage, but to me, there's two other areas where the Lions really need to clean up, and that is penalties, which they were eight yards away from being the most penalized team in the CFL last year, and turnovers. While turnovers, again, in Toronto, five turnovers, Toronto had one, so BC was minus four

in that regard. That's another thing that has to be cleaned up. So those are some of the things the Lions are going to be focusing in on heading into this game against Calgary.

What should be the strength of this Lions team, Moj? The receiving core. I know you've lost Dominic Rimes and Lucky Whitehead, but I think Travis Fulgham is an able replacement.

We saw that in Toronto, that 54-yard touchdown pass, even though I've never seen anything like it. I've seen there were four Argos that jumped the out, and there were three Lions running verticals, and Vernon Adams could have picked whoever, but he decided to pick Fulgham, so he makes a 54-yard catch. I think he's going to be fine as Keyon Hatcher's replacement. Hatcher should be back probably

by about week eight or nine, TJ Lee a little earlier. And then the other receiver that's going to be starting is Aiden Eberhardt. And he's not a burner. He's not a guy who's going to go vertical on you.

But if you throw anything in his vicinity, he'll catch it. So if I look at the strength of this team, I still think it's the receiving core. So how do they improve this line of scrimmage play? Is that coaching up or do you look at that offensive line and see a problem? Defensively, I think they're going to be okay.

I mean, they've got new faces on defense, and Ryan Phillips is probably learning what he can and can't do with certain players. And there's going to be some new faces this weekend as well in terms of starters. Offensively, it's probably a bigger concern. And they never went out and got an offensive lineman via free agency this offseason.

Maybe that was because it was cost prohibitive. Maybe it was because they believe they can improve internally. David Neville got the start of the first game, and, well, he didn't do too well. So they've gone to Chris Slugger now, an American. So we'll see if that improves the offensive line and helps out. The concern there is that Chris Slugger lost two weeks of reps at training camp because Neville was running with the ones, and, you know, they've just decided to go with Slugger now.

And that's something that they thought about all through training camp as well, whether or not to go with three Americans on the offensive line. And at center, Centennial grad Michael Couture is going to be out for this game with a back injury. So Tyler Packer, a kid from University of Calgary, gets a start. So it's going to be interesting to see how this offensive line performs against the Calgary front. Calgary's front isn't as good as Toronto's, but it's still a decent front and it'll be a good test for this group.

Moj, do you think the strength of the CFL has started to migrate to the east? That's a good question. Because if you look at Winnipeg, I mean, you know, Winnipeg's 0-2, BC's lost their first game. I think Saskatchewan and Edmonton will be a little better from last year, but I don't know if they take a major jump. Maybe two or three games better. Montreal, you look at last year, they went on that heater where they went seven or eight games in a row to win the Grey Cup.

Toronto is still a good football team, even without Chad Kelly, as we saw this weekend. Hamilton will be interesting with Bo Levi Mitchell. I think Ottawa is going to be better, but I don't think Ottawa's going to take a jump where they go from whatever, four wins to 11 or 12.

But I think Ottawa will be a better team. We saw that against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. So I think that's a fair question, and I think that's one you have to look at. I'm just wondering how much having this Grey Cup in Vancouver is,

and all the things happening in Vancouver, including the big game tomorrow with 50 Cent headlining and over 50,000 people, do you think it's been a distraction for the Lions? Or do you think it's overall a good thing that you've got this excitement for the team and they're going to be looking to put their best foot forward? Well, I think it's a good thing. And, I mean, anytime you get 50,000 people in the building, you better show up and play.

But focus is going to be a challenge this year. I mean, you mentioned it. The Grey Cup is in Vancouver. If you talk to head coach Rick Campbell, he'll say that they want to get to the Grey Cup every year, and they don't put added pressure on themselves because the game is in Vancouver. But clearly it's something that's there. You look at touchdown Pacific, the game is in Vancouver. But clearly it's something that's there.

You look at touchdown Pacific, the game in Victoria, that's going to be a different game week because they're going to go out there early Tuesday or Wednesday. It's like another road game, to be honest. And then you look at this home game with 50 cent and the, you know, 50,000 people in the stand, the challenge will be not to be too amped in this game, right? I mean, you're going to have to go out there and do what you got to do, but you just can't go out there

and try to do too much because that's when things start going south. We're speaking to Bob, the Moj Marjanovic, BC Lions play-by-play man here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I asked Neil this question earlier in the week.

I want to ask you, so the Lions waived Dakota Prukop in the preseason, and that was the quarterback that they had brought in to do all the short yardage stuff, which is pretty important in the CFL. Now it's Vernon Adams' responsibility, and Neil kind of said we're giving it to him because he's really good at it

and he wants to do it. But are you, Moj, comfortable with the risk of using an MVP-caliber quarterback to do short yardage work, given that Vernon Adams has been known to get nicked up from time to time? I'm not a fan of it. I understand what they, you know, how that decision came about because it was Chase Bryce

who looked really good in training camp. And let's face it, Dakota Prukop cannot throw the football. So they decided to go with Bryce as their third and shot Prukop. Yeah, and you know, and the thing is, too, I think there are other options on this team to go short yardage, right? I mean, here's the thing.

You have a receiver in Ezekiel Tidy who played quarterback when he was at University of Massachusetts. He's one of the Lions receivers, and he's on the active roster as a backup Canadian. There's a possibility. The other possibility, and we saw Edmonton do this in their game versus Saskatchewan, they ran a running back, Ante Milinovic-Lietzscher, the kid from SFU and Notre Dame.

He ran short yardage. I mean, David Mackey could run short yardage. I mean, there's other options other than just quarterbacks. So it'll be interesting to see how this situation develops over the year because I'm with you. I mean, and I think the Lions are in the same boat. They don't want to see Vernon Adams take hits, yet at the same time, right now, he's probably their best option.

Okay, before we let you go, I'm not going to ask you for Serbia starting 11. I feel like that would be unfair. But how much – yeah, I know that you're – you know Moj's a soccer guy now right he was a big fantasy premier league guy and i know i'm sure you've been following this as closely as anyone uh how invested are you in this match on sunday it isn't good because serbia's got a ton of talent like they have especially at striker they've got a lot of ability they've

always kind of underwhelmed these major international competitions but it's a huge clash on sunday against the English at noon. How excited is Moj to see Serbia go up against the three lions? Well, I mean, I've been in a group chat with my daughter's friends over in London and that's where she lives. So obviously I'm a little invested.

I'll tell you what, if they knock off England, I'll be really invested. If they lose, I couldn't care less. Moj, thanks for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Hey, hey, hey.

Oh, yeah. Little wager on the match here, fellas. Little wager. Sure. Let's throw a little AJ's pizza on the line. Sure. You got to give me a goal, though.

We'll give you half a goal. No, no. One goal. You know what? Well, what happens if there's a push? What happens if England wins 1-0? Moj, I'm... Then you got to give me a goal half a goal. No, no. One goal. You know what? Well, what happens if there's a push? What happens if England wins 1-0? Then you've got to give me a goal and a half.

Mo, I'm not going to give you a goal and a half. England always wins 1-0. I'll tell you what. In the spirit of good-natured competition, so not to further belabor this, we'll give you the goal. I'll take responsibility for it. And we will settle this at AJ's Pizza on East Broadway when the match is done.

Have a good weekend, fellas. Enjoy the game. Yeah, you too. Thanks, Moj. That's Bob the Moj Marjanovic here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. All right, we're going to ask us anything from Nick from Pitt Meadows. Ask us anything, Mike and Jason.

If you had to adopt one of the dogs, who would it be and why? Good question. Fair question. Laddie's pointing to himself. No, it wouldn't be Laddie. Laddie has behavioral problems sometimes. Laddie acts out. I do?

Yeah. See? Right there. Right there. That's the kind of attitude at the dog park that I don't want to have to deal with. I think a dog might be, he has a lot of anxiety. So sometimes he has trouble socializing with other dogs.

And I'll be honest with you, I've seen his diet and I'm wondering about the vet bills. Yeah, that's true. A-Dog got into chocolate again last night. I have fire and passion, you guys. Yeah, I don't necessarily want that in a dog. I want a dog that just wants to curl up with me on the couch and watch TV,

and I think I'd have that with a dog. That is a dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaking of how well. By the way, Pedro is very gassy. I was going to say, with a dog, you've got to watch out for that. Just dog food. Can of beans.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Does anyone else, any of the other listeners, I know none of you guys own dogs, but any listeners out there? I did. My dog, those. Was he gassy? The dog farts were pretty brutal at times. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now, some people's going to text in like, you're not feeding him the right food or whatever. It's possible. Okay, fine, whatever. He's a Mexican street dog. He's pretty happy with what he's getting right now. He needs trash off the street. It is aggressive.

Yeah, it can be pretty crazy. And he farts in the car a lot. I don't know if it's always necessarily related to a bad diet, because my dog, when we were kids, he ate better than we did. My parents bought him the best food you could buy. Yeah, we got him really good food. Yeah, so I don't know if it's that exactly. What did they give you?

Whatever he didn't eat. Katie. Yeah, chicken nuggets again. A buddy of mine had a French bull bulldog and he was a little bit younger back in the day so he didn't really uh the french bulldog or your buddy both the french bulldog is no longer with us we're all a little younger back in the day um he was like he's sort of like a chillax dog owner and he was also in his 20s so he wasn't as like you're not as diligent right you think like i eat like crap the dog and eat like me and the dog we're like buddies right you throw your armor on the cheeseburger he eats the cheeseburger you're both smoking cigarettes at

the same time yeah uh so pedro does like mcdonald's fries right you see you're 48 you should know better but um so one time the dog was obviously like very odorous and I was like, man, what did the dog eat? And he's like, Oh, he had my leftover congee. I was like, dude, I don't think you don't look so good over there. Some people say that it's, it's not like the worst thing, but I'm like, it's like he, they would be, he would order extra food when he would order out from a restaurant and then just give it to the dog.

I'm like, you're putting that dog's intestinal system through like just chaos right now. It's a roller coaster in that portal dog. Another ask us anything. Jason from Burnaby, ask us anything. If the Toronto Maple Leafs offered each of you $1 million per year to be their pre and post game radio show host, would you do it?

Yes. A million dollars? Who's going to say no to a million dollars? Yeah. In radio? Yeah. You got it. Yeah. You got it. For Pedro. Pedro would expect you to take that job. I'd no to a million dollars in radio yeah yeah you got it for pedro pedro would expect me to take that job yeah yeah no i could fake enthusiasm for the leafs

yeah i'm sure once in a while i'd slip up these losers can't do anything right but then then people in toronto might be like this guy speaks the truth. See, that's what I'm wondering. If you went in, guns a-blazing, and were a loathing Maple Leafs host, you would appeal to the fan base that identifies as where the team would go. It's not like the Oilers media. They're a lot much harder on their team. As long as you don't take shots at the fan base. Right. That's the one thing you don't want to do.

For example, if a radio station were, I don't know, like starting up in the market. Like in Vancouver. And like one of the major first hires. Like you wouldn't want to be the guy that goes in there and immediately starts taking shots at the fan base. That rest in state. You can take shots at the team or the organization.

GM, for sure. But when you're arguing with the fan base, like your listeners, that's probably something that you don't want to do. I don't know if anyone would ever be crazy enough to do that. People that don't know you and inherently might not like you because you're new and you've got a reputation, you shouldn't go in. And maybe if you've got kind of like a smirk. Yeah. Like a natural smirk. I mean, if I were to move to a new market,

I definitely wouldn't want to insult the people that are listening to me. Colin and Tawasin, ask us anything. In honor of Father's Day, what has been your experience in coaching your own kid in sports? Any advice for other dad coaches? Yeah, do it. Take the job and do it. Don't think twice about it.

Don't think about all the negatives that come along and the amount of work and the amount of annoying parents and children. Eliminate all the negatives and just do it. The one thing I'll say is that you're only going to get a brief window to be able to coach your kids because eventually they'll either get too old

to where they don't want you around anymore or maybe they'll advance to a part where they have like better more uh schooled coaches or they'll stop playing sports altogether yeah and that opportunity will be gone and you'll probably regret not having those moments because it's one of those rare moments where in the parent child relationship, sometimes you don't have anything to talk about. Sometimes the kid doesn't want to talk. Sometimes you don't want to talk. Sometimes you're like,

yeah, you've always got, you can always talk about why didn't you get that buck in deep? You always play the blame. We've gone over this in every car ride home. You can always play. You got to get that buck deep. The blame game is a fun game.

Cause you can point it at your child or if you want to bond, you can point it at other children. All I'm saying is just do it. Just dive in head first. Even if you don't know anything about the sport, just do it. I highly recommend doing it. It's a very, very rewarding experience.

That is the most genuine, authentic thing I think I've ever said on the radio and it feels kind of weird. So let's get back to a mocking what we learned or ask us anything. Ask us anything. Who did the Canucks trade Forsling for? Adam Clendenning.

And how do you feel about OEL getting a Stanley Cup? I'm happy for him. If he wins the Cup, I'm happy for him. That Taj tweet was making the rounds last night that OEL will be the first player in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup while on the Canucks payroll. That's awesome. I'd have to go back and just make sure.

I hope there's a banner for that. I'd have to go back and just make sure. Can we have a parade for just one guy? Can we do a Ray Bork-esque parade in Boston? Remember they had a parade in Boston for him? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we do that for OEL? I mean, that's similar.

We could bring the cup and we could be like, congratulations. Also, sorry. You didn't get a really fair shake. shake well you kind of got a fair shake but um that one all that one to me the oel one will always feel i'll always feel a bit guilty as speaking as a representative of the fan base and the media that covered him because you know a lot of the he didn't play well when he was here and i think the healthy scratch was that was the low point that was – he didn't play well when he was here. And I think the healthy scratch was – that was the low point. That was justified. He wasn't doing the things that they wanted him to do.

Yeah. I think they wanted him to be more of a guy that's going to go out there and sacrifice and block shots. Right. And he didn't do that. And in Florida, he's in the role that fits him best now. He's a third-pairing guy. He's played like 12 minutes a night sometimes. And the most important part, he's in the role that fits him best now. He's a third-pairing guy. He's played like 12 minutes a night sometimes.

And the most important part, he's at a contract that is reflective of the role that he's playing on the team. He didn't – I mean, if someone was to offer me that kind of money back in the day, I would have not thought twice about it. You're signing, right? He signed it a long time ago in a different city. I think his body broke down. I think that's part of it. I mean, that was clear.

That was clear. BP and Mission, ask us anything. When's the last time we had the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals both swept in the same year? I saw this on Twitter. I think it was 95 or maybe it was in the 90s because from 95 to 98, there were four straight sweeps

in the Stanley Cup Finals. So the Rangers and the Canucks go to seven in 94 and that was considered one of the greatest Stanley Cup Finals in NHL history. And then four straight series after that, there was the sweep the devil swept the red wings the av swept the panthers remember the rats on the ice in that uh doug mclean was the coach of the florida panthers then uh the red wing slept slept swept the flyers and then the red wings

swept the washington capitals so the answer is 1995, because in the NBA finals that year, the Houston Rockets swept the upstart Orlando Magic, led by Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal. That was the one where Nick Anderson missed the free throws in game one and ruined his career. And the hockey was the Devils, right? Yeah. Yeah, hockey was the Devils over the Red Wings.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. When did the Sonics go, in 96? Sonics went in 96 the year before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which was the more... When did the Sonics go? In 96? Sonics went in 96 the year before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they lost in six or five? I don't have it in front of me. It was five or six.

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Don't worry about it. The Sonics lost in six. That was actually the toughest challenge, one of the toughest challenges that those Bulls teams had in an NBA Finals. The Sonics ever win a championship? Like, weren't the Bulls up 3-0 and then the Sonics won two? Yeah, yeah. Did the Sonics ever win a championship? Weren't the Bulls up 3-0 and then the Sonics won 2?

Yeah. Did the Sonics ever win a championship? Yep. In the 70s. They won 79. Oh, cool. Well, I was one. Good for them.

My dad watched them sometimes, being from Seattle and all. Okay. So we got a lot more to get to in the final hour of the program. Rick Dollywell is going to join us for what I assume is going to be an action-packed hit because we got a lot to get into with reports on Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zdorov and everything else that's going on. And then at 8.30, we're going to do What We Learned and Ask Us Anythings.

We're going to give away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best Ask Us Anything. The premise, as always, is quite simple. You ask us anything, we do our best to answer it. The hashtag is AUA. Don't forget to put a pizza emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the grand prize contest to win a $100 gift card to the best pizza place in the world, AJ's Pizza on East Broadway.

That's the final hour of the show. It's coming up next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.