Halford & Brough in the Morning - It's The Slircle Of Life

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

In hour three, Mike chats with Whitecaps striker Brian White on his successful season thus far (3:00), they talk local Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini with San Jose Hockey Now's Sheng Peng (15:00), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It'll White's as good as him. Brian White scores his 10th goal of the season. 8-0-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough. No Brough, though. Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough for 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 3 of the program. You just heard his name on the call, Brian White, Vancouver Whitecaps striker. The all-time leading scorer in Whitecaps MLS era history is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 3. Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today.

This show is coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec is Canada's favorite orthotics provider. Powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? No one? Kintec. Wow, guys.

You waited until I took a bite of my food. I didn't wait until you took a bite of your food. You took a bite of your food while I was pointing at both of you. Gesticulating wildly. We'll have to work on that. Bruff and I usually have that chemistry down. Bruff and I have chemistry like Ryan Gould and Brian White. Oh, what a segue.

Joining us now, Vancouver Whitecaps striker. He scored again on the weekend. Brian White joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Brian. How are you? Morning, guys. I'm good. How are you? Good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. So first off, congrats on becoming the Whitecaps' all-time leading goal scorer in their MLS era. What was it like for you to get this very, very prestigious accomplishment

so early in the season, so early in your tenure in Vancouver? I guess it speaks to a lot of different things, but first and foremost, it's that you can score a lot of goals. Yeah, it's a special moment. It's always nice when you come into a club and you're able to kind of make

a difference and make an impact. I've been lucky enough to play with some great players, especially guys like Ryan and coaching staff that believes in me. So it's been a good run so far. Hopefully we can keep it going. When you first met Ryan, how long did it take you to realize that you guys had something special working in tandem? Yeah, I think it was pretty easy.

You know, ever since once he came in um even off the field on the field it was uh pretty natural we just got along really well and then obviously we've been able to click on the field pretty easily and it's um i don't know it's something it's hard to put your finger on it it's just something that we've been able to continue to connect on and it's been it's been really fun to play um how you know from coming from new york and having played a few years in mls to coming here what were your expectations when you got dealt to vancouver and have those expectations been exceeded by how things have gone since you joined the calves back a couple years ago yeah it was a bit of a shock it was something

that wasn't really on my radar at the time it you know i came home from training and found out i was traded to vancouver i was like oh that's a it's a big move that's far away but yeah far away but it's uh yeah you know for me i saw it as another opportunity a new opportunity new horizons you know i wanted to come into the team and kind of earn earn the spot obviously i think i came came in as more of a backup for Kyle Ball. He was gone with the national team. For me, it was about doing everything I can to help the team win. I wasn't really thinking much farther than that,

than earning playing time and proving that I can score goals. Part of being a striker and having the amount of chances that you have is that sometimes sometimes just quite frankly the ball doesn't go in for a variety of reasons and then sometimes it goes in in really bizarre ways like the way that you scored the hat trick against St. Louis the the backheel scorpion goal was amazing the first one you get a very fortuitous bounce and then you end up on a hat trick and now you've got five goals in your last three matches and that's after going a long stretch without so how does it work mentally for someone whose job it is

to put the ball in the back of the net to not get too low when the ball's not going in, and then I guess subsequently not get too high when everything's breaking your way? Yeah, like you said, you have to ride the waves, and obviously sometimes it can get difficult when things aren't falling for you. It could be a lot of things.

Maybe the goalie's making saves. Maybe you're just not in a good head space. And that's something that, you know, you try day in, day out to avoid. And for me, it was about knowing that, you know, I can score goals. And when I was going to get another chance, that the next one was going to go in. And you just have to keep thinking that way that the next one's going to go. And, you know, you're on the training pitch every day trying your best to improve, understand what situations you may have not been able to execute in,

and working every day to, you know, if you get that opportunity again, that you feel confident that you can take it. The backheel goal against St. Louis, how much of that was intentional and how much of that was good fortune? I think it was 50-50. I tried to flick it to myself, but I caught it so pure, I just flipped it all the way over. Because I knew it was behind me.

I tried to get it to come flick to myself. Just flicked it much farther than I expected and the perfect distance. We're speaking to Whitecaps striker Brian White, the Whitecaps all-time leading scorer here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You guys are on a two-game road trip, so the win in Minnesota, you scored in that one. That was a good result on the road.

Montreal on Saturday, you score again, but this time you guys concede in the second half and walk away with a 1-1 draw. What were the thoughts after the 1-1 draw in Montreal? Yeah, I think, obviously, there's a point that we didn't really get a second or third goal earlier on, and so we left them in the game. But I think looking at it, it's a good road point.

It's been a long week, three games in eight days. So I think to come away with a point after a long travel is good for the team, and hopefully we can continue into Pacific and into St. Louis on the weekend. How are the spirits of the group right now? Because it's been an up and down season. There was a great start to the season. There was a lull in the middle and you guys have got some results over the last couple of weeks.

How is the group feeling now that the international window is starting to come to a close? You'll slowly start getting guys back in the mix and you've got another chance to go up against St. Louis, a team you scored four against. You're going to get to a close. You'll slowly start getting guys back in the mix, and you've got another chance to go up against St. Louis, a team you scored four against. You're going to get them this weekend. I think the group's in a good spot.

I think, like you said, similar to what you said about Stryker, we try to ride the highs and lows and stay even keel. I think we're in a good moment right now. We've won a few games in a row. And, you know, everyone's really, you know, excited. You know, every game we think we're going in believing that we can win. So I think the team's in a really good place right now. And I'm just looking forward to the next game. Before we let you go, I do want to ask about your manager, Vanni Sartini.

You've obviously been playing under him for a while now. You've had a lot of success and scored a lot of goals under him. How does he compare to some of the other managers that you've had in the past? Because Vanny is a, we love having him on the show. He's very unique. He's very interesting. He's charismatic. He's an intelligent guy.

He's well-read and well-spoken. And he really thinks about the game and he's really passionate about the game. But, you know, he's different than a lot of traditional football managers. So where does he sort of stack up compared to the guys you've had in your past both in mls and then in college and such yeah for for me he's been huge in my career i've always said that you know the confidence that he's been able to instill in me has been huge from you know me personally and my my personal ability to keep playing because you know there's there have been

moments through you know 2022 I didn't play so well and then a little little bit of a lull here where I wasn't scoring goals and through all that he's you know he's had the confidence that in me that I was going to score the next one the next one and so to have a manager like that that continues to play you even when you know things might not be going for you it has been huge for me and someone that I appreciate and I always will appreciate. He's been the most important manager that I've had in my career so far. Well, Brian, I wanted to offer congrats again on setting the record

to become the Whitecaps' all-time leading scorer in the MLS era. Best of luck this weekend against St. Louis. Hopefully the good times continue. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thanks for coming on. That's Brian White, Whitecaps striker here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. He is no longer Mr. White. He's Mr. Whitecaps.

Oh, wow. You are full of dad jokes today, Larry. Thank you. I was working on that the entire interview. Very impressive. Did you watch a lot of the Jays series in Seattle over the weekend? I'd say about half of it. Off and on. And that sort of

encapsulates where you're at on the Jays fandom right now? Probably more than I've watched, mostly. So, this is obvious for Vancouverites, this is always a big weekend, is when the Jays go down to Seattle, a bunch of Vancouverites invade, and Seattle hates it. We're going to have

Softie on the show, Andy. Sorry, is it. We're going to have Softie on the show. Andy, sorry, is it tomorrow we're going to have Softie on to talk about Seattle sports? Is that right? Softie's coming on tomorrow? He is. Yeah, so we'll talk to Softie. Thank you.

Dramatic pause there. Very dramatic. I had a dramatic pause earlier, so it's okay. It was cutting audio, man. Yeah, I glitched out when I had mine. We're going to talk to Softie about it tomorrow, but it was interesting because the broadcast with... Actually, Soft We're going to talk to Softie about it tomorrow,

but it was interesting because the broadcast with... Actually, Softie just wanted to talk about Canucks. Just nonstop? Yeah, yeah. He's an hatred of Tyler Myers. I'm not sure why, but he just only wants to talk Canucks. Well, I do want to ask him about the Kraken and how they've been able to gain any traction,

if they've gained any traction, this offseason with the Montour signing specifically. He's like, the who? Yeah, the what now? Chandler Stevenson? He's like, I kind of heard of him. Well, I'm interested to hear his take on the Jays fans coming down. Because we've heard it from all the Mariners fans, right?

Like, they just hate it. It's the worst thing. And then I'm watching the broadcast, and Shulman and Buck Martinez are like, oh, yeah, they love it down here. There's so much camaraderie. Softie hates it. We've asked him before, and Softie's lost his mind. like oh yeah they love it down here there's so much camaraderie that we've had i know but we've asked him before and softy's lost his mind the way they described it on the on the actual broadcast

was quite funny because it's like oh there are no problems everyone is happy and as a fan we know that it's not the case right so that was because that's what i was wondering i was like what are the vibes going down there because you've got a blue Jays team that is really underperformed. And we talked to Zach Worden earlier about what was going on with the fan base, and he said they're not happy. So you've got a traveling fan base that's going to watch a team that they've been disappointed and underwhelmed by. Then you've got the added angst of Mariners fans having to sit there

and watch all these Blue Jays fans. And Buck, I think he put it at about 50-50 just on an eyeball test. He said a conservative estimate, 50-50. Right. Yeah. So there's that element as well. You've got angry fans mixing with fans that are angry that the angry fans are there. And then

the series was tight. The Jays did, for those that missed it. Run-run games the entire series. Right. And the Jays actually had a comfortable lead on Saturday and then almost managed to blow it, but they didn't. That is not a comfortable lead for these Blue Jays. The M's had a 4-1 lead on Sunday, and then the three-run jack by Springer got them back into it.

The Jays did, and then they won it in 10. And the Mariners stranded, I think it was like 11 runners in the 8th, 9th, and 10th innings combined. The only offense that may be more frustrating to watch than the Blue Jays. Yeah. I'm not saying something. They brought Julio Rodriguez on as a pinch hitter with the bases juiced. Sorry, with runners on second and third, he got plunked.

So it was a whole thing. It was actually a very dramatic end to the series. It was a good ball game. But when they finished it, it was like, Jays won. That's great. And they're still way out of the playoff picture. What does the win mean? It's like that meme, Chris Paul drains the three to cut the lead to 45 or whatever.

That was it. But I will say the fans and attendants got treated in a vacuum. Very exciting weekend of baseball. But I did wonder what the vibes were going to be like. Although apparently yesterday, everyone that went into the attendance had a pretty good time. Especially the visiting fans. Well, the Jays fans always have a good time. It's the Mariners fans who get a little surly, right?

It's their home being invaded. This is true. Let's go down now to San Jose. Big news over the weekend for the Sharks. Macklin Celebrini, the first overall pick at the 2024 NHL draft, signed his entry-level deal. That means he's done a BU. That means he's going to be a full-fledged professional NHL hockey player this fall.

Joining us now to discuss it, Sheng Peng from NBC Sports California. Shark's writer joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Sheng. How are you? Hey, how's it going? We are good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. So the decision, and I'm using air quotes, but not everyone can see me because I'm on the radio, but the decision for Celebrini to turn pro. At the end of the day, was it always going to be this way,

or was there ever actually some doubt that he might return to be you? He said that it was something that he was thinking about, but I never really felt that it was a major question mark. I think that a couple of things that the Sharks had to do here was they did have to show him, I believe, that they were going to be a more competitive team than they were last year.

So I do think that that was a big part of it. And if it was the same looking disaster as last season, then maybe he would have gone back. But I think the Sharks did kind of add some pieces and whatnot to at least make it look a little more passable next year. And so I think that once that was taken care of,

I mean, just for Macklin himself, I think you guys know he's from your area. And so I don't think that the allure of going back to winning a national championship is there necessarily for him because he's not from the U.S. He's not from the Boston area.s he's not from the boston area like say will smith that was right and so yeah so so that part of it i don't think was was was that that big a deal and he already wanted to hope he baked it as the best college

player so i'm not really sure what the college team happened so we talked about this earlier on the show like it's no beating around the bush the sharks were really bad last year 19 wins uh just a litany of blowout losses kind of a forgettable forgettable performance on the ice and it's been a long stretch now without playoff hockey in the bay area and i was wondering about fan apathy and how much celebrini's arrival has changed that because i did notice like a lot of social media posts about the energy around development camp and Celebrini jerseys being sold out. How much energy has the Macklin-Celebrini selection

and the signing of his entry-level deal brought to the Bay Area and reinvigorated the Sharks fan base? Oh, it's a very real thing. Just for example, last year they had a good turnout for this rookie, the developing camp, prospect scrimmage game at the end there. They had a good turnout for this rookie the Belving Camp Prospect scrimmage game at the end there. They had a

good turnout, but tickets were free. This season they had about the same turnout, I would say about $3,000 or so and the tickets cost $25 to $40. So you had about the same turnout, but tickets cost money this time. Also too, they had a draft party, the night of the draft

and last year I think they distributed, they had a draft party, the night of the draft. And last year, I think they distributed it. It was a free event. Last year, I think they distributed about 5,000 or so tickets. This year, I think 17,000 or so were claimed. And, again, not everybody showed up for that, so I don't want to oversell that. But, still, that is three times the interest right there. And so, yeah, it's a very real thing, I think. What about the additions of the veterans like Barkley Goodrow,

who returns to the Bay Area, Tyler Toffoli, Jake Wallman, and Alexander Wrenberg? Not necessarily high-profile additions, but guys that are, I think everyone knows, are going to make the team better. How much has that pumped a little bit more excitement into what's to come for the Sharks? Maybe not even this year, but make the team better. How much has that pumped a little bit more excitement into what's to come for the Sharks? Maybe not even this year, but in the years following. Well,

Tyler Tavoli is the most expensive free agent, not kind of outside free agent that the Sharks have ever signed in terms of total contract and AAV, you know, guys like Eric Carlson, that Dave East, I know those are all free agents. And so Tavoli is the largest outside free agent contract that they've signed. He's a real sniper, obviously. You guys know that. He's scored over 20 goals eight times.

And, yeah, bringing a familiar face back like Barkley could grow, I think that is something that doesn't hurt either. I mean, I think the hype, though, is driven by Celebrini, but it definitely does help. And I think it did help Celebrini's decision, maybe most importantly, that you brought very well-respected veterans in.

And I also think, too, that a couple of guys that they traded for there, Carl Gunstrom and Ty Delandra, just guys that are known for just giving it their all, being workaholics and that sort of thing, right? Really, the Sharks have actually a decent-looking kind of bottom six. I'm not saying that much, but they've had pretty poor kind of lineups. They haven't been very balanced forward group the last few years. They've been very top-heavy. You're Tom Osherto, you're Closet to Torg, you're Timo Meyers.

And so this year they do look like they have some balance in their forward group. We're speaking to Shang Peng from San Jose Hockey Now here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Another thing we talked about last year was how historically bad

that San Jose team was. Did it do any damage locally in terms of fan apathy or people tuning out that they were designed to

be bad, but I felt like the dismissal of David Quinn was not like, okay, we can be bad, but we can't be that bad.

Is that a fair assessment or is that off well it did damage to my love of the game so i'll tell you that but yeah no absolutely uh uh i i think that it did kind of with with quinn i think it was one of those situations where yeah we can be bad we can't be that bad of course i think that it started a question how much of that was quinn's fault because he was given a very very i think poorly constructed roster by mike rear i when we look at it right now in terms of the fan apathy part of it i think that we see that that it is sort of elastic though that i think that if they had kept going along this way if maybe they

didn't win the number one pick if and you know a lot of ifs here but if they had kept going along this way. Maybe they didn't win the number one pick. And, you know, a lot of ifs here, but if they had kind of continued along this way, for sure I think there's a threat that you could really kind of nuke some of the fan base right there, right? But obviously, though, you win the number one pick and you make sort of, I guess, sensible additions here, right? You add a score. You add a lot of kind of hard-to-play-against attitude

that you didn't have last year. And things should be at, I don't know, they're not going to make the playoffs probably, but it should be a lot more competitive. So with Celebrini and Will Smith, two highly touted prospects down the middle, what do you think the plan will be as the season opens in October? Is it, you know, put them in, throw them in the deep end,

make them your first and second line centers, and load them up with minutes? Or do you think that they'll be sheltered a little bit more? I think they'll be sheltered a little bit, and this is to my career's credit and the staff's credit, that they've added a lot of players that they already have guys who can play center, pre-established guys like Mikhail Granlin, Nico Sturm. And so you have guys already there.

A guy like Mikhail Granlin can still put up points like he did last year, and he's a good example for the young kids. But also the guys they brought in, Gaudreau and Delandria, they have the ability to play center. They play a lot of center in their lives too. And so there's going to be a lot of kind of switchability in position. And so that's going to help a lot of kind of switchability and position and so that's going to help so maybe celebrating wolf center but if you have a winger next to them that's experienced and who also knows how to play center defensively that's going to be

kind of a bit of a way to ease ease uh these these guys into into the challenge of playing center in the national hockey league and so yeah so i think in that sense they've done a good job of the kind of players they added. Obviously, Wenbrook, too, and Logan Couture, if he can be healthy. Final question for you before we let you go. Which California team

finishes higher in the standings at the end of this season, San Jose or Anaheim? Oh, that's a good question. I have not been liking what Anaheim has been doing so much the last year or two, but I'm still going to go with Anaheim for now.

Shang, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy some well-deserved time off this summer, and we'll slurker back when we get close to the start of next season. Absolutely. I'll talk to you guys soon. Thanks, Shang.

Appreciate it. That's Shang Peng from San Jose Hockey Now here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Did you say we'll slurkle back? Probably. Probably. San Jose Hockey when? Now. Oh, now. Kitech! Not now.

It's not San Jose Hockey later. It's San Jose Hockey. We'll slurkle back later. As I slurkle my words. I like that. That's a good word. Slurkle back later. Hosting solo is more difficult than I remember it being. How's it going, Alfred? It's fine.

It's fine. I got one more day of this. You are listening to the Alfred and Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Jason Ruff is vacationing. Alfred's just not going to show up tomorrow.

It'll just be me and Greg the whole time. Switching between serial video games and Korean baseball. You know what? It is difficult because you do a lot of talking. Of course.

Consecutively. And it's also jumping between having a casual conversation with someone and then trying to go to your pre-scripted reads and goodbyes. Also, this time of year is so many different styles of sports, right? Because you can't just lean on hockey the entire time. Okay, but... The off-season, and I'm actually very impressed with the listeners.

Nobody's really complained about this. People have been pretty on board with us trying to cover the gamut of sports topics that we can. Yeah. You know, run the gamut and talk about a bunch of different leagues and sports and events, and people seem to be digging it, and that's cool because this is the off-season, right? This is summer sports.

This is what you got to do. I also like to challenge myself from time to time. So hosting is a challenge. I don't know how much I'm living up to the challenge, but it seems like it's going moderately fine. Do you slurkle these days on your calendar? Slurkle gets the square. We're going to run with this for another 30 minutes, you guys. You better like this. We got 26 minutes of slurkle gets the square we're gonna run with this for another 30 minutes you guys you better like we got 26 minutes of slurkle bits that we need to get through before we're done um okay dunbar lumber text line is

650 650 let us know what you learned someone just said dang beat me to it Slurkle. That's a good text. That came in. My favorite band is a perfect slurkle. Yes. That is a good band. Dunbar-Lumber text line is 650-650. If you have what we learned that don't involve mocking one of the three or four egregious errors I've made this morning, feel free to send them in. What did you learn? We'll circle them.

Okay, A-Dog. It's not bad. If you want to weigh in, Delmar Lumber text line is 650-650. The hashtag is WWL. What did you learn over the last 72 hours in sports? A lot of footy stuff. There was the baseball. The Jays won their series down in Seattle.

BC Lions got a big win over the Hamilton Tiger Cats in Hamilton on Sunday. Anything else we might have missed? Anything else you want to weigh in on? We'll do some What We Learns on the other side, and then we'll turn it over to the humanoids. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet

650. Hey, it's Big Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets weekdays 3 to 4 on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd I say? Talk to the audience.

Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show. 831 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

No Brough today, though. He is off gallivanting through Europe. Swircling through Europe, if you will. Slurpling all the sides. I'll never let this down. No. And that's after having a gigantic glitch earlier in the show. Yeah.

Here comes the tune. Ready? Halvin Brougham 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 that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. It is what we learn time.

Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at camp-Pound.com today. Adog, I asked at the break, I said, who's got what we learned? So let's really bring it home here. Last half hour of the program, swirkle the wagons, let's get it done here. And Adog stepped up to the plate. He said, yeah, you know what?

I got what we learned. So Adog, what did you learn over the last 72 hours? Doesn't even have to be about sports. I learned that I am actually interested in a movie about F1 racing. As somebody that's not into racing at all. It's the Zoom Zoom sport to me. Joseph Kosinski, who made Top Gun Maverick, which was awesome,

is making an F1 movie called F1 with Brad Pitt. And it's cost $300 million, which is insane. That was just the budget to come up with the title. Already one of the most expensive movies ever made. And I want to say it comes out... Actually, I forget what time.

It comes out sometime next year. Forget the date. You can Google it. But the trailer just came out for the movie yesterday. I saw the trailer. And it looks really cool. It looks absolutely fantastic. So I'm really stoked for that movie.

And I learned that F1 is getting me excited. Okay, moot cow. Laddie, you got anything for us? I just circled it on my calendar. Laddie does not have anything for us. Slurkle gets the square. Okay, fire up the matrix. Sprint out some of these humanoid submissions.

As always, we got to play the drop. Oh, my God. We're having a fire. June 27, 2025, by the way, is the to play the drop. Oh my God! We're having a fire! June 27th, 2025, by the way, is the date for F1. So slurple that date on your calendar. June 27th, 2025. That's like literally 12 months from now.

Are you still filming it as we speak? Yeah, they're writing the script right now. You're in pre-production. That's pretty impressive. Okay, we fired up the matrix. Basketball Phil, with an early what we learned on the heels of our conversation earlier about Canada basketball. If you missed it, the qualifying for the Olympics is now done over the weekend. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greece qualified going into Canada's group.

So, too, did Spain. Traditional European powerhouse. Traditional global powerhouse. Ranked second in the FIBA rankings. They joined Canada and Australia in the group. Basketball, Phil writes, hashtag WWO, what we learned, officially the group of death for Canada basketball

in the Olympics. Second ranked Spain, fifth ranked Australia, 14th ranked Greece and Giannis. I say bring it on. We have the talent to beat all these teams. I'll say this. If Canada is able to navigate its way through the group and emerge victorious,

I believe it's the top two. And then some of the highest ranked third place teams also qualify. They will be battle tested and battle hardened for the remainder of the tournament. For those of you that don't know much about basketball at the Olympics, it's a ridiculously tough tournament to qualify for. It is far different from the World Cup of basketball, which has way more teams and way more paths of entry.

This is a small tournament. The groups are loaded with talent. And as we were discussing earlier on the show, this might be the greatest international basketball tournament ever. I know people will point to the 92 summer games in Barcelona where the dream team showed up and it was real water, like landmark moment for international basketball, but that tournament wasn't competitive. And in past tournaments where it has been competitive, it's often been the case that the U S underwhelmed and underperformed, and that's why it was competitive.

This could be a case where the U.S. is sending an actual dream team, and they will be pushed by the likes of Canada, maybe a Spain. France looks like they're going to be a very dynamic team with Wemby and Rudy Gobert. You've got a German

team that won the most recent FIBA World Cup. You've got a Ser team that won the most recent FIBA World Cup. You've got a Serbian team that has Nikola Jokic. And, of course, he's a multiple NBA MVP. It could be a tournament where the best on best is truly playing at its highest level. And it's very competitive and closely contested games. Very much looking forward to it. You guys got one there?

What do you guys got? Flag, dogs. What do we got in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket? A reminder, text in 650-650 if you want to get in on the action it's your chance to be on the radio hashtag at WWL let us know what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports I went to the Rolling Stones on Friday what we learned I'm 34 and apparently aspire to have the energy of an 80 year old hashtag Jagger that's from Scott yeah the Rolling Stones were here this uh this past weekend And none of us went

I'm not I'm not a big Rolling Stones I know we didn't get into it Last week I mentioned it We briefly discussed it On Friday In terms of like

A bucket list show Or something that you Wanted to go see That you hadn't seen before None of us were very much Into this I thought Andy would be Cause you are a musician

By trade I know I'm not a big Stones guy I mean I don't dislike them I'm just not Have you ever seen them? No And you have no intention Or big Stones guy. I mean, I don't dislike them. I'm just not. Have you ever seen them? No. And you have no intention or desire to?

Not really. I mean, if somebody, don't get me wrong, if I got free tickets or something, I'd obviously go, but they're not. What a ringing endorsement. If I had free tickets, you know what? I would think about showing up. I might slurkle it on my calendar, but I'm not 100% sure. You just had to sneak another slurkle in there.

I respect what you're doing here. It's pretty good. Dog's got some bite. I always slurkle back to these ones. But no, I mean, they're whatever to. It's pretty good. Yeah. Dog's got some bite. Always slurple back to these ones. But no, I mean, you know, they're whatever to me, but I'm glad

people had a good time and I know I've, I know they're considered to be one of the great live acts of all time. So absolutely. If, uh, if you can go see them, you should,

uh, Peter in Cloverdale with a, what we learned hashtag WWE, what we learned Macklin Celebrini leaving BU because he didn't want to bring a championship to Boston

is another sign of his love for Vancouver and as a diehard Canucks fan his hatred for Boston he will be coming home in three years uh I am invested in his trajectory as a San Jose Shark for a number of reasons the least of which is is that he's a local product. And I do wonder, as we saw with Matthew Kachuk and a handful of other younger NHLers that didn't wait to hit unrestricted free agency, if one of these guys that grew up a Canucks fan, I mean, it's Bedard and Celebrini mostly, if they'll ever have the gumption, the intestinal fortitude to force their organization's hands to play for the team they wanted to play for.

To play for their hometown team. Clearly, they wanted to play for the Canucks. Do they not? I do wonder sometimes if your boyhood team, the team you grew up cheering for, if when you become an adult or a young adult in this instance it is like the manifestation of your dream or if it's just like that was what i did as a kid it's not what i'm at it's almost like don't meet your heroes kind of deal right because what if you go to the organization and they treat you terribly or you don't have a good time like i mean it's like a sour your childhood team here's a question for you do you think john

tavara's ever regretted going back to toronto uh i think he may have some regrets but then he gets his paycheck and he's like, yeah, that's fine. I can deal with this. So you get paid an egregious sum of money. You get to play for the team that you had pajamas and bed sheets

as a kid. Grandma gets to come to your games at home. Your home. Yeah. And you fulfilled, in part, something you wanted to do as a kid, even if you don't chase

your childhood dreams as an adult. But there's been no playoff success. There's been an intense amount of pressure, and now that he's in the back end of the contract, he's seen more as a liability. He's getting slandered now. And as an asset. I do wonder if you got him in like a private moment with the truth serum or anything, if he'd be

like, yeah, I'd do it all over again, or yeah, or he would say, no, I shouldn't have gone back to Toronto. You mentioned Celebrini not going back or not going for a second year of college. There was another player that was drafted this past draft by the Flames. I don't know if you saw what went on with him this past week. Did not. He was expected to go to college as well, Michigan.

And he is no longer going all of a sudden. He was taken in the CHL international draft, which they just had. Matt Vagradin is his name. Grindon. And apparently he's not going back for academic reasons. We'll leave it at that. And he was expected to be in Michigan this upcoming year and is now going to be playing in the Quebec League, it looks like.

So some moving and shaking going on in the junior players that were just drafted. Same reason I didn't go back to college that first time. Academic reasons. What are the reasons, Andy? They're academic. Well, there was a lot of hatred. Initially, there was a lot of hatred around like,

well, why is he spurring Michigan like this? But at the end of the day, it sounds like it was Michigan's call. Unsigned texts, but I'm reading it anyway. It must be from Gary. Hashtag WWO, what we learned. AJ's is a good place to watch a soccer game even without a $100 gift card. Ooh, our listenership glomming on to all of our endless praise for AJ's.

And it is rightful praise because it is the best pizza place in the Lower Mainland. I'm going to go on Tuesday, 5 o'clock, Canada, Argentina, Copa America, pizza, beer. The weather's nice. The doors are open. I love going to AJ's. So we'll be there on Tuesday to watch Canada

hopefully, hopefully pull the upset. And it would be... I'll go too if you give me a ride. Okay. Okay, sure. All those listeners are going to track you down now. They know where you are, at what time. I will only be signing autographs from

5 to 5.30. You have to bring your own 8x10 glossy of my face and a sharp one. Man, you're making the rounds, though. You did a school event, and then you did the SEAS event for them. You're just making public appearances everywhere. No, I love people. How many people say this? I love being in public.

Social butterflies. I love talking to people. He's a part of many social slurcles. Oh, my God. I got to connectucks what we learned from Sasha. Very good. Sasha and Darkus North Vancouver. I can't remember if we talked about this. Apologies if we have. But Vancouver

Canucks prospect development camp used the grouse grind as the fitness test as they always do. Aiden Celebrini, oldest brother to Macklin finished third and was beaten by you guessed it, both Sedin twins. We had it as a what we learned on Friday. But we'll do it again. Someone mentioned it.

But this also gets me to relitigate the notion that up until about, I'd say, two years ago when the sun had clearly set, I was of the firm belief that the Sedins were in such good shape and so cerebral as players that they could have come back at any trade deadline and injected life into the team and play like they would have been a very competent fourth line on a team. They could have played, I don't know.

Yeah. Right. Second power play unit. Don't ask too much of them. Now. I think the sun is probably set on that idea, but it's, it's crazy how fit they've gotten.

When you see certain other ex-NHLers who've gone the polar opposite direction. What are you referring to? Some that have second generation namesakes playing. Some NHLers just stop playing and they're like, I'm done with

fitness. Period. I'm embracing retirement. In Alex Ovechkin's case, sometimes while you're still playing. So what's going on there? What is going on? Are those just unfortunate pictures? I don't know. Do people know what we're talking about? There's some pictures. There's one of him playing pickleball

or post-pickleball. From this offseason. Yeah. He just looks huge. Bit of a beer gut going. But just everything. His shoulders look cute. He just looks like a gigantic human.

Like wide, basically the size of a modern refrigerator. Yeah. Like a SpongeBob SquarePants cutout kind of. It's very, very rectangular, I would say. But a thick rectangle with two C's on the thick. And the picture made the rounds because I guess he was playing pickleball and sweating profusely. And they're like, is this an off-season workout or are you just gassed playing pickleball?

It's the first couple weeks of the off-season. We'll give him a break. We'll see what he looks like when he shows up at camp. Justin in East Van with a What We Learned, hashtag WWOWhatWeLearned, Jordan Pickford and his water bottle cheat sheet reminds me of George Costanza writing instructions for the move on his hand.

Yeah, for those that missed this, and the laddy asked earlier, because it was inquisitive for you in the world of goalies. Jordan Pickford, the goalie for the English national team who won the shootout against the Swiss over the weekend, had the tendencies of all the Swiss shooters written on his water bottle. And this is a pretty familiar trend that has picked up over the last few years.

You see the baseball, the outfielders with the little cheat sheets. The cheat cards, yeah. That wasn't something that you saw 20 years ago. Yeah, it goes hand in hand with the rise of advanced metrics and more detailed statistics. It's like, what good is this stuff if we can't use it? And in these particular cases,

it's like, well, it's more of a guide. Like, I don't know if Pickford followed the water bottle rules to a T, but it gives you an indication of where these shooters, like as we said earlier,

oftentimes in these pressure-packed moments, the shooter will just go either to muscle memory or what's gotten me success because my answer was why don't these shooters just make sure they're changing up what they do every single time but you're saying that it's not that easy because they take a lot of shots and it's not easy to keep track of what they're doing all the time right and again oftentimes it's like i've done this before and it has worked there's also the mentality of if i shoot this exactly how i want

to there's no way the goalie can save it even if they get a read on it he knows it's coming i'm gonna beat him high i'm gonna put it in a spot that he just can't physically get to especially a guy like pickford who's shorter than most goalies but if you're the goal and you're forcing a shooter to do that you've almost won at that point i mean that is part of the there's the mental mind games behind like you just sit there and read your water bottle before the shooter. And then he's like, damn.

And just nod profusely. Damn, he's got the water bottle. I know what he's going to do. On sign one, so it must be from Gary, hashtag WWO, what we learned. The bar you have set for your listenership is so low

that a lack of abusive verbal carnage in your inbox is a reason for a collective pat on the back. I'm proud of the listeners today. Yeah, they've really embraced off-season sports radio. back. I'm proud of the listeners today. Yeah. They've really embraced off season sports radio. I'm enjoying it. I do think that there's a couple of things at play here.

One, I don't know how many listeners we have to, I do wonder if there's an acknowledgement that you can't shoehorn in a Canucks conversation right now. Cause nothing's happened. Nothing has happened. Free agency is over a week old. Everyone that's signed has been signed.

Everyone that's done their media has done their media. This is trade speculation at this point. Just to give you guys an idea, we're chasing everyone involved in hockey right now. We have chases out to all 32 teams for general managers and coaches and anyone that's willing to come and discuss

what happened in the offseason, the moves that they made, and what they're looking forward to at the start of next season. So it's not without effort, and it's not without an abundance of chases. A-Dog is doing laps in the yard, just running around trying to get his steps in. Who knew that hockey people took vacation in July? It's crazy.

They all hit the cabin on the same day. First of all, how dare they? They all went to Muskoka. They're all on the road together. Or Kelowna. Right, or Kelowna. Dunbar Lumber text line 650-650. What did you learn over the last 72 hours in sports?

Laddie, what do you got? Pick one out of the in-basket. Give us a what we learned. Go to the flag section. Read away and pick us a what we learned. Again, if you want to get them in Dunbar Lumber text line is 650 650 go what we learned ages is a great place to watch a soccer

game even out without the $100 said that one you did I was gonna say it says grift card yeah was that clever that intentional play there there's no sign on the name. Chris on LTIR in Duncan. Hashtag WWL, what we learned. I learned that Sean White is impervious to the Bruff jinx.

White hit all three of his field goals after Bruff bringing up his streak during a hit last week. That's Chris on LTIR. And he pointed at the camera and said, that's for you, Bruff, after each one of them. So he is now a perfect 31 in a row, which dates back to last season, hitting three on the weekend in the win over the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

I will ask his coach, Rick Campbell, tomorrow about the prowess of his kicker. He set the BC Lions all-time record, passing, I believe it was McCallum's record from 2011 for consecutive field goals for the BC Lions. Lions got a big game this Friday, or Saturday, sorry, 4.30 at BC Place against the Saskatchewan Rockets. They just had to do it to my Tiger Cats.

You know, they just had to pummel them. Your beloved Tiger Cats. Not a fan of those alternate jerseys, by the way. They just say the hammer. You don't like those? I like the logo. Tiger Cats have a nice logo. One thing they have going for them is the logo.

Noah from East Van. What I learned with Macklin Celebrini playing next season, Sharks versus Blackhawks will be must watch TV. The North Shore has their Sid and McKinnon in Bedard and Celebrini. Yeah, I mean, this year if you'd watched

especially when Bedard was hurt, Sharks versus Blackhawks was a toilet bowl game. It was a race to the bottom in the standings. Great hockey, though. Yeah, to see who was going to be worse. But yeah, the two North Van products. Did you see? Someone had video of, I think it was Bedard's team

at that brick tournament for 9- and 10-year-olds. Your favorite tournament. I'm not going there. I'm not going to go there. But I know of the brick tournament. I got a bunch of buddies who kids play elite level hockey at that age group that have gone. Well, they're all going to the NHL then. Right.

And that's the thing. It's the next logical step for a 10-year-old is to play in the brick and then go to the NHL. But Bedard's team, I mean, I forgot what an electric factory that tournament is. It's got like thousands of fans. The kids are basically treated like NHLers. It's rather amusing to watch it go down. And they're playing it in the middle of a mall. Yeah, that's right.

It is quite a look. The whole scene is pretty crazy. I think they do it for the attention, right? That's why they want to do it. I got what we learned dating back to our conversation about the cards and the cheat sheets that athletes are using, remember when Alejandro Kirk lost his cheat card at the plate, and they accused the Rays of stealing it.

All leagues tracked their opposition tendencies. Wasn't that Kiermaier? Yeah, well, I say it wasn't an accusation. They literally saw him get up from the slide, pick up the paper, and walk off with it. And now Kiermaier's on the Jays, which is a whole fun, full slurkle moment. Very nice. Very well done. What we learned from Dan, I don't want to be that guy, but the Lions game on Saturday is at 4.

Halford said 4.30. Are we confirmed on that? Or are we just taking Dan's word for it? It's a 15 minute anthem. You guys ragged the puck there for a moment. You're looking up the... 4 o'clock. Dan is right. I kept saying 4.30.

That's on me. Add it to the list. Slurkle that one on the list of errors for today. See, I can do it too. It's not as funny, though, when you're making fun of yourself. It's better when we're picking on you. Oh, we have to here. That's what we do.

Unsigned text. Hashtag WW. What we learned. What I learned is the Blue Jays have two home ballparks. Blue Jays fans invaded T-Mobile Park over the weekend and cheered the Jays to a rare series win.

Even when the team's down in the dumps, they still show up. Dan and, again, we said Dan and Buck graciously estimated it was a 50-50 split, which I'll actually give people credit for because I wouldn't be surprised

if some people saw how the Jays season was going and either flipped their tickets or were like, ah, I'm going to pass on this one. They said the last day there was notably less people in general at the game, but I think that's just because people have to get home. And a lot of people travel from further than Vancouver to go to those games. A lot of people from Saskatchewan and Alberta.

It takes a while to get back to those places. Okay. Haas has texted this one in a few times. I'll answer it now. AUA. It's an Ask Us Anything on a Monday, whatever. Since this is now a footy show, I thought I would try asking this question again.

My family is from Hamburg in Germany, and I follow FC St. Pauli. St. Pauli is promoted to the Bundesliga next season. I plan to go for a visit and go to a game in Hamburg. Which Bundesliga team should I see them play? The biggest one in the Bundesliga is Bayern Munich. I know one team specifically.

It's quite obvious, right? If you want to see something really cool, now you're going to be seeing it Leipzig. Oh, I know two. RB Leipzig. RB Leipzig. They're part of the Red Bull family of teams. Dortmund has amazing traveling fans. They have this gigantic yellow wall because their colors are yellow and black.

And they're a very, very boisterous, loud, passionate supporter group. So I think that would be a pretty cool one to go see as well. Dortmund also advanced to the Champions League final this year. Is it like an actual wall that they carry around, or do they just form a wall? Just a human wall, Andy. Oh, okay. I thought it was like a real chunk of wall. Germans have a very conflicted history with walls. That's true.

Yes. Well. So it's just a human wall. They stopped building them a while ago. That's true, yeah. They're really fast. You guys are good at this. But yeah, so anyway, the supporters group travels amazingly well,

and it's very, very, the visual impact of seeing it, because the yellow really stands out. It's bold. It's aggressive. So that would be my choice. I mean, not crazy choices. Go see Bayern Munich, who are the class of the Bundesliga, or go see Dortmund.

Okay, the music means we got to get out of here for a day. Thank you all for listening. Thank you all for contributing. And thank you all for hanging in there during the incessant footy talk. It was a lot of fun for me. I hope it was kind of fun for you. I will be back tomorrow solo. And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

Josh Elliott-Wolf is going to join me as the co-host for this show. But signing off for now, we got to go. I have been Mike Halford. He has been A-Dog. He has been Laddie. This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We'll see you next time.