Halford & Brough in the Morning - JC Abbott Talks Lions + What We Learned

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

In hour three, Jason Brough and guest host Jamie Dodd chat with 3 Down Nation's JC Abbott (1:50) about a dominant BC Lions win over the Elks yesterday, 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.

Music Welcome back to Halford & Brough, your Sportsnet 650iM Jamie Dodd, filling in for Halford today. Final hour of the show, Halford & Brough is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit sans-trustee.com. This hour of Halifax and Brough is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit Campbell-pound.com today.

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I didn't realize I was stepping on your toes by doing the Power West read as well. And that's been added to your portfolio. Yeah. Interesting. I'm so busy. I was going to say, look at you taking on more work, taking work and reads off of Alford shoulders. I'm going to this thing, it's right in front of me. It's outrageous. And all the words right for the most part.

650 650 is the Dunbar Lumbertex line and what we learned is coming up at 830 so get those last minute submissions in hashtag WWL what you learned in the last 72 hours in sports and part of what we learned is the BC Lions are back to 500 now joining us to chat about that and their win over Edmonton from Three Down Nation he is JC Abbott. JC thank you for doing this today how are you? I'm great guys thanks for having me on. Yeah it's our pleasure so big win comfortable win for the Lions over the Elks and they're back to 500 after that much less comfortable win over Montreal previously. Did the results on the weekend tell us more about the Lions or the Elks? I think it told us a little bit more about the Elks than it did the Lions.

But that's not to say it wasn't impressive from the Lions, right? You needed to see sort of a proof that week one wasn't a fluke and that they could be dominant when they needed to and they showed that right. They controlled this game and in all three phases I thought there was some really tremendous things shown on offense on defense even some unexpected flashes on special teams that are really really heartening coming out of this contest. Unfortunately it came against an opponent that in a lot of ways, you know, was being themselves as well, right?

And has struggled for a long time. And I have to admit, I'm really concerned about this Edmonton Elks team. I knew it would take a little bit of time for their free agents to mesh, but it's taken a lot longer than it should. And what was supposed to be on paper, one of the best defensive units in the league comes into this game and gives up 519 net yards of offense. They only control the ball for about 17 minutes. That's just an extremely poor performance from the Green and Gold.

I actually got concerned for Ottawa during that game because I was like, wait a minute, Ottawa lost to this team. Yeah. I mean, by the powers of, uh, of association, right. That it reflects poorly on them as well. And, and they're struggling right now. Um, right. You know, I simply, I don't have an explanation for, for this Edmond

and Elsteen because theoretically they've got the talent, right? And you can look at Trey Ford. He seemed like he had improved the last two weeks with taking steps and in the right direction. But essentially what happened last night is the lion said, okay, we'll try and have you beat us with your arm. And he couldn't do it, right? There were opportunities down the field, a couple of buffs and coverages where he just outright missed open

receivers. And that can't happen at the professional level. So I don't know if it's time to start talking about a quarterback controversy. In Edmonton, I know the leash for Ford is extremely long. I know that they want him in there at multiple levels of the organization, including ownership. But if you can't hit those basic shots consistently, you're gonna have a hard time winning in professional football.

So a three and three start for the BC Lions doesn't sound all that great, but I'm deciding to look on the positive side of things because they were looking at one and four heading to Montreal. They get Nathan Rourke back. He wasn't a hundred percent, but they get him back. They get the win in Montreal and then they dominate the Edmonton Elks in all facets and Nathan

Rourke once again looks good. So what are the Lions if Nathan Rourke is healthy? Are they a pretty good team? The Lions are Nathan Rourke. That's my answer. There is a team without Nathan Rourke and then there is the team with him and when they have him he can do things that no other quarterback in the CFL can. His ability to read defenses and make quick decisions is second to none. He elevates that entire squad. Now, I think the flaws that you see when he's not in the lineup and not able to do what he was able to do are real, right? And they're going to come back to bite the lines at certain

points down the line and into the postseason potentially. But they have the ultimate equalizer. They have the guy who can drag them on his back. And when he's clicking, that means that the run game can click. And that means that the defense has the pressure taking off them and they don't have to deal with defending the run because the other team can't run the ball when you've got a team jumping out in front offensively so it all works in cohesion that was the Lions plan they always knew that he was going to be the guy the center of everything as long as he's healthy they will be okay. If you were to pull a hundred CFL fans and they're honest fans and smart fans, what percentage would say that Nathan Rourke is the best quarterback in the league?

If they were honest CFL fans, it should be a hundred percent. Right. Like in my mind, it's not particularly close.. Now there's some good quarterbacks in this league. Um, don't get me wrong on that. And we all know what happened last year and his struggles coming back from the NFL, but he's just different guys. That's the reality of it. Uh, I know when we had to do the voting for the TSN top 50 players or he was my top quarterback. Um, he was, you know,

some of my colleagues at three our nation, their top quarterback. He is a different beast and a different animal than anybody else in the league in terms of what he's able to do. And he's not even fully healthy yet. And he is still coming out here and completing 86.5% of his passes for 345 yards and looking the way he does. He is that guy. And if fans are really honest and they don't use a team-based bias or hold the NFL time against him, they'll realize that he is the number one quarterback in the

league right now. So the Lions have a pretty tough schedule ahead of them. They host the rough riders on Saturday. They've got a back to back against Hamilton and Hamilton's over 500 for the first time in a while. Then it's another game against Montreal, Toronto. You know, it doesn't really seem to, to let up until a back to back against Montreal, Toronto. It doesn't really seem to let up until a back-to-back against those red blacks. Let's focus on Saskatchewan first.

This feels like a real prove-it game for the Lions. Mike Hichsens It really does, right? Saskatchewan's already beaten them once. It wasn't particularly pretty, but again, Jeremiah Mazzoli was at the helm and that's a very different Lions team. So now what can you do with Nathan Vork? And because the riders lost this week and are now at four and one, right, you can not pass them in the standings because you'll have more losses, but you can tie them in terms of wins. If you beat them in this game. That could be huge in terms of the West Division standings and yeah it'll be a tough slate going forward don't don't get me wrong there but the West Division matchups are the crucial ones because

there are tie breaks involved and and the season series can be on the line. They really need to make up ground there and beating Saskatchewan would be, in my mind, a critical, critical win for the line if they want to make it into the playoffs. Are you surprised that the Stampeders are off to a good start? I'm not surprised they're off to a good start. I am surprised at just how good the start was. I knew this team would be improved over last year. You know, the moves they made bringing in Vernon Adams Jr. who I think is a top three quarterback in that same

echelon with Nathan Rourke. You know, bringing in somebody like Flora and Oro Malade on defense to beef up that pass rush like those were moves that were going to elevate that team but they completely revamped that defense and some of their young players are just looking sensational. They've got a real find in guys like Jalen Hutchins at Defensive Tackle and Clarence Hicks at Defensive End, who I thought were dominant in this game against the Ryders. And then they've got kids stepping up on offense like Damian Alford, the first overall pick. I had a little bit of skepticism in the CFL draft just because I didn't know if what he did successfully in college at Syracuse, he was

going to be able to do the same thing in the CFL, which was essentially just run fades on the outside and be a size speed mismatch. Well, turns out, at least against Saskatchewan, that's the only thing he had to do because he had 156 yards and two touchdowns essentially just running that same route. So they have guys stepping up, they have young players that they've found. I think it's a really impressive turnaround from that much maligned stampedeers front office. Finding young players in the CFL, do we talk about that enough, the importance of that?

It just seems to me sometimes that scouting and recruiting is a pretty tough job because these teams don't have unlimited resources to scour the continent for players. It really is an underrated and little talked about part of the business, right? But you can't win unless you find those elements,

unless you draft well on the Canadian side, which some teams simply don't, right? And if you find American talent, which is harder and harder to do these days and harder and harder for teams to attract guys to come up north, right? So you're dealing with bare bones scouting departments, far fewer resources than you used to have. Guys are working long hours. They're scouring entire nations by themselves and they still find some of these gems. I think it's a real credit to some of the football minds in the league when, when we're able to discover these players and when you have good scouts and you

have good personnel people, it can really, really elevate your football team and create a transformation overnight. And I think they've shown that specifically on the defensive side of the ball in Calgary with these young players who maybe joined the team late last season, but are now taking that step that you often see in the second year and proving why they were brought in. Well, JC, thanks for joining us today. Your latest article, recapping the game from Edmonton is up on Three Down Nation. I encourage everyone to read that big game for the Lions on Saturday against Saskatchewan.

Hopefully there's a good crowd at BC Place and I look forward to chatting about it with you. Yeah, thanks for having me. I guess that is J.C. Abbott from Three Down Nation joining us, Chet and CFL and the Lions who are back to 500 and some very, very strong praise for Nathan Rourke from J.C. Abbott. And it does feel like since his return and then there was obviously he was out of the lineup again earlier this year, we've kind of been waiting for a run of that.

The Rourke magic, you know what I mean? Like to get back to that level, what it was initially, if he is at that level and can string together, you know, a couple of months at that level, I think people are going to be forgetting about the one in three start in the three game losing streak for the Lions. Because as JC was saying there, that's a completely different team, a completely different beast for the rest of the CFL to deal with. Yeah. He is the key to the team though, the way JC plays.

Nathan Mark is the BC Lions. Get your What We Learns into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650 650. We'll do our What We Learns now. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. I learned that Chelsea won the Club World Cup

and Sat will be so happy because that's his team. But maybe he won't be thrilled that it was an England player, Cole Palmer, that scored two goals for Chelsea, who pulled off a rather big upset of PSG. Now this tournament got mixed reviews. A lot of people thought it was just a cash grab. A lot of people didn't like the Americanization of soccer. And I know that the final, which was in New York, had like a halftime show. Like it had all these things, right?

Like, and people that regularly watch like soccer were like, why is the game, like the game is supposed to start eight minutes ago. Apparently all the PSG players were walking up to the field because like in soccer, it's like the game starts. Game starts. Game time seven, kickoff is at seven. The halftime, you go to the bathroom, that's it.

You know, maybe get yourself a drink or something like that. And then you come back and you watch. And I think they had, I want to say they had a Coldplay performance. Incredible. Or something like that. It was, it was, it was a big band. Anyway, the president was there as well. Watching with the head of FIFA too, you know, terrific guys.

Yeah. Yeah. And, anyway, so some people were like, eh, this is a little much, like we're already asking these players to play a lot. Do we really need this competition? But to be fair, some of the games were pretty entertaining. So, you know, if you can get Chelsea and PSG in a final, I think a lot of people will watch that. But congratulations to Chelsea. They beat, you know, arguably the best club team in the world in PSG 3-0 in the club ruled cup final. It feels like a lot of people were won over by the tournament and that there was

some genuine excitement for the final. And you had two legit, you know, high profile teams that have global following. Like that is the players were trying 100, but like, it's so funny, but like in these events, you know, whether it's four nations or where it's, whether it's an all star game on the other hand It's like, you know what the key is if the players try If they care that's the only you know, that's the only difference between Preseason hockey and regular season hockey. It's not it's not the quality of the rosters

I mean, obviously that's different some games as well, but it's just hard to guys care Do they want to win? Does everyone really want to win this game? If the answer is yes, it's going to be entertaining. And for me, I think, I personally think that money helps. Like you can, sure. You can juice it for, for, for, to, to use a trans term. Like you can throw money at it and the players will be like, Oh, I guess I care

about it, but I don't, I don't, I think that's a very minor part of it. It has to be, there has to be a spectacle. And there was a good crowd for some of these games. And there has to be that feeling like if you're Chelsea, like, oh, okay, this matters. Cause we're playing PSG. And regardless of whether, whatever this tournament is,

like we want to win this game, right? And I think there were a lot of players maybe from South America, from some of the Brazilian teams that were like, yeah, I care about this. Like these are the clubs we hear about all the time. I want to go and try and beat those teams. I want to show them that we're at their level. So yeah, what we learned, it matters when players try.

Yeah. Give us a moocow on that. All right. My what we learned is about the Major League Baseball All-Star festivities, which, of course, get going today with the home run Derby, which you can listen to here on Sportsnet 650. Nothing beats that. Listening to the home run derby always love that That one's gone Another home run this button to left centerfield now that one Wasn't a home run that was felled off. I do love I gotta say I love the home run derby watching the home run derby

He's really and that oh man still oh wait. You got something against Dingers. Come on. You can't appreciate guys Just smashing the ball Fantastic is uh is is Vlad E participating? I don't know no no. How's it? Okay? What are your house? Vlad? He doing how's he doing? I know you're excited about the the day and you should be someone texted in angry about him early cuz he like hits into a Lot of double plays or whatever I mean this has been Vlad E's number one issue But he hits it hard into those double-l place smashes the ball into the ground when he is Underperforming and I don't want to like

Crush him here because his numbers just purely as a as a hitter are not bad. Like they're totally fine They're not MVP or anything like that, but he's not he's not having like a disastrous season He needs to hit for more power. He needs to hit out of the park more You'd love to see him get up to that 30 homerun mark. He's only at 12 right now. But we've also seen him get hot and really go on tears. And I wouldn't shock me at all if he does that. But the biggest thing, I mean,

everyone's obsessed with launch angle now. And Vladdy, just for whatever reason, never has consistently been able to get the ball up in the air. It's a lot of ground balls, really hard hit ground balls. He always is among the leaders in exit below. What is his average launch angle? What, do you know his?

I do not know it off the top of my head. I'm looking at the odds for the home run derby. Cal Raleigh is actually, I find that name hard to say by the way. I get it. Cal, do you go Cal Raleigh? Yeah. Cal Raleigh? Cal Raleigh? Sure. Cal Rale you go Cal Raleigh? Yeah. Or Cal Raleigh?

Raleigh? Cal Raleigh? Sure. Cal Raleigh. Cal Raleigh, I don't know. Why would his parents name him that knowing the difficulty of it? It's very, why not?

Cal Raleigh? Cal Raleigh. Yeah, I know. I sound like my dad saying pasta. Or like, we're going out for tacos. You have to pause in between the two words. It doesn't work. You can't name a kid something where you have to pause.

Right? You're like, Cal Raleigh? Yeah. Anyway, apparently he's the favorite at plus 260 and they've got his average launch angle at 24.8 degrees. All right, let's see. Now, O'Neill Cruz is also in the home run derby his average launch angle is 8.7 degrees that seems like a sizeable difference. Yeah, I don't understand this Wildly low to me. I would say Working for him James would Vlade is 7.4 Wow James would he's on the Nationals his average launch angle is five point nine degrees So flotties better than him But like what but can you have a too high a launch angle?

Did you see all that's pretty you can is this all is this all is this all your hits? How do they calculate this? Yes all your hits. So sometimes your is Cal rally Cal rally I'm really popping it up? But he's like, this is a thing guys have started to adjust their swing. And typically what you see is if you're taking the big upper cuts for the launch angle, you are, you're popping up, but you're also striking out a lot. Like you are really like, this was like Joey Gallo. Uh, you know, all these are outdated references now, but Chris Davis, right? They had this like where they're like, they hit it it's going a long way

But they're also striking out a lot so it like for Vlad I mean he always hits for average and that's part of it He's taking more of a level swing. So he's hitting a lot of ground balls line drives It saps his power a little bit. There's a happy medium. I think he could find where it's like, okay I'm hitting a few more home runs and and fly balls and and you know high line drives here Without striking out all the time and all that anyways Some like lukewarm on flooding my what we learned is Brewers rookie pitcher Jacob Mizarowski Set a record now. He's gonna be pitching for the at least in the game for the National League

Least experience fewest games played ever for a major league baseball all-star. He has started five games in major league baseball, pitched 25 and two thirds innings and he is on the all-star team. He's the already see loves of major and the guy who had the record was Paul Skeens from last year. And I think he had like 11 starts. So this is less than half of what skeins had even, which was already the record. And major league baseball is like, you know what? This guy's six, seven. He throws really hard. People want to see him throw some heat. Let's put him in the game. Five starts in major league baseball. And he's on the all star team. You know, you like the home run

Derby. I think, I mean, this isn't a hot take or anything, but major league baseball still has easily the best all star game. It's not even close. And it, cause guys care. Well, it's easy to care. It's easy to care. And it... Because guys care. Well, and it's easy to care. It's easy to care. You don't have to go out and like body check guys. You're not putting your health on the line to go up and try to get a hit off Paul Skeens. It's like, yeah, of course I'm going to try to get a hit.

And Skeens is like, well, what am I going to pitch an inning here? Yeah, exactly. So I'm going to try my hardest. I'm not going to like lob the ball in. I'll just like pitch normally for an inning and then leave. So it's the only one where you come close to like capturing the normal competitive spirit of the sport in the all-star game format give us a new cow there texture pointing out if Cal Riley is difficult just call him by his legal name big

dump big dumper yeah true which was his birth name it is very alice the nickname it's Dunbar lumber vibes vibes. It's what it's giving me. That one took me a while. That one took me a long time as well. Man, I said Lumbar a lot. Dunbar Lumbar. I don't care for the big dumper nickname. I know he didn't either. And so I'm watching a broadcast.

I don't care for the big dumper. I think I was watching the Yankees Mariners game and they were talking about it and the camera panned right in on the big dumper. And like even the broadcasters were like, I don't think we need to be this tight on the shot. But like it was just like I had 20 seconds. I'm not joking.

I'm 20. I'm like, I'm my, I don't know if I can watch this baseball game anymore. And I was like, it is pretty big. I mean, I get where it came from. I get it, but if you're- Did you find the camera slowly zooming in on it over the course of like 30 seconds? It zoomed in, then it zoomed out,

and then they kept talking, and you know, the producer's like, zoom in again. And it zoomed in again. Close up shot of Dumper. And I'm sitting there watching, I'm like, okay, well, I can't look away from this. This is the decision that they made, and they'm like, okay. Well, I can't I can't look away from this This is this is this is this is the decision that they made and they're like, you know We didn't like the nickname at first, but it is pretty big. It is definitely I saw someone point this out on social media

It definitely has like a role player nickname vibe. You know what? I mean not like potential MVP Yeah, but now he's stuck with it right? Well, you're one of the best hitters in baseball Call them the big dumper Get those butt shots in the notes for the producers of the home run. I'm happy for him. He's having an incredible He's out of his mind incredible. It's been phenomenal to watch you guys have a what we learned to share here I did on the other side. We'll do it on the other side of the Get Your Web of Learns into the Dunbar Lumbar Lumber Text Line 650650. You're listening to the Alfred and Bruff Show

on Sportsnet 650. ["Sportsnet 650"] 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. on the show.

Welcome back to Half of the year, sports net six, 50 final segment of the show. I'm Jamie Dodd filling in for Halford. Half of the breath brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit Sands Dash trustee.com. This hour of health and the brough is brought to you by Campbell and pound real estate appraisers trust the expertise of Campbell and pound. Visit Campbell dash pound.com today.

And it is time for what we learn. So you can keep sending yours in. Six 56 50 is the Dunbar lumbered text line. Hashtag WWL. What you've learned in the last 72 hours in sports. Let's go right. Well, actually, before we go into the inbox, let's go to the dogs or at least a dog and basketball. Ben, do you guys have what we learned to share with us? I'll go first here. I learned that Joe Pavelski became the third NHL hockey player of all time

behind Dan Quinn and Mario Lemieux to win the American Century Championship in golf. I call it the Stormy Daniels Invitational. Perfect. Okay. Perfect. All right. He carded a 68.

It was a Stableford format and he had a walk off eagle putt. That's got to feel pretty good. To clinch the victory. He's also come second the last couple of years, I think, so finally got over the hump. And Adog was saying it earlier, he might be the best golfer of all time for hockey players. Dan Quinn was really good.

Okay. Yeah. He used to be always in contention at that tournament. Um. What a fun event. Yeah. And there were some interesting rumors about Dan Quinn and Mary LeMieux at that tournament, but I won't get into those now.

All right. What a tease. Oh, Google them up. I couldn't possibly imagine what that means, but Dan Quinn won five times between 1992 and 2012. He was dominant. Okay. Dominant at the American century, apparently. Do you know that those guys actually have to

determine whether or not they want to turn pro or remain an amateur? Like that, like. For this event. For this event. Wow. Yeah. Is that for the money reasons?

Yeah, yeah. Cool. Like Pavelski is, is now deemed like a professional golfer. Amazing. Like I don't think he could enter. Oh really? He couldn't.

Like his local club championship? Yeah. yeah he's not he's not an amateur anymore wow so he's no longer eligible for the BCM I asked him this or been this earlier do you think we'll ever see an NHL or play in the PGA and play well like like down the road sometime like could that ever happen no no be an NHL or that's good enough. No, it would be It would be like Senior the senior PGA sure, but it does what other sports does it well like it like, you know Jordan baseball NBA like a guys of the switch

I know I know I know but I'm just saying you've seen professional athletes switch sports, right? It was rare There were multi-sport athletes what I could see is like if Joe Pavelski retired and was like I love golf I'm pouring all my energy now. Could he make like the senior PG? Or qualify for the US senior open. Sure, something like that. But I think doing it on a week, like most of those guys on the senior tour

were stars on the PGA tour. Totally. Of course, of course. But that's the only, I'm just trying to think of like, if you were obsessed with the idea. Yeah, I'm just wondering if there would ever be an NHL or good enough. And you're like, okay, I could work towards that.

Sure, Tony Romo came relatively close to qualifying for the US Open, I think. Very close. He was very close. What I would love to see is an NHL player who also at the same time is a multi-sport athlete and plays golf at the same time because most of the tournaments are in the summer. And then he plays for the Canucks and game one of the playoffs come around and we're like, well, I'm going play it national in the Masters. Yeah See you guys like it's June and I know that I know we got a big game, but I'm off to the US

There was that ref to from is he local Garrett rank he nearly qualified for the US Open as well I I think it right I think he's an on Okay, he's really I'm winning you guys over to my idea now slowly. No, I think it's possible for maybe to qualify or to come close. I understand it's highly improbable, but nevertheless a cool story. It's also like if you're doing it, it was one thing at Deion Sanders, he was playing for a team for both. So it's like okay, you've got commitments to your team. If you were just an NHL player leaving your team for an individual sport

It's like yeah, this tournament is way more important to me That'd be pretty tough give us a moocall on that one basketball bed What do you have for us? NHL just emailed out that the season officially begins Tuesday, October 7th with opening night triple header on ESPN Sportsnet TVA Sports. It features the Chicago Black Hawks taking on the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers and what I'm sure will be a barn burner. That's gonna be a great one. Then we got the Penns taking on the Rangers and the Avs taking on the Kings. The triple header starts the season October the 7th. So both the Blackhawks and the Penguins

Probably favorites to be two of the worst three games in the NHL Schedule and I guess that just tells us everything we need to know about the NHL's continued reliance on Sidney Crosby And also what they're they're desperately hoping Connor Bedard can be that next guy. So I didn't I wasn't I thing. Connor Bedard can be that next guy. So I didn't, I wasn't, I skipped Friday's show, took the day off. So I wasn't there for Ask Us Anything, but I did have an Ask Us Anything that I wanted to throw out. I don't know if Batch used it because I texted him this, but I'm going to ask you and the

dogs this. I'm going to give you three options and you tell me which is the worst case scenario. Gavin McKenna ends up on Pittsburgh. So Pittsburgh goes from Lemieux to Crosby to McKenna. Gavin McKenna ends up on Chicago or Gavin McKenna ends up on San Jose and it's a divisional thing. So you got it like Celebrinia and McK McKenna to Canucks division rival and the Chicago one should be obvious to everyone I think it's Chicago number one San Jose number two Pittsburgh three

I don't care if Pittsburgh gets them like I get it I get the argument like oh my gosh It's so in the crime, but like I have nothing against the Penguins. I don't care. I completely agree the divisional thing Chicago is just there like The pens over Chicago cuz they're the division yeah, no, I know I think the Chicago ones number one Pittsburgh is number three. Yes. Yes. Okay, and then it's between Chicago or San Jose over Chicago Yeah, I don't have them end up in San Jose the Chicago rather end up. I think so Man, no, no, I'm sitting the other way around. Oh, you'd rather have them end up in Chicago Yes, you don't have to deal with them. I mean, I hate the Hawks far more than I hate the sharks

I don't like the sharks. I don't care about them. But I mean I as a my heart picks Chicago, but my head picks the sharks Those are the three most likely, right? Absolutely. Yeah. I think those guy, I mean, I haven't looked at the lines or anything, but that's gotta be the betting favorites for the worst three records. If he goes to Pittsburgh,

I would actually just applaud them. I'd be like, yeah! For you guys, congratulations. I'd love to, man. So Pittsburgh would get Mario, Jagger, Crosby, McKenna, Yeah. And then, and Malkin.

And Edmonton would get. Gretzky, Messier, Coffee, McDavid, Drisidle. Yeah. Yeah. That seems fair. That's not ideal. Yeah, yeah. But. And the Canucks never picked first overall.

Never picked first overall. I love that. All right, give us a moocow on that. Ah. Now let's go into the moocow on that. Ah. Let's go into the inbox, print out some listener submissions. What we learned brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, our favorite, the white Vesuvio

featuring roasted mushrooms, house-made Italian sausage and extra creamy ricotta only at AJ's Pizza online at ajs.pizza. Earl and Nanaimo, what we learned, baseball still has the best nicknames hockey is so boring now Why or er like er after your surname is lame or s don't forget the s Yeah, like Earl Z Earl Z and Nanaimo that is nickname or like he's a good guy He's a good texter like we were talking about this the other day Suit or I think it suits suits. Yeah, so that's what you can do as well So it's the answer wire the what's the best actual nickname and hockey bread man

That's not a good nickname it kind of sucks. I don't know I like that one It's not it's not bad. It's like that's like a mangy. That's my new piano or manja pot Yeah, I can never say my name bread guy doesn't that mean like yeah bread. Yeah, you must be like what the heck Yeah, yeah, and Panera is just bread. Yeah, right. Well, no, it's cuz of Panera breads, isn't it? Yeah It's cuz of the restaurant. Yeah, it's the bread style. Don't what is oh, so I don't know anything to do with bread Oh, okay. Yeah Who is the to do with bread. Okay. Yeah Who is the who is the big dumper of the NHL? Sydney cross be probably a cross be yeah, I mean there's some good candidates. Yeah, so it's like I cannot find jeans

So your yogurt I think for sure someone texted it's Vlasic pickles pickles is good. All right I still think we're grading on a curve here like massively so is McJeez is too blasphemous for you That's kind of funny actually. Yeah, it's pretty good. I enjoy that to be honest. It's pretty good Okay, I don't mind that speaking of bread Troy the retired bread guy Can you just say? Manjapani what's it? Wow, he's pronouncing Andrew manjapani manjapani Manjapani? What's it? Wow. How do you pronounce it?

Andrew Manjapani. Manjapani. Manjapani. Manjapani. We got to call it reach. Yeah. We got to call it reach. Yeah.

Okay. So Troy, the retired bread guy takes in, this is more of an ask us anything, but in the past couple of years and I'm nearly 60, I've started getting into cricket, especially five day test. And I'm currently watching India, England while listening. Troy, there's, I guess you're retired. So why not watch a five day test match? But have any of you started following a new sport later in life?

Um, not like I've, I've, I've tried, I've watched a bit of cricket, like I, I like the new shorter format stuff and I've, I've watched a bit of it. Um, Aussie rules football I've gotten into a little bit, but I can't say that I've watched a bit of it. Aussie rules football, I've gotten into a little bit, but I can't say that I've ever become like an ardent fan of a new sport. No, I would like to. Like I would love to.

That's the thing. There's only so many hours in the day. To get good at it. Yeah, and like really dive into it. I also find it's very hard to for me to like sustain even in Like I've never been I think I said this on the show before I've never been able to pick an NFL team and be like Okay, I'm a die-hard You know, I'm a die-hard Cleveland Browns fan now or whatever it right like the way some people do

Yeah, and I'm gonna follow them and live and die with their wins. That's never worked for me I need some sort of either because they're a local team or you know an emotional connection through family or something So I like I I've enjoyed what I've seen of cricket like I'm a big sports fan pretty much any sport I'm watching for a day. I'm watching rugby whatever it is. I can get into it. I can find something to enjoy I would like to be able to really be an expert on those sports and follow them more and learn the ins and outs But man like that's a lot of time commitment to pick up a whole new sport and follow it intensely is a big, big time commitment. Even like like English soccer would love to be more into that,

but I'm not going to get up that early on weekends. I find it frustrating to watching something and not knowing sure what's going on. Yeah. Like when I watch rugby, half the time I'm like, I don't know what that penalty was for. Mm-hmm Although I think like 90% of rugby fans aren't exactly sure what that belly was for either. They're just guessing Yeah This one comes in 650 650 to the dumb bar lumber text line Greg and pit Meadows what we learned a Canadian soccer player Has made world history

Olivia Smith has become the first women's soccer player to transfer for a million pounds going from Liverpool to Arsenal. I saw that pretty pretty cool feather in the cap for Olivia Smith, the young player, I think 22 Canadian forward who as as he said, the comes the record setting transfer for a women's player at a million pounds going from Liverpool to Arsenal. So I would, I assume two of the better teams in the women's super league doing business with each other. Yeah.

Well, women's sports has just come leaps and bounds in the last little bit. And the, you're going to start to see, I think the, the financial side really start to catch up now. I mean, we were talking a little bit about Caitlin Clark and her act in the WNBA, but. I don't know what the details of their collective bargaining agreement, their media deals or anything, but like whenever those are next up, they're going to look radically different.

And I don't want to just boil it down to Caitlin Clark, but she's been that kind of the catalyst, I think that's kind of taken the work that was done. You need greatness. And she's helped to get to that next level. And I think you're going to see that in the PWHL eventually, you're going to see it with women's soccer where the interest is there and now the money is really going to start to rush in and evidence

of that here. You know what? A little bit of controversy doesn't hurt either. No. You know, rivalries, like women's sport will have made it when we just talk about it like we do men's sports. And sometimes I laugh because like, I hear things like, oh, you wouldn't say that if we were talking about a man. I'm like, yeah, we, yeah, we would.

You wouldn't bring race into it. I was like, yeah, we would. You should hear some of the crazy things we say about male foot male athletes exactly, but that's part of the conversation with Caitlin Clark because She has attracted so much attention and so many people who both as fans and viewers aren't familiar with the WNBA But also media people who are like I don't really cover the league, but this is a massive story So I'm gonna start covering it I'm gonna start following it asking questions and people have kind of been like, well, hold on. Like there's some, there's

some crazy takes flying around and people are asking her these weird questions like what's going on. And I sympathize with that, but it's also like, you should see some of the weird questions NFL players get asked. Right? Like come to Superbowl week, like media day that is part for better or for worse. If your sport is really popular, popular people are gonna have weird takes and people are gonna ask you Sometimes fair tough questions sometimes unfair tough questions. Yep, sometimes bizarre questions that you know in a weird way that more than the ratings more than the ticket sales anything is like a sign that the WNBA is Making a leap to another level of popularity like the the weird media attention is like, that's part of it. And I think the players are having a lot of trouble with it.

And I get that too. Yeah. It's all new for them. They're going to have to adjust and it's going to be an adjustment period. But it's going to take way more leadership from the league too. Yes. Absolutely.

Because the league does not seem up for it right now. Rob and sir, what we learned, what I've learned is that I'm still trying my best to be a Lions fan again. But it's very hard when their games all start when I'm still golfing. It's time to go back to 7 PM game. So yeah, the Saturday game, I believe, against the Rough Riders is a 4 PM start. And I think this has been kind of a topic of conversation among the fans and it's tough because CFL games can go a little bit long. And if you're driving in, like a lot of the fans are for Alliance fans are from the lower mainland.

And so if you have a 7pm game, you want to bring your kids and then the game is over three hours and then you got to drive home. Then you're home at like, I don't know, 11, 11.30 sometimes. That's really late. But yeah, that's a tough one because I'm kind of like Rob like a Saturday, yeah, 4 p.m. That's, I don't know, it's a little early for me. I might be on the golf course as well.

Yeah. Omar. Maybe with Rob arguing about politics. Like's a little early for me. I might be on the golf course as well. Yeah Rob arguing about politics look at the ball Rob with a dog too. Yeah a dog Anyways Omar on our tweeting into our group text in what we look very correct point Five minutes here guys. I learned that I can't wear my Hugo boss She loves party shirt anymore unless I'm partying which is never I don't get why A player that was drafted developed and succeeded was not given the chance over Lankton whose contract is based on one good season It's because she loves was bad at the NHL level last year That's why they did not feel comfortable giving him the opportunity She loves by the way. He was given the opportunity. He was the opening night starter.

Game one of the season. Hey, you were great for us in the playoffs. You came in at a tough spot. We leaned on you and you did well. Yeah, there's some flaws you need to clean up, but we are going to give you this opportunity. They didn't even sign Lankton until after training camp because they're like, yeah, okay, we got she loves and we'll see what happens with Demko. It wasn't until I think they were more concerned with when Demko would be

Available, but they signed Lankton and I think it was a hundred percent Demko why they signed exactly it wasn't like oh We're not we're worried about she loves had every opportunity to prove what he could do at the NHL level this year and it Did not go well and that is a massive under but here's the thing that I'll allow It might be the wrong move what the connects are doing. Of course, I Get lit up. I think I would do what the Canucks did. I would be like, okay, I'm looking at my team right now, I'm gonna make sure that I'm feeling real comfortable

with both my guys. And I think for the most part, assuming Demko stays healthy, you're comfortable. I think they played Lankton in too much this year and he wore down a little bit. And obviously we know that they don't want to wear down Demko. So if you can get those guys to split their starts

and everyone puts their ego behind them and you know, they're fine with all that. I think that's the course of action that I would do. Now it's expensive. There's a lot of cops. Oh yeah. A cap space tied up in those goalies. But if I was management, I was like,

we really need to make the playoffs. I would not have CELUFS in there. I would, you'd be crazy. It'd be impossible if you made the organizational decision that for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the Quinn Hughes factor, we need to be competitive. We need to be good. We need to make the playoffs and maybe even do more than that.

There was no way, despite what he did at the HL level, having seen what you saw from she loves in the NHL last year, that that was going to be a viable plan. Did the pens acquire she loves to tank from McKenna? No, I think I think they are just they're they're the perfect landing spot for him where it's like, OK, maybe we've got something here. And he turns out to be a goalie for the future. So you're just being a bad here. Yeah, it had to go to a bad team.

It was either going to be them. San Jose, Chicago. I don't even know. These people suggesting Edmonton. It's like, what are you out of your mind? No, you're going to sell. You're going to come in and tell Conor McDavid and Leonon. I was like, what do you out of your mind? No, you're gonna sell you're gonna come in and tell Connor McDavid and Leon dry cells like hey guys, I know We've had some issues with the goaltending in the playoffs usually but don't worry Yeah, we got this guy who was unplayable in the NHL last year

You want to call her cop? Let's guy who dry settle said was kind of lucky because they hit so many posts again The series against them in game five of the series against them. By the way, I love what the Oilers are doing. They're like, we haven't changed the goalies, but we do have a new goalie coach. That'll fix it. Goalie coach is like, oh God.

That's the new move. I think there's a couple of teams. I want to say there might be one more that added a new goalie coach and they're kind of banking on that Justin with what we learned The expression on Ryan Kessler's face when he caught and threw the big dumpers home run ball back onto the field looked like an Old man trying to send back soup in a deli. Yeah, was that in Detroit? That was in Detroit. Yeah. Yeah, that was fantastic Does does Cass have a good arm? I can only assume I only saw the screenshots, to be honest.

Yeah, I saw the screenshots to the video. Kessler and I would I would be pretty surprised. Can you imagine if Ryan Kessler is like this like weak? Yeah, I'm like, oh, I'm going to guess that Kessler legacy is tarnished. I'm going to guess. Oh, he never played for us. We really chuck it. That was hilarious. Seeing him on the weekend. All right. Thank you never played for us. Really Chuck it. That was hilarious

Seeing him on the weekend. All right Thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you to everyone for texting in Mike is back tomorrow This was how for them rough here on sportsnet 650