Halford & Brough in the Morning - Jiri Patera, We Hardly Knew Thee

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

In hour one, Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they look ahead to tomorrow's final Canucks pre-season game at home to the Oilers (6:00), plus they discuss if any more players more have to go through waivers before opening night (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.

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And my job is to come inside of this stadium. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Alfred Brough, Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 powell street in vancouver before i do my read yes i need to ask you a question okay were you able to move any of those white caps tickets you had yesterday yep some you had how many of them lots lots yeah how

many did you end up giving away a few second question do you feel shame about making people witness what you forced them to witness? Well, they're nice tickets I had once. No, there was not a lot of people there last night. There were some people, some people in the media and among the fan base that were upset that you would schedule a Cascadia derby match, one of the great rivalries in sports. Yeah, that's like Man City, Manchester United, basically.

On a Wednesday. Liverpool, Everton. In 730. Arsenal, Tottenham. And then you got Vancouver, Seattle. 730? On a Wednesday? Yeah.

In this economy? Kids are back in school? We got to stop making excuses for poor crowds. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. And poor performances. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfute, what are you waiting for?

Kintec, we got a lot to get into on the program today. A very, very diverse sports day and night ahead. Got some preseason hockey tonight. We got some footy during the day. We got a very decisive and the only game three of the MLB wildcard round between the Mets and the Brewers. Later, we got Thursday night football as well,

but we have a very diverse guest list as well. All the sports we're going to cover seven o'clock at Nanverk MLB network. We'll get into everything that's happened through the wildcard. Three series are over three sweeps. As I mentioned, Mets Brewers goes tonight. Four o'clock our time. A decisive, a pivotal game three. You don't hear that very often.

We'll talk to Adnan about all that at seven o'clock. 7.30, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone sub stack is going to join us. Thursday night football tonight, classic NFC South battle between the Falcons and the Buccaneers. Baker Mayfield, the under fire Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Baker Mayfield. The under fire

Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So we'll talk to Mike Tanier about that. He's like, I'm not going to any more podcasts. That's it. I'm not talking about Tom Brady ever again. Mike Tanier is going to... That guy is so sensitive. Seven Super Bowl rings. You'd think he wouldn't be so sensitive. Why is he punching down?

Please stop, Tom Brady. 7.30, Mike Tanier is going to join us for some NFL talk. We'll look ahead to the weekend as well. 8 o'clock, Randy Janda is going to join us, color analyst for the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks are doing nothing today. No practice, no game,

no media availability, nothing. It's a day off for the team. Just going to sit back and maybe have a pedicure? They're going to chill. Just going to chill. Maybe they'll watch some Netflix and chill. I don't know. But team. Just going to sit back and maybe have a pedicure. They're going to chill. Just going to chill. Maybe they'll watch some Netflix and chill. I don't know. But whatever they're going to do, it's not hockey.

But there was lots that happened yesterday. And we're going to look ahead to the final, thank God, final preseason game for the Vancouver Canucks, which goes tomorrow. That is Friday against the Edmonton Oilers. So we'll look back on what happened yesterday with Randeep and look ahead to tomorrow as well. That's coming up at 8 o'clock. So working in reverse on that old guest list, 8 o'clock Randeep, Jan to 7.30, Mike Tanier, 7 o'clock Adnan Virk.

What that means is the entire first hour of this program is pure, uninterrupted Halford and Brough. So if you want to weigh in on anything, if you want us to weigh in on anything, Dunbar Lumber text line is 650 650 get them in now you can also start getting your what we learns in hashtag them wwl tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports uh we're gonna do those at 8 30 but hey if you want to be on the radio maybe you'll get in in this first hour of uninterrupted halford and brough that's what's happening on the program Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We begin with the Vancouver Canucks and who was lost and who wasn't lost on waivers yesterday. On Wednesday, we'll start with the departures. Yuri Patera, we hardly knew you, bud. You are now a member of the Boston Bruins. The Bruins claim. I heard he's the new starting goalie there.

He might be. It's a Patera-Mikey DiPietro combo. So, Yuri Patera goes to Boston. Now, all of you are probably aware that Boston has got a bit of an issue in net right now in that Jeremy Swayman, their number one goalie,

is currently embroiled in a contract stalemate. That means that it's Eunice Corposalo, who in that presser, that Cam Neely said that Swayman had the 64 million reasons

to be here. The head coach, Jim Montgomery, also stood up and said, and Eunice Corposalo is our opening night starter, to which everyone was like, yeah, no kidding.

You didn't need to announce it. And then they asked Corposalo after practice and he said, I am? Yeah. Me? He said, seriously? Corpy? I shouldn't be.

You should have seen me last year in Ottawa. I was not good. They call me the Corpito. Ironically. They call me the corpse. Not ironically. Anyway, the Bruins needed a goalie, I guess, to throw into the mix as potentially a backup. So they take Patera. Patera, we didn't really get to see a whole heck of a lot of them.

Signed on July 1 to a two-way contract with the Vancouver Canucks. He was supposed to be the number three guy, but that was because Thatcher Demko was supposed to be healthy and Ardor Seelovs was supposed to be the number two. Well, that's all been thrown into a bit of a chaotic mess. Demko's out for an undetermined length of time. Kevin Lankanen's in. It looks as though him and Silas will be

battling back and forth for starts. And now the Canucks kind of don't really have the number three that they envisioned. It's Nikita Tolopilo in name. Nothing was as envisioned as, nothing is going as planned for the Canucks in goal. The Canucks probably weren't thrilled with the news that Patera got plucked by the Bruins,

but obviously the addition of Lankanen means it's far from a crisis for the big team, and that's the most important team. For now, this is more of an issue for the Abbotsford Canucks who have Tolopilo in the starter's role there, which is fine. He needs to be developed anyway. But they may not want Ty Young in the AHL right away.

I know there's been talk about Ty Young maybe playing in the ECHL. I honestly don't know all the options for Ty Young, but he's an inexperienced goalie, and you don't want to throw a goalie into a situation he's not ready for. So maybe they themselves will be looking. The problem with looking at the waiver wire is you can't then just waive the player. Right. Right?

There has to be an NHL spot. So maybe they look for a trade or maybe they just give Ty Young the opportunity knowing that this isn't the end of the Canucks' great goalie shuffle of 2024 because at some point Demko is going to be back um Rick Talkett was asked for an update on Rick Talkett on Rick Talkett uh how are you Rick I'm doing fine Rick is doing well uh Rick Talkett was asked for an update on Demko the other day and he didn't really have one he was just like things are getting better but Demko has not been practicing in front of the media.

You know, remember when they – it was like the first day of training camp, I think, and they had him out there, and there was almost a show of, look, he's working on stuff. Like, he's out there. He's not hobbled. He took shots from Marco Terranes. And then they're like, all right, get him out of here. Right?

You know? So how this shakes out remains to be seen. You know, so how this shakes out remains to be seen. It is a concern. Is it, it is a worry even starting the season with Lankanen and Seelovs. You know, it's not, it's not an ideal situation, even though I'm confident those guys can hold the fort down for a bit, but you know, we all want Thatcher Demko

and a healthy Thatcher Demko back for the Vancouver Canucks. On Phil DiGiuseppe clearing waivers, congratulations to Andrew and Victoria. The parade in Victoria will be on Sunday because Andrew and Victoria was actually right about something. And Talkett said he was selfishly happy

about PDG clearing and this isn't because he's like good he'll languish in the minors never liked that guy it was he was happy because this provides more depth and the long NHL season and sometimes you need depth and you know the Canucks might give some opportunities for some young guys, and those young guys, even though they played well in training camp and the preseason, it's a long NHL season. So PDG is still with the organization. As for the waiver wire as a whole,

this may not be the Canucks' last dance with the waiver wire because Nils Zeman is a possibility to go down when the Canucks' last dance with the waiver wire. No. Because Nils Amon is a possibility to go down when the Canucks make their final decisions. And if they do cut Nils Amon, he will have to be exposed to waivers. Okay, let's start with Rick Tockett selfishly, selfishly being happy about DiGiuseppe clearing waivers and being able to go down to Abbotsford. Also throwing in a little wrinkle that PDG isn't out of the mix just quite yet.

Rick Tockett on the veteran forward clearing waivers. I mean, you know, I'll talk to Paxton and Jim the next couple of days. You know, we're going to have to, you know, there's some decisions you got to make. You know, who's staying? I'm not sure with the waiver thing and all that. You know, that's something that we got to discuss. Like I said, you know, it's a tough day because deej is a you know he cleared which uh selfishly i'm happy about and um he's still in the mix you know so you know that's something

that we'll talk about but um going forward that's a good thing that we have these tough decisions that means we got depth deej is sticking around you guys so you know this is kind of the rough part of the preseason especially this particular preseason because the Canucks top players um how should I put this haven't participated in it very much so there hasn't been an awful lot to parse through in terms of news we can go back and recalibrate the same lines and roles and goals that these guys want to hit but it's the same conversations that we've had really from July 1 onward, especially with regards to the new guys.

The battles right now on this team are at the depth forward positions, which is why we're parsing through audio about Phil DiGiuseppe and Arshdeep Baines and Nils Oman, because those are the guys that have jobs at stake. And I'll throw Atu Ratu Rats, as they call them in the mix as well.

Rats, rats, rats. There's a larger conversation here to be had about the fact that the preseason is too long and this is being dragged out too far. And these battles are being dragged out too far. If you want to get into the weeds about waivers and when you make guys available and when you waive guys and the timing of it, they might have been able to find something with Di Giuseppe there if you want to talk about the for example on waivers right now we want to go back to the earlier goaltending position spencer martin's on waivers right now so at first blush you're like there's a guy the canucks could pluck off of waivers he's familiar

with the organization he knows where all the bathrooms are he plays in net but the canucks are left with the same problem that Carolina was they have to try and pass them through to give them to the American League right and all you end up doing there is potentially picking up a guy having him fly out here if he does even and then losing him again so it's all this there's a lot of paper Carolina might pick them up right they'll just be like we'll try this again yeah let's see what happens right so you end up in this sort of endless loop of papering guys. The same conversation is about a handful of guys. But on this particular team,

if there's a big picture conversation to have here, it's that this is a good thing. The fact that one of the talking points of the last half of the preseason is the battle for the 13th forward spot and fourth line roles is because this team has built itself to a spot where it's reasonably healthy especially a forward there's competition among the group to the point where Baines, Ratu and Oman are leading shows in the morning yeah I don't even know if they're reasonably healthy because they are missing some guys and you know

Dakota Joshua is going to miss some time sorry asterisk reasonably healthy by the standard of the day where they're not missing star players sure yeah um we'll see if Bluger's ready to go in time for the season opener we'll see if he's going to play on Friday actually against the Edmonton Oilers but one more name to add to the injured list and that would be Puce Suter who's been deemed day-to-day with an upper body injury. Tockett had previously said that Suter was being evaluated for an injury after he had an altercation with that that rat Corey Perry during Monday's uh pre-season game in Edmonton. Um in the third period Suter got tangled up with McDavid and Perry and took extent to the scuffle and tried to initiate a fight with the 28-year-old Kanaka.

I don't even remember that play. I don't even know if I was watching the game, but the good news is there's still time. Well, I mean, that was the Seahawks Monday night as well, so it's going back and forth. It's just funny that you sort of dismiss her. I didn't even watch the game. Yeah, I don't know.

The good news is there's still time for Suter to get healthy and be in the lineup on Wednesday, next Wednesday, for the season opener. I think the question with a lot of these injuries and the health factors and the cuts and who should make the team is how it all affects the Canucks cap situation. Maybe we can get into this with Rand Deep later so we don't have to do all the math. Maybe he actually likes this sort of math stuff.

But, you know, long story short, will the Canucks have to go into LTIR to start the season? It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's something to discuss. Now, the Canucks did practice yesterday um they have the day off today as Halford already mentioned so it was their last full practice before final Friday's final preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers and it really does look like we're going to see what Daniel Sprong can do with Petey and DeBrusque and that is the thing I'm most interested in watching on Friday.

Likewise, likewise. Those three skated together again at practice. Hoaglander, Ratu, and Garland were together again, and they've been arguably the Canucks' best trio this preseason. Will we see Teddy Bluger tomorrow? He was centering Nils Amon and Kiefer Sherwood.

And Batch said Baines was the extra, but I think Baines was taking fairly regular like, hey, it's my turn now with Nils Amon. Sorry, with Teddy Bluger. If Bluger isn't quite ready to go for

tomorrow, I suppose the Canucks could put Ratu between Hoaglander and Garland, and then they could have Amon between Sherwood and Baines, and Amon and Baines could be like, I'm not passing the puck to you. How can I have a good game but also sabotage your game at the same time? Do we have the talk at audio on Nils Oman? We absolutely do. Because I think there are some interesting things that he said about Nils.

Well, interesting, relatively speaking, for a preseason. Way to tease that clip. Here now is Rick Talkett on the excitement factory that is Nils Oman. Well, you know, I think he's a really good penalty killer. I've actually thought he played really well in Edmonton. But Oman's the same as everybody. You know, you've got to string some games together. You know, you can't have a good game and then kind of fall off.

And that's the hard part of the NHL, being a regular, is being the sustainability. It's hard to do. But I thought like the same thing with Baines. I liked his game last game. He's fighting for positions. We know what he is and he wants

to improve. I know people are dismissive of Nils Amann. He's not the flashiest player and I bet if we did a poll question, if you had a choice between the two, who would you like to see make the Canucks, Atu Ratu or Nils Amon?

Atu Ratu's winning that poll. Because he's new. Because he's new. Newer. And he's got a higher upside for sure. Higher ceiling. We might have seen the best of Nils Amon, but that being said, when your coach calls you

a really good penalty killer, you know your coach doesn't want to lose you to waivers. Right. Having centers, good defensive centers, guys that can go kill penalties for cheap, you always want those in your organization and you don't want to lose them. So we'll see how it all pans out in terms of all the balls in the air

with the Canucks as they try and make their decisions. I do want to mention that tomorrow, for the first time in the preseason, hopefully, we will see JT Miller, and he will be on a line between Heinen and Besser. Now, normally, I don't cheer for a lot of power plays in a game. I don't really like it. I don't. You know, it takes the flow away.

It's just annoying. It's like, there's another power play. Oh, terrific. I hope the Canucks get a few opportunities on Friday, especially if Miller does play, because I'm really curious to see how the top unit looks after all the thinking and planning and video work behind the scenes I'm curious to see how DeBrusque fits with the four of Miller Besser Petey and Hughes on the first unit it's funny at the beginning of training camp and even

before training camp Rick Tockett was saying like i want to do a lot of power play work and i you know you don't usually do a lot of power play work at training camp and and you know but but i want to do a lot they didn't really end up doing a ton of power play work and rick tocket was asked about that he's like yeah but we've been doing a lot behind the scenes a lot of video stuff right but like i want to see it in action, I want to see it in action. Yeah. I want to see it in action. The power play, we all remember how it looked in the latter half of the season and into the playoffs. And yes, you do have to credit, for example,

the Edmonton Oilers for the terrific penalty killing they had against the Oilers and that PKing carried on essentially throughout the postseason was one of the big reasons they nearly won the Stanley Cup. But if the Canucks are going to be another 100-point team, their power play has to be good. It's just you look at that talent there.

You look at Miller, one of the great sidewall, half-wall playmakers in the NHL. You look at Quinn Hughes, this creative guy that can walk the line like not many other players in the NHL. Petey with his abilities and Besser with his abilities. And then we'll see what Dabrusk is like if he is indeed the fit

that we're all hoping he can be. This power play should be really good. And I want to see it in action. Yeah, so it was interesting. I went back and looked at DeBrusque in Boston. And in the early stages of his career, he was a pretty regular feature and was adept on the power play. I think he had like 15 power play goals over the second

and third years of his career in Boston. And then you kind of saw the production drop off. Like he wasn't scoring with as much regularity. He's actually doing a lot of his scoring at evens. And part of that had to do with the way that the coaches, especially Montgomery, sort of recalibrated the way that they were putting their units out. After a while, and especially last year, because what ended up happening was that DeBrusque ended up going off in the playoffs last year

on the power play. He got back on. They kind of switched around their units. They separated. Like, they didn't do top heavy like the Canucks did. They actually split. The big three for them on the power play were McAvoy, Marchand, and Pasternak, obviously.

And they had them together on a unit, and I think that kind of kept DeBrusque from eating as frequently as he wanted to in the power play. But then when they split the two units and balanced them out, DeBrusque kind of reinvigorated himself as a net front presence, right? That's what he said. He said, I like going to the front of the net,

and that's where he was doing a lot of his damage. So I'm with you. I kind of want to see what it looks like more out of a curiosity factor. I'm sure that they've worked on the things they want to work on. just haven't seen uh the practice pay off in like a game situation right because largely because miller hasn't played at all and the other guys have kind of been on the sidelines but i'm optimistic on it i think between the fact that um talk it made it a point of emphasis and he strikes me as the kind of coach that if he makes something as a point of emphasis, it's not words. He genuinely understands that this needs to be addressed.

If you heard him throughout the offseason, he knew that the way that they approached the game offensively needed to change. I think that was both at evens and with the man advantage. I wonder how Taka's going to go about with his lineup decisions because he does have two extras. That's counting Suter, though. So maybe for him, the easiest thing is for Suter,

if he's banged up, just don't play. But then he would have to take one more guy out of the lineup. So who would that be? Because he wants to take a look at, I'm sure he wants to give Baines another try. He wants to give a look at, I'm sure he wants to give Baines another try. He wants to give Ratu a shot. He wants to give Nils Zeman an opportunity to, you know, have another game because the whole thing is consistency.

And he said, well, you played well in the last game. And it's like, coach, I would like to show that I can be an inconsistent player. Who would come out? Miller. Yeah, but no, but then it doesn't make sense. It does. It's the preseason.

Yeah, but how are you going to shuffle then? Put anyone there. It doesn't matter. The game doesn't matter. It does because you want to put these guys in the places where you want to see them. I would not be overwhelmingly shocked if he last minute doesn't play. I don't think it's going to be Miller.

I think Miller is going to be. I mean, I understand where you're coming from. Yeah. I understand where you're coming from, but I think he wants to see. Maybe, you know who it could be? It could just be like, Bluger, you don't have to play too. Yeah, sure. You know?

I understand. And there's a lot of people clamoring for this. If you read enough Canucks content, and there's a lot out there, and you listen to people, especially those in the Denver. I don't think it's going to be Miller, sure. You know? I mean, look, I understand. And there's a lot of people clamoring for this. If you read enough Canucks content, and there's a lot out there, and you listen to people, especially those in the Denver... I don't think it's going to be Miller, though. I know, but I'm just saying, there's a lot of people who want to see this thing in action. And a lot of it is, we're impatient.

It's been a long time. And the preseason, like, Penticton feels like a year ago. It was only a couple weeks, but it's been a long time since they, you know, left Penticton and broke camp. And there's a sense of impatience that everyone just wants to see what the lineup is going to look like and get to the games that matter. At the same time, there has to be just the tiniest little inkling of fear about anybody getting

hurt going into the regular season. No, I understand. I understand that. But I, but I also think it is important that Miller plays on Friday. Yeah. I really do.

I think if I were to bet on the two guys who won't play among the forward groups, it would be Suter and Bluger just because... They're a little banged up. They're a little...

Well, we don't know what Bluger's status was. He was a little banged up. Yeah, well, he had surgery and all with the minor procedure. This doctor banged me up. Yeah. I don't know.

I know we got to go to break, but that is my one thing right now is following the legion of pointless scorers night after night in the National Hockey League. Yeah, yeah. The scores almost become secondary, and then it just becomes like, who got hurt last night? So Brock from Vancouver has a question about the D pairings. we'll get into that on the other side because we do have uh an open segment so any questions that you do have about the vancouver connects as they prepare for their final pre-season game against the edmonton oilers or anything else in the world of sport text into the dunbar lumber text line at 650 650 the bridge. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved. What?

It's in Progress Way now in Tilbury's Industrial Park. Oh, that's my favorite industrial park. Yeah, it's a good one. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions' 70th season. Game this weekend against Calgary.

Get your tickets now at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Game this weekend against Calgary. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. podcast app. 632 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, four parts.

It's almost new car day at Honda. I'm excited. And I really mean I'm excited. What do you think you're going to get? Don't know. Don't know. That's the best part of this whole deal. Probably a Honda.

Probably. Yeah. That would be a surprise if it wasn't. Check it out. It's a Porsche. Do you have some business to take care of here? I do. I need to tell you that hour one of this program,

we're smack in the middle of it. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. I'm going to start with a funny text into the Dunbar Lumber text line from Kyle the Bus Driver. Good morning, guys.

What if the JT Miller story plays out like he's the Canucks' Christian McCaffrey? First, there's a mysterious absence in the preseason, then rumors of a few bumps and bruises, then a sudden trip to Germany for an undisclosed reason, and the next thing we all know, Miller has no legs or something. Is that what's going to happen to Christian McCaffrey?

Are they taking off his legs in Germany? I could see it. I could see it. It's a new German operation. So, Farragut won. Good. That was Andy's... That's his knick-knacks.

By the way, Youngboy's had a tough one. I hear. I got tagged like nine times on Twitter. Guess what? This random Swiss club is now the official club of Andy. Not us. Not us.

I have nothing to do with them. We would like to not associate ourselves with this. Distance yourself from the young boys. Kyle's fair game to bring it up because only because of the McCaffrey chronology. I think he was joking. No, it's fair. He was joking. He's going to play tomorrow.

It's fair to bring it up. It's fair to bring it up. It's fair to bring it up. I'm not talking about going to Germany with an undisclosed injury, which is not for McCaffrey. It's... Yeah, yeah. Or it's Achilles problems. Both legs. And sometimes, sometimes, the Canucks haven't been

100% forthcoming with injuries. Right. Not that they have to be or not that they should be, but they haven't sometimes, right? So until he plays, which I think he will tomorrow, I don't think you should worry about this, though. No, no, no, no, no. Brock from Vancouver.

Although the 49ers did lie extensively about how hurt he was. But, I mean, it's fine. It was. But I mean, it's fine. It's fine. I'm sure it's fine. Okay. Brock from Vancouver had a question about the defensive pairings. What about them? There could be a jeopardy, but it's fine.

Who will play with who? I think the D pairings are pretty much set for opening night. I think it's going to be Hughes and Hronik are going to be together. It's going to be Myers and Soucy. And then it'll be the two new guys, Forbort and Deharnais. Forbort probably hasn't been used to being the shorter of the two guys on a pairing. He's like 6'4". Yeah.

But he will be here because he's up with Deharnais. I'm a little worried about that pairing, by the way. I'm a little worried about the second pairing. Susie and Myers? Well, just based on the amount of minutes they'll have to get. You know Myers in minutes. He's great when you control his minutes, but, I mean, in a role where he has to play a lot,

it's questionable. I think, ideally, the Canucks would love to have another top four defenseman. I mean, but what team wouldn't? There just aren't many that... There aren't many teams that look at their defense and go, it's perfect. Yeah. Right? But yeah. It's a little worrisome.

We haven't really talked that much about the defense this preseason because there have been so many compelling battles up front and of course we had the goal tending situation to kick off. I don't know what to think of Forbort, but Desjardins worries me a little bit. I don't really have an opinion on Forbort yet. I think they're going to need to work with Desjardins.

I think he's going to be a bit of a project, and that's not all going to get figured out in the preseason. He seems to get beat a lot one-on-one, and he's a big guy, so he doesn't have a lot. I don't know. He just sort of stands there. I'm just like, show me more. Do stuff.

Hit the guy. You're big. That's what they bring Noah Juleson in for. Don't worry about that. Well, they might have a decision to make on juleson or friedman and i know a lot of people will be like well obviously they're going to keep juleson um because if again if i know this is kind of boring to throw out there but they may only be able to if they want to keep out of LTIR, have one actual healthy body to start the season. Correct. That's a forward end.

So, and I think Drance was writing this in The Athletic. Most people would say, well, they're going to keep Noah Juleson as the extra defenseman, right? And if he were to go on waivers, you never know. Right shot defenseman, NHL experience, you never know. Sure. But Mark Friedman can also play forward sometimes in a pinch. Yeah.

So. Ah, versatile Friedman. Well, if they don't have an extra forward, if they're going to do this one extra body, and we don't know if they will for sure, they might just go into LTIR or they might have some guys return, right? But if they do, they might want to have a guy that's like, can you play left wing? Yeah, sure. Yeah.

I want to. Oh, okay. I'll do whatever you need to make this team. I wonder. But Jules would be like, I think you should probably just put me on waiver because I don't want to play left wing. If you're a depth player in the NHL,

it would behoove you to learn and be able to play as many positions as possible and take a page out of baseball. We'll probably get to baseball at 7 o'clock when we talk to Adnan instead of right now, but one of the things the guys were talking about on the Mets Brewers broadcast last night was the amount of guys that play multiple positions,

and it's kind of the new way in major league baseball, I guess, because of the way that everyone looks at player value and versatility and organizational depth is more guys that play more positions are inherently more valuable. You play 10 positions and hit two 30. You're hired. Special specialization is out the window. They're right. And then I give her, they were, someone was sharing this antidote. out the window. They were like, and then I

remember they were, someone was sharing this anecdote. He's like, yeah, when I played in Baltimore, they had like these carbon copy of guys. He's like, they were all 5'10". They all had goatees. They were all shortstops, but

they could also play first base. He's like, they had a type. You need to be able to find a goalie that can take faceoffs. Goalie, no. You know what else they have a type of in Baltimore?

Terrible playoff performers. So let's talk about that. They've lost 10 straight postseason games now. But in this current iteration of the Orioles, they went through this massive rebuild. They bottomed out badly. They scraped the bottom of the ocean. So low.

And the plan worked. They found talent, and they have since returned to the playoffs two years in a row. And they're 0-5 in those two years. Yes, because they had a bye to the DS last year, right? Last year was more embarrassing. And they got swept.

Yeah. And then people said, okay, well, that's a... Talkit was there, and he was like, what's Talkit doing? He's like, this is a learning lesson. All right, thanks, Rick. It's true. But then they come back this year,

and they get swept 2-0. Right. Okay, so the wild card, like, it's... I know it sucks when you get swept, but the wild card, it's a best of three like there's a lot of sweeps right you lose the first one all of a sudden your back's up against the wall boom you're done your playoffs are over that's the case in baltimore um but they're like they're owing 10 in their last 10 postseason which was crazy and the sweep last year was really

embarrassing because they had 100 win season they were just sitting in wait waiting for the wild card team to get through. Anyway, that's the baseball aside there. We should get back into the Canucks talk because this is your home of the Canucks. Sportsnet 650. There's a game tomorrow night against the Edmonton Oilers. There's a bunch of things that people want to talk about.

The D pairings, I think you're right. I think we know what we're going to see and we know what we're going to get and I assume that they're going to address what's going to look like as close to an opening night lineup as imaginable on the blue line. I did want to say one thing. Talking about that second pair

where it's like the Canucks would like to have another top four defenseman in the mix. I kind of feel at times like we never really saw exactly what Carson Soucy was about last year because he was hurt and out of the lineup so much. I think we saw it and it was impressive. I think the Canucks didn't look as good when he wasn't in there.

Exactly. I think that there's not necessarily more to give, but he only played 40 games last year. I forgot how little he played. He didn't even get in every postseason game because he got suspended. Remember the cross-check to McDavid? That was awesome, but he got suspended for it. I don't think there's more to give.

There's more games to be played. Yeah, that's more to give, though. The actual definition of more to give is you play more games. But typically when you say a player has more to give, it means that he can up his game and bring some sort of other element. No, no, no. I'm just saying there's more to give. He was good in the small sample size.

Imagine him in a bigger sample size. I think that could be a good pairing. I'm cautiously optimistic even if they have to overplay myers james from richmond texan i'm terrified of that third pairing they obviously can't go into the playoffs with this situation i'm hoping they can make a deal for rasmus anderson from calgary sometime before the trade deadline that might be what they're going to target and this is what what Jim Rutherford-led teams typically do.

They go into the season and they may not have the complete team. This is what a lot of teams do. Yeah. But Jim Rutherford especially has been known for pulling off trades. And yes, I know Patrick Alvins, the general manager,

but it's still- They're together. They work in tandem. Rutherford is a big part of this. Okay? And maybe that's why it's so important for them to accrue as much cap space as possible so that they can swing some deals. Because I think ideally you would want Myers in a third pair role. Ideally.

Ideally, you'd want them not playing over 20 minutes. To start the season, I mean, it's possible you can play those four guys, Myers, Soucy, De'Arne, and Forbort, and none of them are over 20 minutes because you're giving a lot of minutes to Hughes and Hronik. That's right. Max them out. But I think if you're looking at lot of minutes to Hughes and Hronik. That's right. Max them out. But I think if you're looking at this team right now,

and as long as, say, Petey and Dabrowski have some chemistry and we see the Petey that we're more used to seeing, I think you would look at that forward group and go, I really like that forward group, especially with the added depth that they got. They got all sorts of options. And frankly, if guys don't perform, you're like, all right, you're out of here. We got more options down on the farm.

The goaltending is going to be, who knows, until Demko gets back. And I don't even know when Demko is going to be back. So fingers crossed on that. But there's not a ton you can do about that. The Canucks have, I think, addressed that as well as they possibly can. It's a bad luck situation with Demko.

They bring in Lankanen. They've got Archer, Seeloffs. I can't complain about how they've dealt with this unfortunate situation. I think they handled the goaltending very well. Yeah, as far as the injury situation. Now, we'll see if the absence of Ian Clark is a factor as well whatever let's we're talking about the defense here i i think if they're looking at honestly at any part of their lineup right now and they're going i don't know about this it is that defense and i think it's that lack of puck moving beyond

hughes and haronic yep um i know they want to just have four giants, and they've accomplished that in their bottom two pairings, but just because you're a giant doesn't mean you can't move the puck. One of the nice things about Nikita Zdorov, when he was playing well, was that he could move the puck, and he could skate it out even if he wanted to. Skating it out was the big surprise. Sometimes it was a real adventure.

Sometimes he tried to go coast to coast and turned it over. But, you know, he did bring that element. So I do wonder if the Canucks will be looking to do something there. It won't be easy. Getting Rasmus Andersen out of Calgary, that's a big ask. Yeah, I mean, I would not expect them to pull a rabbit out of their hat two years in a row by i mean let's be honest i thought that they got a steal with zadora for what they paid in terms

of draft capital and i think there was a lot of other teams around the league being like wait a minute what they paid that for that and i know it was it was a rental at the end of the day but he really bolstered and at times solidified that blue line. I'm kind of with you. I think that that's actually, if you were to go into the Canucks head office behind the bulletproof safe and look at the blueprint and the plan for the season, I bet it included something that was like, we can. Now we can and we'll address this during the season. One, they've got a track record of doing it. Two, Rutherford loves to do that for two reasons.

One, it gives them an opportunity to see what the team looks like during games that matter, the regular season. And it gives them an opportunity to shake up the room, which he kind of likes. He's really old school in that regard. I think he likes changing the dynamic on a team. It's not unlike what uh torts used to say about like sometimes you have to make them be comfortable being uncomfortable yeah like you want

to and there's a way that a general manager can shake things up and it's put and not just any player like a big dynamic personality in the room like that's what zadorov was right it wasn't just on the ice like he came in and he was physical stature he was big he was loud and he talked a lot he was funny like those guys changed the dynamic sometimes not for the good sometimes it ruffles feathers but rutherford if you go back to his time in pittsburgh he loves making those moves right or i think mid-season trades are a great way to just give your team a little kick in the pants it's like painting a room in your house, right? It makes it look fresh.

Yeah, yeah. It doesn't really do anything to the room. It's still the same room, but it's blue now, right? Now it's different. I do want to go back to the baseball a little bit last night because I want to ask you a question. Sure. How excited are you for this Padres-Dodgers series? Yeah, that's great.

I think this is going to be awesome. Padres and Dodgers don't like each other. Not at all. So last night at Petco, plus you've got the Otani factor now. Franchise record crowd yesterday, 47,705 people at Petco to celebrate the Padres winning, sweeping the Braves out of the playoffs. So at the end of that game. And you know it was a big game because I watched the whole thing.

Did you? Oh yeah. It was a good game. So a couple things here. They started chanting beat LA at the end of that game. So they were already looking forward to the Doyers and what they're going to try and do here. And there's going to be interesting crowds. There's going to be mixed

crowds between San Diego and LA. It is going to be a fun atmosphere. The crowds are always... We've seen Padres, Dodgers. The crowds are always very spicy. And let's not forget that back in the 2022 NLDS, San Diego, the upstart Padres, big upset, knocked out the 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers.

So you've got the very similar narrative arcs going into this one. The Dodgers are going to be favored, no question. They're sitting in wait. They won the division. They got the bye through the wild card. They've got Shohei Otani. They are expected to win. But this Padres team, now everyone thinks it's about Tatis and Machado

and the bats, right? But the pitching, and especially that bullpen is lethal. Like they just, I mean, and it was funny because yesterday they had a wobble against the Braves. They had a pretty healthy lead and then the Braves cut it to one late, but they locked it down in the eighth and ninth. They are a dangerous piece of business. That's going to be the series of this next round.

All due respect to I think Philly's Mets could be good, but I know you want the Brewers. But I think this one's better. Oh, I think so too. Yankees-Kansas City is one. I'm intrigued by that. I want Kansas City out of there.

That's totally unfair to them. I don't know anything about the Brawls. I just want them out of there. Bobby Wood Jr., baby. Worth watching just for him. They squeaked by in that series though. Who cares? That's totally unfair. I don't know anything about the Braves. I just want them out of there. Bobby Wood Jr., baby. Yeah, it's worth watching just for him. They squeaked by in that series, though. Who cares? Who cares? They're through.

There are some series where you're like, that team is the better team. And I think the Padres were that in two games over the Braves. And I thought the Tigers were over the Astros, too. I was like, the Tigers are on a heater. And they showed that they were the hotter of the two teams. That KC Baltimore series, Baltimore stinks.

They can't score. We mentioned how many games they lose, but KC squeaked those two out. So the other one in the AL is going to be Cleveland and Detroit. It's a Rust Belt City battle.

Yeah. Between Cleveland and Detroit. I mean, I find, I know Laddie finds Detroit intriguing. I don't. I don't want to cheer for them because of memories.

Because it is a good story, I suppose. They went 31-13 down the stretch. Yeah. They're the team. But I want to see Cleveland. I want to see Cleveland advance because I feel sorry for Cleveland. They're the Diamondbacks for last year, basically. They got on a heater.

They got in the playoffs. And you're looking at them and you're like, damn, they're hot. And things are breaking away. How many players could the average even baseball fan name on Detroit? Oh, I don't know. How many? Four players? Four or five?

Three players? Probably, yeah. Andy Ibanez had a big hit yesterday. By the way, I just want to mention, A.J. Hinch is their manager. He quite famously was the guy that was the manager of the Astros who won a World Series and then got fired disgracefully for cheating. Oh, what happened? Yeah.

Anyone know that story? And you mentioned Andy Abanez, too, and how nondescript this Detroit Tigers team is. The call on that hit, Michael Kay had to look at his notes. You could hear him looking down to find out what that guy's name was as he made the call. He used seven pitchers yesterday. Yeah. They're the most random team. Do you think they started cheating?

No. Is that why they went on this run? I don't know. We could ask AJ. He saved it for the right time. AJ Hinch is like, guys, I have a couple plans for the postseason.

Guys, don't tell the media about the cheating. Don't use garbage cans. This time. First off, no garbage cans. Dodgers, Padres, we already mentioned. And then the other potential

division series in the NL is going to be, well, it's going to be either Philly versus Milwaukee. My beloved Brewers. Or Philly versus the New York Mets. It was looking like it was going to be Philly Mets, but the Brewers had a comeback.

Was that in the eighth inning? They had the big eighth inning? Jackson Cherio, baby. My favorite Brewer, who I learned about a couple weeks ago. So here, I was telling Laddie this story. I didn't realize that there's this i guess baseball i'm always finding out things about the baseball seems like it's constantly trying to reinvent how it attacks the game and how it goes after everything like it's it's like

i think money ball was great but it also kind of ruined the line of thinking because you can never be content with like let's just do things this way it's always trying to think of something new so jack centurio is venezuelan he's super young and i guess the idea now not unlike when you try and sign a guy coming off his entry level deal to a huge huge contract and like trying we're gonna gamble on this young guy yeah they took it four years this could be an amazing contract the baseball and the brewers took it a step further. They gave Jackson Churio $82 million before he had ever played a Major League Baseball game. That's crazy. But, like, he knew how to play, right?

Yeah, I know. Look at some of the international signing bonuses and stuff. It gets up there for players that have never touched This one was a record, though. This was, like, taking that to the extreme. But anyway, he had a huge home run yesterday. He's really good. Go Brewers.

I want to touch on one more thing that happened last night. Is it your voice breaking? And it happened at BC Place. It's an emotional one. Yeah. Apparently. Pull it together, man. I need to touch on one more thing.

I need to touch on one more thing. Yeah. The Whitecaps laid an egg. There are so many eggs at BC Place. They're everywhere. Where do they keep them all? Under the seats. There's just massive eggs being laid at BC Place.

In the concession stand. And they use them for mac and cheese. Can I have a fried egg? It's like, yeah, you can have a massive fried egg. We're out of hot dogs. Maybe the worst game of the season for the Whitecaps yesterday. And they came. Seattle comes to town.

And typically, although the game was foolishly scheduled on a Wednesday, and I know there was a sign at BC Place, and it said, no weekday derbies. The sign was on eight empty seats, beside 12 empty seats on either side. So I turned it on, because it was actually on regular TV, and I'm like, isn't this a big game? Shouldn't there be more people there? Shouldn't, shouldn't there be more of an excitement

level there? And then the Whitecaps were immediately down one nil. Yep. And they ended up losing three nil to Seattle. Yep. I'm telling you, this team is not in a good spot right now.

Nope. What is the story with injuries, form? What is happening to the Vancouver Whitecaps? Well, let's see. Ryan Gauld's out with a knee injury. He suffered in the Canadian Championship, another lowly attended Wednesday night game, I might add, where the Whitecaps didn't play that well, but won.

He played. He tried to really grind through. You could see him limping on the pitch during the Canadian Championship, but he wanted to hoist that third straight canadian championship so he played through it now he's been out and missed the last two matches with a knee injury i have no idea what's going on with stewart armstrong uh we had him on the show i don't know if that was a bad luck or bad omen but since then uh he hasn't really got that match fitness that we thought he was working towards as a matter of fact it seems like it's going backwards because he didn't

even dress yesterday and wasn't made available for selection. He's a designated player on the team, so that's a problem. They've got a bunch of matches left at home, but you're looking at their form now. They haven't had a win in their last four. They're sliding down the standings. They're in the playoffs, but they're much closer

to the 8-9 wildcard game. Is that still a possibility that they can be part of the 8-9 game? They've got to still a possibility that they could be part of the 8-9 game? They got to play Minnesota on Saturday, and Minnesota's one point in eighth place behind the seventh place Whitecaps. So it's not good. Things are not looking good

for the two teams at BC Place. No. They need to figure this out. And in the case of the Whitecaps, they like to talk about how BC Place is a fortress and a tough place to come play. Well, not lately. And if they don't change that around, they're going to be in a wild card game,

one game playoff in the West. And then they're going to go up against one of the top seeds in the West should they get through it. And that's not a road to success for the MLS playoffs. So not a good night for the Whitecaps at BC Place. Okay. That is our one in the books. Our two is coming up.

We're going to talk more baseball. Adnan Virk from MLB Network is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet at 6.50.