Halford & Brough in the Morning - Kevin Woodley Gives Specifics On Thatcher Demko's Injury

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with NHL.com Canucks reporter & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley (1:05) about what to expect out of Kevin Lankinen, Woodley gives details on what exactly Demko's injury actually is, 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.

8 o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, 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, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program.

Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfee, what are you waiting for? Kintec.

Let's go to the phone lines now. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, Ingold Magazine, here on the Halford & Murphibus show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Kev? How are you guys? We are well. Do you want to get in on the Radko Gudis conversation from Friday? I know that one really piqued your interest last week.

Oh, yeah, no, I just wanted to, I don't want to get into the conversation. I just wanted to poke the bear and see if we could get it going a little bit. That's all. I'm just all about the chaos. I never want. That was entertaining to listen to. I could sort of picture Brough,

like the eruption of Mount Brough was... Yeah, it was kind of entertaining to listen to in my car. I got a number of texts about that. Myrtle texted me last night. He's like, you guys should do another Radco Gutis show. I'm like, well, first of all, why are you listening to my podcast?

Like, get out of here, Toronto guy. Yeah. I never want to discuss Radko Gudis again, especially with Laddie and his lies. All the best defensemen are journeymen that have played for four teams in five years. They're all saying that, bro. Why don't you keep referencing his

all situations Corsi? He was bad on the penalty kill. He was bad on the... What is that even? Attaboy, Kev. You did it. You got him, God. Attaboy, Kev. You did it. You got him yelling again. Attaboy. Oh, man.

I nearly got through the show. As soon as Andy texted me to confirm that I was good to go this morning, I was like, only if we can poke the Radko Gudis bear. I would prefer to talk about Kevin Lankanen. Can we do this? We can do this. What would you like to know about Kevin Lankanen? Is he a good goalie? uh is he a good goalie

he is a really good goalie he should have been signed a lot earlier than he was it sounds like maybe i mean basically the backup market was lauren brossois anthony stolers at big money and then everybody else had to settle for sort of million dollar range in some cases guys i think complain the nhl taking less and i would have had lincoln in honestly next on that list among backups after those two and i think it's a sample size thing um that maybe had teams either not trusting what he did or frankly unaware of what he did relative to environment for the last couple of years like this is a guy who was 12th last season in adjusted save percentage this is a guy who over the past two seasons combined is also 12th in adjusted save percentage just barely behind thatcher demko um again tiny sample average 500 shots a season not playing a ton not getting a ton of starts behind a workhorse in UC Soros.

But on a per shot basis, actually outperformed Soros last year. So there's a pedigree there. He obviously won the world championships with Finland, went back when he was with the Blackhawks, and then got kind of thrown to the wolves behind a Blackhawks team that couldn't check their hat. But he's had a lot of success in national the last couple of years. I think the Canucks, in a way, got a little bit fortunate

that not enough other teams actually subscribed to the clear-sight analytics model and realized how good this guy is. He's better than the backups on about a third of the league, at least statistically. And now the only question is, how quickly can he adjust to how they play here? And how will he fit in? And I think what helps in that regard is the fact that he skated with Marco Terranius, their new goaltending coach, for the past, well, off and on for multiple summers

and two to three times a week this summer. So there's a familiarity with his game and an understanding of what maybe they can and can't adjust in it um halford and i were talking about this earlier but um and i don't know maybe maybe we're being naive here but when the canucks signed lankan and we were also like man it kind of makes the demco news seem a lot more real now but they actually got this guy in now because there are knock-on effects to the system. And they clearly think that, you know, they need this insurance in here for Demko.

And I'm just wondering, you know, just your thoughts in general about the situation with Demko and whether you have any expectations whatsoever on when he might be back with the Canucks. Well, I think, so like, first off, you're right. Clearly this wasn't the plan or the, or the idea. And like I said, they got quite fortunate that in my mind one of the top backup options in the

league was still available. And when I threw those numbers out there, like these are the same type of numbers that, you know, compared to Charlie Lindgren in Washington, when they signed him, said confidently, we'd look at back of that as the best signing of that off season. And now he's a starter for 1.3. Same with Connor Ingram getting claimed off waivers with Nashville to Arizona and look at the success he's had there.

Like that's what these numbers typically translate to. They're usually a guy that's ready to pop. In terms of what they mean here, start with the system. This pushes everybody down the depth chart and doesn't create an ideal situation. First off, for the potential of

it being Artur's in the American Hockey League, if and when, well not if, but when Thatcher Demko is raring to go in a hundred percent, even if she loves outperforms Lankanen, one guy disappears off waivers possibly. And the other guy doesn't have to clear. So there's that. Then there's,

you know, your plans for Nikita Tolopilo. You brought in Yuri Patera for two reasons. One, they saw upside, but two, Tolopilo wouldn't have his playing time affected extremely by the terror. Like he's not a guy that needs to play a ton in the American League.

So they the plan was to make sure they continue to develop Tola Pilo and that becomes much more difficult. But at the end of the day, you're only looking out for the big club. And as Demko himself told us, there's a lot of uncertainty around this around this injury and as much as he believes he can get to 100 and seems to be in a really good place the past couple of weeks after as he said a month off and i i just appreciated the candor of his conversation with the media to start training camp last week there remains a lot of uncertainty about the injury the one thing i can clear up one thing in terms of the uncertainty there's no longer uncertainty about what it is so you guys can get your like web md out okay and look up popliteus it is the thin triangle shaped muscle behind the

back of the knee. And that evidently is where the injury has occurred, whether it's a tear to what degree, we don't know. But this is basically a muscle deep behind under several layers of other muscles deep on the back of your knee. It doesn't do much. It sort of attaches to the top inside of the femur and then back to the tibia on the top of the other side. It's basically, for runners, it's what unlocks the knee joint from straight. Doesn't have a considerable, it's actually pretty negligible effect on the flexion of the knee, but it pulls the lateral meniscus back in out of the way inflection. So if it's not operating properly, you could, there's obviously like it's, it, it is a small, but somewhat significant stabilizing muscle and ligament. And I'm not sure the degree of the damage or whether he's pulled it off the bone at the ligament or what, but it is super rare.

I've talked to a couple of people have been doing this at the NHL level for 30 years. They've never seen it. So everything they're telling us tracks. And despite it being small and somewhat insignificant, there's obviously uncertainty that comes when there's no sort of prescribed way to either improve it. Like literally when you first look it up, one of the first things you'll see is the sort of healing time is anywhere from three to 16 weeks.

So nothing like nailing it down, right? Like there is that much uncertainty with this injury. And, you know, so I think with that, to your point, comes the desire or need for an insurance policy with more NHL experience than what they have in the stable now. Halford, I told you it was a popliteus. You know, I didn't know. As soon as he went down, I was like,

that's a popliteus. He said it. I was like, I don't think it is. So here we go. You ready for this? Yeah. The popliteus muscle is often called the key of the knee. Oh my god. He's hurt the key of his knee? It unlocks the knee. What did I tell you?

Because it is responsible for quote unquote unlocking the knee when the leg is in an extended position. Okay. The key of the knee. So I have a

The key is broken. Here's the thing guys. Think of it this way. As a goaltender your knee is rarely in the locked position. Like this is if you were

if he was a long distance runner training for the Olympics and as with each stride you you get to that straightened point you've got trouble yeah like so i think hyper extending every time exactly well no but and well it won't straighten a without it evidently you can't straighten your leg and then there's what it does to the you know in terms of unlocking and locking so like again knowing the name of it doesn't necessarily help us because at the end of the day, people a lot smarter than the three slash five of us don't have any answers on this evidently. So the fact we know isn't going to help us solve it. So Kev, the one big question that, well I have many questions, but one of the big questions that I have

is once Demko is back and he seemed confident he'll be back do they know how to maintain his health? Do they understand the maintenance of this injury because I don't

personally as a Canucks fan want to be watching Thatcher Demko and going, oh, he's back. He looks good. But in the back of my mind, I don't want to. It's like, oh, I hope his popliteas can hold up. Do they know how to maintain him once he's back? I don't have that answer.

I don't have that answer. I think when you listen to him talk the other day, when he talked about being confident, he could get back to a hundred percent. You take that at its word in terms of the uncertainty about whether this could just as it did this summer become a problem and have to shut down for a month. You know, again, if he thinks he can get to 100% and this isn't going to be a problem at some point moving forward,

then that's really good news. I just, I don't, I don't know that. One way or the other, right? Like, I think we have to take them at their word on this. But again, because it's, as he said, like this is literally something nobody in hockey that they're aware of has ever dealt with. So in terms of what that looks like and he plays a position in hockey that puts more stress

on the lower body and asks the lower body to do things it wasn't naturally designed to do so obviously there's a degree of uncertainty that comes with this. I would assume they have ideas on how to, you know, basically help him get through this and stay strong. At the end of the day, as you guys dig into this and do your pop Latias research, you'll find that the injuries are most likely to occur to an already injured joint or along the lines of a PCL injury. The fact he was playing so soon after the early injury probably contributes to it. So it's probably just more of a general maintenance thing. I'm sure they have some specifics, but as you get into this, like this thing is deep behind multiple layers of other muscles behind the knee.

Like I don't know that you can go and train this. I think this is probably more of an overall maintenance thing, but again, much smarter people than I, that they have on their staff are going to have ideas on how to strengthen everything around it so that this doesn't happen again. We are speaking to the day there's uncertainty. We are speaking to Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and in goal magazine here on sports net six 50. Kevin has a presentation of White Rock

Hyundai. Visit the showroom on King George and White Rock or WhiteRockHyundai.com. So let's assume that we'll be seeing some Artie Seelov's action early in the season. Where's your confidence index on Seelov's carrying the mail, carrying the load to start the season?

Well, I mean, I think you're you feel better about having to not play the wheels off him early as kevin lincoln comes in and gets settled like you've got two options there right so um listen our turns look great yesterday and yet the very nature of that type of scrimmage is that the type of scoring chances he sees are where he excels kind of like early in the Edmonton series right where they're trying to lateral and backdoor and cross ice and hey listen if the Canucks new plan to generate a whole bunch off the rush leads to a whole bunch of chances against off the rush Artur has the athleticism and ability to make a whole bunch

of game changing saves and momentum changing saves like he did in that scrimmage last night. Oh, and by the way, for all the numbers I threw out about Kevin Lankan, he's exceptional off the rush. He's in the top 10 over the last two years against rush chances. So that bodes well if some of their attempts to score more leads to more of those types of chances against. But there's going to be a learning experience, right? The good news is you're not going to have the Edmonton Oilers for seven straight games and a team sort of figuring

out oh hey this isn't working let's try and generate a lot more stuff from the point and through screens and the things that he hasn't had a chance to figure out yet at the NHL level like I don't think as much as that will have helped build a book on our tours that wasn't there at the start of the playoffs last year I just don't think the much as that will have helped build a book on our tours that wasn't there at the start of the playoffs last year i just don't think the teams pay that much attention to it when it's vancouver on a tuesday and seattle the next night on a wednesday compared to how they would in the playoffs and obviously the oilers didn't took advantage of it you know i threw it out before like first three games 1.2 screenshots a game last four almost five screenshots a game like they

clearly went to work on it there are elements that he still has to learn at the highest level i believe and have confidence that he will and he will make those adjustments um what that looks like in the short term like you don't worry about like the the most important thing are the things we can't see and that's between the ears and so the fact this is his chance if Demko doesn't start the season to to maybe become the number one the fact that he has added pressure from Kevin Lankan and perhaps some might see it that way since he's been signed like none of this is going to bother him like mentally that's something you don't worry about our church she loves is exceptionally strong and so that's a real, just like we saw in the playoffs.

Under the bright lights of the postseason, he didn't wilt. And so that's at least one thing you don't have to worry about. But there are probably going to be some ups and downs as you adjust to other elements of the game. Kev, thanks for joining us today.

Good information about Kevin Lankanen and some good thoughts about Thatcher Demko we'll chat again soon enjoy the start of the preseason we'll be at the regular season soon enough I'm looking forward to I'm just happy that I gave Halford after years of him finally figuring

out how to say White Rock Hyundai he's now got to work on his Popliteus Popliteus that's the yeah Popliteus I told you man work on his Popliteus. Popliteus. That's the, yeah. Popliteus. I told you, man. That's a Popliteus. And you were like, I think it's an ACL. I'm like, it's a Popliteus. Everyone knows. I'm going to

try and come up with different variations. He has a Popliteal area. That's a good one. I'm working on it, Kev. Thanks for in three to 16 weeks. Thanks, buddy. Take care, guys. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com and InGoal Magazine here on the Halford and Brough show on Sports Night 650. We're both sort of, we're in the throes of, are you researching, that's what you're doing

right now, right? You're looking up the poplatias? No. The old pop? No, why not? It's important. It's the key of the knee. I'm just doing some online banking.

That's important too. You'd be amazed at the amount of administrative work you can get done during this show. Yeah, Kev, you just go, he just talks and talks and then you're back and you're like, all right, Kev. I just ordered some socks off Amazon. Let's do some what we learned here. I'm going to continue on on the Curtis Rourke band. I'm going to try and build this bandwagon for the NFL draft. I don't know if Curtis Rourke is a consideration for the NFL draft,

but what he's doing right now at the University of Indiana, I think, is worth watching. Now, they didn't exactly play a top team last week uh the Hoosiers but it was another big day for Curtis Rourke and it was another big win for uh the Indiana Hoosiers Rourke is now up to he's over a thousand yards passing in four games eight touchdowns no interceptions first off first off you're obviously underestimating the power of charlotte i didn't even know they had a football team or a university for that matter uh but the hoosiers took care of business 52 to 14 that was on the heels of curtis rourke's big game at UCLA which sounds a lot better

four touchdowns in that game over 300 yards passing um we've got Nathan Rourke on the show tomorrow don't we hey dog Nathan Rourke is going to join the show tomorrow so we'll talk to Nathan obviously about the BC Lions and trying to get back to their winning ways after a dreadful performance. That's my Tony Gallagher. Dreadful performance against the Toronto Argonauts. Just a dog's breakfast of a game. That is a very good Gallagher impression, I've got to say. Well, thank you, Andy.

So we'll talk to Nathan about that, but we should also ask him about his brother. Yeah, 100%. Yeah,% What's going on down there And I also want to ask Nathan Indiana The Hoosiers Not Indiana State Traditionally a basketball school

However He is making a name for himself Hoosiers are usually not a good football school Terrible football school However making a name for himself so i follow a lot users are usually like not a good football terrible football school yeah yeah however however um i start i've been following for the last couple years a couple of um guys that because of all the conference switches are now like deeply into big 10 football and i saw one and he's like over the weekend on social media he was like a lot of followers too he's like bro don't bother me right now, he was like, he had a lot of followers, too. He's like, bro, don't bother me right now.

I'm too busy putting together Curtis Rourke's Heisman candidacy. Like, that is the level that he is playing at. So he's going to have some big opponents down the stretch. Yes. More difficult than Charlotte. Yeah, we have to get into November, but he'll play Michigan. He'll play at Ohio State. Also has a game against the Washington Huskies October 26th.

And we're trying to get Curtis Rourke on the program. But first, we'll talk to his brother tomorrow. So lots to talk about with Nathan Rourke tomorrow. So tune in for that. Give us some moo cow on the Rourkes. By the way, I do want to point out that, you know, we kind of scoff at the weird direction that college football has taken with

NILs and the transfer portal and everything, but the path that Curtis Rourke has taken wasn't available to him if this was a previous iteration. Just transferring. Yeah. Entering the portal. Or proving himself in a small school.

A-Dog. A-Dog. A-Dog. A-Dog. A-Dog. When I say when I say in college sports

this guy has entered the portal what comes up in your sci-fi head? Well a giant circular portal opens up on the on the field

or the pitch or the ice or whatever, and he just goes through it. You step through it, and you're like, I'm in Bloomington now. Yeah, exactly. Like, well, we step through the portal. We don't know where he is.

They're down a man. Anyway, it's great. Is that not what happens? Sort of, except here he ended up at Indiana. A lot of good players to the portal. Yeah. I'll just say, like, there are some good things that maybe have come up. And this is one of, this is a very cool story.

Like, I know we've mentioned it kind of anecdotally and like in passing over the last couple of weeks. But what he's doing in a big conference and like, yeah, they torch Charlotte. But those are Nintendo numbers that he's putting on. Like 510 yards is crazy. And it sets the stage for, it'll be a prove-it moment when he goes up against the traditional powers, right? Where it's like, okay, you've done it against the school for the deaf and blind.

Now try and do it against a real talented school. And I think it's going to be very interesting. And then if he's able to, we're talking about a guy that, he's already on NFL radars. Like I've looked and they said like, yeah, he's a guy that's got a very good chance. Like I've looked and they said like, yeah, he's, he's a guy that's got a very good chance of being drafted.

And then this brings me to his brother. He'll go down to the States and not get a chance. Right. And now it brings me. Ooh, are you Canadian? Now it brings me to his brother who we're going to have on the show tomorrow.

I don't think that even if we ask Nathan Rourke, he's ever going to be completely transparent about what he thinks happened when he was down south. We can only ask him, though. Do you think you got a fair shot? Here's where I'm at with this right now. Nathan, you're watching Skylar Thompson this weekend. Your thoughts? And then Tim Boyle.

Right. He did make that one good throw, though. So here's the question. Did Nathan Rourke perform really badly down there to the point where he couldn't usurp guys like Skylar Thompson and Tim Boyle, or was there some sort of prejudice or preconceived notion of what he was as a quarterback? Because it does not have enough backers.

Maybe, you know, you know, he's need to Mojo would always say this. You need someone who's going to pound the table for you yeah play this guy play this guy you have to play this guy i i know what i watched on sunday i mean and i'm not a nfl head coach i'm not a scout someone say i barely am a fan like how far you don't know what you're talking about but i know subpar quarterbacking when I see it. And I saw a guy in Miami that, granted, he's a backup quarterback,

but they had an entire week to try and game plan something. And they put up three points. And he got handed. Skyler Thompson got annihilated. Yeah. And then they were forced to play Tim Boyle. And we're three weeks into the season. The season's still new, and everyone's got optimism

because it's not over yet. You're not doing the death march yet. Like we're not talking about week 16, let's get Tommy DeVito out there. I just wonder when he went down there for the first time, was that his best chance? Because his second year, his game probably, what's the word? Atrophy? Yeah.

I mean, we've seen that since he came back to the cfl he doesn't look like the same player he had such momentum and he was feeling it and he went down there do you remember the preseason game that he had that was on all the highlight reels like who's this kid that just made this incredible play in the preseason but then he never really got a shot. Yep. I mean, we've seen some pretty, again, we're in week three, and in somewhat limited duty, we've already seen like Aiden O'Connell came in yesterday at the end of the Raiders game, right?

Davis Mills has thrown some passes. It's very strange to me that a guy could go down there and he got picked up enough times the team showed interest. I don't know what the divide was. And honestly, it could be, maybe it could be that it wasn't good enough.

It could be. Could be, for sure. You know what? Absolutely. He could look like Skyler Thompson out there, even worse. Right. To those people that accuse us of pushing narratives,

I literally have no narrative here. I don't know know what happened i just know it doesn't really make sense because you can't tell me that nathan work couldn't have gone out there and done what skylar thompson did yesterday for a team he could hurt his shoulder easily sure whatever it was a chest but i but i don't know i mean it's it is very bizarre anyway that's my my what we learned is that i i didn't learn i don't know okay get mean, it is very bizarre. Anyway, that's my what we learned is that I didn't learn. I don't know. Okay, get your what we learned into the Dunbar Lumber text line. What is our giveaway?

We are giving away a four pack of tickets to see Monster Jam this Saturday at Pacific Coliseum. That is the annual monster truck tour that is coming through Vancouver. Okay. All your favorites will be there. Grave Digger. The Mortuary. I made that one up. Truckasaurus.

Truckasaurus. Right. No, Truckasaurus isn't there. What? Stop false advertising. The Mohawk Warrior presented by Great Clips is my favorite. That's a real one. Apropos of nothing, I saw the greatest license plate the other day on the highway. It's fitting.

We're talking about trucks. I saw. It was like an old, I think it was like, do you remember those Pontiac Firebirds? Boy, do I. Yeah. They were pretty cool. Pretty sick. It was old and not in the best shape.

Here was the license plate. GNR AFD. Nice. I know what that means. Guns and Roses. All F and day. No, you idiot. Do you actually know what it is?

Is it Guns and Roses? Yeah. AFD. What is it? What was their most important album? Oh, Appetite for Destruction. Yeah. I like mine better.

I wanted to drive past the person. I was like hitting the gas. And I'm just like, yeah, rock and roll. It was awesome. Give us a mook on that. Halford's going to have a What We Learned on what happened to the Whitecaps over the weekend. And also what's on tap for the Whitecaps this week.

Send in your What We Learned into the Dunbar Lumber text line 650-650. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Tile Town. As BC's favorite hockey team kicks off a new season, receive 20% off any regular priced in-stock tile. Visit them at mytiltown.ca for details. 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 8.33 on a Monday.

Happy Monday, 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, or parts. We are in hour three of the program. It is what we learn time.

Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. All right, we've got a lot to get to in the final half hour of the program here. A-Dog's going to give away the four-packet tickets to Monster Jam on Saturday at the Pacific Coliseum. That's going to happen in a minute. We have to do our What We Learned still,

and Jason teased mine prior to going on a break. The Vancouver Whitecaps had a big opportunity in front of them on Saturday in Los Angeles. It was their chance to take on the Western Conference leading Galaxy. A star-studded team led by famed German international Marco Reus and diminutive Spanish midfielder Ricky Puj. They haven't lost at home this year, the Galaxy. It's a good test to see what you might have to

come up against if you're going to advance deep into the playoffs. And did they try their hardest? Did they come out guns a-blazin'? They rested pretty much every significant player. Save a couple. Yohei Takayoka did start in that.

Ranko Veselovic did start in the back line, but let's see. No Ryan Gould, no Fafa Pico. Gould came on, didn't he? Yeah, and I'm not really sure why. Later? He did. He didn't start. Now, he did not start. Brian White played. He scored. Yep. Yeah. Brian White played, and he's coming back from injury, so that one made sense

because he hasn't played a lot, but no Ryan Gould to start, no Fafa Pico, no Utico. No Utvik. No Utvik. Utvik is good. I like him a lot. No Kubas who's injured. No Ali Ahmed.

He's injured. I could go down the list. There was about, I don't know, seven or eight guys that would either, or no Pedro Vita. He came on as a sub. They started with a lineup that you would have expected to play like against Calgary in the second round of the canadian championship that

kind of so is the final of the canadian championship being on wednesday at bc place against toronto the reason they rested all these guys that's the message they really value the canadian championship don't they two things here and I understand they like winning trophies and the Canadian championship. Aside from being the Canadian champion, you also get a road into the CONCACAF champions league. I get it. Also, I get that they have an extremely busy schedule coming up where they've got

games, basically Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday for the better part of the rest of September. So it's,

it's very taxing. You know, in the NHL, you have schedule losses, like with the second of a back-to-back where we're doing Carolina one night and then we're going to Dallas the next night or whatever. We're going to lose the second game because we're tired and we're playing the backup goalie. This is the footballing equivalent of it.

It's called squad rotation. That's more clever. So where you basically put in all the backups okay so whatever they got bombed they got skunked for one it wasn't good tristan blackman not good um but for two sorry for two they scored late that's right sam adekube scored late um i will say like i it sucks but i don't have a problem with it because i understand that there's a bigger goal here. They do want to win this Canadian championship,

which is on Wednesday, seven o'clock at BC place against all aviators himself, Mr. Drone, John Herdman and Toronto FC. Yeah. I really want to win this one. Yeah.

It's got the dome. It's got extra meaning to it. Seal up the roof. Don't let anything fly. Take care of business on Wednesday. I'll be there. I'm very got extra meaning to it. Zeal up the roof. Don't let anything fly. Take care of business on Wednesday. I'll be there. I'm very much looking forward to it. So if, you know, the disappointment of Saturday is all for a good reason,

it's because they want to go out and win on Wednesday. I'll be for it. What is TFC's form right now? It's been a disappointing campaign for them. Okay. You know, they came here earlier in the year and they got

the doors, they got the brakes beaten off. It was bad. I think it was 4-0. They got dumped. Doors beaten off them, you know.

Yeah. Beat the brakes off someone. You can't go really fast. There's no brakes on it. You can beat the brakes off someone, can't you? I've never heard that phrase before. I think you can.

You can beat the doors off. Yeah, it's doors. Yeah, yeah. Hold on. It's doors. You beat the doors off someone. You can beat the brakes off Yeah it's doors Yeah yeah Hold on It's doors You beat the doors off Some sort of Half-Furtian expression

You beat the brakes off Of someone Yeah Yeah Cause it'd be Yeah yeah Yeah He's finding out in real time

That he's wrong Yeah You beat the brakes off Someone Okay give us a moocow on that Do you guys have anything Laddie I have

Just a quick NHL What we learned Let's go What we learned Tony D'Angelo If you're have a quick NHL, what we learned. Let's go. What we learned, Tony D'Angelo, if you're hoping for an NHL return, will not be making one. He signed a one-year contract with SKA of the KHL. He was reached for comment about a month ago about what his progress was in getting a contract.

He said, focused on NHL right now. Yeah. There are no rumors about me going to Europe. Well, a month has passed, and he's decided to head on, pack his bags, and go to Russia. He was being championed. Frank Cerevelli was championing his high repeatedly on social media. Couldn't believe why there was no NHL team signing him yet. Yeah.

He's the prototypical, like, is the juice worth the squeeze guy, because he does provide offense, like, no question. But now here's the thing people get upset with uh like his politics his personality that's one part of it and the other part of it though that i think a lot of people are maybe missing the boat on is like he's not regarded as a good teammate yeah that's the most important defensive defense but yeah that too yeah well yeah he makes a lot of mistakes. But there's a lot of defensemen

that make a lot of mistakes but pile up a lot of points and they're gainfully employed in the NHL. So that's not it. I think more people should point to the thing with Shisterkin where Shisterkin punched him out. That was Georgiev. Georgiev, sorry.

And it was like, I'm not sure you're a good teammate. Like, you can have a divisive personality, and you can have whatever politics you want, and that's fine, but maybe that's not what's keeping you out of a job. Maybe it's the fact that guys don't like you because you're not a good teammate, because you're tough to get along with, and you have a track record of this. I don't know if people know this, but believe it

or not, there are some NHL players that lean a little bit right politically. Yeah, and they're all working. They've all got jobs. Oh my God. No! You're lying. It hasn't kept them from making millions of dollars and being like I said, gainfully employed.

I remember, so when we were the draft that D'Angelo got taken uh this was back when as Bruffy scoffs I never ask questions I used to go and ask questions so I was interviewing Al Murray who is the scouting director for Tampa Bay at the time and D'Angelo was a very very controversial prospect right he had been um suspended twice in his junior career for uttering i think it was homophobic slurs if i'm not mistaken derogatory language anyway and it was funny listening to them talk about him because they saw value in his stock plummeting they he said i remember al murray saying at the time like we think we got the best offensive defenseman in the draft.

And it was the Aaron Ekblad draft. That was when Ekblad went first overall. And I'm like, well, does that mean that you think that he's a better offensive player than Ekblad? And he's like, we think we got the best offensive defenseman in the draft. And he fell to us at this spot. And then they went down the road and explained,

like, they went back and talked to his high school teachers, everyone doing their due diligence on him and then they traded him like a short while later officially from the Sarnia sting he was suspended eight games for what they called an inappropriate statement to a teammate right and that was the thing was they were like you know get past all the noise

about how he talks publicly or what his persona is like if his teammates don't like him we're not going to take a chance on him. It's the most important thing. Because it rips a room apart. Yeah. Right?

So, you know, maybe the language barrier will keep him from doing it in Russia. I don't know. There's a lot of discussion in the Dunbar-Lumber text line about is it beat the brakes off, beat the doors off. The other one that we didn't bring up isn't beat the wheels off the wheels off. Yeah.

So what about brakes? You beat all three. Some people are supporting you. And I just did. I did a Google search and beat the brakes does exist. Nice. I just never heard it before. It's a weird one.

Yeah. I can't stop. It's severely beaten. I'm rolling downhill. Okay. Mookie. Tony D'Angelo. Right out of here.

Where did he sign, by the way, the cage? SKA. S downhill. Okay, Mookia Tony D'Angelo. Right out of here. Where did he sign, by the way, the KHL? SKA. Oh, SKA, okay. SKA. SKA. A-Dog, get your gears ready. Let's fire up the dot matrix. Give me some of that sweet, sweet fire plan.

Oh, my God! We're having a fire plan! A-Dog, the winner of a four-pack of Monster Jam tickets to see the Monster Jam on Saturday at Pacific Coliseum is... Melissa in a helicopter. What we learned, ticket emoji. When I was a kid, I learned that you are not

allowed to drive a monster truck to school or work, and I've never really gotten over it. I was six. Glad you clarified that. Those aren't street legal? They are not street legal, unfortunately. Not yet. But if I am elected, I will change that law. I'm not running for it. Melissa drives a helicopter

apparently. That's street legal. She flies a helicopter. I mean, I guess you could drive it. Probably wouldn't work very well. You'd be in a lot of trouble. No wheels on that thing. Anyway, she says, time to change those silly laws. So congrats, Melissa, on the helicopter. You're going to Monster Jam to see Truckasaurus. So I know we're supposed to be promoting this, but isn't it a little tight for monster trucks at the Coliseum?

I've seen the monster trucks at BC Place. Yeah. It gives them room to roam. That's true. Especially Truckasaurus needs room to roam. I didn't even think about that. Front row. Isn't it a little tight at the Coliseum?

In the interest of... They're just going to be standing there revving their engines. Yeah, just like... Well, that's it. In the interest...... They're just going to be standing there revving their engines. Yeah, just like... Well, that's it. In the interest... I got over one car. So we don't somehow upset the Monster Jam people or whatever. There's no Truckasaurus.

There's no truck that turns into a robot. And if there was, it's not on tour. But Brough makes a good point, though. How are they... Because it is small. The Coliseum isn't that big. So how many jumps are they going to be? How big is it going to be? I'm very confused by this. I'm going to... Because it is small. The Coliseum isn't that big. Yeah, yeah. So how many jumps are they going to be? How big is it going to be? I'm very confused by this. I'm going to wager a guess that

the Monster Jam people have thought of the logistics ahead of time. They're not going to show up and be like, well, this is no good. I'm sure the dimensions are adequate. Well, I know they've done it at the Coliseum before. So the lineup, this is great. I got them all. Gravedigger, one of my favorites. Megalodon.

El Toro Loco. That's the Latino truck. Earth Shaker. My favorite is the Great Clips Mohawk Warrior, brought to you by Great Clips. And the driver has a Mohawk. Velociraptor. Jurassic Attack. Monster Mutt Rottweiler.

It's the dog themed, I suppose. So Laddie and A-Dog, that's a dog that's your it's got that dog in them yeah that's your favorite monster truck by default all right jd and kukulam says i saw monster jam at the coliseum it's just fine okay good good well i just sent a picture to the group chat it's it's tight it's a little tight yeah tighter than usual okay all right good good good good let's print out we did it already we did it already we're good

let's just dive right into it nonsense over Rob and Suri what we learned what I've learned is that being a Mariners fan is possibly the most frustrating thing

about my life yeah when are these guys like I saw Softie on Twitter that's Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. Frequent guest on the program. And he tweets out yesterday.

He's like, this is a huge game for the Mariners wildcard chances. And I'm sorry. I know I should be more on top of this. I was kind of like, aren't they already dead? Not quite dead. Right. They lost it to the Rangers. The bottom of the ninth.

Yeah, they're walking dead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're not dead dead. So what are they? Around two games back now? Two and a half games back? Something like that? Doesn't really matter.

You don't have to check it. They're only two games back of the Tigers. Okay. So they're still in it. But they keep having these, again, I mentioned this, they have these games

and then it's like then they fall short. I've never, I'm on a text thread with two of my buddies they're huge mariners fans and i've over the last month i've received at least seven to ten texts or like that's a backbreaker that's a killer they're dead after a loss it seems like they have them all the time because the one where uh they were playing the yankees and julio got thrown out at third base after a rosarena's bat left his hand. Like that was a crushing loss that was supposed to ruin them,

but they just keep hanging around. I mean, I can't see them. I can't see them getting it. The other thing is like to get in, they're going to have to leapfrog the twins as well. So it's not just the games back. It's the teams you have to leap over to get into that spot.

Right. So there you go. Gunner from Kelowna. What we learned, I learned that even the experts don't know what to expect from the Canucks this year. I checked four sites making predictions yesterday one has the canucks winning the stanley cup two have them making the playoffs but not making a run and one

has them not even making the playoffs i think the thatcher demko news is possibly a big part of that but also also, I think there are probably some people that look at the shooting percentages that the Canucks had last year and saying, that team is due for aggression. And I think, and that's fair enough to point that out because I think that's why Rick Tocant and the coaching staff, they're looking to create more rush chances,

more high-quality scoring chances, more opportunities to get the puck to the net. They see it. And we saw it in the playoffs when the Canucks had trouble scoring. And they had not only trouble scoring, not all the time. I know they won a series

and they pushed the Oilers to seven games, so it wasn't all bad but there were times when it looked very difficult for them to get quality scoring chances whether it's at five on five or the power play yeah uh basketball filled with what we learned uh hashtag wwo what we learned there are reports now that the raptors are retiring vince carter's jersey when he left it was worse than when Barry left Vancouver I guess all is forgiven and forgotten I'm assuming this is true because I've seen the reports as well and if it is yeah it is uh it truly truly validates the phrase time

heals all wounds because that's the only thing that i could make sense of is there was just enough time that elapsed that there's either enough young generation that don't remember the sad pathetic and petty nature in which vince carter left that organization and they're okay with it now i ain't here look i how... Refresh everyone's memory. He stopped trying. Right. He pouted his way out, but he made the cardinal sin of dogging it on the court and then acknowledging it afterwards

that he was trying to tank. He was a one-man tank. He was the solo tank commander, and he just stopped trying. And it was one of the... He was frustrated. He wanted out. He wanted to be traded.

To a better team or just out of Toronto? He wanted to go... I mean, he ended up with the Nets, which is where he kind of wanted to end up. But he didn't want to... He just didn't want to be in Toronto anymore. They weren't good. He felt like he was done there.

The McGrady thing happened. There was a lot. Okay. Right? But he went about... I mean, is his sabotaged too hyperbolic? I don't know, but it's close. And I remember thinking it was like the Cardinal sin is a well-compensated

professional athlete to go out there and intentionally dog. Don't you think the Pavel Berry thing is a good comparison, though? Because Vince Carter, in his prime with toronto was incredible yeah like i i thought you know i'd seen i had seen i know michael jordan dunk i had seen dominic wilkins dunk and then i saw vince carter dunk i was like that's that's even that's even more dynamic and it's the same with pavel burry in vanc You know, we've seen some good players in Vancouver. We've seen Hall of Fame players. I don't think we've ever seen anything like Pavel Burry

in terms of his talent. I will freely and gladly admit and acknowledge that basketball in Toronto and in this country isn't where it is if Vince Carter doesn't burst onto the scene how he did. There's probably countless numbers of young basketball players. Do you remember being in Vancouver? Yeah. We got Blue Edwards. yeah we've got the country um so fundamentals boys yeah i mean so i i get all that and i'm kind of like it's not my team like i like the raptors and

everything but i'm not so like i'm just kind of a big i know this isn't great sports radio but like whatever i understand i don't like it. First number of retirees should have been Lowry, shouldn't have been? I had actually respected the franchise. It's the impact. It is the impact. Is Lowry just going to play too long? Is that why they just-

No, no, no. He'll be there too. And he's an all-time Raptor. And in my mind, he's the best Raptor. He's a better Raptor than Vince Carter ever was. But I understand the impact. I do. I'm not stupid stupid despite everything you've heard over the last two hours and 51 minutes

I'm not that stupid well Justin and East Van what we learned what we learned Kevin Lankanen is the second Finnish goalie in Canucks franchise history Mika Norin and walked so that Kevin Lankanen could run that's a good text I forgot about Mika Norin how can you that Kevin Lankanen could run. That's a good text. I forgot

about Mika Norinan. How can you forget about Mika? It was a short time. That was the year. Not a particularly good time. He played the year before Luongo, right? Yep. He was part of that we gotta do something about this goal. I think he only played four games. He'd bring in a Sabres

retread. That's a good idea. Yeah, I think they played like five or six different goalies that year. I got the list. Alex Auld played most of them, right? And Klutz played like 12 games or something like that that year. The goalies that year, 67 games for Alex Auld. Yeah. 13 for Dan Klutze.

Oh, that's close. Four for Maxime Ouellette. Ouellette. Ouellette. Four for Mika Norin. And one game, three minutes of Four for Mika Norin. And one game, three minutes of action for Rob McVicker.

Ah, Rob McVicker. Well, Robbie got into a game, did he? Yeah. Robbie. Curtis in White Rock. He sounds like a character from Clue.

It was McVicker in the drawing room with a candle. Ah, McVicker in the drawing room with a candle. Ah, McVicker. He was a moose for a while. Curtis in White Rock. Hashtag WWO, what we learned. The NFL continues to be

one of the most unpredictable sports leagues in the world. The Broncos laid a smackdown on the Bucs, who five days ago were being heralded as a contender, including me.

The Cowboys laid another egg with aspirations of winning a Super Bowl with a defense that looks awful. The only constant in this league is the Chiefs winning every game every week with the assistance of the referees.

Chiefs are 3-0, and they got it done in very, very squeaky fashion, but they'll take the win and they'll move to 3-0. Tom, with the What We Learn, I'm going to let Tom finish because he is right. What We Learned Halford and Brough are cowards for not bringing up the sleepy

team that is the Kraken to Haxtall. We did chicken out when we didn't ask Dave Haxtall. Why was your team so boring? Is Shane Wright a bust? We got to get out of here for today. We are cowards, admittedly.

We will be back tomorrow with our unique brand of cowardice and sports talk radio. Signing off for today, though, I have been Mike Alford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A-Dog and he's been Laddy. This has been the Alfred and Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. Hold on one second while I move the phone back a little bit. No!