Halford & Brough in the Morning - Oh Canada!
Episode Date: February 21, 2025In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they discuss a big Canada win over the USA at the 4 Nations final (6:00), plus the boys dissect what was an incredible game an...d get listener reaction (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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Whoa, wait a minute.
Huh?
Hold up.
What?
Oh, OK.
Did we just lose a fucking-
Canadians? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- You're listening to Halford and Bruff. The The The The The The The The The The The The The
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For Iraq nippless, I just hope Canada's proud.
This sucks. I thought this team deserved more.
Sometimes when you shoot your mouth off in the media, you know it fights you.
Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.
Good morning Vancouver, 6.01 on a Friday.
Sweet sweet Friday.
It is Alfred, it is Bruff, it is Sportsnet 650.
We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver.
Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey dog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Ladi, good morning to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful fairview slopes in Vancouver Jason good morning good morning
Hey, dawg good morning to you morning and laddie good morning to you as well
Hello, hello Alfred and ruff in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers
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If my voice sounds a little raspy this morning, it is worth it. It was worth it.
What a night.
What an event.
What a tournament. What a win.
We got a lot to get into on the show today.
It begins at six thirty.
Our buddy AJ is going to join us from AJ's Pete's on Broadway.
Even though AJ was at the Hollywood Theater to watch Canada beat U.S.
in overtime at the Four Nations finale yesterday.
He'll be joining us today, live from Florida.
We'll talk to him about all the stuff we normally talk about.
Seven o'clock, Freage is gonna join the program.
Elliott Friedman, Sportsnet's very own,
joining us live from Boston.
Probably working on very little sleep.
Not only was he working the game last night,
they recorded a 32 Thoughts pod overnight.
So much to get into with Freage as well.
7.30, it's Moj as per usual.
Eight o'clock, it's Dolly Wall as per usual.
A reminder, we are giving away a $100 gift card
to AJ's Pizza Ony's Broadway today.
That's gonna go to the best Ask Us Anything
or What We Learned.
Get them in now.
Dunbar number text line is 650650,
hashtag them WWL or AUA
and put a pizza emoji into your text.
You'll be entered into the grand prize contest
to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway.
And finally, as I mentioned,
it is Ask Us Anything Friday.
Start getting them in, we'll be doing them all show long.
We got a lot to get into.
The first hour of this program is almost 100%.
Hal-Bro, we're gonna react to everything
that happened last night from Boston in one of the great games of our generation of our time.
One of the great hockey games that I've ever watched. Tip to tail. It was fantastic.
We got an hour of analysis and recap and everything else. So guest list working in reverse. Eight o'clock Rick Dollywall, 730
It's Moj, seven o'clock. It's Freage, 630. It's AJ. That's a Friday show. Laddie, 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 messy your life can be.
What happened?
You missed it?
You missed that?
What happened?
What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.
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Resources and safety training visit them online at bccsa.ca
In case you didn't know now
You know Connor McDavid scored 818 into overtime and Canada won yet again in
International best-on-best competition 3- two against the Americans in the final of the
four nations face off.
Before we do anything,
I want to throw it back to the game winning goal yesterday
right from the start off the draw and economic David shot on
net and then what transpired.
Let's hear now Cuthbert on the call sports net, the audio,
the winner Canada three, two over the U S last night.
the audio, the winner, Canada 3-2 over the US last night. Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Yeah, that is a controversial call up here. Yeah, it was fine. It was a choice. He made we support him
Campion is as quadronnace. It was very good. We do actually have the real call though
Okay
You know what for the sake of Chris cut the bird and everyone that was listening to the game on sportsnet last night
Let's hear what it sounded like Connor McDavid in overtime
Canada beats the US 3-2. Off the ground, McDavid went forward and nearly got a shot on.
McCryer sends it around, Martin are waiting, Conor McDavid scores!
Conor McDavid for Canada!
So I gotta ask the listeners right off the hop, how did you celebrate? Um, I have to admit that, okay, first of all,
Halford, thank you for hosting down at the
Hollywood theater.
You're welcome.
Um, I had to watch that game by myself.
That was, that was one of those games where I'm
like, I realized that there's going to be a lot
of people at the Hollywood theater all there for
the watch party and Adog, you were there, and Halford, you were there,
and I had to watch that game by myself.
It was that.
Laddie was there.
Laddie was there.
And you were there.
Well, I didn't think you were there.
I didn't know you were there.
And also, yes.
Two-part answer.
I have to admit that when McDavid scored,
I was running around the house,
the dog was like, dude, you
need to calm down.
Like we've been through this for a few days
now, you need to calm down.
I opened a sliding door and I said some happy
swears to the neighborhood.
Like it was like, it was my, my, that was a top
five nervous game of my life.
I was actually wondering during the break
between the third period and overtime, how many
times I've felt that way.
And we were talking about this yesterday on the
show, like where the games, you aren't, you aren't
sitting there going like, wow, this is so fun.
You're saying, I feel like I'm going to
barf.
Um, you know, you're either going to the thing
that I'm talking about over time specifically
here, okay.
You know, you're either going to feel such
incredible joy and maybe yesterday more so
relief, or it's just going to be that punch in incredible joy and maybe yesterday more so relief.
Or it's just going to be that punch in the gut,
that utter disappointment where you just like,
I like, like close my eyes and I'm like, no,
that did not just happen.
And it could happen at any time.
There's nothing in sports like overtime in hockey. And I can probably count the number of times
in my life that I felt that way, like truly that way.
I've seen a lot of overtime games.
Sure.
Even playoff overtime games.
But there's an upper echelon of that feeling.
And I felt it last night and I'm looking back
on my life watching hockey,
both the Canucks and team Canada.
And the first time probably I ever felt that was,
not probably, definitely was 1989 game seven,
Canucks and Flames in overtime.
And the Flames of course won that one, the
Canucks losing and that taught me something.
That taught me how badly sudden death can hurt.
And in some ways I talk a lot about this with
my, my various therapists.
I've been battling that, that, that, that
mentally, that mental feeling.
I have been mentally recovering from that
moment for my entire life.
It's true.
He has.
But I felt the joy too.
Pavel Bury in 1994, getting the revenge on
Calgary, Sid in 2010, Alex Burroughs really quickly after that in 2011.
And now I get to add Connor McDavid to that list.
And how awesome was it that it was Connor McDavid
that did it after yesterday we're talking about,
like, are we going to see a signature moment for
Connor McDavid? Because for all the great things that we've done that did it after yesterday, we're talking about like, are we going to see a signature moment
for Conor McDavid?
Because for all the great things that Conor McDavid
has done as a hockey player, he does not have a,
he did not, now he does, but he did not have a
signature goal that really meant something to his
team or the country.
I'm talking famous goals.
Yeah.
Famous goals that everyone, everyone will
remember the play and everyone will wonder,
how the hell did he get so wide open?
You should pay attention to 97 American defenders.
He's standing there alone.
Someone did an illustrative outline of the square of space,
the empty white space that was around Connor McDavid
when he scored that goal.
And we can get into the minutia of the goal itself
and everything, but let's hear now from Connor McDavid,
because I don't know if you're aware of this or not,
but verbally, not the most outspoken guy,
not the most emotional guy, tends to keep him in check,
but you could tell he was feeling it.
Last night he did a walk-off interview
with Cal Bucascus on the ice,
and then in their dressing room later,
talking about the biggest goal of his career.
Here is Canada's hero from last night,
Conor McDavid, following a 3-2 overtime win against the States.
Well, it means everything.
I think you saw everybody lay it all on the line.
The Kachak bros were grinding through things, Sib grinding through something.
Everybody hardly stepping in again. Everybody laid it all out there.
And it just means the world to us to find a way to get it done.
That's what we do.
What's your sense of what it means for Canada to win this championship?
That's a big broad question. I don't really know.
I know that we have 23 guys that are really excited about it.
That's all that really matters.
So it was a signature moment for McDavid.
By the way, I just wanna say this,
that you can't script sport.
I know some people like to joke that the NFL has won
starting at week one, all the way through to the Super Bowl.
You can't script it, but you'd be hard pressed
to have scripted that tournament any better
than the way that it went, any better.
It was phenomenal.
The final was as hotly contested, tightly contested,
and dramatic as you can get.
You wanna talk about the razor thin margin
between the two teams?
Go look at every metric from last night's game, right?
Just the basic stats, the goals and the shots
through two periods that were dead identical.
Once Bennett scored to make it 2-2,
I must've said it to about five different people
in Hollywood last time, like,
it's clearly next school wins right now.
Like this is designed to be a 3-2 game
because the margins are so thin on this one.
And then when it went to overtime, it was like,
yep, this is exactly how it should go.
This is exactly how it needed to go.
And the drama was off the charts.
You could not have written a better script
for the way that that game
and that tournament went last night.
Finished with, amazing, the passing of the torch.
Who's the next great Canadian hockey player?
Who's the next great icon?
It's Connor McDavid.
Did he have his moment yet? No. Is he going to get it? Yes, absolutely. Playing on the
same team as Sidney Crosby, the guy that did it in 2010 at Sochi. It's crazy.
Did he look good during the game? Absolutely not. Very shaky. Very, very shaky. It was
not a great game from Connor McDavid. I may have said. He admitted it afterwards. He was
like, I was not good. May have said it a couple of times during the game game from Connor McDavid. I may have said it. He admitted it afterwards. He was like, I was not good.
May have said it a couple of times during the game.
Where's McDavid?
What's going on?
But in the end, it doesn't matter
because the script played through.
Let's get into some of these individuals.
The guys that went out there and did it.
And we started with McDavid,
but if you're gonna start with McDavid,
you have to follow up immediately
with the other hero of the night
and a guy that deserves an apology from a lot
Of people across Canada, and that is the goalie
Jordan Bennington
Hey dog hey dog what oh?
He was he was incredible in overtime absolutely and sensational
He was he was not great for the first 60 minutes and he. He was pretty sketchy for the first 60 minutes
and pretty nerve wracking, but he pulled it
together when it counted.
And you are?
What?
What?
You are?
Jerk.
A nice guy.
And you apologize for doubting him.
Oh, I'm sorry for, I didn't, I didn't respect his game.
He knew what he was doing in overtime.
He was spectacular.
Say it. Say it. Say it.
Say it.
I'm sorry, Jordan Biddington.
I'm sorry, Jordan Biddington, sort of.
You're like a kid.
You're like, I'm sorry.
Well, my fingers crossed.
My bad.
And if you could ask anyone at the Hollywood
and you could look on social media, the first
60 minutes was typical Biddington.
Like he was out of position a lot, sort of
floundering, kind of sketchy looking.
What are you talking about? He made a bunch of great saves during the game
He wasn't well he was fine. He didn't let any softies which was the key and I said that yesterday
Oh my god, you just can't admit it. He played an incredible game in a very very high pressure situation
He played very very good in overtime
first of all very well and
Very very good. He played very well the whole game.
He played very well the whole game. Jordan Binninkin. He was excellent. Jordan Binninkin.
Jordan Binninkin made 31 saves on 33 shots including the last 20 shots in a row that he faced.
I'll say you guys are both a little correct. I didn't trust him throughout that game. Through
the first 60 minutes there were definitely Binninkin moments where he fell down on his
post randomly like two or three times throughout the game.
He did a couple of the second goal, he got up with the wrong leg.
But this is why I hate these big games when it comes to goalie analysis because everything
is so hyper analyzed.
And yet a goal goes in, there's going to be a mistake.
Somebody's going to screw up along the way.
That's why goals go in.
Well, Kale McCarr made the big mistake on the first goal.
He did.
He was completely asleep there.
You could pick anyone apart on any goal, right?
I'm not going to blame that.
And then, you know, the Canadian defense couldn't
handle Brady Kachak barreling in there and it was like a weird
goal that went past him.
I, listen, Adog, you can have your opinion.
My opinion was that Jordan Binnington was absolutely
incredible last night.
You trusted him the whole game?
You earned it.
And I-
The whole game. You know it. The whole game.
You know what?
Really?
I wasn't worried.
I will be perfectly honest with you.
Wow.
Okay.
I was not worried about, you know what I was more
worried about was Canada beating Connor Hellebuyck.
That's what I was more worried about and Canada
creating enough scoring chance.
I've seen enough of Jacob Slaven for a while.
Man, that guy is so good defensively.
Like he is, is really incredible, but I do
want to run few through a few other guys.
Nathan McKinnon was the MVP with four
goals in the tournament.
Well-deserved MVP for him.
That guy is such a force And it was like he, he's now one of those guys,
I guess he always has been, but when he picks up the puck
and starts rushing with it, like he's right,
he's right in the same area for me as McDavid,
where I'm like, he could do this thing all by himself.
And they were the only two guys,
the Americans didn't have that upfront.
And granted, it's hard to have that because
there's only a handful of humans on the
planet that are blessed with that ability.
But that's what Canada had and that's
what the U S didn't, uh, including a couple
of other things.
I will say that McKinnon and McDavid, we
talked a lot about, you know, when Gretzky
and Lemieux had their 87 Canada cup moment
and they had their defining signature moments
together, this wasn't quite the same, but
McDavid finishing the tournament with three goals and the game-winning goal
and the tournament-winning goal in overtime,
and then McKinnon skating up shortly thereafter
for the MVP, you really saw a changing of the guard.
And a changing of the guard that, let's be frank,
was long overdue because we did not get best-on-best
international competition for 11 years, right?
McDavid and McKinnon, the first opportunity they got
to play together on Canada in a tournament
of this magnitude, they showed up big time.
Yeah, Sid was like, thank God there's a change
in the guard.
I'm exhausted.
I'm an old man now.
37, like let someone else.
Someone else guard this game.
Uh, Mitch Marner, two incredible assists and
what really impressed me about Mitch Marner,
um, I hope it doesn't apply to the playoffs this year, but he had the guts to
keep his composure and make plays in big moments.
And Rick Tocket was on the bench and how many
times has Rick Tocket said, I want our guys to
hold onto pucks and make big plays.
Let things develop a little bit.
Don't get rid of the puck, hold onto the puck.
And people will say, no, you're telling them to dump it in.
And he's like, no, I'm not.
I want our guys to make plays.
And, you know, let's be honest.
I mean, we can talk about the Americans for, in a few minutes, but the pass that
he made to Austin Matthews, or Austin Matthews, Austin Matthews was watching Mitch Marner and
now Connor McDavid. The pass he made to McDavid
was not a difficult pass. A guy of his skill that he
could make that pass in his sleep. The pass that was
the most impressive one was the one he gave Sam Bennett
because there was some, like first of all, holding the
puck in that area of the ice. there'd be a lot of people that
would be like, okay, well, I'm just going to chip
this in or something like that, or getting nervous
about getting hit by a defenceman or something
like that.
He held on it just long enough for Sam Bennett to
fill in on the left side.
An overlap we call it in soccer.
Yeah.
I mean, it was, it was such a beautiful play to
watch and then Bennett perfect shot over
Hellebuck's shoulder.
So Mitch Marner, you know, you scored the big
overtime goal against Sweden.
Um, he has received some criticism in this
tournament.
He's at times looked maybe a little bit slow,
but he made two enormous plays last night.
Drew Doughty, a late addition to this team.
And there was a lot of people that wondered if
he was the right guy, you know, maybe it should
be Mackenzie Weger.
He's getting older.
He is coming off an injury.
He's barely played this season and you know, in
the Sweden game, he was saying, well, that's the
fastest game I've ever been a part of.
And people were kind of like, yeah, it was fast,
but have you ever thought of the fact that maybe
you're just getting a little bit slower?
Yeah.
Had to wear number 89 in this turn.
Yeah, that was weird.
That was weird.
Well, Kevin Biaxa did a great job of breaking down
all his strong plays during the intermission.
I thought Doughty was awesome.
That was a warrior performance.
Not only some of the strong plays he made with
the puck, again, having the composure in these
big moments to hold onto the puck just a little
bit long, longer than, than, than you would if
you were just going to go glassing out, but not
too long, like he always ended up making the
right play, but also his willingness to take big hits, to
make a play, going back to get the puck and going,
I'm going to get smoked here, but that's part of
my job.
I'm going to make a cool, calm play, find a
teammate and there's the big hit.
Right?
Like that's just what you have to do as a
defenseman, especially against that American team.
Brady Kachak got him at least twice early.
And I was like, that's going to hurt tomorrow
for the oldest defenseman on the team.
But you were right about Doughty holding onto
the puck, almost like a savvy veteran QB who's
willing to stand in the pocket and take a hit to make the right pass.
Like Doughty slowed it down really nice yesterday.
And I think it gave the guys a sense of calm
that we're gonna be okay.
Like even though the Americans,
the Americans were gonna try and assert their physicality
without question.
But it was like, as long as we keep our composure,
and this is the thing with best on best
is when you're defenseman especially, you've got guys that are the cream of the crop and
they're not going to get rattled.
That's the whole point of having best on best, is you don't have a sixth defenseman who's
a tweener between the American league and the NHL.
You know what the difference is?
It's really tough to make plays under pressure in the NHL.
The elite of the elite are like, I can do this, no problem, because I've been doing
it for decades.
Well, let's talk a bit about another elite
defenseman, Kale McCarr did not play in Montreal
against the Americans.
The Americans won that game.
Kale McCarr plays in Boston in the final and
the Canadians won the game.
He played a ton with his regular D par, D partner
in DeVon Taves and picked up a secondary assist
on the OT winner.
And you know, his, like, it wasn't, uh, it looked
like it was a bit of a set play on that OT winner
because Mitch Marner went directly to that left
corner and McCarr, you know, the puck came to him
at the point, it was off a bit of a weird,
broken kind of faceoff play.
Um, and he just like immediately skated to it.
He didn't wait for the puck to get to him.
He got his feet going, got to the puck and then
was able to rim it around the wall to Marner.
And Marner did a nice job of picking it off
the wall with his skates.
Um, but again, like that, like McTavish was so wide open.
It really wasn't a hard play for him, him to make Marner.
But McCarr, again, I thought
he did fall asleep a bit on the American's first
goal when Austin Matthews kind of like jumped the
route between him and Taves.
But overall the guy played a ton and he played
well, good defensively, good puck moving.
He made a huge difference out there for Canada.
Can we just, since we're on the subject of
defensemen right now, we got to go up against
them for a break.
There is a guy I want to shout out that didn't
get a ton of love post game, but have we all sort
of had our eyes open to Thomas Harley and how damn
good he is and considering the circumstances in
which the 23 year old Dallas defenseman came into
this tournament as an emergency pickup mid tournamenttournament to fill in for McCarr when Canada was dropped to five
defensemen because of the injury there and then the injury to Shay Theodore.
And then last night, in what, to be honest, because I was traveling, I was driving to
the Hollywood and then I got in there and was talking to people and everything, I missed
the sort of late Josh Morrissey scratch where all of a sudden Harley's thrown back in.
You think, okay, well, whatever.
You can put him in as your sixth defenseman.
He plays 22 minutes last night.
He's third among Demon in ice time, picks up an assist.
He's plus one, like unbelievable tournament for him.
And really probably opened a ton of eyes
because I know for a fact on a couple of group chats,
the sentence, who the hell is Thomas Harley was sent.
Was sent.
And these are people that follow the
league and know it.
Okay.
People that was out there for sure.
Oh, for sure it was.
I had never heard of him before this tournament.
And we'll talk about, uh, Thomas Harley and the,
um, actually I want to have a conversation at
some point during the show, maybe even in the
next segment about the Olympics because it's now less than a year away.
Let's start looking at it.
Let's call it a year away.
And I'm wondering, I'm looking at the Canadian roster and going, I think McDavid will probably
make the team for the Olympics.
And I'm even very confident even though Sid will be, I guess, 38, pretty sure he'll be
there unless there's an injury, but there are a
few guys that I'm wondering about and I think we
can now start having the conversation, like I
guarantee you're going to see some, uh, Canada
rosters, you know, some mock, some mock rosters
coming out in the next little while because.
Will Bedard and Celebrini be there?
It's a good question.
It's a good question.
I hope so.
And we'll, you know what, we can talk a little
bit about that with Elliott Friedman as well
in the seven o'clock hour.
We do have an open segment on the other side.
I want to read some of your texts into the Dunbar
Lumber text line.
There are already at least a hundred in there and
we haven't been able to read them all, so we'll
give a few a read in the break.
The Dunbar Lumber text line, 650-650, Metro
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You're listening to the Halford and
Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.
It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah,
your destination for everything Canucks.
Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show.
Listen four to 6 PM weekdays and on demand through your
favorite podcast app. Friday. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford 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.
AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway and Winter Gardens Florida is going to join us in just
a second here. Hour one of this program 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. So as many
of you know, we put about five, 600 people in the Hollywood theater last night. AJ's
pizza well represented. Teresa from AJ's pizza was there. AJ's pizza, the actual physical
pizza was there. We were eating it in overtime.
There's only one pizza?
No, there was many.
I was stress eating a pizza in overtime.
Also trying to eat it as quickly as possible
because I didn't want to be eating the pizza
when the inevitable overtime goal went in.
Oh, I see, okay, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So there was a lot going on.
The Detroit Ronnie calmed my nerves, I will say.
Yeah, it was not a pretty sight.
I'm glad it was not on camera,
me horphing down a piece of pizza in a rapid pace.
Anyway, it was a fun night.
Horfing, that's a new word.
I just made it up on the spot.
Yeah.
I think it's appropriate.
Horfing.
The sound that I made.
You know what?
That works.
The sound.
When you eat something so grotesquely,
it can only be horfing.
It was actually more like the physical sound
that I made whilst we had to horf.
Horf, horf, horf, horf.
Let's go to the phone lines now.
AJ from AJ's Pizza joins us on the
Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650.
What up AJ?
All right, listen, congratulations.
I, you know, not only do you guys win last night,
and then Halford text me this morning
and I get bumped for free.
Yeah, you did get bumped.
Adding insult to injury.
How did the game resonate where you're down in Florida right now
and you're a dual citizen and everything?
So there's a lot of mixed emotions on your part.
I can imagine.
There's a lot of mixed emotions.
Listen, my wife is happy so that I'm happy.
That's great.
OK.
You know, it's funny.
I was at the hotel bar.
There was definitely a group next to me who was into it and then a group
to my left as they're listening to me yell and curse the TV and they're like, what's
wrong with you? Do you not know what's happening right now? Do you not understand? Hey, it
was a great game, but I truly congratulations. It was awesome. It's just great for the sport.
Absolutely. You got to ask us anything for us? I do. So this
goes back to, I think this is for the dogs. I think I've been on the show for, I don't know,
16 months. Yep. How come I never get a moocow? Is that the question? Oh, okay. All right.
Welcome to the What We learned portion of the program.
You've now officially been MOOC out.
Hey, and because I'm in Florida, I do have a fun little, and Free just coming on the show.
This is kind of like a fun dovetail.
Okay.
Jimmy Aces has a trade that he believes is imminent.
Get out of here. And it's Brock Besser going to the Panthers. has a trade that he believes is imminent.
Get out of here.
And it's Brock Besser going to the Panthers.
Wow.
Is Jimmy Aces a Florida guy?
Or is he a New York guy?
He's in, he's both,
cause he's at spring training right now.
Oh, okay. All right.
So is this Jimmy Aces with some inside info
or is this Jimmy Aces, just Jimmy Aces brain? This is Jimmy Aces with some inside info or is this Jimmy Aces, just
Jimmy Aces brain?
This is Jimmy Aces with some inside info.
Okay. Ever since Jimmy Aces gave us the commanders as a lock in Detroit, I am forever beholden
to everything Jimmy has to say. It's pretty good. Okay. This was a powerhouse hit. I'm
glad that we moved this to 6.30. So we gave you the time to get into all this stuff. This
is really good. And a friendly reminder for everybody listening, get to AJ's this weekend, Saturday,
seven o'clock NHL action is back and the Connexor back seven o'clock against
Vegas. And that means $6 pints at AJ's. Exactly. Hey,
you guys have a wonderful weekend. And again, congratulations. What a great game.
Thanks buddy. Travel safe. Okay. Okay. I appreciate it. Yep. AJ from AJ's pizza.
On his Broadway. Go check them out this weekend.
325 East Broadway, AJ's dot pizza.
Uh, okay.
Let's go through a few more things from last night's game.
I do want to talk a little bit about the losers from the United States.
Um, yet again, they can't get it done in the game that counts.
The last three true best on best tourneys in 2010
here, 2014 in Russia, and now 2025, the Americans
have come close, but each time they've been beaten
by Canada in an elimination game.
Think back to 2010, beat us in the round robin.
Not an elimination game though.
But lost to us in the finals.
2014, they're high flying throughout the group stage.
Met Canada in the semi-finals.
Another elimination game.
Couldn't score a goal.
And then we're so distraught by that, that they
lost the bronze medal game. Couldn't score a goal. And then we're so distraught by that, that they lost the bronze medal game.
And now 2025, they go into Montreal and they
dropped the gloves three times and there's the
group chat and the kachaks and they win that game
and they deserve to win that game.
They played incredible defensively, but they
lose the game that matters and they lost it on home soil. They will probably be wondering for the rest of
their lives, how they let Connor McDavid get so
wide open in the slot.
That was some elite puck watching out there.
When McCarr threw it around the boards for Marner,
all their eyes went to Marner in the corner and
none of
them stayed on Connor McDavid.
I mentioned it earlier.
It wasn't for a guy with Marner skill.
It wasn't even a difficult pass for him to make.
I'm sure Austin Matthews will be thinking about
that one for a while now.
And Austin Matthews had two assists on the night.
I thought he played well.
He made the key play on the first goal, jumping
the route between Taves and McKim and McCarr
won that battle behind the net.
Um, but of all the players to leave wide open in
the slot, they left the best player in the world.
So look, none of us should get too cocky, right?
I'm sure the Americans are going to be back with another good shot at the Olympics this year and
nobody would be shocked if they won gold.
We'd be disappointed, but we wouldn't be shocked.
But they talked about, they talked so much about
the opportunity in this tournament.
That was the one word.
Mike Sullivan was like, you got this opportunity,
right? Good Sullivan. And like, you got this opportunity, right?
Good Sullivan.
And like, think about it, think about it though.
I mean, I know the Olympics are at a different level,
but hockey yesterday in the United States was
the number one sport in the country.
It was the number one game.
It was what everyone on my social media feed was
talking about.
I follow football guys.
I follow golf guys.
They were all talking about this game.
The team was taking calls from the president.
The press secretary was talking about the game.
It was the game.
The game was in Boston, one of the great sports
cities in the United States in prime time and they lost.
So I'm glad you set the table up nicely here.
So when you said that they talked about the
opportunity, I would say you don't even need to
add the opportunity part I would say, you don't even need to add
the opportunity part to that sentence.
They talked.
And I'm not gonna go too far down the cockiness road here,
but I'll flip it on the Americans.
There were a lot of cockiness going into this game.
They were talking a lot, a lot.
And one of the things that we talked about
with the Kajak brothers yesterday,
where those two guys have never met
or seen a camera they don't like, and they were ready to announce that we talked about with the Kachuck brothers yesterday were those two guys have never met or seen a camera they don't like.
And they were ready to announce that we're here.
It's our time.
Matthew Kachuck went on Pat McAfee yesterday
and scolded Pat McAfee for saying that
you guys were playing Canada's game.
He said, the only thing I don't like
is that you called it Canada's game.
We want it to be our game now.
Okay, okay, that's great.
Let's turn it now to what Brad Marshawn had to say post game.
All the talking, an awful lot of talking.
Here's what Brad Marshawn had to say
after a 3-2 win over the Americans yesterday.
Chuck brothers, I mean, they play their game,
they do what they do.
Sometimes when you shoot your mouth off in the media,
I mean, it bites you.
You know, you can do that during the season, but when you're playing best on best, it's media and you know quite soon. You know you can do that during the
season but when you're playing best on best there's there's it's different you
know and and they got a little bit ahead of themselves but they're great players
and there's not many guys in the league to play the way they do and they're
extremely effective but you know when you start giving teams ammo, it can work against you as well.
They're going to have long, great careers.
I think you saw how effective they can be at every level.
They do it in regular season, they did it in this tournament, and they're competitors.
They're a big reason why that team is what they are. If you ever wanna talk about the perfect encapsulation
of the American approach versus the Canadian approach,
it's right there.
Brad Marchand went in until afterwards to do a little talk.
Did you notice how complimentary he was?
He's such a wily vet now, he butters up the other team,
he's like, this is the best team I've ever faced.
And then did you hear what he said afterwards?
He said, I said they were the best team
that we've ever faced, they're did you hear what he said afterwards? He said, I said they were the best team that we've ever faced.
They're not the best team ever.
Also in terms of waiting for your moment to do something,
did you guys, you talk about the group chat, Bruff,
did you see what Brandon Hegel posted yesterday?
Was it screenshots of their group chat?
It was a screenshot of the top half of a group chat,
which had names like SC and CM and players on Team Canada
and it's titled Champions.
Yeah.
And that's all he posted.
So here's the other part that I want to.
So, so just before, like this is, but we
celebrate for like a day in Canada and then
it's back to humility.
You hear that word a lot out of John Cooper,
be humble because the Americans are going to
be back.
And here's the thing.
Now they've learned some lessons, hopefully.
Well, not hopefully.
I hope they haven't learned anything.
I hope they haven't learned a thing, but for
their sakes, hopefully they've learned some
lessons that the tournament is not one early
in the tournament.
The tournament is a survival and then you get to
the gold medal game and that's where you win.
That's the most important thing to win.
See, I hope they never change.
I hope that they, I hope that America goes into
the 2026 Olympics in Italy with the exact same approach.
They.
That they're talking a lot and any camera that's
put in their face, they're going to tell them exactly
what they want to do and how they're going to do it.
And then Matthew Kuchak can play another six minutes in the gold medal game.
I've got some friendly advice for them and they won't listen because they're Americans.
They rarely got a move past 1980. Enough of Mike Aruzzione. He's out there like we got Gretzky
and they got Mike Aruzzione. Look, 1980 was an incredible sports accomplishment,
but it was 45 years ago.
American hockey has come a long way since then.
And when you bring out Mike Aruzzione,
you know what you're telling everyone?
Oh, we're the underdogs.
We're the underdogs.
Our greatest moment ever in sports was when we beat the
Soviet Union and we were just a bunch of college kids. We were a ragtag, but you're not that
anymore. So stop. What is your identity? Because you guys don't seem to know.
Well, that's why they brought it up. You celebrate this 1980 ragtag team.
Again, it was 45 years ago at every turn, you're
bringing in Mike Caruzione to speak to the team.
And Mike Caruzione has made a lot of money just
speaking since then, uh, and good for him.
Right.
He's got an incredible story to tell.
And so does anyone who played for that team.
But at the same time, you've got this cocky,
like it's our game now, we're taking it from
Canada, it's like, what is it?
Are you guys the crazy underdogs or are you guys
like, you don't seem to know.
That's why you brought out.
But they got a move past 1980, man.
But that's why they brought out Gretzky, he was
the second American ambassador.
He came through their dressing room.
Oh, hey.
Thumbs up.
Another, I want to get into.
So fun. I did, I was, I did notice like, I was like, Wayne, John. Thumbs up. Another, I want to get into. You're so fun.
I did, I was, I did notice like, I was like,
Wayne, can you give the thumbs up
to the Canadian bench as well, please?
Who? Oh, right.
Oh, yeah.
So, okay, let's get into some of these others.
I do want to talk about the coaching here for a bit,
because I think it gets overshadowed,
because when you're at best on best,
some of it is like, well, the coaches just roll out the lines
and then whatever happens happens, right? I do want to talk about John Cooper. Unbelievable amount of respect for the guy.
Talk about a guy who understood the assignment. He was tasked with coaching a team and an elite level team and a team with a lot of pressure on it,
while under the most unprecedented political weight that we've had over any sporting event in the last three or four decades.
I agree you'd have to go all the way back to the summit series in 1972 to find a
Canadian team and a Canadian coach that was coaching a sport under this much
political pressure. As he put it in the aftermath, Canada needed a win.
I want to play the audio now.
This is John Cooper from the podium following the three two win over in Boston
over the U S last night.
Can you sense what this win might have meant back home
for a number of reasons?
I mean, you know, Canadian junior team losing back
to back years in the quarterfinals
and you know, the country's national pride
have been dented from that as far as its sport.
Political tensions really boiling over the last few days,
just everything combined.
And I know you tried not to have that go into your room
for a game like
this, but now that it's over, could you sense the magnitude of this victory? Well, I just hope
Canada's proud because every player in that room is proud to be a Canadian. And yeah, did we need
to win? Not only like our team, but Canada needed to win. And the players bared that on their shoulders,
and they took it seriously.
And this one was different.
This wasn't a win for themselves.
This was a win for 40 plus million people and the guys knew it and they delivered.
So back to being humble and looking ahead to the next Olympics, and that's a year away,
I don't think we should be 100% satisfied with how this tournament went. And I don't think we should be a hundred
percent satisfied with how Canada played.
How much of the roster will be the same?
Crosby will be 38 years old, but I'm pretty
sure he'll be there and I'm pretty sure he'll
deserve to be there.
It won't just be one of these things where
it'll be like, well, we'll bring them
along as a mascot.
I do wonder about a guy like Brad Marchand.
I'd wager he is not going to make the team next
year, he'll be 37 years old.
His contributions were minimal this tournament.
He really looked like he was fighting the puck
last night.
He had a couple of times where he picked up the
puck and just kind of lost it.
I mean, whatever, I'm not going to, he's still a
very good player, but he was the
low minutes man last night.
Yeah.
And, um, you know, we'll see, I suppose what kind
of team they want to put together.
I think you probably got to assume that the
Americans will put together a big physical team
and that will be their identity.
So that helps a guy like Sam Bennett, who I
thought was really good, scored a big goal yesterday.
I'll be curious to see where Mark Stone's game is.
I love Mark Stone as a player, but there's a
lot of hard miles on his body.
Those tire a lot, tread worn off those tires.
Where's Bedard going to be in this conversation?
What about Celebrini?
Could Celebrini squeeze out a guy like Sorelli?
He's, uh, Sorelli I'm talking about, he's
still only 18.
So on the one hand, he's very young and he
really lacks big game experience.
And Sorelli has a ton of big game experience.
On the other hand, the learning curve is
pretty steep at that age.
So Celebrini between, and the same goes for Bedard, between now and the time
they have to choose the Olympic team, both those guys could improve in a big, big way.
Sure.
Right.
Early on in your career, you get a lot better as opposed to when you're 27 or 28.
Um, you already mentioned Thomas Harley.
Yeah.
He was really good given the situation he was put in.
He's only 23.
Yeah, it's a very bright spot for the future.
So as much as, um, you know, Brad Marshawn and
Mark Stone and some of the other veteran guys out
there, they, they've gotten
it done for Canada and there's that, there's
going to be that trust factor.
Canadian teams in the past have made the mistake
of being too old at these tournaments.
So I hope there's a bunch of younger Canadians
who push hard for a spot.
You know that account, Jay Fresh?
I think a lot of people, uh, follow Jay Fresh
hockey on social media.
Sure.
And he's got like those player cards.
Yep.
And he made a really good point the other day.
He said Canada's biggest issue at the moment is
the 2018 to 2022 drafts.
And he said it's five drafts where the best we got from those drafts so far is Thomas Harley, Seth
Jarvis, Evan Bouchard, Wyatt Johnston, Noah Dobson.
And that, the players from that draft 2018 to
2022 should be entering their prime and taking over.
But there's a bunch of other guys in that draft 2018 to 2022 should be entering their prime and taking over.
But there's a bunch of other guys in that draft,
like Lafreniere, where's his game going to go?
Byfield down in LA, a lot of people were like,
Oh, that guy's a future team Canada player for sure.
Um, guys like, uh, Dylan Cousins in Buffalo,
maybe a future Canuck, Owen Power, Byrum,
Drysdale, like those guys were all, you know,
they'll, well, those guys will fill in the gap.
But they're not there yet.
Nope.
And they, and a lot of them might never be at
the level of playing for team Canada.
If you look at, if you go, just go down the scoring
chart of the top Canadian scorers in the NHL right now.
Let's just go with the forward group
because that's what we're talking about largely here.
It's actually the guys like Wyatt Johnson,
who's probably emerged as like,
as a guy that's closer than some of the top two,
top five, top 10 picks that you thought were gonna be
the ascendancy, the next group of guys.
As you pointed out, there's a five year gap where a lot of the top end picks haven't hit,
a lot of the deeper ones have. Canada did a smart thing this year by including guys like Jarvis and
Hagel, brought them into the fold, brought them into the mix. And they became pretty important
parts of that team. I know Jarvis only played like 13 minutes.
Yeah, I don't think Jarvis is a lock and I like him a lot.
Yeah. Yeah. I think I do. I like Hagemore.
Yeah, but I think both are locks moving into the Olympics.
I don't, I don't, I don't think so.
Because I think, I think the guys that are going to go are going to be the older guys.
If you're going to talk about bringing young guys in, it has to be under the pretense of
we're bringing them in in a limited role
so that they gain the experience.
So next time they come around, it's like,
we've got a guy who's still maybe on the right side of 25
or around that age group, but has this big game experience.
I think about how invaluable that's gonna be
for those two guys in their careers moving forward.
Yeah.
I mean, you're talking about a monumental occasion.
And in the case of Hegel, like there's very few guys that had the kind of glow up that Brendan
Hagel's had over the last week, both on and off
the ice.
Is Coop going to, Coop's going to be the coach,
right?
Has to be.
Yeah, has to be.
So, so is Coop going to have, I don't want to
say that those guys were just on the team
because they're Lightning players.
Ask Laddie about Sorelli, his favorite
player, Anthony Sorelli.
Laddie, you want to take this one?
A lot of shots.
He had four shots in the game.
He actually had a good game.
He was at an effective game yesterday.
It was probably the best game of the tournament.
Unlike Adog, I can apologize to Anthony Sorelli.
Yeah.
Hey, man, the inbox is agreeing with me.
I wasn't familiar with your game.
Adog, Laddie kind of-
The inbox is agreeing with the Adog game.
The inbox is not agreeing with you.
Yes, it is.
This is almost as bad as your bidding to take.
And the general reaction on Twitter is the same thing. Your. It's almost as bad as your biddington take. And the general reaction on twitter is the same thing.
Your inbox take is almost as bad as your biddington take.
People did not trust biddington for the first at least 40 minutes.
Whatever, whatever, whatever.
That was his reputation.
And they were wrong.
Well, because he came back and had a great overtime, yeah.
But both can be right.
Both things can be true.
You can be shaky for the first half of the game.
It's ridiculous that you're saying that the only time he played well was in overtime.
Yeah, he made a couple of nights.
Absolutely ridiculous.
He locked it down in the third period too.
It's the dumbest thing I've heard you say.
Yeah, he locked it down in the third period.
His overtime was amazing, but his first 40 minutes were quite cheating.
Were there some terrifying moments?
Yes.
Yeah.
But he pulled it together.
But he pulled it together.
You know why?
Because he's kind of janky when he plays.
Yes, that's why.
That's why people get nervous about watching him play.
He's like the anti-hella buck.
Like hella bucks a wall. As someone who's played it That's why people get nervous about watching him play. He's like the anti-hella buck.
Like hella bucks a wall.
As someone who's played it in his entire life in the sport
and maybe doesn't look that effective doing it,
I know that as long as you get the job done in the end,
that's all that matters.
By the way, I just have a soft spot for a guy.
He just looks janky.
That has broken the hearts of the Boston Bruins.
In that building twice.
And Team USA.
Same building.
He's, like for me, you know how they do the
presidential pardons?
I would consider giving Jordan Bennington a
Halford and Bruff pardon.
It's true.
You know, at this point it's like, you've done a
lot of bad stuff.
You could do tons of crimes moving forward.
In your life, but we're going to give you the
Halford and Bruff pardon because you have broken
the Boston Bruins hearts and you've broken
the American's hearts.
You know what?
I think that's the-
And for that, you are a hero.
I think it's the first and only Halbrough
pardon that we've ever handed.
It's a rare, rare, rare honor.
Well, we gave Hunter Biden that one too.
Boteza two Halbrough pardons.
Right. For different reasons. How people are upset about that one?
Both well-earned.
Both well-earned.
Yeah, we were just like, this guy knows how to party.
Yeah, you had a good time.
All right, we got to go to break.
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We got a lot more of the show to get into all this stuff.
I've still got another take on Mike Sullivan and Matthew Kichuck dressing and
playing last night that I'll save for later in the show.
Coming up on the other side, Elliot Friedman.
Fridge is going to join us live from Boston following Canada's triumphant victory
over the Americans
last night in Boston for the final of the Four Nations faceoff.
Freage coming up next, you're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.